http://wjel.sciedupress.com World Journal of English Language Vol. 12, No. 8; 2022 Published by Sciedu Press 287 ISSN 1925-0703 E-ISSN 1925-0711 The Role of Blended Learning on Moderating Self-Motivation to Mitigate Foreign Language Anxiety among EFL Students Sultan Alghofaili 1 1 Department of English Language and Translation, College of Sciences and Arts in Ar Rass, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia Correspondence: Sultan Alghofaili, Department of English Language and Translation, College of Sciences and Arts in Ar Rass, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. Received: September 17, 2022 Accepted: October 18, 2022 Online Published: October 20, 2022 doi:10.5430/wjel.v12n8p287 URL: https://doi.org/10.5430/wjel.v12n8p287 Abstract The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) it looks at how much foreign language anxiety and self-motivation there are among EFL students, and (2) to determine if learning preferences interact with self-motivation to lessen FLA, i.e., moderate this relationship. To do this, 232 EFL students from the 2020–2021 academic year were randomly chosen to participate in a survey method at three universities in central Saudi Arabia: Qassim University, Majmaah University, and Shaqra University. SPSS was used for descriptive analysis, where Macro Process Hayes Plug-In was used for the moderated regression analysis. The findings showed a moderate level of internal and extrinsic goal orientation, control over learning beliefs, self-efficacy, task value, social engagement, instructor support, as well as anxiety related to learning a foreign language. Additionally, it was determined that participant demographic factors had no statistically significant impact on any of the distinct dimensions of self-motivation or anxiety related to learning a foreign language. More significantly, blended learning was found to have a greater negative impact on foreign language classroom anxiety than face-to-face learning and e-learning, indicating that it has a greater impact on increasing self-motivation to lessen classroom anxiety. Keywords: self-motivation, anxiety, EFL, blended learning, moderation 1. Introduction With the advances in the development of information and communication technologies and the trend towards globalization of higher education and the elimination of borders between students, e-learning is becoming the paradigm of modern education. E-learning generally describes the conscious use of networked information and communication technologies in teaching and learning (Sun, 2008). As the letter "e" in e-learning means the word "electronic", e-learning would integrate all educational activities undertaken by individuals or groups working online or offline (Naidu, 2006). However, e-learning in Saudi Arabia has become an innovative new learning model. In fact, e-learning has grown in Saudi Arabia, as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has the highest percentage of digitization in the education sector. Indeed, the frequent use of e-learning at the university level is seen as a long-term strategy in Saudi Arabia. There is clear evidence that most universities in Saudi Arabia are already using e-learning, but mainly in the blended model with face-to-face teaching as well (Ja'ashan, 2020). However, according to Osguthorpe & Graham (2003), blended is the best learning modality compared with online or face-to-face learning. In fact, the most important reasons for the advancement of e-learning in Saudi universities is that e-learning in Saudi universities is part of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 plan. In addition, Saudi society is moving around electronics, so that students can learn remotely, simply and easily. Eventually, Saudi universities provide all technological and technical capabilities to carry out the distance learning process, not to mention that Saudi universities establish a specialized online learning programs for students to follow advanced international universities (KSA Universities, 2021). Nevertheless, these are not enough to benefit from e-learning, since motivation and language anxiety are pointed out as the two most influential factors that can affect the process of learning a foreign language (Noels, Pelletier, Clement and Vallerand, 2000). The importance of motivation in language learning was first highlighted in the late 1950s, and since then many theories have been developed explaining its relationship to student achievement (Boo, Dörnyei and Ryan, 2015). On the other hand, language anxiety, as another very influential affective factor in language lessons, began to attract research interest in the early 1970s and is still considered one of the variables most negatively associated with success (MacIntyre and Gardner, 1991; Philips, 1992). Nevertheless, there seem to be some comfort among EFL students because of the different learning preferential, especially about the burden of self-motivation and foreign language anxiety. Therefore, this study seeks to investigate the level of both self-motivation and foreign language anxiety and to test whether the learning preferential interacts with self-motivation to mitigate FLA, i.e. moderate this relationship. In fact, in regression, moderation occurs when the relation between the dependent variable and the independent variables depends on a third variable, which is the learning preferential in this study. This third variable is referred to as the moderating variable or simply the moderator. The effect of the moderating variable is statistically characterized as an interaction (Hayes, 2013). Qassim University, Majmaah University and Shaqra University are all governmental and located in central Saudi Arabia. They are all