Abstract
In Malaysia, learning English is considered difficult and anxiety provoking by many learners. This can be seen by the fact that many Malaysian graduates, despite their 11-year formal exposure to the language, still lack English communicative ability and this may limit their employment opportunity. Learning second language could undoubtedly incite anxiety among learners, and this situation varies from one learner to another. This is more prevalent among low achievers who have to adapt to the new learning environment where English is used as a medium of instruction. This paper discovers English learning anxiety among low achievers studying at Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang (UiTM Pahang). It also looks at the possible connection between the anxious feelings that may exist among these students and their gender, academic achievement prior to their admission to UiTM and their language preference at home and with friends.
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Acknowledgements
This study is supported by the Research Management Institute, Universiti Teknologi MARA, under the Excellence Fund Grant, Project No. 600-RMI/SSP/DANA 5/3/Dsp (260/2011). The authors would also like to thank Puan Nor Lailatul Azilah Hamdzah for her assistance during the preliminary stage of the study.
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Baharum, N.D., Ariffin, K. (2014). Anxiety in Learning English Among Low Achievers: The Questions of Gender, Language Preference and Academic Performance. In: Kasim, A., Wan Omar, W., Abdul Razak, N., Wahidah Musa, N., Ab. Halim, R., Mohamed, S. (eds) Proceedings of the International Conference on Science, Technology and Social Sciences (ICSTSS) 2012. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-077-3_36
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