Master minor programme thesis English linguistics: An investigation into speaking in class anxiety of English majored students - The case of the second year students at the school of foreign languages, Thai Nguyen university

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The present study aims to investigate speaking-in-class anxiety with the main focus on the second-year English-majored students at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen university.

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Nội dung Text: Master minor programme thesis English linguistics: An investigation into speaking in class anxiety of English majored students - The case of the second year students at the school of foreign languages, Thai Nguyen university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ TRẦN THỊ PHƯƠNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO SPEAKING-IN-CLASS ANXIETY OF ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS: THE CASE OF THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Nghiên cứu sự lo lắng khi nói tiếng Anh trong lớp học của sinh viên chuyên Anh: Trường hợp sinh viên năm thứ hai tại khoa Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Thái Nguyên M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 Hanoi, 2016
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ TRẦN THỊ PHƯƠNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO SPEAKING-IN-CLASS ANXIETY OF ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS: THE CASE OF THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Nghiên cứu sự lo lắng khi nói tiếng Anh trong lớp học của sinh viên chuyên Anh: Trường hợp sinh viên năm thứ hai tại khoa Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Thái Nguyên M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 SUPERVISOR: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYỄN PHƯƠNG NGA Hanoi, 2016
DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis entiled “An Investigation into Speaking- in-Class Anxiety of English-Majored students: The Case of the Second-year Students at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts is the results of my own work and that this thesis does not contain material which has been accepted for the award of any degree or diploma in any university, nor does it contain material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. I agree that the origin of my thesis deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan and reproduction of the paper. Hanoi, December 2016 Signature Tran Thi Phuong i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe many great thanks to so many people who have supported me all the way throughout my study to this final achievement. First of all, I would like to express my special thank to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Phuong Nga, for her wholehearted guidance, valuable suggestions and academic advice during the course of writing this thesis, without which this work would hardly have been accomplished. I would also like to send my sincere thanks to all lecturers at Post- Graduate Studies Department, ULIS – VNU who gave me interesting lessons and comprehensive knowledge. I also wish to send my deep appreciation to my colleagues and students at English Department, School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University who have encouraged me and helped me with the research data. Last, to my family, words are not enough to express my gratitude. I am grateful to my parents, my husband, my little daughter. Without their help and encouragement, I could not have completed this study. Hanoi, December 2016 Signature Tran Thi Phuong ii
ABSTRACT Feeling of anxiety, apprehension and nervousness are commonly expressed in a language classroom by second/ foreign language learners when learning to speak. These feelings are considered to affect learners‟ speaking performance. The present study was conducted with the aim to 1) investigate levels of in-class speaking anxiety experienced by the second-year English- majored students at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen university, 2) find out the types of in-class speaking activities that provoke or reduce students‟ in-class speaking anxiety, and 3) examine what teachers‟ behaviors and characteristics can reduce students‟ anxiety. The research subjects were 101 SFL students majoring in English in the two programs, namely English Education Program and English Language Program. A multi-part survey questionaire was employed to collect the data. The simple descriptive statistics, namely frequency, percentage were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the students‟ anxiety about speaking English in classroom, on the whole, was at the high level. In addition, among the three categories of language anxiety, namely communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation, it was found that the subjects of the present study reported fear of negative evaluation and communication apprehension as the main cause of speaking anxiety. The findings also showed that the activities with high self-exposure requirement; namely, make an oral presentation or skit in front of the class, role play spontaneously in front of the class, or speak in front of the class were the most anxiety-evoking to students. On the other hand, those activities gave students a chance to work in pairs or in groups; especially in class games caused the least anxiety to them. iii
Regarding the teachers‟ behaviors and characteristics, the findings showed that the students would feel less anxious if the teacher is patient and friendly, has a sense of humor, makes students feel comfortable. In addition, teachers‟ appropriate teaching practices on class management and error correction are reported to effectively reduce student‟s anxiety and so create a comfortable learning atmosphere in classroom. Finally, the pedagogical implications of these findings for understanding second/foreign language anxiety for enhancing learners‟ communication abilities in the target langage were discussed, as are suggestions for future research. iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ........................................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................... ii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................. viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................... ix PART A: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1 1. Rationale of the study ................................................................................. 1 2. Aims and objectives of the study ............................................................... 3 3. Scope of the study ...................................................................................... 3 4. Significance of the study ............................................................................ 4 5. Methodology .............................................................................................. 4 6. Design of the study ..................................................................................... 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................ 6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................... 6 1.1. Definition of anxiety................................................................................ 6 1.2. Types of anxiety ...................................................................................... 8 1.3. Foreign language anxiety ....................................................................... 10 1.3.1. Definition of foreign language anxiety ............................................... 10 1.3.2. Models of foreign language anxiety .................................................... 11 1.3.3. Manifestation of foreign language anxiety .......................................... 16 1.3.4. Measurement of foreign language anxiety .......................................... 18 1.4. Foreign language speaking anxiety ........................................................ 20 1.4.1. Definition of foreign language speaking anxiety ................................. 20 1.4.2. Speaking as a source of anxiety .......................................................... 20 v
1.4.3. Other sources of foreign language speaking anxiety ........................... 23 1.4.4. Ways of creating a low-anxiety classroom .......................................... 28 1.5. A review of previous studies on speaking-in-class anxiety .................... 32 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY............................................................. 37 2.1. Context of the study .............................................................................. 37 2.2. Participants of the study ........................................................................ 38 2.3. Instruments ............................................................................................ 38 2.4. Data collection procedures .................................................................... 40 2.5. Data analysis ......................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ......................................... 43 3.1. In-class English speaking anxiety .......................................................... 43 3.1.1. Overall of students‟ responses to in-class speaking anxiety ................ 43 3.1.2. In-class speaking anxiety categories ................................................... 50 3.2. Anxiety towards in-class activities ........................................................ 58 3.3. Teachers‟ characteristics and techniques related to anxiety reduction .... 64 PART C: CONCLUSION .......................................................................... 69 1. Summary of the research findings ............................................................ 69 2. Implications .............................................................................................. 70 3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research ................... 71 REFERENCES ........................................................................................... 73 APPENDIX .................................................................................................... I vi
LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Students‟ responses to ICESA scale.............................................. 43 Table 3.2 Students‟ level of in-class speaking anxiety .................................. 48 Table 3.3 Top causes of in-class speaking anxiety ........................................ 49 Table 3.4 Students‟ fear of negative evaluation ............................................ 51 Table 3.5 Students‟ communication apprehension ........................................ 52 Table 3.6 Students‟ test anxiety .................................................................... 56 Table 3.7 In-class speaking activities ........................................................... 58 Table 3.8 In-class speaking activities with high anxiety ............................... 62 Table 3.9 In-class speaking activities with low anxiety ................................ 63 Table 3.10 Students‟ perceptions of teachers‟ behaviors and characteristics . 65 vii
LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 SFL students‟ perceived anxiety .................................................. 49 Figure 3.2 Categories of in-class speaking anxiety ....................................... 57 Figure 3.3 SFL students‟ perceptions of 17 in-class activities ...................... 61 viii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CA: Communication Apprehension EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language FLCAS: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale FNE: Fear of Negative Evaluation ICESA: In-Class English Speaking Anxiety L1: First Language L2: Second Language SFL: School of Foreign Languages TA: Test Anxiety ix
PART A: INTRODUCTION The first chapter presents the rationale for the study. Following this, the aim and objectives of the study, the research questions, the scope, significance and methods of the study are presented. The chapter ends with an overview of the thesis structure. 1. Rationale of the study Foreign language anxiety is one of the important barriers which may cause various difficulties for the language learners. This problem limits learners‟ linguistic improvement, limits learner‟s abilities and also diminishes potential performance of the learners. In the learning process, speaking-oriented activities are considered to produce higher anxiety level among language learners than other class activities. Walker (1997:23) states that “a student who believes his capacities in speaking English are inadequate may answer a teacher‟s question using the fewest words possible in order to protect himself from the possibility of error, or he may choose to read the answer from the text instead of risking self-constructed speech.” In the researcher‟s teaching experience, she found that some students, if confronted with some failure in speaking English, would remain silent more frequently when being required to speak; some even lack the courage to try to open their mouths and speak, or stumble and stammer when they speak. Even though many teachers are aware of the problem relating to students‟ anxiety, they do not take that big issue into account. When learners enroll in different language courses, they are offered only to develop their English but most of the times no systematic steps are 1
taken to reduce their anxiety. As a result, learners who have English speaking anxiety face difficulties when they are required to speak even after learning the language for a long time. Therefore, it is time that systematic attention is paid on this issue to tackle language anxiety and thereby improve students‟ proficiency in English. What more, over the last decades, a great body of studies has been conducted on language anxiety in foreign language and second/ foreign language learning in general (Scovel, 1978; Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c; etc.) and in foreign language speaking skill in particular (Woodrow, 2006; Liu, 2009; Lu & Liu, 2011; Ozturk & Gurbuz, 2014; Salem & Dyiar, 2014). However, contrary to what is happening abroad, fewer studies in Vietnam have been conducted and acknowledged the effects of anxiety on foreign language learning. Only some empirical studies have touched on the sources of anxiety (Tran et al., 2013, Nguyen, 2014), and none of them has focused on the English-majored students of Thai Nguyen university. Obviously, as a teacher at Thai Nguyen University, the researcher observes that students who are majoring in English usually experience the feelings of frustration, pressure, and nervousness during some English classes. Most of them are reluctant to participate in classroom tasks, especially in English speaking activities. All of above issues have strongly aroused the researcher‟s interest and motivated her to conduct the research entitled “An investigation into speaking-in-class anxiety of English-majored students: The case of the second-year students at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen university”. 2
2. Aims and objectives of the study The present study aims to investigate speaking-in-class anxiety with the main focus on the second-year English-majored students at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen university. The specific objectives of the present study are: - To examine the levels of speaking-in-class anxiety experienced by the second-year English-majored students at School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University. - To investigate the types of in-class activities which cause the most anxiety to students and which reduce students‟ anxiety. - To suggest what teachers‟ behaviors and characteristics can reduce students‟ anxiety in English speaking classroom. The three research questions this study aims to address are as follows: 1. What levels of anxiety the second-year English-majored students manifest in English speaking classrooms? 2. What in-class activities provoke or reduce students’ anxiety in English speaking classrooms? 3. What teachers’ behaviors and characteristics are helpful to reduce students’ anxiety in speaking English? 3. Scope of the study Foreign language anxiety exists in the process of learning all four skills, i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). However, within the limitation of the scope of this study, only students‟ in-class speaking anxiety is focused. Besides, this study only involves the second-year English-majored students of two Programs (namely English Education and English Language) at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen university. 3
4. Significance of the study This present study has important pedagogical implications because indentifying the level of students‟ speaking-in-class anxiety and causes contributing to students‟ speaking anxiety in classroom leads to a more comfortable learning environment for students, and this in turn can improve students‟ language learning. In addition, the results from this study can help Vietnamese teachers and undergraduate students become aware of the nature of foreign language speaking anxiety, and thus, it can let them know how to reduce English speaking anxiety and to increase students‟ English speaking proficiency in classroom by using appropriate learning countermeasures. In addition, the fingdings from this study will shed a light on the utility of language learning activities in the foreign language classroom, helping teachers in providing comfortable and supportive environments for their students where they are able to succeed as language learners. 5. Methodology In order to answer three research questions, the study involved mainly quantitative methodology; specifically, the author conducted survey questionnaires in which different parts will aim at answering the three research questions. The survey was conducted on the population of the second-year English-majored students at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen university. The detail of the methodology applied in the study is discussed in Chapter 2 of Part B. 6. Design of the study This research consists of three main parts: - PART A, INTRODUCTION, gives a brief overview of the study including the rationale, aims and objectives, research methodology, scope, significance and design of the study. 4
- PART B, DEVELOPMENT, is sub-divided into three chapters. Chapter 1, Literature Review, presents the review of literature and a critical analysis on the previous researches in the same field. Chapter 2, Research Methodology, disccuses the methodology used in the study including the context of the study, the population information, instrumentation, data collection procedure and data analysis. Chapter 3, Results and Discussion, reports an analysis of the data and presentation of the findings. - PART C, CONCLUSION, records a summary of the findings, a conclusion, implications for practice, limitations of the study followed by recommendations for further research. - References and Appendices are attached at the end of the thesis. 5
PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW The purpose of this chapter is to present a review of the literature related to the present study. It begins with the review of the concept of anxiety and types of anxiety. This is followed by the discussion of foreign language anxiety, in which definition, models, manifestation and measurement of foreign language anxiety are the focus. Then, a close picture of foreign language speaking anxiety is analyzed with its definition, sources, and techniques to reduce. The chapter ends with the discussion and analysis of previous studies in relation to the present study. 1.1. Definition of anxiety The conceptions of anxiety have been attacked long ago by many behavioral researchers, particularly psychologists. Darwin (1872, cited in Byrne, 1990: 74) was among the first to systematically address the definition of anxiety. In his book named The Expressions of the Emotions in Mans and Animals, he considered anxiety to be an inherent and adaptive characteristic of both humans and animals that has evolved over countless generations through a process of natural selection. He also observed that anxiety varied in intensity from mild apprehension or surprise, to an extreme “agony of terror”. Freud (1895, cited in Spielberger and Rickman, 1990:74) describes anxiety as “something felt” – an unpleasant affective (emotional) state or condition that was characterized by subjective feelings of chronic apprehesion and “all that is covered by the word „nervousness‟. Similarly, Calvin (1955) defines anxiety as a painful emotional experience which is produced by excitations in the internal organs of the body. These excitations results from internal or external stimulation and are governed by the autonmic nervous system. Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope (1986) give another 6
definition of anxiety which is “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of autonomic nervous system” (p.125). Spielberger & Rickman, in Anxiety and the Heart (1990) also refers anxiety as an unpleasant feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry, and activation of the autonomic nervous system. According to them, the physiological manifestations in anxiety generally include increased blood pressure; rapid heart rate; sweating; dryness of the mouth; nausea; vertigo (diziness); irregularities in breathing; muscle tension; and muscular-skeletal disturbances such as restless, tremors, and feelings of weakness. Clearly, even though we all know what anxiety is and we all have experienced feelings of anxiousness, anxiety is still not easy to be defined in a simple sentence or in a single manner. Therefore, Rachman (2004), a clinical psychologist, presents one of the most complete and useful descriptions of anxiety. According to Rachman (2004:3), anxiety is the tense, unsettling anticipation of a threat, a feeling of suspended uneasiness. It is clearly distinguished from fear in terms of its “causes, duration, and maintainance”, although in general anxiety and fear are considered to be similar to each other. Anxiety is diffuse, objectless, unpleasant, and persistent. Fear, on the other hand, is specific, episodic, and reduced when the danger is removed. In other words, anxiety can be felt constantly and often with no specific reason, while fear is felt only while a specific negative situation pervails. To sum up, anxiety has been discussed for many years in a variety of fields and these discussions show that anxiety has been essential for almost all areas to understand human behaviors, emotions, and physical and mental conditions. Within the scope of the thesis, Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope‟s approach is adopted. 7
1.2. Types of anxiety Generally, anxiety is categorized into two kinds: state anxiety and trait anxiety. This distinction, first put forward by Cattell and Scheier (1960), was then firmly established by Spielberger et al. (1970) with the development of a measurement scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. State anxiety, according to Spielberger (1966, cited in Deyuan, 2011: 13), is defined as “an immediate, transitory emotional state of subjective, conscious feelings of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system in response to a particular stimulus such as giving a speech or taking an examination”. Trait anxiety, in contrast, is viewed as “an inherent personality characteristic” or “a relatively stable tendency to exhibit anxiety in a large variety of circumstances” (Phillips, 1992: 14). In other words, individuals who are more anxious and more likely to become anxious regardless of situations are referred to as having trait anxiety. A strong correlation between state and trait anxiety has been claimed in the literature, which means that people having trait anxiety are more likely to have state anxiety (Aydin, 2001). Particularly, individuals with high levels of trait anxiety are expected to show greater evaluations of state anxiety in stressful situations. However, MacIntyre and Gardner (1991c) stated that people who have the same trait anxiety scores may react differently in different situations. In their study, for example, two subjects having the same trait anxiety scores were compared in terms of their responses to the social situations given in the subscales of the fictitious trait anxiety scale. The situations were written tests or exams, novel situations and dangerous circumstances. It was found that the first subject did not feel anxious in written exams, but felt nervous in social situations. In contrast, the second 8
subject felt anxious in written exams but did not feel anxious in social situations. For novel and dangerous situations, they had the same score. Another distinction is made between two other types of anxiety: facilitating and debilitating anxiety. These types of anxiety refer to the effects that anxiety has on learning process, showing whether anxiety improves or impairs performance. Facilitating anxiety, first proposed by Alpert and Haber (1960, cited in Sellers, 2000), is stated to influence the learner in a positive, motivating way and is described as enthusiasm before a challenging task. According to Scovel (1978), this type of anxiety “motivates the leaner to „fight‟ the new learning task; it gears the learner emotionally for approach behavior” (p.136). In addition, Krashen (cited in Young, 1992) believes that facilitative anxiety has a positive effect on language learning, but only on tasks that require concious learning, not on language acquisition. Language acquisition, in his opinion, works best when anxiety is zero, when it is directed somewhere else, not on language. In other words, in order to acquire language, the person has to assume that s/he will be successful. Debilitating anxiety, on the other hand, includes the unpleasant feelings, such as worry and dread that interfere with the learning process. It “motivates the learner to „flee‟ the new learning task; it stimulates the individual emotionally to adopt avoidance behavior” (Scovel, 1978: 139). Therefore, it is called the “bad” type of anixety in the literature. According to Allwright & Bailey (1991), to work with a relaxed concentration and to achieve success, learners should minimize the sources of debilitating anxiety by optimizing the sources of facilitating anxiety. They believe that when success is guaranteed in the people‟s mind, when there is no reason to be anxious at all, they may not produce the best. If success is not 9