ARIYANI, DESY. 2019. The Correlation between Foreign Language Reading Anxiety and Reading Comprehension of Business Administration Students at Samarinda State PolytechnicofForeign Language Reading Anxietyon Reading (under supervisors of Dyah Sunggingwati, M.Pd, Ph.D and Dr.Noor Rachmawaty,M.Ed). Samarinda: Unpublished Thesis. Mulawarman University.
This research was aimed to find out the correlation between foreign language reading anxiety and reading comprehension of Business Administration department students of Samarinda State Polytechnic, to find out whether there is a significant difference in foreign language reading anxiety between male and female students and to explore the factors of foreign language reading anxiety experienced by the students.
The correlational design was applied in this study to find out the correlation between foreign language reading anxiety and reading comprehension. The research was conducted in Business Administration Department at Samarinda State Polytechnic. A total of 139 fourth semester students in academic year 2018/2019 participated in this study, consisting of 36 males and 103 females. In order to reveal the relationship, there were two instruments used to gather the necessary data. The first was Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Inventory (EFLRAI) designed by Zoghi (2012) and the second instrument was 50 items of reading test. The result from correlation-based analysis shows a significant relationship between reading anxiety and reading comprehension. Reading anxiety has a moderate negative correlation with reading comprehension (r = -.414, p < .05). It means that the high anxious students obtained low scores in reading comprehension. For the second aim, the researcher used independent sample test, it indicates there is no significant difference in foreign language reading anxiety between male and female students (F = .323, p > .05). Meanwhile for the third aim, it is found that three factors of EFLRAI contributed high anxious readers. Regarding the highest factor, the results reveal that background and culture knowledge under top-down reading anxiety (TRA) factor is on the first position. The second highest position is vocabulary aspect under bottom-up reading anxiety (BRA). The last position is teaching method under classroom reading anxiety (CRA) factor.
Based on the results of the study, EFL teachers should cope with students’ reading anxiety in order to enhance reading comprehension performance and should create a low anxiety classroom environment in order for students to learn reading. For future researchers, it is better to find the possible differences in reading anxiety of students at various academic levels. It is recommended that further research should spend a longer time for the interview, as more in-depth interview questions might reveal many interesting sources of reading anxiety.
Keywords: FL Reading anxiety and Reading comprehension.