After the collection and analysis of the data from FLA scales through SPSS 24.0, the participants’ scores could be obtained.

Statistics of FLAs in four scales

The ESAS includes 30 items, with a theoretical range of 30 to 150 scores for each student’s speaking anxiety. The ELAS consists of 31 items and yields a score between 31 and 155 points for each student’s listening anxiety. Since the EWAS has 25 items, the overall score for each student’s writing anxiety is likely to fluctuate between 25 and 125 points. Owing to the 20 questions in the ERAS, each student’s reading anxiety score may vary from 20 to 100. The descriptive analysis of the four FLA scales is shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Descriptive analysis of four skill-based FLAs

Valid individual data were examined using SPSS 24.0. When the mean scores for four FLAs were compared, we found that students experienced more anxiety when listening to English than when speaking, writing, or reading it. That is, students demonstrated the highest degree of FLA in English listening, with scores ranging from 38 (minimum) to 155 (maximum), with a range of 117. According to Table 2, the total mean score for ELA was 106.863, which was quite high among the four FLAs. It was revealed that students were substantially worried when listening to English in and out of class. In addition, 49% of participants were found to be below the mean, while 51% were found to be above the mean. Moreover, the mean score of ERA was 62.726, which was the lowest of the four FLAs, followed by ESA (91.988) and EWA (74.157). Based on the total assessment of these four FLAs, we had a clearer view of the participants’ primary FLA. It was necessary to dig deeper into the specific and comprehensive explanation of the four skill-based FLAs.

Gender differences in FLA

A significant number of studies have found a relationship between gender and FLA. For instance, Dewaele et.al. revealed that female learners reported less FLA than male learners in their foreign language classroom [47]. Other studies found that female learners experienced more FLA than their male counterparts [48, 49]. Surprisingly, Dewaele et al. found that male Kazakh learners of Turkish experienced higher levels of FLA in the classroom than their female peers [50]. Some studies have found no gender differences [51]. Even if these gender-related studies yielded rather conflicting results, it has been widely suggested that males and females identify and react differently to evaluative situations. An independent sample t-test of gender difference was used to identify students’ ESA, ELA, EWA, and ERA. Male and female students both had the largest degree of FLA in listening and the lowest degree of anxiety FLA in reading, as shown in Table 3. A further investigation indicated that while male students in ELA (M = 109.529) reported higher degrees of anxiety than female students (M = 105.867), the difference was not statistically significant (t = 1.220).

Table 3 FLA differences in gender

Therefore, even though male students experienced greater levels of anxiety in ELA than female students, their disparities in FLA did not reach statistical significance. Overall, male students consistently displayed higher anxiety than female students in all aspects of English, and the variations between male and female students were fewer, i.e., There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups.

Anxiety differences in different language proficiency groups

There were 234 students in the ESA session, with 171 students in the advanced group, 62 students in the medium group, and 1 student in the lower group. There were 229 students in the ELA session, including 166 students in the advanced group, 61 participants in the medium group, and 2 students in the lower group. EWA had a total of 251 students, consisting of 180 students in the advanced group, 68 students in the medium group, and three students in the lower group. ERA had 171 students in the advanced group, 66 students in the medium group, and 2 students in the lower group, making up the total of 239 students enrolled. A comparison of individuals in different groups with their differing FLAs is shown in Table 4.

Table 4 FLA differences in different language proficiency groups

According to a comparison of mean scores of ESA, ELA, EWA, and ERA, the greatest FLA experienced by students with varied language levels came from English listening. Table 4 clearly shows that the scores of the medium group were higher than the average, with average scores of ESA: 91.988, ELA: 106.864, EWA: 74.157, and ERA: 62.726, respectively, and the score of the advanced group was below the average score. It recommended that students with high language capacities be less anxious than those with medium capacities.

The descriptive analysis of four skill-based FLAs for various language proficiency groups also revealed that there were relatively significant differences between the advanced and medium language proficiency groups. That is, the difference between the advanced and medium proficiency language groups was large, especially in ELA, where the mean value was 103.994 for the advanced group and the value of the mean was 112.410 for the medium group. Considering the four skill-based FLA, ELA had the highest difference value among them, with a different value of 8.416, followed by ERA, with a difference of 5.19, and a difference value of EWA of 3.382. A less significant difference in speaking anxiety existed between the advanced group and the medium group, with a difference of 0.714. Furthermore, with regard to ESA, the differences within the medium group were extremely small, with a range of 31.00 and a standard deviation of 6.535. Regarding the ELA, the differences within the advanced group are significantly large, with a range of 117.00 and a standard deviation of 21.163. The FLA scores for the two groups were negatively correlated with their language proficiency levels, namely, the group with better language skills had less FLA and vice versa.

Even though advanced students perceived the lowest FLA compared with medium group of students, there were still different presentations of FLA in the advanced group. It was clear from looking at the range and standard deviation values presented in Table 4 that there was a substantial difference in English-speaking anxiety for the advanced group, with a range of 120 and a standard deviation of 10.128. The results indicated that English-speaking anxiety appeared to be extremely high in the advanced group; that is, even with a high speaking ability, some students maintain a relatively high level of anxiety while speaking English, while others maintained less anxiety about their performance. Most likely, despite their strong language skills, they had multiple negative self-evaluations, lacked confidence, or were scared of failure, all of which imposed a severe burden on them.

Analysis of the influence of prior foreign language achievement on students’ FLA

Considering that FAL is a psychological concept, experience or accomplishment should influence learners’ language acquisition and performance. There have been many studies that have confirmed the association between FLA and foreign language achievement in the field of FLA [37, 52]. That is, a learner with a significant level of FLA achieves low levels of proficiency in foreign language acquisition. However, it is still unknown whether there is a correlation between learners’ previous foreign language performance and their FLA. As a result, this study examined the correlation between FLA and learners’ prior foreign language achievement using learners’ English scores on the National College Entrance Exam as a variable.

As seen in Table 5, students’ prior English learning achievements were adversely connected with their FLA, as indicated by the r of −.207(ELA), −.143(EWA), and − .204(ERA). It was anticipated that students with lower prior foreign language achievement in English learning would have higher FLA, whereas those with higher prior achievement in English learning would experience lower FLA. Surprisingly, there was no statistical correlation between students’ ESA and prior foreign language achievement. Further investigation revealed that students’ prior English learning achievements had a reasonably strong negative association with ELA, with an r value of −.207.

Table 5 Correlation analysis between FLA and participants’ prior foreign language achievementAnalysis of the influence of student’s self-evaluation on FLA

As a process of self-analysis, self-evaluation has been identified as a critical feature in FLA in multiple studies [53]. Thus, self-evaluation should be considered to have a holistic view of learners’ FLA.

From Table 6, it could be seen that students’ self-evaluation of their four English skills affected their degree of FLA. Table 6 also demonstrated that self-evaluation of English listening, English writing, and English reading was significantly negatively correlated with FLA. That is students who preferred English listening, English writing, and English reading and had a high self-evaluation of these abilities perceived less FLA, and vice versa. However, it was shown that students’ self-evaluation was positively connected with their level of speaking anxiety. This is probably because anxious students frequently overestimate their real language proficiency [54].

Table 6 Correlation analysis of self-evaluation on four English skills