The development of an English language anxiety assessment instrument for Mexican middle school English language learners

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between English language anxiety and other factors involved in ESL learning and to field test a new instrument with which to quantitatively measure English language anxiety (English Language Anxiety Scale, ELAS).; Subjects consisted of 178 Mexican middle school ESL students enrolled in Texas public schools who have been in the US at least one year. A combination quantitative/qualitative study was used to address the following research questions: (1) Does the ELAS demonstrate adequate internal consistency reliability? (2) Does the ELAS demonstrate appropriate construct validity? (3) Is there a relationship between scores on the ELAS and other indicators of English language anxiety? (4) Is there a relationship between scores on the ELAS and number of years in the United States, achievement, gender and/or self-reports of English proficiency? (5) Is there any significant difference between ELAS scores within ESL classes and within mainstream classes? (6) Based on the ELAS analysis, will any common factors surface which relate to English language anxiety within ESL classes and within mainstream classes?; These questions were addressed using a paired t-test, factor and crosstab analyses, ANCOVA and focus groups, in which students discussed their feelings about using English. It was determined that there is a significant difference between anxiety levels in ESL and mainstream classes. Overall, the results of the study, particularly the factor analysis, show different types of English language anxiety. In particular, English language anxiety seems to relate to English language achievement anxiety and English language performance anxiety. Within these two perspectives, relations with teachers and peers become critical to individual and group interactions.; Other quantitative and qualitative analyses supported these types of English language anxiety that surfaced in the factor analysis. In ANCOVA procedures, a main effect was found for achievement in ESL classes, showing that as achievement increases, English language anxiety decreases. However, in mainstream classes, main effects were found for gender and self-reported listening/speaking skills. Students self-reporting better listening/speaking skills scored lower on the ELAS, and females averaged higher ELAS scores than males did.