The correlation between Attitudes Towards Foreign Language, Enjoyment, and Anxiety in the Foreign Language Classroom for Saudi EFL Students.

The current study investigates the association between attitudes towards foreign language (FL) in Saudi classroom settings, FL Classroom Anxiety (FLCA), as well as FLE (Foreign Language Enjoyment). The effects of gender and age variables have been also examined. Participants are 235 undergraduates and graduate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at King Khalid University. They participated in an online survey using a Likert scale. Both a measure of FLCA based on 8 questions taken from the FLCAS (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986) as well as a measure of FLE on the basis of twenty-one items (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014) were utilized. An open-ended question on FLCA was added to provide narrative data. Statistical findings showed that there was a significant negative correlation between foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA). More specifically, the results of statistical analysis showed that FLE levels were substantially greater than FLCA levels. For gender differences, female participants outperformed their male contemporaries, in terms of FLE and FLCA scale scores. Moreover, the youngest participants were statistically the least anxious and the most satisfied. Higher ratings on attitudes towards the FL were correlated with lower FLCA levels. Testimonies of participants demonstrated that teacher’s personality, and competitiveness among peers heightened their classroom anxiety. The positive attitudes impact on lowering FLCA found in this research may support teaching and learning the FL in Saudi context.