Self-efficacy and Anxiety within an EFL Context

Abstract

The role of affective factors in the educational process had been disregarded until a considerable amount of recent research revealed results concerning the influence of emotions on teacher and student performance. This study aimed to investigate the level of self-efficacy and its relation with anxiety among university students within an EFL context at the Department of English Language Teaching, at a state university. Demographic variables of the students;namely, age and parents’ educational background were included in the study to analyze their relation to their levels of self-efficacy and anxiety. The study was conducted in the fall semester of the academic year of 2014-2015.  The participants are 150 first year students of  English Language Department. The data were obtained through the English as a Foreign Language Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (EFL-SEQ) and Trait Anxiety Scale. The analysis of the questionnaires showed that there was a significant relationship between students’ self-efficacy and anxiety level.

Keywords: Self-efficacy, EFL, Anxiety