Anxiety in speaking arabic among lower secondary school students in Kuala Lumpur

Abstract

This study on anxiety involved 280 student respondents from 18 Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur lower secondary schools that offer the Arabic Language as a foreign language. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of anxiety among the students learning the Arabic Language as a foreign language, particularly the Arabic speaking skill that they have acquired since primary school. Horwitz's FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale) was adapted to assess the levels of four types of anxiety, namely communication apprehension (CA), fear of negative evaluation (FNE), test anxiety (TA), and anxiety of the classroom (AC). This study further examined significant differences in CA, FNE, TA and AC related to speaking Arabic as a foreign language, based on two selected demographic variables, gender and age. This research is quantitative employing the FLCAS questionnaire to collect the data. The sample was selected using purposive sampling. The findings revealed that the respondents' anxiety level of all four variables (CA, FNE, TA, and AC) were high and the anxiety level did not show any significant differences in terms of gender or age. The findings could have implications for the Arabic language's teaching and learning process in the classroom and help school administrators, policymakers and the Ministry of Education understand anxiety among the Arabic Language as a Foreign Language students in Malaysia. In conclusion, anxiety in the Arabic Language as a Foreign Language subject does exist, especially in terms of speaking skill.