The children's foreign language anxiety scale: Reliability and validity

Abstract

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) has been mainly associated with adult language learners. Although FLA forms a serious problem in the foreign language learning process for all learners, the effects of FLA on children have been mainly overlooked. The underlying reason is that there is a lack of an appropriate measurement tool for FLA among children. In addition, FLA studies have included mostly the adult learners into research. Therefore, the current study intends to present the tests of reliability and validity for the Children's Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (CFLAS) and to report on the reliability, validity and factor structure of the scale. Results show that CFLAS is a reliable and valid tool to measure the levels of FLA among children aged 7-12 who learn English as a foreign language (EFL) in the Turkish EFL context.

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) has been mainly associated with adult language learners. Although FLA forms a serious problem in the foreign language learning process for all learners, the effects of FLA on children have been mainly overlooked. The underlying reason is that there is a lack of an appropriate measurement tool for FLA among children. In addition, FLA studies have included mostly the adult learners into research. Therefore, the current study intends to present the tests of reliability and validity for the Children's Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (CFLAS) and to report on the reliability, validity and factor structure of the scale. Results show that CFLAS is a reliable and valid tool to measure the levels of FLA among children aged 7-12 who learn English as a foreign language (EFL) in the Turkish EFL context.