The Relationships Among Affective Factors in Learning EFL: A Study of the Saudi Setting

Abstract

Adopting a mixed-method design, the current study attempted to specify the relationships among four affective factors (i.e., motivation, attitudes, self-confidence, and anxiety) involved in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Seventy-three students – from Administration and Humanities College, Mustaqbal University and Jubail University College, KSA – responded to a questionnaire of two parts: Part I and Part II, which yielded quantitative data. Qualitative data were generated through the analysis of Part I results to prove that there was no relationship between Saudi students’ EFL proficiency and their awareness of the affective factors involved in learning it. Findings of Part II confirmed the interrelatedness among the four affective factors in the learning process in general, except for self-confidence did not significantly correlate with anxiety; the former got the highest mean (48.79) while the latter got the lowest (34.93). Calculating Standard Multiple Regression for the four affective factors, the study concluded giving four arithmetic equations of the predictive relationships among these factors. In the Saudi setting, the current study confirmed that anxiety does not affect learners with high motivation and good attitudes to a great extent. Besides, it does not affect self-confident learners at all.