Exploring the Impact of Test Anxiety on Chinese-to-English Translation Performance through the Lens of CAF

Test anxiety refers to a psychological state of excessive worry, confusion, and nervousness that individuals experience when facing evaluative situations. While moderate anxiety can stimulate students’ enthusiasm, excessive anxiety can have a severe impact on their cognitive abilities and academic performance. Numerous studies have demonstrated that anxiety significantly affects the cognitive processing of second languages, particularly in contexts requiring accurate and fluent communication across different languages. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how test anxiety influences the performance of second language learners in translation, an example of complex cognitive activities. This research involved 95 junior students majoring in English. Data collection took place after the final exam for Chinese-English translation courses. The students’ test anxiety levels were measured using Spielberger’s Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI), and their translation performance was evaluated based on complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). The study findings revealed that test anxiety was widespread among participants, with nearly half exhibiting high levels of test anxiety. Moreover, test anxiety significantly impacted translation performance: the complexity and accuracy of translation tasks were notably affected by the degree of test anxiety and particularly the cognitive component, indicating that higher levels of test anxiety could result in lower complexity and accuracy in translation performance. This outcome confirmed that test anxiety could diminish students’ cognitive processing abilities and translation quality. However, the study did not find a significant correlation between test anxiety and translation fluency, suggesting that test anxiety might have a relatively minor impact on translation fluency.