The Cycle of Fear in Learning a Foreign Language that Leads to Motivation

Motivation is crucial in foreign language studies to ensure a good understanding of the subject matter. However, the fear of learning a foreign language will affect students’ motivation to learn, ultimately affecting their determination to master a foreign language. This research investigates the perception regarding the motivation and fear of learning a foreign language among pre-university students. A three-section quantitative survey was conducted involving 151 respondents who were recruited via simple random sampling from pre-university students in a Malaysian public university with science and engineering backgrounds. The results revealed that motivation, communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and test anxiety varied from moderate to high. Furthermore, significant associations were found between communication apprehension with fear of negative evaluation and fear of negative evaluation with test anxiety. The findings offer pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research.