Anxiety, strategies, motivation, and reading proficiency in Japanese university EFL learners

This study was an exploration of the relationships among Japanese EFL learners' reading proficiency level, reading anxiety level, perception of reading strategies, and reasons for learning English. The purposes of this study were to investigate (a) whether learners with different reading proficiency levels exhibit significant and meaningful differences in mean anxiety level, in their perception of reading strategies, and in their reasons for learning English, and (b) whether learners with different reading anxiety levels exhibit significant and meaningful differences in their perception of reading strategies and in their reasons for learning English. The participants were 480 Japanese university students, including 253 economics majors, 116 agriculture majors, 91 engineering majors, and 20 social welfare majors. Four instruments were used: a practice TOEFL, an adapted version of the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS), the Reading Metacognitive Questionnaire (Carrell, 1989), and the Reasons for Learning English Questionnaire. The results of this study showed that reading in a foreign language was an anxiety-provoking activity for many of the participants in this study. Even after eliminating the influence of reading proficiency, statistically significant differences were detected between the high and low reading anxiety groups on four factors: Lack of Confidence in Reading, Difficulty with English Sounds, Difficulty Understanding Text Organization and Gist, and Dictionary Use as an Effective Strategy. More anxious readers felt it more difficult to pronounce unfamiliar English sounds and to grasp the organization and the gist of the text than less anxious readers. Moreover, more anxious readers thought that looking up words in a dictionary was more effective than less anxious readers. This study suggests that difficulties in decoding texts can be one of the sources of reading anxiety. Especially, inefficient word recognition can easily frustrate learners in reading, enhance anxiety, and diminish motivation to read more. The study also suggests that Reading teachers should be aware of the potential affective sources of reading anxiety, such as competitiveness, unrealistic performance expectations, and erroneous beliefs about language learning.