THE EFFECTS OF ANXIETY ON IRANIAN EFL LEARNERSʹʹ PERFORMANCE ON FINAL ACHIEVEMENT TEST IN ENGLISH CLASSES OF HIGH SCHOOLS

Anxiety as an affective variable has been shown to be negatively correlated with performance in learning a language as a foreign language. So many researches have been conducted about anxiety for college student. This survey, however, focuses on the high school students. This study was an attempt to study the effect of anxiety on the English learners in Andimeshk city, Iran. Subjects included 120 students from a high school in Iran. Two instruments were employed for this study: a questionnaire assessing students’ anxiety level and an Oxford Placement Test. It was a Standard English language test which was administered to check the final English achievement level of students. It was administered to determine the proficiency level of the students. The findings indicated that students experienced some degree of anxiety in English classes. From the results of the study, the sources and the amount of anxiety were as follows respectively: second language deficits, fear of negative evaluation, and perfectionism. Finally, some suggestions are offered to teachers in dealing with this phenomenon in language classes especially those conducted communicatively