Investigating the Impact of Anxiety on EFL Researchers and the Research Process

Abstract

In the field of education, the issue of anxiety among EFL researchers did not receive enough attention, although EFL researchers are likely to experience the negative sides of anxiety to a certain degree during the process of conducting their research, since it is a fundamental process the EFL researcher must undergo in their university journey. The present study hypothesizes that if the EFL researchers are anxious, this would negatively affect the EFL researchers and the research process. In order to confirm or reject the hypothesis, the research was conducted using quantitative and qualitative descriptive methods. The questionnaire and the interview were selected as data gathering tools: the questionnaire was submitted to seventy-three (73) second-year Master students, and five (5) teachers representing different academic grades from the English Department of Guelma University were interviewed. The findings of this study stated that students and teachers are aware about the negative impact of anxiety on EFL researchers while conducting a research and on the research process as well. It found that this psychological problem highly affects them along the process of conducting research, besides proving the nonexistence of an inverse relationship between anxiety and experience with academic research. The results, also, revealed that the main factors behind EFL researchers’ anxiety are: poor time management, administrative time restrictions —a factor related automatically to the first one — in addition to the lack of sources, fear of failure and lack of research methodology skills. From these outcomes, this contribution concluded that because of the aforementioned factors and some research circumstances, anxiety has a hindering influence on EFL research and researchers. Hence, the research recommended a number of effective solutions for each challenge triggered by anxiety during conducting an academic research for the sake of providing a more comfortable and productive environment.