The hidden barriers: Development and validation of the young learners' language anxiety inventory for elementary students

Abstract

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) represents a significant psychological barrier in language acquisition, particularly affecting elementary school students who remain an understudied population despite the global trend toward introducing foreign language instruction at increasingly younger ages. This study developed and validated the Young Learners' Language Anxiety Inventory (YLLAI), a psychometrically robust instrument specifically designed to assess FLA in children aged 10-12 years. The instrument was developed through a four-phase process involving literature review, expert evaluation by eleven specialists, pilot testing, and refinement to a final 20-item scale. Two distinct samples were employed: 246 elementary students for Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and 395 students for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), all from public schools in Gharbia Governorate, Egypt. Principal component analysis with varimax rotation revealed a three-factor structure explaining 75.418% of total variance after removing one poorly loading item, resulting in a 19-item final version. The three factors identified were Peer Evaluation Anxiety (PEA), Spontaneous Performance Anxiety (SPA), and Physical Learning Environment Anxiety (PLEA). CFA confirmed acceptable model fit (CFI = .965, TLI = .960, RMSEA = .061), with excellent reliability coefficients across all dimensions (McDonald's ω = .878-.965, Cronbach's α = .878-.964). The YLLAI provides researchers and educators with a developmentally appropriate, reliable, and valid tool for assessing FLA in elementary students, enabling targeted interventions to support young learners' language acquisition experiences.