Affective Factors in Foreign Language Education: The Role of Anxiety

Abstract

This study investigates the role of affective factors in language education. Specifically, it studies the influence of anxiety on EFL learning. It examines students’ speaking and test anxieties and whether it prevents them from engaging in the classroom communication activities or not. The study was carried out in a Moroccan EFL class. Twenty students participated in the study. They answered a closed-ended lickert-scale questionnaire that gathered data about the target phenomenon. The results showed that students’ level and feeling of anxiety differed from an educational and instructional situation to another. They also showed that most Moroccan EFL students have low anxiety levels and feelings towards English, because their attitudes towards it are generally positive.