Exploring the components of the foreign language classroom anxiety scale in the context of Japanese undergraduates

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the latent constructs in the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale using a research context of Japanese undergraduates who learn English as a foreign language. The study conducted both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis against two different groups of Japanese undergraduate students. First, exploratory factor analysis was used to extract factors from 33 items of the scale in its application to 149 management major students. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the factors from the exploratory factor analysis. Data from 237 English language learners at two universities-155 undergraduates at a foreign study university and 82 at a general university-were applied to test a hypothetical model in relation to the extracted latent constructs. Results of the two factor analyses identified and confirmed two underlying components of the scale: (1) communication apprehension and (2) fear of failing. The model fit statistics illustrated that the two-factor paradigm appropriately fit the data from the second undergraduate group. Implications of the results are discussed.

Effects of artificial intelligence on English speaking anxiety and speaking performance: A case study

“…Appendix B in Data S1 indicates that CA as a construct represented 61% of the FLCAS. CA involves social and interpersonal aspects, as well as individual attributes (Toyama & Yamazaki, 2018). The emotional aspect of CA was examined in 12 items, and its somatic manifestations were explored in 5 items.…”

“…Horwitz et al (1986) argued the FLCAS construct validity is maintained by the small amount of shared variance between it and other FLA measures. CA and TA accounted for 58.56% of the total variance of the FLCAS (Toyama & Yamazaki, 2018). All items produced significant corrected item‐total correlations, and the test–retest reliability over 8 weeks yielded r = 0.83 ( p < 0.001) (Horwitz, 1986; Horwitz & Young, 1991).…”

“…FLA has been a perennial concern in SLA scholarship for the past several decades (Alpert & Haber, 1960; Bao, 2019; Gkonou et al, 2017; He, 2018; Horwitz, 2010, 2017; Horwitz et al, 1986; Oflaz, 2019; Teimouri et al, 2019; Toyama & Yamazaki, 2018; Young, 1991). Horwitz et al (1986) defined it as “a distinct complex of self‐perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours related to classroom language learning” (p. 128).…”

Identifying Emotions and Thoughts Related to Speaking Anxiety: Laying the Groundwork for Designing CBT-based Support Materials for Anxious Learners

“…The washback effect often means that students' experience of English from 12 to 18 years old involves little exposure to communicative approaches and few opportunities to speak English aside from pronunciation (Gorsuch, 1998;Hino, 1988;Nishino & Watanabe, 2008;Osterman, 2014). Toyama and Yamazaki's (2018) findings confirm the influence of this learning experience of Japanese university students. Using a factor analysis for the components of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz et al, 1986) they found that communication apprehension and test anxiety were prevalent.…”

Examining the Measurement Model of International Posture and How It Relates to Personality Traits

“…For each item analysis, to judge whether an item was maintained or eliminated, we required (a) a factor loading of at least 0.50 as the cutoff point for a 163 sample size, which lies between 100 and 200 (Field, 2013); (b) at least three items per factor (Costello & Osborne, 2005); and (c) elimination of a complex item with cross-loading that is difficult to interpret (Yong & Pearce, 2013). This method of evaluation was previously adopted to investigate latent variables of the Foreign Language Anxiety Classroom Scale (Toyama & Yamazaki, 2018).…”