A Study of Taiwanese EFL Tertiary Students’ Language Learning Anxiety, Motivation, and Coping Strategies

• Main Authors: KUO, CHI-JIUN, 郭棨鈞
• Other Authors: SU, MIN-HSUN
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/20025424200209410735

碩士 === 銘傳大學 === 應用英語學系碩士班 === 104 === Since 2003, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan has established the policies encouraging universities to set up the graduation language proficiency benchmark. Years later, it is perceived that it may somehow influence learners’ foreign language anxiety. This study was aimed to investigate the EFL college learner’s coping strategy use and its relationship with learners’ foreign language anxiety and language learning motivation. The study adapted Chinese version of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986), part items of Attitude Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) (Gardner, 1985), and Coping Strategy Questionnaire (Marwan, 2007). The randomly selected participants were 201 undergraduates at a university in northern Taiwan. The quantitative data were computed through descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, t-test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) utilizing Statistic Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 19.0. The findings indicated that participants were at the moderate level of foreign language anxiety and motivation, and foreign language anxiety negatively correlated with motivation. Participants tended to use positive thinking strategies most, followed by peer seeking, resignation. Resignation and peer seeking coping strategies positively correlated with foreign language anxiety. However, positive thinking and preparation coping strategies negatively correlated with foreign language anxiety. Variables such as awareness of benchmark, passing the benchmark, and English performance rather than gender would lead to discrepancies of participants’ foreign language anxiety, motivation, and coping strategy. This study offers a precise picture about the correlation among variables. As well, several pedagogical and theoretical applications and suggestions would be provided for the future studies and language instructors.