Alleviating test anxiety for students of advanced reading comprehension

Test anxiety often interferes with a reliable evaluation of language learning, frustrating teachers and students alike. Most researchers have found a significant inverse relation between anxiety and written test performance. Although this situation leads to a distortion of test scores, suggestions for treating and coping with test anxiety have been sparse. Focusing on advanced reading comprehension in a foreign language, the present review summarizes the literature on anxiety connected with the language learning classroom, and offers recommendations for its alleviation.This paper examines students' suggestions for improving their feelings about tests. A nine-item questionnaire was administered to 265 students at the University of Haifa who were participating in three intermediate to advanced level reading comprehension courses in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Students reported that they would like teachers to make two additions to the course: adding bonus exercises for extra points and giving more practice tests.A Remedial Class of advanced reading comprehension in English as a Foreign Language is presented as an example of one way to apply these theories and recommendations.