Development and Validation of a New Multidimensional Language Class Anxiety Scale

Abstract

This study reports on the development and assessment of a new 30-item Multidimensional Language Class Anxiety Scale which is designed to assess foreign language learners’ anxiety regarding four language skills (listening, reading, writing, and speaking) and testing. In Study 1, the initial items were piloted with 323 students studying English as a foreign language at three different universities in Turkey. This informed a revised version of the questionnaire which was subsequently administered to 701 students at three different Turkish universities. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a bifactor model with correlated residual variance yielded a better fit for the data in both studies than the other four models tested. The overall results provided preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the data collected using the new scale. Directions for future research and implications for foreign language teaching and learning are discussed.