| Summary: | The issue of students' poor performance in the English language particularly compared
to other languages is an important issue because English is one of the most important
languages of the world, and it is the second language in Malaysia. Usually, the students
experience language anxiety when they have limited exposure and usage of the English
language. Many studies indicated that most teachers were not satisfied with their
students' language competence. The study aims to investigate the relationship between
language anxiety, oral performance, and written English performance among secondary
school students. A quantitative approach was used in this study with one semi-structured
interview study question as an additional question. Data collection for the quantitative
approach was conducted by using questionnaires to 11 Secondary schools from
Putrajaya Federal Territory. Meanwhile, data collection for additional study question
was conducted by conducting a semi-structured interview with four English teachers.
The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) questionnaire was used to
collect data in terms of Communication Apprehension (CA), Test Anxiety (TA) and
Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE). Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version
22 was used to analyse the quantitative data. Data from semi-structured interviews were
analyzed with directed and conventional content analyses. Based on the quantitative
analysis, the majority of the secondary school students obtained good in oral
performance and scored A- in average in written English performance. Majority of
students had a low level of language anxiety in terms of CA, T A and FNE. The study
found no significant difference in terms of CA, TA and FNE between male and female
students. There was a significant, inversed and weak relationship between the language
anxiety in terms of CA and TA and oral performance of the students. However, there
was no significant relationship between FNE and oral performance. There was also a
significant, inversed and weak relationship between the language anxiety in terms of
CA, TA and FNE and written English performance of the students. From the semi
structured interviews, this study found that for oral performance, the students had
prepared and practised the topics with guidance from the English teachers. In fact, they
had memorized the scripts. However, this helped the students a lot in oral performance.
Students who obtained excellent and good in oral performance also obtained A+, A and
A- in written English performance. The significant, inversed and weak relationship
between language anxiety and English language performance indicated that students
with high English performance experienced a low level of language anxiety. The
insignificant difference in terms of CA, TA and FNE between male and female students
enables the teachers to plan strategies to overcome the language anxiety. The study
provided evidence that language anxiety influences students' English performance
without gender disparity. These findings suggested further research to find the effect
of language anxiety towards students' English performance in other schools such as
international and boarding schools.
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