An Examination of Trait Test Anxiety in the EFL Context among Chinese Graduate Students

Distinguishing trait test anxiety from state test anxiety, this study employed Achievement Anxiety Scale (Alpert and Harber, 1960) to examine 307 Chinese graduate students trait test anxiety in the EFL context. The study involves the investigation on both debilitative and facilitative anxiety. Results show 99.7 % of the participants demonstrate debilitative anxiety in EFL tests, and 15.5 % of the participants have a high debilitative anxiety level. Research also reveals Chinese graduate students debilitative and facilitative test anxiety levels significantly predict their English proficiency level.