Trang 1 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITYNGUYEN TRUONG THUY TRANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO POTENTIAL FACTORS LEADING TO EFL STUDENTS’ ANXIETY AND THEIR COPING STRATEGIE
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYEN TRUONG THUY TRANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO POTENTIAL FACTORS LEADING TO EFL STUDENTS’ ANXIETY AND THEIR COPING STRATEGIES WHEN GIVING IN-CLASS ORAL PRESENTATION AT TUY PHUOC NO 3 HIGH SCHOOL MASTER THESIS OF THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Binh Dinh – 2023 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN TRƯƠNG THÙY TRANG KHẢO SÁT NHÂN TỐ GÂY LO LẮNG Ở HỌC SINH EFL KHI THUYẾT TRÌNH TRÊN LỚP TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG SỐ 3 TUY PHƯỚC VÀ CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỐI PHÓ ĐƯỢC HỌC SINH SỬ DỤNG Ngành : Lý luận và Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh Mã số : 8140111 Người hướng dẫn: Tiến sĩ NGUYỄN TIẾN PHÙNG i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the work I completed for my Master of Arts thesis, "AN INVESTIGATION INTO POTENTIAL FACTORS LEADING TO EFL STUDENTS’ ANXIETY AND THEIR COPING STRATEGIES WHEN GIVING IN-CLASS ORAL PRESENTATION AT TUY PHUOC NO 3 HIGH SCHOOL," was entirely original and under the supervision of Quy Nhon University lecturer Dr Nguyen Tien Phung Besides, I have not turned in this thesis to any other university or college for any other degree Additionally, I confirm that this thesis does not contain any previously written or published works, with the exception of those that are specifically referenced in the thesis Author’s signature Nguyễn Trương Thùy Trang ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I sincerely thank my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Tien Phung, for being an inspiration and guidance for the majority of my graduate work The accomplishment of my M.A thesis has been greatly aided by his insightful counsel, insightful criticism, patient assistance, and tremendous encouragement Then, I would want to express my gratitude to Quy Nhon University's instructors, lecturers, and professors for their patient and sincere efforts in sharing important information and advice with me during my academic career, especially Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thị Thu Hien Her mentoring together with Dr Phung's passionate support inspired me a lot and pushed me to continue pursuing this study issue, even if doing such unusual research has its initial challenges This project would not be where it is now if not for the patient consideration of these two thoughtful people Moreover, it is inevitable that many other writers' thoughts in this topic will be reflected and expanded in the thesis Their concepts have prompted me to consider writing this paper I am also deeply indebted to the writers cited in the references I shall always be grateful to each and every one of these scholars I shall always be indebted to all of these scholars In addition, I really appreciate the all the teachers and students at Tuy Phuoc No 3 High School, whom I chose to be the research's target subjects, for their enthusiastic support, collaboration, and significant assistance during the research process Finally, I would want to thank my wonderful family, friends, and coworkers for their unwavering belief in me, support during the writing of my thesis, and overall greatness They will always be a tremendous source of inspiration and support I also dedicate this work to my parents, who have always supported my lifelong pursuit of knowledge iii ABSTRACT Foreign language learning anxiety has been extensively explored and investigated in English as a Foreign Language situations However, there has been little research conducted in Vietnamese settings on this issue, particularly anxiety about oral tasks in English classes The current study looked at foreign language anxiety in EFL students at Tuy Phuoc No 3 High School It attempted to uncover potential factors that may contribute to EFL students' anxiety during in-class English oral presentations, as well as the strategies that they utilized to deal with such anxiety To pursuit this aim, this study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods Classroom observations were combined with questionnaires distributed to 40 EFL high school students, followed by semi-structured interviews with six of these 40 students The study's questionnaires and interviews found that internal factors from participants and environmental factors from their physical environments are two major sources of anxiety among students At the same time, the results of analyzing observation and interview data revealed that the students utilized two types of strategies to minimize their anxiety, namely short-term coping strategies and long-term coping strategies Based on the study's findings, many suggestions are recommended for English teachers as well as learners, which can be useful in helping students avoid negative speaking habits and produce successful presentation performances However, anxiety in in-class oral tasks is regarded as multifaceted and complicated, and hence still requires further investigation iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .vii LIST OF TABLES viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 RATIONALE 1 1.2 RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 2 1.2.1 Research aim 2 1.2.2 Research objectives 2 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY .3 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .3 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 4 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.1 ANXIETY 5 2.1.1 Definition of anxiety 5 2.1.2 Types of anxiety 5 2.1.3 Foreign language anxiety 6 2.1.4 Foreign language speaking anxiety 9 2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF ORAL PRESENTATION 9 2.2.1 Concepts of speaking activities 9 2.2.2 In – class oral presentation as a speaking activity 10 2.2.3 Components of speaking for assessment 11 2.3 FACTORS CAUSING FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY IN PRESENTATION 11 2.4 STRATEGIES FOR COPING WITH IN-CLASS ORAL PRESENTATION ANXIETY 17 2.4.1 Short-term coping strategies 18 2.4.2 Long-term coping strategies 18 v 2.5 PREVIOUS STUDIES 20 2.6 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 2 24 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 25 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN 25 3.2 PARTICIPANTS 25 3.3 RESEARCH SETTING 26 3.4 DATA COLLECTION 27 3.4.1 Questionnaire 27 3.4.2 Observation .30 3.4.3 Interview 31 3.5 DATA ANALYSIS .32 3.5.1 Questionnaire 32 3.5.2 Observation .33 3.5.3 Interview 33 3.6 RESEARCH PROCEDURE .34 3.7 SUMMARY CHAPTER 3 35 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 36 4.1 FINDING OF THE FIRST RESEARCH QUESTION 37 4.1.1 The subjunctive factors 37 4.1.2 The objective factors .43 4.1.3 Concluding remarks 49 4.2 DISCUSSION OF THE FIRST QUESTION 50 4.3 FINDING OF THE SECOND RESEARCH QUESTION .57 4.3.1 Low-anxiety level students’ coping strategies 57 4.3.2 Average-anxiety level students’ coping strategies 58 4.3.3 High-anxiety level students’ coping strategies 59 4.3.4 Concluding remarks 60 4.4 DISCUSSION OF THE SECOND QUESTION 61 4.5 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 4 66 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION .68 vi 5.1 CONCLUSION 68 5.2 PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 70 5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .73 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH .74 REFERENCES 75 APPENDIX 83 EFL vii ESL FLA LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FLCAS English as a Foreign Language L2 English as a Second Language Foreign Language Anxiety Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale Second Language viii LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: The overall Anxiety levels of Tuy Phuoc No 3 High School EFL students 36 Table 4.2: Level of anxiety experienced by the six chosen EFL participants 37 Table 4.3: Participants’ responses toward The factor “Preparation time” 40 Table 4.4: Participants’ responses toward The factor “Fear of making mistakes” 42 Table 4.5: Participants’ responses toward The factor “Audience attention” 44 Table 4.6: Participants’ responses toward The factor “Question section after presentation” .47 Table 4.7: Participants’ responses toward The factor “Teacher’s grading” .49