Rasch Measurement in Language Research: Creating the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Inventory

The purpose of this study was to construct a new scale for measuring foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA). It begun with the creation of an extended item pool generated by qualitative methods. Subsequent Rasch and semantic analyses led to the final 18-item Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Inventory (FLCAI). In comparison with the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the FLCAI demonstrated more convincing evidence of unidimensionality and the optimal 5-point Likert scale functioned better. The FLCAI, while 55% the length of the FLCAS, thus more practical for classroom practitioners to administer and analyse, maintains its psychometric properties and covers a wider range on the construct continuum thus improving the degree of validity of the instrument. Finally, test anxiety was shown to be a component of FLCA.