The Relationship Between English Preparatory School Students’ Anxiety and Motivation in Türkiye

Abstract

The present study aims to comprehend the relationship between English preparatory school students’ anxiety and motivation. In order to achieve this aim, this quantitative study will first examine the correlation between foreign language anxiety (FLA) and motivation of English preparatory students. Then, it will explore to what extent FLA can predict students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation when controlling for gender, university type (foundation/state), and students’ enrollment reason (by choice/compulsory) to preparatory schools. To be able to widen the scope of comprehension of the predictive roles, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of students will also be tested as predictors of FLA with the same controlling variables. The sample consists of 136 Turkish students. Two surveys were used: the Turkish translation of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Gürsu, 2011) and the Motivation Scale for Learning English (Aktaş & Gündoğdu, 2018). Scale results showed .938 and .848 Cronbach’s Alpha results, respectively. The present study first presents the frequencies according to the surveys’ answers. Then, through Spearman correlation, it was found that there is a negative and significant (p < .001) correlation between anxiety and motivation (-.386). In addition, through multiple regression tests, the predictive roles of the factors were tested. According to the results, regardless of the controlling variable, intrinsic motivation showed a significant inverse predictor role for predicting FLA (p < .001). The same applied for FLA’s prediction of intrinsic motivation (p < .001). The present study concluded that there is a significant negative relationship between English preparatory school students’ anxiety and motivation.