The effects of gender and achievement on foreign language anxiety in Austrian upper secondary education
The effects of gender and achievement on foreign language anxiety in Austrian upper secondary education

Summary/Abstract: The study aims to investigate how gender and achievement affect foreign language anxiety (FLA) scores among 379 Austrian students in upper secondary education. The analysis revealed that the majority of students display moderate levels of overall foreign language anxiety, a compound variable of general foreign language anxiety, foreign language reading, writing and listening anxiety. A two-way ANOVA showed a significant main effect of both gender and achievement on the participants’ overall foreign language anxiety scores, but no significant interaction effect. Moreover, a two-way MANOVA proved that both gender and achievement had a significant main effect on the combined variables with large effect sizes. The interaction effect of gender X achievement on the combined variables was significant, albeit with a much smaller effect size. Gender and achievement thus emerged as influencing factors in the creation of FLA in Austrian upper secondary education, in particular with regard to the productive language skills.

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