STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES ON REDUCING TEST ANXIETY IN THE STUDENTS OF SABZEVAR SCHOOL OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

Background and The role of learner’s strategies and skills in learning a foreign language has been investigated in the three last decades. However, the part it plays in ESP achievement tests is not seriously treated. Therefore, it seemed a good reason to conduct a study on the role of study strategies in successfully taking the final exam. Methods and Materials: In this quasi-experimental interventionist study, the SILL questionnaire was given to 253 students taking an ESP course (1384-85 / 2005-2006) to identify their use of language learning strategies. A few moments prior to taking their finals, they took Spielberger's anxiety test to estimate their test anxiety. According to the findings, mean anxiety scores in boys and girls before the final exam were 146.72 and 120.46 respectively, which did not show any significant difference. However, a negative linear relationship was found to exist between SILL score (meta-cognitive strategies in particular) and test anxiety. Among many other outcomes, test anxiety is attributable to inappropriate study habits in adult ESP learners, which requires consideration by both instructors and textbook compilers.