An exploration of interrelationships among students’ foreign language anxiety, their perception on teachers’ classroom behaviour and students’ achievement in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

Background - Studies on the relationship between foreign language (FL) anxiety and students’ achievement have consistently reported that language anxiety negatively affects students’ achievement regardless of the target language and the tests used to measure achievement. In addition, students’ perception of their teachers plays an important role in the success or failure of language learning. While negative correlation between FL anxiety and students’ achievement seem evident, the effect of students’ perception on teachers’ classroom behaviour on FL anxiety and achievement still need to be explored. Objective This study examined the impact of students’ perception on teachers’ classroom behaviour on foreign language anxiety, their perception of teachers’ classroom behaviour and their achievement in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Three hundred and forty students and eight of their teachers participated in the study. The participants were from two different types of senior secondary schools in Indonesia, International Standard School (ISS) and non-International Standard school (Non-ISS). The students’ levels of anxiety were measured by using the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) by Horwitz et.al 1986 to see whether this level changed over 10 weeks period. In addition, students also completed Students Response to Teacher Style (SRTS) by Watt and Richardson (2007) to investigate their perception on teachers’ classroom behaviour; teachers completed the parallel Teacher Style Scale (TSS). Students’ achievement was measured by using Preliminary English Test (PET) and students’ final scores provided by their teachers. Finding - The result indicated that there was significant increase in students’ communication apprehension over the 10 week study period while two other constructs of FL anxiety were relatively stable. It was also revealed that students who perceived their teacher positively exhibited low anxiety and showed better achievement. There were discrepancies between teachers and students in their perception of teachers’ classroom behaviour. Teachers perceived themselves to be more structured, have better relatedness, and clearer expectations than their students perceived.