Engineering students’ anxiety of computer, Internet and foreign language

Abstract

The use of ICT in education is undeniable and the link between language education and technology grows stronger. Although, ICT is generally perceived to be beneficial, some students might experience challenges to deal with it as part of their anxiety. This study reports on the Internet, computer and foreign language anxiety of undergraduate engineering students in Mulawarman University (MU), Samarinda, Indonesia. The students were involved in a survey questionnaire that was part of this study. The results have shown that most students have little Internet and computer anxiety, as most of their responses indicated preference and motivation for work with computers, and recognition of the importance and ease of use of the Internet. However, they still experienced foreign language anxiety with approximately 70% of the students anxious when they were in the English language class. As the respondents of this study were from the Engineering Department at MU, it was hypothesised that they would have limited foreign language anxiety; however, the students were still anxious when learning English, particularly when they needed to perform in front of their friends or were afraid of making mistakes.