English Language Learning Anxiety among Iranian Students:Does Major Matter?

Due to the importance of anxiety in learning English, it has received much attention from researchers, still, any research opens a new window to the research community. The present study was designed to investigate the level of English language learning anxiety among Iranian high school students in two different majors including experimental sciences and humanities. |A total of ۱۸۰ (۹۳ experimental sciences and ۸۷ humanities) ten-grade students participated in the study adopting convenience sampling. The Foreign Language Anxiety Scale developed by Marwan (۲۰۰۷), which includes five anxiety-provoking factors, was used. The gathered data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results obtained from independent samples t-test revealed that there was no significant difference among students of experimental sciences and humanities in terms of their levels of language learning anxiety in general. However, they had different anxiety levels with regard to fear of failing the class. Experimental sciences students felt much more anxious in terms of test-anxiety. The findings would be helpful to teachers to find the anxiety sources among EFL learners and help them to eradicate them.

Keywords:

Language learning anxiety , High school student , Experimental sciences , Humanities.