Relationship between type of education (co-education and single-sex) and anxiety and moderating role of Setting among Iranian students of English

Anxiety is one of the most important factors in any foreign language class and is highly emphasized in our country. However, students’ level of anxiety in foreign language classes seems to be influenced by a few factors. Accordingly, the present study was designed to investigate the relationship between co-education and anxiety and moderating role of proficiency level among Iranian English learners. The study was conducted with a sample of 150 English language learners from single-sex setting and 150 participants from-educational setting in Ilam province. In both single-sex and co-educational setting participant’s age range was 18-25 years and they were first-, second-and third-year students of English. The participants were grouped in three elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels of proficiency in English based upon their grades on a proficiency test. Their level of anxiety in each setting was also determined based upon their responses on a FLCA questionnaire. Chi-square test, and ANOVA were used to analyze the obtained data. The results of the study demonstrated that participants in both single-sex and co-educational setting have partially the same level of anxiety and they are less anxious in both private single-sex and co-educational setting. The results also showed that participants in private setting are more proficient than public setting participants and they are less anxious than participant with low level of proficiency. It shows that proficiency level moderates the relationship between type of education and anxiety.

کلیدواژه ها:

type of education ، foreign language anxiety ، proficiency level