Wimonrat Rattanayat, Yusop Boonsuk
While English proficiency constitutes a critical educational goal in Thailand, English Learning Anxiety (ELA) remains inadequately understood within Thai cultural contexts. Grounded in Hofstede's cultural dimensions framework and Brown and Levinson's face theory, this mixed-methods study examined ELA prevalence, contributing factors, and coping strategies among 400 Thai EFL university students across five southern campuses, supplemented by semi-structured interviews with 10 participants. Results revealed moderate overall anxiety ((Formula presented.) = 3.29), with fear of negative evaluation emerging as the most prominent component ((Formula presented.) = 3.55), diverging from Western models where communication apprehension typically dominates. In Thai collectivist classrooms, errors simultaneously threaten both personal and collective face, giving rise to dual-source anxiety as a culturally situated interpretive extension of existing FLA frameworks that addresses theoretical gaps Western-derived models do not fully explain. Anxiety persisted despite adequate preparation, confirming that collectivist face dynamics rather than skill deficits constitute primary triggers. Public speaking pressure dominated anxiety triggers (29.62%), while students employed balanced problem-focused (34.54%) and emotion-focused (34.53%) coping strategies, with social interaction functioning as a culturally specific face-restoration mechanism. The study advances Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) theory by proposing dual-source anxiety as a culture-specific construct applicable across collectivist Asian EFL contexts and provides guidance for reducing anxiety through scaffolded activities, normalized error climates, and systemic assessment reform. © 2026 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani, Thailand; Faculty of Education, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani, Thailand; Korea University, Seoul, South Korea; Department of Nonformal Education, Faculty of Education, Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, Indonesia
