Theme: The English Foreign Language Reading Anxiety in the level of

college students
Keywords: Reading Anxiety, English Foreign Language Learners
Purpose: To know the level of reading anxiety towards EFL learners

Investigating Reading Anxiety toward English Foreign Language

Learners

Introduction

English Foreign Language reading anxiety explains as the feeling of worry

and apprehension when students try to read and comprehend foreign language text.
Reading anxiety as stated by Zbornik (2001) is an uncomfortable reading experience
caused by other significant disapprovals during the reading process. Reading anxiety
becomes one of problems in the center of EFL learners. It is happened in senior high
school in Bandung that there is problem experienced by learners in the context of
reading activities in EFL classroom, and avoids the reading activities in the class and
can be caused by reading anxiety experienced by the learners so that the learners
keep avoid the reading activity in English class (Muhlis: 2019).The learners who get
reading anxiety also can influence them in their interest to English materials and
class (Jalongo&Hirsh: 2010).

Talking about reading anxiety, there are several previous study which
discussed this problem. In the article Reading anxiety of EFL learners in Indonesian
rural school written by Muda et al (2022), discussed the level of reading anxiety and
the differentiate of reading anxiety between rural EFL learners across gender and
level of study. The result detected the level of reading anxiety of top down
processing, bottom up and classroom reading anxiety and found the male learners
exceed the female in the top down and bottom up reading anxiety. The second
previous study found in the article with the title Student’s Reading Anxiety in
Foreign Language Classroom written by Aisyah (2017). This study aims to know the
causes of reading anxiety in an EFL classroom in a junior high school. From that
study, found the higher causes of Student’s reading anxiety caused by unknown
vocabulary. In the other hand, the article Foreign Language Reading Anxiety in a
Jordanian EFL Context written by Shobul et al (2013) examining the underlying
problems and factors that contribute to reading anxiety faced by EFL students. The
results found there are two aspects of reading anxiety in EFL students such as text
feature, and personal factor. From the previous study that explained before, then this
research aimed to investigate the level of reading anxiety in EFL learners in the
context of Collage Students. Furthermore, investigating the level of reading anxiety
towards College Students also important to feel the gap from previous study. Due to
different instrument and different subject, it will give different point of view for the
result.

Regarding to Jullia (2017), when she did the observation during teaching
practice at junior high school in Bandung she found that the learners keep looking for
the reason to out the English class while reading practice. The beginner foreign
language learners are often feeling of stress and nervousness or anxiety in learning a
foreign language in general and in reading skill as a specific as well. As stated by
Jalango & Hirsh (2010), the anxieties, fears, and phobias precipitated by reading task
are a major challenging to reading progress. Therefore, the writer wants to know
what level of reading anxiety faced by College students as the EFL learners.

Concerning the issue above, there are some factors that need to considerate as
well. If most of researcher conduct the research to know the problem that caused the
reading anxiety like Jullia (2017), and Azhari (2017) also conduct the research to
know the potential factors of EFL reading anxiety, here the writer decided to
investigate the level of reading anxiety to know the level of reading anxiety faced by
EFL learners. It is also important to know the level of anxiety because, the teachers
will understand more and know the different level of anxiety faced by EFL learners
in the class. However, from the result of the reading anxiety level, the teacher also
can prepare the strategy for learners especially in reading section.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

READING
 Between English skills, reading plays the important one for EFL learners to
learn and improve their knowledge also their academic achievement. Nevertheless,
the poor reading skill have a negative impact on student's academic achievement and
can influence the anxiety of students' itself. In other words, reading anxiety might
have a debilitating impact on EFL students, Akkakoson (2016). As Yassin & Moqbel
(2019), reading is the most used activity instead of other activity or skill used in the
class and the lecturer not so pay their attention to the learner’s reading anxiety
because the process of reading does not require any interaction among students.
Another issue related to reading among EFL/ESL learners is that reading in a foreign
language is usually carried out through the cognitive filters of the mother language
Karimi (2019). This makes reading a challenge skill for the students to change the
reading process from the mother language to comprehend the text through English,
which is a foreign language for learners.

If we look into Nasrollahi (2014), Reading is a challenging activity because it

involves complex problem-solving and situational awareness, making it a potential
learning obstacle for EFL students. The major role of reading is to improve students’
vocabulary, and learners without avid reading habits might conceive reading in
English problematic. Reading skills focus mainly on the text to get meaning, and
reading skill, as a receptive skill, is essential to get the meaning from the text in hand
to get knowledge and improve one’s input, Forero (2016).

FOREIGN LANGUAGE READING ANXIETY

Anxiety as stated by Seinfild (2016) is a stress condition, fear, nervousness

and concern over potential negative consequence or incidents. Meanwhile, reading
anxiety is referring to the feeling of apprehension and worry when students try to
read and interpret foreign language text. Another definition of reading anxiety based
on Jalango (2010) is a specific, situational phobia to the act of reading with physical
and cognitive reaction. The reaction of cognitive itself such as low self-esteem, fear
intense, and feeling of helplessness. It is stated by Mac (2015) that, if learners feel
anxious when reading, their performance is diminished, which might lead to negative
self-evaluation and more self-deprecating cognition which can burden their
performance.
 To know the level of reading anxiety, Zoghi (2014) divides the level of
reading anxiety into three, those are high level, moderate level and low level. In
addition, according to Rajab et al, (2012) distinguished reading anxiety from general
types of foreign language anxiety which related with oral performance. Reading can
also be thought of as an oral performance because students show how they interact
with a text on their own. When students interact with others or called as speaking,
they will experience anxiety too. However, because learners experience anxiety
during the reading process, the most of students are unaware that anxiety has been
identified as one of the factors that can delay the reading process. Like what Saito et
al, (1999) said, anxiety happens when the learners try to decode or interpret a non-
native language text.

ENGLISH FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNER

English as a foreign language is a tool of communication all over the world as

the international language. English is also used to enrich the knowledge that cannot
be obtained in first language. As the foreign language, English sometimes is fulfilled
to meet the needs of global world, to upgrade the skill to compete with the others,
and to achieve special purpose for example passing the test or studying overseas.
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) as stated by Richard (2020), is the term used to
describe the study of English by non-native speakers in countries where English is
not the dominant language. Indonesia is one of the country that used the English as
the foreign language and only taught in school. In an EFL situation, the learners learn
English inside a classroom, but continue to speak their own language when leaving
the classroom. English as foreign language is taught in an environment where
English is not the native language for example Indonesian learner learning English.
According to Harmer (2014), English as a foreign language is generally taken to
apply the learners who are studying general English at the school and institution in
their own country as transitory visitor in a target language country. It means that
learners learn English and only have chance to practice it every time in their daily
activities school or university.
RESEARCH METHOD

To accommodate the investigation of reading anxiety toward EFL learners,

this paper is using quantitative approach and guided by survey research design.
According to Marguerite (2006), quantitative approach is a method that used to study
the population and analyzing data that has been collected statistically. The survey
method is used to gather the data from EFL learners in English study club class
dealing with the level of reading anxiety. Meanwhile, the instrument of the research
is using questionnaire namely English Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale
(FLRAS) designed by Saito (1999). Furthermore, random sampling technique is used
to determine the population. The are 96 EFL learners from English study club at
Subulussalam Islamic Boarding Cottage that invited as the population. There are 28
males and 68 females of learners in this class. All of them are collages student from
Islamic University of Tulungagung. In collecting research data, researcher carried
out several stage firstly doing observation, then determining students as subject, and
last is distributing questionnaire. Meanwhile, in order to analyze the data, the
descriptive analysis is used as it led to quantitative description of the level of reading
anxiety towards EFL learners. After analyzing the data, then categorized the level of
FLRA and calculate the percentage of sample that experience reading anxiety based
on categories which are low, medium, and high level.