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Foreign language reading anxiety and its correlates: a meta-analysis

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Abstract

Despite the growing body of research on foreign language reading anxiety, there is still a dearth of comprehensive meta-analysis regarding the effect sizes of these studies. To fill the gap, this study meta-analyzed the overall average correlation between foreign language reading anxiety and its correlates among 9785 participants: two high-evidence correlates (language anxiety and reading performance with 18 to 27 aggregated effect sizes) and two low-evidence correlates (with less than nine aggregated effect sizes: reading self-efficacy and reading strategy). In addition, moderator analyses of target language, age, foreign language proficiency, language distance and test type were also carried out for the high-evidence correlates. The results obtained a moderate correlation of language anxiety and reading performance. The two low-evidence correlates had moderate-to-large and moderate effect sizes, with reading self-efficacy being moderate-to-large and reading strategy being moderate. Foreign language proficiency and age were significant moderators for some correlations. Implications of the findings were discussed.

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There is no known conflict of interest to disclose. This study was funded by the Social Science Foundation of Hunan Province (grant number 20ZDB005) and Project funded by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Hunan University (grant number 531118010590).

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  1. School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Lushan South Rd, Yuelu District, Changsha, 410082, Hunan Province, China

    Rui Li

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Li, R. Foreign language reading anxiety and its correlates: a meta-analysis. Read Writ 35, 995–1018 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-021-10213-x

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