The Effect of Test Anxiety on the Performance of Armenian University Students Majoring in English

Abstract

Foreign language learners are believed to experience anxiety about taking tests. This study was designed to find the sources of test anxiety among Armenian university students majoring in English. It was also designed to investigate the relationship between test anxiety and students‘ performance and to explore the effect of coping strategies on their performance. To achieve these goals, The Westside Anxiety Scale was piloted and administered to 155 English major students at Yerevan State University in Armenia. According to students‘ scores on the questionnaire, they were divided into high-test anxious and low-test anxious groups. Moreover, the most test-anxious students (N=10) were selected to be interviewed in order to discover the possible sources of test anxiety and to construct the treatment according to those sources. Later, high-test anxious students were divided into experimental (N=30) and comparison (N=30) groups, with the experimental group receiving test anxiety reduction training. After the treatment, the participants took an achievement test and their scores on the test were used to measure the effect of the treatment. The collected data were analyzed descriptively and statistically, and the results were as follows: such factors as bad past experience with tests, poor preparation, fear of a particular test format, fear of novelty and a highly evaluative situation, time insufficiency, and fear of instructor were revealed as test anxiety provoking factors. Second, findings showed that there was a clear negative relationship between foreign language test anxiety and students‘ performance. Third, it was revealed that anxiety treatment resulted in better performance. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that foreign language teachers should be aware of test anxiety, its causes and consequences, which could lead to its reduction.