The Effects of Educational Level on Learner Anxiety: An Investigation of Iranian Learners

The demanding task of language learning necessitates great efforts on the part of the learners. In the process of learning, some learners are overawed by language anxiety via setting some unreasonable standards. Different factors influence a learner’s anxiety one of which is educational level of the learner. In this respect, this study sought to investigate the effects of educational level on learner anxiety. To this end, both learner’s educational qualifications and parents’ qualification were considered and their influences were measured on the learner anxiety. 150 students were involved who attended some language institutes in Shiraz, Iran. The participants were asked to fill in the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety questionnaire. The statistical analysis applied in this study was Multivariate of Analysis (MANOVA) and the pertinent data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. It came to light that participants with different levels of education and different mother’s educational levels did not differ in their anxiety level. In other words, neither learner education nor his or her parents’ education had any significant effects on the learner anxiety. Delving into factors which may hamper successful language learning is not only worthwhile but also promising and learner anxiety is one of them.