Frontiers of Language and Teaching …...…………………………………………….… Volume 3 (2012) 116 General Foreign Language Anxiety among EFL Learners: A Survey Study Seyit Ahmet Capan and Harun Simsek Turkey Email: sacapan@selcuk.edu.tr Abstract Foreign language anxiety (FLA) with a sound impact on learners’ overall achievement has been associated with several factors such as motivation, gender and self-concept. This study describes a survey study investigating the relationships between general FLA levels and students’ grade level with an emphasis on gender. The participants were 131 university students majoring in English. Data were collected through Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986) and a reflection questionnaire. The study used t-test to analyze the data. The results indicated that there was no statistically significant correlation between general FLA levels and the grade level the participants studied. However, the analysis noticed a significant correlation between the participants’ FLA levels and their gender as males in contrast to females received higher scores on the FLCAS. Moreover, the participants’ reflections on their FLA levels provided interesting suggestions to reduce general FLA levels. Keywords: FLA, Grade Level, Gender Introduction Foreign language learning (FLL) is an intriguing issue. Despite plenty of efforts and resources spent in it, there are not necessarily promising outcomes in terms of achievement. Given that it operates multi-dimensionally including learners’ behavioral, cognitive, social and affective attributes, achievement in FLL is not conducive for simple and clear-cut prescriptions. One of the most influential factors on foreign language learning (FLL), foreign language anxiety (FLA) is an intricate psychological phenomenon. In correlation with several other variables, FLA may play a significant role in overall FLL achievement. This paper addresses the relationship between general FLA levels and students’ grade level (i.e. year spent in school). It further probes into the impact of gender on their overall FLA levels. Also, it sheds light on students’ own perceptions of anxiety levels and their suggestions to overcome high levels of FLA. Literature Review Foreign Language Anxiety Foreign language anxiety is a pervasive phenomenon associated with feelings of fear and apprehension. Consisting of a set of psychological factors, FLA is defined as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of language learning process” (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986: 128). Horwitz et. al. (1986) propose that FLA appears in three forms: test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and communication apprehension. Test anxiety is “a type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure” (Horwitz et. al., 1986: 127). It occurs when one feels that his/ her L2 capabilities are being evaluated. Fear of negative evaluation, however, refers to one’s avoidance of communicative contexts due to the concern that others are making negative judgments about him/her. Those with fear of negative evaluation are basically afraid of appearing