Foreign Language Anxiety and Gifted Students in Turkey

Abstract

Anxiety related to foreign language has been widely held in recent years and associated studies have found a negative correlation between language anxiety and the academic performance of English-speaking students. Whenever foreign language learners express themselves in a second language, there is an anxiety about the image that is communicated through linguistic difficulties. There is a fear that his personal image will be distorted because of grammatical errors and rarefied vocabulary. This study aims to research foreign language anxiety among gifted students who are attending science, math and art classes in Science and Art Centers (BILSEM). For this purpose, 146 (81 males and 65 female) gifted and talented students aged 12-17 were selected. This study used a mixed (quantitative method and qualitative) thereby applying a Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (for English language) to participants and using semi-structured interview questions with 10 gifted students (5 sciences, 2 arts and 3 from music class). The quantitative data results were compared via SPSS and the qualitative data were examined through descriptive analysis. The study revealed that participants attending art and music classes have far lower foreign language anxiety levels than those attending science classes. This difference between group was statistically meaningful according to SPSS analysis. The qualitative study also supported the results by quantitative studies.