TEST ANXIETY AMONG ESL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS: IMPACTS ON TEACHING AND LEARNING IN GHANAIAN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION / L'ANXIÉTÉ LIÉE AUX EXAMENS CHEZ LES FUTURS ENSEIGNANTS D'ANGLAIS LANGUE SECONDE: EFFETS SUR L'ENSEIGNEMENT ET L'APPRENTISSAGE DANS LES COLLÈGES D'ÉDUCATION AU GHANA

Abstract

The current qualitative study seeks to establish the level of test anxiety and its effects on ESL pre-service teachers in the colleges of education, particularly concerning learning methods and their future teaching. As a qualitative research method, incorporating the experiences of twenty purposively selected participants involved semi-structured interviews, where phenomenology was used for a more in-depth analysis of participants’ accounts. Despite this, the observations show specific language-related fears, namely, those related to writing and written tests, as well as performance stress, associated with examinations. Different strategies of coping are described, including the use of methods such as relaxation and preparation. One emergent theme is how test anxiety impacts teaching philosophy; several pre-service teachers reported wanting to develop low-stakes classrooms based on their experiences with test anxiety. The paper also suggests that there is a need for an impetus for teacher education programs to address and incorporate strategies for managing test anxiety in the curriculum. Thus, these suggestions will help make the future ESL teachers as efficient and healthy as possible to promote the learning environments they will design later. Suggestions include the inclusion of anxiety-reducing strategies in pre-service teachers’ training and the need to reconsider the stance on assessment practices to avoid overburdening ESL pre-service teachers.