A FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY SCALE FOR HUNGARIAN LE

WoPaLP2,2008Tóth55AFOREIGNLANGUAGEANXIETYSCALEFORHUNGARIANLEARNERSOFENGLISHZsuzsaTóthPázmányPéterCatholicUniversity,Piliscsaba,[e-mail]:Thispaperreportsontheadaptationofawell-establishedforeignlanguageanxietyscaleforuseintheHungarianEFLsetting;furthermore,thevalidationproceduresaimedattestingthepsychometricpropertiesofthenewinstrument.Horwitz,HorwitzandCope’s(1986)ForeignLanguageClassroomAnxietyScale(FLCAS)wasadaptedusingthemethodofmultipletranslatorsandbacktranslation,andtheHungarianversionofthescale(HFLCAS)wastestedforresponsevalidity.TheHFLCASwasadministeredto117Englishmajorand66non-Englishmajorstudents,whoseresponseswerefactor-analysedtotestthescale’sconstructvalidity.Reliabilitywasassessedusingtheinternalconsistencymethod.TheHungarianFLCAShasbeenshowntobebothreliableandvalidintermsoftheexaminedcriteria.TheresultsoffactoranalysissupportHorwitzetal.’s(1986)theoreticalforeignlanguageanxiety(FLA)construct,hithertounexaminedintheHungarianEFLcontext.Keywords:foreignlanguageanxiety,foreignlanguageclassroomanxietyscale,adaptedFLCAS,instrumentvalidation,HungarianEFLlearners1IntroductionTheroleofanxietyinforeignorsecondlanguagelearningisatopicwhichhaslongbeeninthefocusofsecondlanguage(L2)researchers.Asearlyasinthe1970s,aperiodmarkedbyanupsurgeofresearchfocusingonthelearner,anxiety–amongotherindividuallearnerdifferencesanticipatedtoaffectlanguagelearningsuccess–startedtobeexaminedasapotentialfactorinfluencingL2achievement(Dörnyei,2005;Horwitz,1990).ThepasttwentyyearshaveseenarealincreaseinthenumberofstudiesdealingwithanxietyintheL2domain,whichisattributabletothesignificantadvancesinthetheoryandmeasurementofL2-relatedanxietysincethemid-1980s(MacIntyre&Gardner,1991a;Young,1991,1994;MacIntyre,1999;Horwitz,2001).Attemptshavebeenmadetodevelopafirmtheoreticalbasisforclarifyingtheconstructofanxietyassociatedwithforeignlanguagelearning,itsdevelopmentandmaintenance,aswellasitsdimensions(Horwitz,Horwitz,&Cope,1986;MacIntyre&Gardner,1989;1991a;1994).Instrumentshavebeendevelopedtomeasuregeneralandskillspecifictypesoflanguagelearninganxiety(Gardner1985;Horwitzetal.,1986;Kim,2000;MacIntyre,1988/1999;Saito,Horwitz,&Garza,1999).ThispaperreportsontheadaptationofthebestknownandmostwidelyusedmeasureofL2-relatedanxiety–theForeignLanguageClassroomAnxietyScale(FLCAS)(Horwitzetal.,1986)–foruseintheHungarianEFLsetting.TheFLCASisbasedonatheoreticalmodelofforeignlanguageanxiety(FLA),whichhasintroducedanewerainthestudyofanxietyinlanguagelearning.Horwitzetal.’shasbeenthefirstattempttosingleoutanxietyfromthebroadercontextofaffectivevariablesandprovideatheoreticalbasisfromwhichresearchfocuseddirectlyonanxietycouldproceed.ThedefinitionofFLAofferedbyHorwitzetal.WoPaLP2,2008Tóth56andtheself-reportanxietyscalebasedonthisconceptualisationofanxietyintheL2contexthavebeeninstrumentalinpromotingresearchinterestinthesubject,leadingnotonlytonumerousempiricalstudiesusingthisanxietymeasureinvariousinstructionalsettingsbutalsotoresearchaimedattestingandrefiningthetheoreticalconstructofFLA(cf.Aida,1994;Bailey,Onwuegbuzie,&Daley,1998;Cheng,Horwitz,&Schallert,1999;Ganschow,Sparks,Anderson,Javorsky,Skinner,&Patton,1994;Gardner,Tremblay,&Masgoret,1997;Liu,2006;MacIntyre&Gardner,1989,1991b;Onwuegbuzie,Bailey,&Daley,2000;Saito&Samimy,1996;Sheorey,2006).Thevalidationstudyreportedherewasconductedaspartoftheauthor’sPhDdissertationresearchconcernedwithEnglishmajorstudents’experienceofFLAintheiruniversityEnglishclassesandotherL2situations(Tóth,2007).Theinvestigationwasmotivatedbytherealisationthatwhileforeignlanguageanxietyisawell-researchedissueintheNorthAmericanandCanadiansetting,ithasbeenaneglected,virtuallyun-researchedareaintheHungarianEFLcontext.ApartfromthepracticalaimofproducinganinstrumentsuitableformeasuringHungarianlearners’feelingsofFLA,thevalidationstudyalsohadatheoreticalobjective,whichwastotestHorwitzetal.’s(1986)modelofFLAinahithertounexaminedethnolinguisticandinstructionalsetting.Thearticlefirstprovidesatheoreticalbackgroundtothestudy,including(1)anoverviewofvariousapproachesthathavebeenusedinthestudyofanxietyinL2learning,(2)thedefinitionofthetheoreticalFLAconstruct,and(3)asummaryofpreviousresearchtotestHorwitzetal.’s(1986)modelofFLA.Thenitdescribestheparticipantsoftheinvestigationandthemethodologyoftheadaptationandvalidationprocedure.Thisisfollowedbythepresentationanddiscussionoftheresultsand,finally,theconclusionsofthevalidationstudy.2Theoreticalbackground2.1ApproachestothestudyofanxietyinsecondlanguagelearningTherehavebeenessentiallytwobasicapproachestothestudyofanxietyintheL2domain.Thesearelabelled(1)theanxietytransfer,and(2)theuniqueanxietyapproach,whicharereflectiveofdifferentconceptualisationsofL2-relatedanxiety(Horwitz&Young,1991;MacIntyre,1999).TheassumptionbehindthefirstapproachisthattheanxietyexperiencedinanL2contextissimplythetransferofotherformsofanxietyintotheL2domain.Thismeansthatindividualswhoaregenerallyanxiousorexperienceanxietyincertaintypesofsituationsarepresumedtohaveapredispositiontoalsoexperienceanxietywhe