Nasim Ghanbari

During the outbreak of COVID 19 pandemic, many foreign languages institutes have started using different online platforms. The issues raised by this abrupt change have sparked a heated debate among teachers and educational authorities about how to resolve them. The anxiety caused by a sudden shift to online courses has been one of the major problems that students and their families faced during the present virtual language learning. To shed more light on the issue, the present study investigated the learners’ anxiety in two online platforms of learning management system (LMS) and the popular WhatsApp application. For this aim, forty Iranian students participated in this study. They were assigned into their groups based on their particular online class setting, using either WhatsApp application or Learning Management System (LMS). A mixed method was used, which included the use of an FLCAS survey form with a 5-point Likert and an interview. The findings of this project indicated there is significant difference among these settings and LMS was responsible for learners’ anxiety. Further implications for language teaching and learning would be discussed.