The relationships between social class anxiety, facilitative anxiety and reading test performance

Abstract

A Social Class Anxiety Scale was developed to measure students’ social class anxiety and pedagogical methods were suggested to decrease this anxiety. The study explored foreign language anxiety in a final-term reading test and in a low-anxiety reading test. To ensure low-anxiety conditions, the students were assured that their papers would not be scored. Forty-seven intermediate and advanced students were selected by means of a social class questionnaire and the International English Language Testing System reading proficiency test. A roughly significant correlation was found between the students’ social class anxiety and their reading performance. The findings show that some degree of anxiety could be helpful for reading performance. The results suggest that students’ reading performance could be improved by taking advantage of the facilitative aspect of anxiety.