Sessions /
Less Anxiety Is Important for Improving English Proficiency #1107

The purpose of this research is to investigate the factor(s) related to improving the English proficiency of university students in student-centered communicative lessons. Eighty-eight Japanese EFL students completed a questionnaire at the middle of a semester. It included affective components such as foreign language enjoyment (FLE)/foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) scales and some demographic components. The students took the TOEIC IP before and after the semester to check their progress on English proficiency. A logistic regression analysis was calculated to find the factor(s) involved in increasing the TOEIC scores, based on six independent variables. It was found that the factor that led to the improvement of English proficiency after the course was students' being less anxious in the middle of the semester. Teachers should make every effort to envision English classrooms together with their students by considering students’ feelings (especially anxiety) during lessons and create an unthreatening language learning environment.