A Validity and Reliability Study of “English Speaking Anxiety Scale”

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to develop a scale of “English Speaking Anxiety” for determining 7th grade students’ anxiety levels towards speaking skills in English as a target language. Design & Methodology: This study is a descriptive study that aims to develop a scale for determining the level of students’ speaking anxiety. In addition, how to develop it and the psychometric properties (validity-reliability) of this scale were also examined by the researcher. Two groups were used for this study. They were “Exploratory Factor Analysis and Reliability Group” and “Confirmatory Factor Analysis Group”. “Exploratory Factor Analysis and Reliability Group” consists of 372 7th grade students “Confirmatory Factor Analysis Group” consists of 402 7th grade students. Findings: Exploratory factor analysis was carried out to examine construct validity of “English Speaking Anxiety Scale”. In order to determine the validity and reliability of the scale, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test, Bartlett Sphericity test, Varimax rotation, Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient, and confirmatory factor analysis were used. When the findings of the study are analyzed, it has been determined that the scale consists of 16 items and it has a structure composed of two factors. The study showed that “English Speaking Anxiety Scale” is a valid and reliable tool. The results of exploratory factor analysis obtained show that item-total correlations are between 0.387 and 0.794. The variance explained is 67% and this value is considered acceptable for the scale development studies in social sciences (Büyük？ztürk, 2013). It has been seen in the exploratory factor analysis that the scale revealed two factors. Implications & Suggestions: The study results showed that this scale was an appropriate instrument to evaluate level of 7th grade students’ speaking anxiety. This scale can be used for measurement of the students’ speaking anxiety in English