A Comparative study of Foreign Language Anxiety Experienced by High School Students in Online and Onsite Classroom settings

With the spread of Covid-۱۹ pandemic, most educational centersaround the world including the Iranian public schools were forced toclose onsite classes and start virtual education. However, as thepandemic situation is getting better, schools in Iran have asked studentsto participate in both online and onsite classes. The present study aimedto compare the level of foreign language anxiety (FLA) experienced bystudents in online and onsite classes, and to explore factors affectingFLA levels, and strategies used by students to cope with their anxiety.The participants included ۹۰ female high school students in SouthKhorasan Province in Iran. In order to make the classroom safer, theschool administrators decided to reduce the class size, so each class wasdivided into two groups. Each week, one group participated in the onsiteclasses and the other group participated online. Foreign LanguageClassroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) was used in order to measurestudents’ level of anxiety in online and onsite classes. The data wereanalyzed using paired sample T-test. The findings indicated that thestudents experienced a significantly lower level of anxiety in onlineclasses. Furthermore, the findings of the interviews showed that somefactors such as “lack of feedback”, “technical problems”, and“difficulty level of tests” can cause anxiety in online classes. Comparedwith onsite classes where “negative past experiences”, “harsh errorcorrection” and “test anxiety” were mentioned as causes of anxiety.“Resorting to religious beliefs”, “remedial learning” and “general anxiety-reducing strategies” were the most mentioned strategies usedby the students.

کلیدواژه ها:

Foreign language anxiety ، Online classes ، Onsite classes ، EFL students