VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
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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
i
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
ii
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
iii
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.