LANGUAGE ANXIETY AMONG KUPTM’s TESL UNDERGRADUATES IN AN ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

2020 started off with the hit of Covid-19 which has halted various sectors including the educational sector. The mode of learning has abruptly changed to online learning as the virus limits any physical contact and almost everyone was affected. Language anxiety is not a newly coined term and has been around for a long time. However, research that studies second language anxiety in online mode classes is still very limited. Therefore, this research intended to investigate the contributing factors towards KUPTM’s TESL Undergraduates language anxiety and discover the coping strategies in dealing with such anxiety in an online learning environment. A mixed method study involving a survey and four (4) interviews was done. All 105 participants of this research were the students who were involved in online language learning. The data from the survey was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistic 25, while the interviews would support the quantitative findings through thematic analysis. The findings showed that the biggest factor that leads to language anxiety is the fear of negative evaluation, followed by the factor of distractions and the lack of a productive environment, and the third factor discovered from the data is communication apprehension. The coping strategies were divided into three domains; cognitive, affective and behavioural. It was found that the most used coping strategies by the participants of this research was behavioural. The results highlight a number of implications and recommendations for future researchers.