The influence of culture, gender and academic achievement on foreign language anxiety

Abstract

Although a multitude of research studies have been conducted on communication anxiety, studies investigating cultural factors and communication anxiety from both a reading and writing perspective are limited. To help educators, the present study compared students from Thailand and the People‟s Republic of China (PRC) at an international university, in order to discover if culture, gender and academic achievement are significantly related to reading and writing anxiety. The results indicated that overall reading anxiety was not significantly different for Thai and Chinese students but an inclusion of gender shows that Chinese male students experienced more reading anxiety compared to Thai male students but Chinese and Thai female students showed no differences. In addition, Chinese students who possessed a lower grade point average (GPA) displayed higher overall reading anxiety. Writing anxiety was manifested overall, more by Chinese students than Thai students and an in-depth analysis revealed that the somatic dimension was more for Chinese students but the avoidance dimension was higher for Thai students. Furthermore, when gender was considered, Thai female students displayed more somatic anxiety compared to Chinese female students. Chinese male students on the other hand, had higher somatic anxiety and avoidance compared to the Thai male students. When grade point average (GPA) was included it was found that overall Thai students had better grades but still more avoidance compared to Chinese students with lower grades but more somatic anxiety.