Evaluating the Short-Form Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale in a Japanese university EFL context: internal-structure evidence and score-interpretation boundaries

Abstract Foreign language classroom anxiety remains a central construct in applied linguistics, but brief instruments require context-specific evidence before their scores are used for substantive interpretation. This study examined the eight-item Short-Form Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (S-FLCAS) with 826 Japanese university learners of English as a foreign language. The study provides internal-structure and item-functioning evidence for a provisional, low-stakes interpretation rather than a complete validation or formal replication. Ordinal confirmatory factor analysis supported a dominant one-factor structure, and reliability was acceptable for a brief scale (α = 0.84; ω = 0.84). Rasch partial-credit modeling showed ordered response thresholds, interpretable item-intensity differences, and mostly acceptable item fit. Content comparison with the full FLCAS suggests that the short form emphasizes a narrower classroom-speaking and evaluative-pressure core. Separately, CFA and Rasch residual diagnostics showed localized dependence for Items 1–2 and Items 6–7. Thus, one-factor fit should not be equated with broad construct coverage or fully independent indicators. The present data provisionally support descriptive group summaries of a continuous S-FLCAS score within this sample.