An Investigation into English as a Foreign Language Listening Anxiety among Taiwanese Senior High School Students

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the differences between genders as well as the proficiency differences of students who experienced English listening anxiety at a senior high school in Taiwan. The participants were 102 randomly selected students at a senior high school in Taiwan. An English listening anxiety questionnaire was adopted for data collection. The results have shown that students attributed the cause of anxiety to the fear of listening time constraint, the fear of fast speaking speed, a lack of prior knowledge, a lack of adequate knowledge about vocabulary and topics. The results showed there was no significant difference between male and female students in terms of their English listening anxieties in this study. On the contrary, the results showed there was a significant difference between two different proficiency groups in terms of their English listening anxieties. On the average, lower level listening proficiency group students had higher English listening anxieties than higher level listening proficiency group students.

Keywords: EFL listening anxiety, gender, proficiency levels, senior high school students