Validation and Reliability of the French version of the linguistic anxiety scale "Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale" and its application to French students: review of the analysis of Horwitz, Howitz and Cope, Aida and Pérez y Martínez

Abstract

Anxiety about learning foreign languages is one of the most influential variables in the learning of foreign languages. Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) developed a theoretical framework around the specific construct of linguistic anxiety that manages to explain the role of this variable within the teaching – learning process of foreign languages. The authors developed a statistically reliable and valid scale to measure students’ linguistic anxiety levels. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, includes different factors and dimensions that pretend to encompass the different aspects of this specific. The present research aims to study the validation and reliability of the instrument translated into French as well as to repeat the factorial analysis of the FLCAS carried out by Aida (1994), Pérez and Martínez (2001). The adaptation of the instrument to French students is distributed, after the analysis with varimax rotation, in four factors that explain 58.78% of the variance total and an alpha of Cronbach’s 0,77.