Examining Perfectionism and Test Anxiety Among Iranian Candidates of International English Proficiency Tests[پايان نامه لاتين]

Fatemeh Pirouz Hamidi

Language tests of all kinds are believed to exert different impacts on their candidates. Such impacts are rooted from forces both internal and external to the test-takers. One influential internal factor which affects the performance of the test-takers is that of test anxiety that hinders one to be his/her real self during the test. This gets more complicated when it is coupled with perfectionism, which is an individual feature of some test-takers who push themselves to perform perfectly. Although many studies have been done on different examinations in this regard, high-stakes exams like TOEFL and IELTS which have high consequential validity as two common international proficiency tests have been neglected, scholarly, from a personal-psychological perspective. Against this backdrop, the present mixed-methods study aimed to investigate the differences between perfectionism and test anxiety of Iranian IELTS and TOEFL test-takers and the impact of such variables on their performance. In so doing, following convenience sampling, the two previously validated Questionnaires of perfectionism (Slanely et al., 2001) and test anxiety (Sarason, 1980) were distributed among 200 TOEFL and IELTS test-takers in Iran. Moreover, to reach deeper insights, a semi-structured interview was held with 40 test-takers of both exams to explore their perceptions with regard to test anxiety and perfectionism and their effect on test performance. The results of independent-samples t-tests demonstrated that except for the test-takers of the band score 7, the others did not have different levels of test anxiety. Moreover, it was found that both IELTS and TOEFL test-takers with different band scores experienced different levels of anxiety. In addition, IELTS test-takers experienced the highest and lowest degrees of anxiety in speaking and writing sections of the test while listening and speaking were introduced as causing the highest and lowest amounts of anxiety for the TOEFL test-takers. Furthermore, this study indicated that the more proficient test-takers experienced less anxiety, and conversely, the less proficient test-takers suffered from higher amounts of test anxiety. Finally, different ways were identified through which perfectionism and test anxiety affected Iranian test-takers’ test performance. In general, more anxious and more perfectionist test-takers performed poorer in both examinations. The findings can increase IELTS and TOEFL instructors’ knowledge of the candidates’ individual-psychological factors and their effects on various aspects of their performance and help stakeholders in designing materials, syllabi, and developing training courses. Some suggestions for future research are also provided at the end of the study. Perfectionism – Test anxiety – TOEFL – IELTS – English Proficiency – Test Performance – Test taker’s Perceptions