Test Anxiety and Gender: Insights from English Major Students at Hadhramout University

Abstract

Test anxiety stands as one of the most impactful affective factors in the English as a foreign language learning journey. Indeed, current language learning theories affirm the serious impediment of foreign language test anxiety (FLTA) to English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ learning, which results in hindering their performance in English. Therefore, this study examined the levels of FLTA among Yemeni English majors at Hadhramout University before, during, and after a language test. The study also questioned whether male and female students encounter different FLTA levels. The researchers obtained a quantitative research design where a closed-ended questionnaire based on Ahmed and Halawachy (2013) and Himat and Nazari (2019) was distributed among 75 EFL junior and senior students at Hadhramout University, Yemen. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS software (Version 28). The methodological approach encompassed both descriptive statistics—comprising mean scores and standard deviations—and inferential analyses, specifically an independent samples t-test to examine gender-based differences in learners' attitudes toward foreign language test anxiety (FLTA). The results revealed that the majority of students scored medium-high in FLTA (mean =3.62). Additionally, the average mean score of the items related to FLTA before the test comes first with a mean of 3.62, followed by FLTA during the test (mean 3.55), and the last average of FLTA occurred after the test (mean =3.08). On contrary to prediction, the results pointed out that female students perceive higher FLTA than male students; however, the difference is insignificant (Sig=.572). The results offer some pedagogical implications for students and teachers at the English Department and syllabus designers at the Academic Development Center, and Quality Assurance at Hadhramout University. The findings would also contribute to familiarize English majors and their respective teachers of the factors which raised their FLTA to use suitable techniques and strategies that build students’ self-confidence, control and regulate their emotional feeling and develop healthy physical habits to help these students overcome test anxiety feeling and symptoms particularly before and during taking the test. Finally, the study provides suggestions to open further avenues of research and theoretical and practical insights to the field of FLTA.