THE IMPACT OF SPEAKING COMPONENT OF AN INSTITUTIONAL TEST ON BILINGUAL STUDENTS' ANXIETY LEVEL

The aim of the current study was to investigate whether bilingual university/ college students may have speaking test anxiety. Additionally, it was examined whether there were differences in anxiety levels among bilingual students according to gender. To collect data, 140 bilingual university students were given a GEP-TAS (General English Proficiency test anxiety scale) consisting 3 categories. The 36 items in the questionnaire was subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to determine the subcategories of the scale. Addition to that, the bilingual students were interviewed to get their opinions on how to overcome speaking test anxiety. The results showed that, bilingual university students got extremely anxious during the speaking test. They had experienced sweaty palms, shaky hands and pain in their stomach when they were asked to answer the questions in the speaking test. Also, it was found out that male students were much more relaxed during the speaking test comparing to female students. Students also believe they can tackle down with the speaking anxiety by organizing English speaking activities, making foreign friends, talking to their native teachers and going abroad. Those results were discussed within the context of relevant literature.