A Study on Second Language (English) Classroom Anxiety and Academic Achievement in English of Secondary School Students

Abstract

Students frequently suffer from worry, which can impair their learning and performance even though English is an essential subject for success in both academics and the workplace.  The present study focuses on the correlation research between Second language classroom anxiety (English) and academic achievement in English of secondary school students. 300 secondary school students were taken as sample from the population through random sampling technique. The researcher used two standardised tools- one is Second Language (English) Classroom Anxiety Scale, originally developed by Horwitz et.al, (1986), as Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale and later modified by the researcher(first author) and supervisor(Co-author) and another Self-administered Academic Achievement test in English to perform an achievement test in English followed by proper item-analysis (considering the discriminating index and difficulty level of items).It is concluded that there is significant difference in Second Language (English) Classroom Anxiety(SLCA) between Female and Male secondary level school students. Female possess significantly higher SLAC than their counterpart. Similarly, Rural students having significantly high SLAC than Urban. It is concluded that there is significantly high Academic Achievement in English of Male students than female. It is also observed that, Academic Achievement in English is significantly high for urban students’ w.r.t. rural. It is also concluded that there is a significant very high negative correlation between Second Language (English) Classroom Anxiety and Academic Achievement in English for secondary school students. Government should take necessary steps by organizing the education system better so that no students get scared of their Second Language (English) and reduce their anxiety in English language learning in classroom.