Reading Anxiety of Efl Learners in Indonesian Rural Schools: A Quantitative Study

Abstract

The purposes of this current study were twofold. First, it attempted to find out the level of reading anxiety among EFL learners in rural schools. Second, it sought to determine whether there is a statistical difference in reading anxiety between rural EFL learners across gender and level of study. Seventy-seven EFL learners from several rural Indonesian schools were involved in completing a 27-items EFL Reading Anxiety Inventory (EFLRAI). The findings revealed different levels of top-down, bottom-up, and classroom reading anxiety among rural school learners. Regarding the statistical differences across gender, it is found that male learners outperformed females in terms of top-down and bottom-up reading anxiety. However, female learners offered a better understanding than male learners. Meanwhile, in terms of study grades, it is stated that freshmen learners are more dominant in experiencing reading anxiety than junior and senior learners. In short, reading anxiety has different levels among different EFL learners. In addition, differences occur when each learner with different gender and study grade experience anxiety in reading.

Reading Anxiety Among Junior High School Students in Mataram: A Survey Study

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Humor Effectiveness in L2 Classrooms: The Case of Rural School EFL Students

“…By performing humor in L2 classrooms, it is expected that L2 learners can be happy and laugh, which reduces anxiety in learning English (Fritz, Russek, & Dillon, 2017). Anxiety, according to Mudra and Mckinnon (2022), occurs when EFL students are not aware of their basic competence and they do not attempt to recognize their deeper thoughts. Moreover, humor is also conceptualized as a skill in social life that helps to avoid suffering from tension, relieves satisfaction and pressure apprehension, and raises personality (Pollak & Freda, 1997).…”

The Use of Authentic Materials in Teaching English Translation

“…In line with Harmer (1994) and Pinner (2015) Several previous studies (Allehyani, Burnapp, & Wilson, 2017;Azri & Al-Rashdi, 2014;Huda, 2017) indicates that lecturers have a positive attitude towards authentic materials because the use of authentic materials have several advantages for the students such as increasing students' motivation and giving the opportunity to the students to expose to the real use of language. In Indonesia context, the researcher found several studies regarding the use of authentic materials with different focus such as lecturer's belief in using authentic materials (Kristiana, 2018;Huda, 2017;Mestari & Malabar, 2017), students' perceptions when using authentic materials (Mudra, 2014), and the effect of using authentic materials (Apsari, 2014).…”