Effects of learners’ individual differences on test anxiety among the students majoring in translation in islamic azad university of abadan

The present survey investigated the correlations between learners’ individual differences (IDs) included motivation, attitudes, state anxiety, age, gender and translation test anxiety (TTA) among the students’ majoring in translation at the university level. The research was a correlation study and the design was basically descriptive. Research questions and hypotheses focused on discovering the possible correlations of TTA and participants’ IDs. Research sample included 300 male and female participants who were junior college Translation students enrolled translation courses in Abadan Islamic Azad University in spring semester, 2011. They were selected based on stratified random sampling among the whole research population. Research instruments were Arends’ (1998) Motivation Questionnaire, Surveying Students about Classroom Life, and Gorjian's (2011) Test Anxiety Inventory for Translation Students (TAITS). Data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics (i.e., Regression Analysis and Independent Samples t-test) through SPSS 11.5 software. The results showed that there were significant correlation between TTA and learners’ motivation, attitudes, and state anxiety (p<.01) while there were not significant correlation between TTA, attitude, age and gender (p<.05). The findings also revealed the significant difference between males and females’ degree of TTA. Females showed higher anxiety level at TTA than their male counterparts.