Listening text type as a variable affecting listening comprehension anxiety

Abstract

Every foreign language learner feels inadequate, ineffective or helpless at a certain period in the language learning process. Of the main reasons of these feelings, anxiety has been pronounced more frequently than the other affective variables in the literature. The primary concern of this research was to investigate the influence of listening text type on Foreign Language Listening Anxiety (FLLA), which is a skill-specific type of general language learning anxiety. The sample consisted of 130 students in the preparatory English classes of Gaziantep University. As a result of a series of one-way ANOVAs conducted on the data obtained from the FLLA scale and an anxometer (MacIntyre and Gardner, 1991), the current study demonstrated that listening text type is a distinctive factor for Foreign Language Listening Anxiety. Based on a comparison of text types in terms of their effects on listening anxiety, it was concluded that the authenticity of the listening text leads to more listening anxiety.