Nghiên cứu về sự lo lắng trong lớp học nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ nhất trường Đại học Sư phạm Kỹ thuật Hưng Yên

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES HOÀNG THỊ HUYỀN A STUDY ON ANXIETY IN SPEAKING CLASS OF THE 1 ST YEAR NON- ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

HOÀNG THỊ HUYỀN

A STUDY ON ANXIETY IN SPEAKING CLASS OF THE 1 ST YEAR NON- ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF

EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY

( NGHIªN CỨU VỀ SỰ LO LẮNG TRONG LỚP HỌC NãI TIẾNG ANH

C ỦA SINH VIªN KH«NG CHUYªN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC

SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YªN)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Methodology Code : 601410

Hanoi, 2010

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

HOÀNG THỊ HUYỀN

A STUDY ON ANXIETY IN SPEAKING CLASS OF THE 1 ST YEAR NON- ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF

EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY

( NGHIªN CỨU VỀ SỰ LO LẮNG TRONG LỚP HỌC NãI TIẾNG ANH

C ỦA SINH VIªN KH«NG CHUYªN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC

SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YªN)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Methodology

Supervisor : PH¹M THÞ H¹NH, M.A

Hanoi, 2010

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale……… 1

2 Aims of the study……….1

3 Scope of the study………2

4 Methods of the study………2

5 Design of the study……… 2

PART TWO: THE STUDY……… 4

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW……….4

1 Theoretical background of anxiety……… 4

Definition of anxiety……… 4

Types of anxiety……… 5

Foreign language anxiety………5

Sources of foreign language anxiety……… 6

1.4.1 Subjective factors……… 7

1.4.2 Objective factors……… 8

Effect of anxiety on learning……… 9

Components of foreign language anxiety……….10

1.6.1 Communication apprehension ……… 10

1.6.2 Fear of negative evaluation………11

1.6.3 Test anxiety………11

2 Theoretical background of speaking activities ……… 12

Concepts of speaking activities………12

Roles of speaking activities……… 12

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY……… 14

1 The context…… ……… 14

2 The informants……… 14

3 The instruments……… 15

Survey questionnaire……… 16

Semi-structured interview……… 17

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS……… 19

1 Level of speaking anxiety experinced by UTEHY non- English major freshmen …… 19

Communication anxiety……… 19

Fear of negative evaluation……… 21

Subjective factors……… 24

Objective factors……… 27

CHAPTER IV: SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS……… 30

1 Recommendations for the teachers……… 30

2 Recommendations for the students……… 32

PART THREE: CONCLUSION………35

1 Summary of the study………35

2 Limitations of the study……… 35

3 Recommendations for further research……… 36

REFERENCES I APPENDIXES……… III

FLA: Foreign Language Acquisition

FLCAS: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale

FL: Foreign Language

UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Education and Technology

Table 1: Criteria to identify groups of FLA levels

Table 2: Level of speaking anxiety experinced by UTEHY non- English major freshmen

Table 3:Level of communication anxiety experinced by UTEHY non- English major freshmen

Table 4: : Level of fear of negative evaluation experinced by UTEHY non- English major freshmen

Table 5: Level of test anxiety experinced by UTEHY non- English major freshmen

PART ONE- INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale:

Since the open policy was carried out in Vietnam, English has become a useful and indispensable means for the integration of our country into the world community Learning English becomes a great necessity for Vietnamese people Especially, learning speaking gains

a great stature as the need of communication is paid much more attention

The result of learning a language, though, is determined and affected by a number of factors It

is believed that there are some emotional factors in foreign language learning which affect our learning abilities These are mainly thought to be intelligence, motivation, attitudes and anxiety Among these, anxiety stands out as one of the major influential factors for effective language learning This foreign language anxiety is defined by some authors as “a feeling of tension, apprehension and nervousness associated with the situation of learning a foreign language.”(Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986, p.125)

In fact, in speaking lesson in Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, students are usually reluctant to take part in class activities Speaking tasks often take place in silence Some students may be very good at writing or reading English but they fail to speak English fluently and naturally Some students state that they cannot find words to say And some say that they do not like speaking in class Some frankly admit that they feel nervous and anxious when speaking

Learning English in Vietnam has gained a considerable achievement However, learning speaking skill in Vietnam is not really efficient in comparison with other developed contries While a certain amount of research has been conducted to investigate the nature of anxiety in second and foreign language learning, little has been done on anxiety in learning speaking skill alone in Vietnam As a teacher of English, therefore, I decided to conduct research on the

topic: “ A study on anxiety in Speaking class of the 1st year non-English major students

at Hung Yen University of Education and Technology”

2 Aims and objectives of the study:

The study is aimed at anxieties encountered by the first year non English major students in Economic Department, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, and then finding some possible techniques for dealing with students’ anxiety in speaking class To help the students overcome such difficulties, the specific objectives of the study are:

- to identify the anxiety and point out factors affecting students’ anxiety in learning speaking skill

- to suggest some realistic and appropriate pedagogical implications to improve students’ ability to cope with anxiety in learning speaking skill

3 Scope of the study:

There are many types of anxiety However, this study only focuses on anxiety of speaking skill for the First Year Non English majors at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education This study is claimed to be an overview of current situations of the first year non English majors when learning speaking skill and some suggestions for students to cope with anxiety in speaking class as well as techniques for the teachers to improve their teaching methods of speaking skills

4 Methods of the study:

The study will be conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods with questionnaires for informants of one class of about 30 first- year non majors of English and 15 teachers at the University of Technology and Education in Hung Yen- Department of foreign languages In addition to the questionnaire, informal interviews with the informants and their teachers and personal observation will also be employed

5 Design of the study:

The study consists of three parts:

Part A, introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methods and the design

of the study

Part B, development, consists of 3 chapters

+ Chapter I - Literature Review – provides the basic theoretical background from literature

on anxiety such as definition, types of anxiety; and speaking activities Especially, the effect and possible causes of anxiety, which are the main issues of the study, are discussed thoroughly in this chapter

+ Chapter II - Practical Research – provides an analysis on the current situation of teaching

and learning speaking skill and reports the results of the survey research which are carried out

at the beginning of the third term of the 2009- 2010 academic year at the foreign language department, UTEHY The report includes the following information

 research questions

 context

 informants

 questionnaires and procedures

 data analysis and findings

 suggested solutions

+ Chapter III – Implications for teaching and learning speaking skill– focuses on anxieties

facing students in learning speaking skill and suggested techniques and activities for the teachers to improve their teaching, suggested solutions for students to reduce and cope with anxieties facing them in speaking classes

Part C, conclusion, summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and

suggestions for further study

PART TWO- THE STUDY CHAPTER I- LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Theoretical background of anxiety:

1.1 Definition of anxiety:

There has been a variety of studies carried out on anxiety Anxiety is “the subjective feeling of

tension, comprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of autonomic nervous system” (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986, p.125) Or “the worry and negative emotional reaction aroused when learning a second language” (MacIntyre, 1999, p.27)

Second language anxiety is defined here a distinct complex of self- perception, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to using a foreign/ second language for communication beyond class language

They identified three related anxieties as components of foreign language anxiety: communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation

In addition “Anxiety is a psychological construct, commonly described by psychologists as a state of apprehension, a vague fear that is only indirectly associated with an object” (Hilgard, Atkinson, & Atkinson, 1971 cited in Scovel, 1991:18)

Anxiety, as perceived intuitively by many language learners, negatively influences language learning and has been found to be one of the most highly examined variables in all of psychology and education ( adapted from Horwitz, 2001:113)

To sum up, anxiety is a feeling of tension, apprehension and nervousness associated with the situation of learning a foreign language In general, it can have physical, emotional, and behavioral manifestations and these manifestations can differ with each individual

1.2 Types of anxiety:

Usually anxiety is classified into trait anxiety, state anxiety and situation-specific anxiety

Trait anxiety, as Scovel (1978) noted, refers to “a more permanent predisposition to be

anxious” while state and situation-specific anxiety are usually experienced in relation to some

particular event or situation (Brown, 2001) Language anxiety, the research target of this

paper, belongs to the latter category, which refers to the apprehension experienced when a

situation requires the use of a second language with which the individual is not fully proficient

(Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993)

1.3 Foreign language anxiety: (quoted by Dr Anna Krinis ( 2007))

1 Language anxiety has been defined as a specific-situation anxiety experience by students

in the process of learning and / or using a foreign or second language

2 A specific-situation anxiety is an anxiety that arises from a specific-situation such as

flying in an airplane, giving a speech, dealings with math, taking tests, as opposed to a

trait anxiety which is a permanent part of a person’s personality

3 Horwitz et al (1986) say that, “We conceive foreign language anxiety as a distinct

complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom

language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process”

4 In addition to the definition, it is important to point out that anxiety can be both

facilitating – a positive factor assisting people towards success – and debilitating – a

negative factor, blocking or preventing people from success

5 Speaking in the foreign / second language has been cited in the literature as the greatest

source of anxiety, followed by listening, as opposed to reading and writing

6 Anxiety, in general, can have physical, emotional, and behavioral manifestations and these manifestations can differ with each individual

In addition to these types of foreign language anxiety above, there is a version of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) that was designed by Horwitz (1986) to measure the level of foreign language anxiety in class This questionnaire consists of 33 statements, of which 8 items were for communication anxiety (1, 9, 14, 18, 24, 27, 29, 32), 9 items for fear of negative evaluation (3, 7, 13, 15, 20, 23, 25, 31, 33) and 5 items for test anxiety (2, 8, 10, 19, 21) As for the remaining 11 items, they were put in a group which was named anxiety of English classes The respondents were asked to rate each item on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“strong disagreement”) to 5 (“strong agreement”) The higher the score, the higher the anxiety level And this is claimed to be the theoretical background for all the findings of the research

1 4 Sources of foreign language anxiety:

As cited in Young, 1992; Crookall and Oxford, 1991;Horwitz and Young, 1991; Price, 1991; McCoy 1979, there are a variety of views and suggestions put forth concerning the causes of foreign language anxiety as follow:

 Inability to learn another language

 Inability to pronounce strange sounds and words

 Not knowing the meaning of words and sentences

 Inability to understand and answer questions in the new language

 The reputation of language classes for failure and poor grades

 Peer derision and criticism

 Not knowing or understanding the goals and requirements of the course

 The teacher in general – native-speaker teachers especially

 Testing, especially the oral part

 Previous unsuccessful language learning attempts

 Encountering different cultural values and customs

 Speaking the non-native language in front of peers

 Personality variables such as perfectionism

 Stressful classroom experiences such as, criticizing student’s accents, shouting, and making “classroom time a performance rather than a time for learning.”

 Student’s beliefs as in some following self-defeating statements: “My language skills are weaker than those of my peers”; “I am not doing a good job and everyone is looking down

at me”; “learning a language requires a special aptitude and I don’t have it”; and “I should have done better if only I had worked a little harder”

 An emphasis on grammar versus meaning

 The cause of language anxiety varying according to the cultural group

To sum up, there are many factors causing language anxiety, especially in speaking skill but in this study I divide into two main kinds including subjective factors and objective factors

1.4.1 Subjective factors

Subjective factors are the factors relating to learners They involve the factors like learners’ preferences, attitudes, beliefs and intelligence and attitude which are considered to play much greater important roles in motivating students in foreign language learning

Learners’ preferences: refer to learning style describing an individual’s natural, habitual and

preferred ways of absorbing, processing and retaining new information and skill (Reid 1995) Learners’ preferences for learning will influence the kinds of strategies they choose to learn new materials

Learners’ attitudes: Learners’ attitudes may involve the attitudes towards the target language;

the people in the community speaking that language, the language teacher, the foreign language course For example, if the learners have the favorable attitude toward native speakers of the language and have a hope of contacting with them, they will be motivated to learn that language

Learners’ beliefs: According to Ellis.R (1994) learners’ beliefs are usually based on previous

learning experiences and they are also likely influenced by general factors such as personality and cognitive styles Learners have their own strong beliefs in the way to learn the language and achieve target language successfully For instance, some students think learning in a natural way by practicing, trying to think in English or living and studying in an environment where English is spoken is the best way, while some believe they should learn about the language like vocabulary, grammar, etc Therefore, students’ beliefs decide their ways and goals of learning

Learners’ intelligence and ability: refer to the abilities or innate factors It consists of

students’ ability to identify and memorize new sounds, words and structures; ability to understand the function of particular words and grammatical rules, especially in speaking skill- it is ability to speak with accuracy and fluency

1.4.2 Objective factors:

Objective factors involve factors relating to the teachers and learning conditions

Teachers: According to Dornyei (2001), teachers’ appropriate behaviors, enthusiasms,

expectation, good method of teaching and good relationship with students have a strong importance on the motivation of learners In fact, students will be more interested in the lesson

if they like the teachers and their method of conveying knowledge

Learning conditions: involve physical conditions and classroom atmosphere

Physical conditions include classroom size, chairs, tables, lights, boards and even bulletin boards will affect students’ motivation either positively or negatively

Classroom atmosphere relates to learning environment With a pleasant and supportive atmosphere in the class room learners seem to feel less anxious and less constrained but more secured to take part in learning activities in supportive and cooperative and encouraging atmosphere

1.5 Effect of anxiety on learning:

When exploring the effect of anxiety on learning, an important insight to which it can be referred to is the distinction between debilitative and facilitative anxiety (Alpert and Haber, 1960) There have been some studies which found neutral and positive relationships between anxiety and second language achievement Also, in Bailey’s (1983) study of competitiveness and anxiety, it was found that facilitative anxiety was one of the keys to success, and closely related to competitiveness In Zhang Baoyan’s (1996) study of English learners in Taiwan, the results showed that there was no relationship between anxiety and learning achievement So, from these studies it can be seen that the relationship between anxiety and achievement is probably not a simple linear one It may be influenced by some other factors, such as culture and learners’ proficiency

However, up to now most studies have shown a negative relationship between anxiety and language achievement, that is to say, anxiety is a debilitator in language learning Krashen (1985) once held in his affective filter hypothesis that high anxiety will prevent input that learners receive in the classroom from reaching the language acquisition device Horwitz (1986) also asserted that language anxiety can cause students to postpone language study indefinitely or to change majors MacIntyre and Gardner (1994), based on a study of 97 college students that learn French, concluded that compared with more relaxed learners, those with anxiety find it more difficult to express their own views and tend to underestimate their own abilities They also found that in the three stages of language acquisition, that is, input, processing and output, anxiety and learning achievement are negatively correlated Moreover, there have also been some studies conducted to find the negative correlation between anxiety

and four aspects of language learning, especially speaking and listening For example, MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) found that speaking is by far the main agent of anxiety-arousal, and that students with high anxiety perform worse than those with low anxiety

Bailey (1983) attributed the cause of FLA to competitiveness by analyzing diaries of 11 learners and finding that they tended to become anxious when comparing with the other learners who were more proficient, those who in turn perceived themselves more confident and therefore better able to compete and reduce their nervousness

Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) stated that anxious students often cite speaking in the foreign language learning to be their most anxiety –producing experience They are put in a position of communicating with someone without having sufficient command of the language

Such feelings of apprehension that second language communicative contexts induce are often accompanied with the fear of negative evaluation from the others Watson and Friend (1969) characterize it as apprehension of the others’ evaluation, avoidance of evaluative situations and the expectation that the others would evaluate oneself negatively (p 448-51) Even in

small group class discussion, some of the students may fear anxious of negative evaluation from the peers, possibly ending up being silent and reticent, contrary to their initial intention

to participate Such psychological dilemmas of L2 learners between willingness to speak up in the classroom and the fear of losing self- esteem in front of the others, thus, seems to be quite ubiquitous phenomenon in second language classroom settings ( Bailey, 1983; Cohen & Norst, 1989)

1.6.2 Fear of negative evaluation:

As Brendal (1987) notes, the learners’ fear of being negatively evaluated in the classroom can

be further intensified when the instructors believe that their primary role is constantly correct students’ errors more like a drill sergeant than that of the facilitator Although many learners feel that some errors are necessary (Koch & Terrell, 1991; Horwitz, 1988), the manner of error correction are often cited as potentially provoking anxiety in students As Young (1991 p 429) argues, thus, students are more concern about how (i.e where, what, when, how often) their mistakes are corrected rather than whether error correction could be administered in class In this sense, instructor beliefs about language teaching can also become a source of creating anxiety of second language learners, because the teachers’ assumptionof their role in language classroom may not always correspond to the individually different needs or expectations that the students would hold toward their teachers

1.6.3 Test anxiety:

With respect to test anxiety, many of the learners feel more pressure when asked to perform in second language classroom, because they are doubly challenged by the fact that they need to recall and coordinate grammar points at the same time during the limited test period As a result, they may put down the wrong answers or simple “freeze up” due to nervousness, even

if they know the correct answer (Price, 1991; McIntyre & Gardner, 1994)

Test anxiety as explained by Horwitz et al (1986) “refer to a type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure” Test anxiety is a quite pervasive phenomenon in the language classroom, especially among highly anxious students because of the continual evaluation from the language teachers Moreover, it is obvious that oral testing which is widely applied in almost universities can provoke potentially both test and communication anxiety simultaneously in susceptible students

2 Theoretical background of speaking activities:

2.1 Concepts of speaking activities:

Speaking activities are said to be a priority for most of the second language learners The ability to communicate in foreign language fluently and effectively contribites to the success

of learners in school and in every stage of their lives Learners often evaluate their effectiveness and proficiency of second language learning based on how well they have improved in their speaking skill In school, this skill is paid much attention by the teachers via their design of speaking activities on oral presentation, working in groups/ pairs, role- play and

so on to get the engagement of students and to improve students’ ability to speak

Theoretically speaking, speaking is oral expression and it is a complicated skill as it “

involves not only the use of the right sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning.”(Bygate)

In Brown’s opinions “speaking is spoken language consists of short, fragmentary utterance, in

a range of pronunciation There is often a great deal of repetition and overlap between one speaker and another, and speaker use non-specific references.”

2.2: Roles of speaking activities:

To put it more clearly, speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode There are three kinds

of speaking situations: Interactive, partially interactive and non-interactive

Interactive speaking situation includes face-to-face conversation and telephone calls, in which

we are alternately listening and speaking, and in which we have chance to ask for clarification, repetition, or slow speech from our conversation partner

Partially interactive speaking situation is the type of speaking when a person gives a speech to

a live audience, where the convention is that the audience does not interrupt the speech However, the speaker can see the audience and judge from the expression on their faces and body language whether or not he or she is being understood

Meanwhile, some speaking situations can be non-interactive such as when recording a speech for a radio broadcast, or TV news report

In foreign language learning, speaking skill is considered an utmost important among the four language skills as it helps to identify who knows or does not know a language Pattison (1992) states that when people mention knowing or learning a language, it means being able to speak the language

This paper attempts to further explore the identification of foreign language anxiety as well as the factors affecting foreign language anxiety in speaking skill as a conceptually distinct variable in foreign language learning in a certain setting of one improvement class in their third semester of Economics Department at UTEHY The symptoms and consequences as well

as the ways to reduce students’ anxiety will thus be taken into consideration to those concerned with language learning and teaching

CHAPTER II- METHODOLOGY

1 The context:

The study was conducted at UTEHY All students at this university are required to complete three semesters of English as part of their general education requirements In these three semesters, students finish the General English program, which accounts for nine credits

There are two main streams at UTEHY: English for Economics and English for Technics The former follows a curriculum which provides students with the improvement of the all four macro- skills including speaking, listening, writing and reading and lays greater emphasis on oral communication- that is listening and speaking skill Their textbook is Market Leader from Elementary to Intermediate, while the latter uses the curriculum which focuses mainly on developing reading and listening skills Their textbook is TOEIC and it also ranges from Very Easy TOEIC to Developing TOEIC according to the difficulty level The total time allocation for both per semester is 66 class periods ( 45 munites each) However, the students of the former is considered to be better at English than the latter as English is their major subject at high school and they even take English university entrance exam test before they enter to this university Therefore, they are expected to have a higher level of English proficency and more job opportunities after graduation

At the moment, there are 450 students in Economics Department at this University Their levels of English proficiency differ, ranging from elementary, pre-intermediate and intermediate Motivation in these classes is generally high since most of the students have strong sense of learning and clear purposes before registering for this Department However, they have many difficulties in learning four language skills, of which speaking seems to be the most difficult and anxiety- provoking one

2 The informants:

The students: The study was conducted in 30 students (6 male and 24 female freshmen) of one

improvement class of 44 students in their third semester This semester is newly set up for the purpose of students’ score improvement These students were chosen as participants of the study for their levels of FLA are observed to be higher compared with that of their peers based on their scores they got in the first two semesters The participants’ age ranging from 18

to 21 All of them had been learning English at least 3 years

The teachers: Totally, there are 32 teachers in English Department at UTEHY 15 of them (12

females and 3 males) are chosen as participants of the study as they speacilize in English major students and they have some time teaching non- major English freshmen of Economics Department

Regarding qualification: All of them graduated from CFL, HNU Five of them have B.A in

English, four of them are doing their post graduates studies in CFL, five of them have M.A degree in English, one is going to England to do the PhD in July

Regarding age and teaching experience: One is in her mid forties with nearly 20 years of

teaching experience, five others are in their early thirties with 7 or eights years of teaching experience, the last nine aged from 24- 28 with at least two years of teaching experience

To design the questions in the questionnaire and make them valid, a pilot was done before with the participation of all 15 teachers and after collecting their contributive ideas, the final one was made (appendix 2) with 9 questions totally in the light of gaining the information of their teaching experiences about students’ speaking anxiety, how to deal with and how to motivate students in speaking class

3 The instruments:

In the first phase, questionnaires were administered to 30 UTEHY freshmen and 15 teachers

of the English Department at the end of the second semester of the academic year 2009- 2010 The students were asked to complete the questionnaires at home and returned their responses two days later so that they would have as much time as they needed The teachers were asked

to complete the questionnaires any time and all of them did it in only 20 munites since they experience this type of anxiety very well

After the data collected were analyzed, in the second phase, 5 highly anxious students were contacted for semi- structured interviews with the researcher in locations they felt at ease and

at time they suggested

3.1 Survey questionnaires:

The first data collection instrument is quantitative questionnaire (appendix 1 and 2) which served three main purposes: 1) to ascertain if the students under investigation experienced speaking anxiety; 2) to get the teachers’ experiences of students’ matter of anxiety and their reccommendations for reducing students’ anxiety and 3) to identify the participants for the follow- up interview in phase two Both questionnaire were designed to consist of two parts Part one is obtaining some general information of the subjects including their name, age, their time length of studying (for students) and teaching (for teachers) English In part two of appendix 1, 18 items were fomulated on the basis of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) ( appendix 4) to access the degree to which the learners felt anxious in English speaking classes More specifically, to measure the level of communication apprehension, items from 1 to 7 were respectively reconstructed from items 1-9-24-15-12-16-26 of the FLCAS To investigate students’ fear of negative evaluation, items from 8 to 17 were modified from items 3-7-13-15-20-23-25-31-33-19 respectively of FLCAS And to investigate students’ fear of test, item 18 was editted from item 21 of FLCAS In part 2 of appendix 2, there are 9 questions designed to obtain teachers’ teaching experiences of the way how to deal with and how to motivate or to reduce their students’ speaking anxiety

In the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to express agreement or disagreement to each item on a five-point Likert response scale Each degree of agreement was given a numerical value: “strongly disagree” scored at one point, “ disagree”- two points, “partly disagree”- 3

points, “agree”-4 points and “strongly agree”- five points Those who responded “agree” or

“strongly agree” were assumed to have a high level of FLA (H) so highly- anxious students could have a minimum FLA score of 76 points (4 points x 18 items = 72) On the contrary, since “disagree” was assigned 2 points, those who reported having a low level of FLA (L) could have a maximum score of FLA of 38 ( 2 points x 18 items = 36) Accordingly, those whose total score of FLA fell between 37 and 71 were assumed to have an average level of FLA (A) (see table 1)

Table 1: Criteria to identify groups of FLA levels:

Regarding to the structure designed, there are three parts of the interview For the first part, 3 general questions relating to the subjects’ experience of anxiety were built The purposes of this part were two fold: to establish a rapport with the interviewees and to make sure again they had ever experienced the feelings of anxiety before The second part with 7 questions focuses on the factors of anxiety in speaking classes Specifically, to explore source of anxiety associated with the subjective factors, questions 4 and 5 were edited Questions 6, 7, 8 and 9 attempt to explore the source of anxiety associated with the objective factors Finally, to get

recommendations for alleviating speaking anxiety concerning both sides of teachers and students, question 10 is designed

The interviews were tape-recorded to free the interviewer to participate naturally in the discussion and to allow the content to be reviewed in details In addition, in order to capture the complexities of the respondent’s individual perceptions and experience, the five interviews were conducted in Vietnamese At the beginning of the interview, the students were explained clearly about the nature of the study During the interview, the researcher modified the questions and procedures according to the subjects’ responses The length of each interview was 25- 30 minutes

CHAPTER III- DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

1 Level of speaking anxiety experinced by UTEHY non- English major freshmen

In order to verify whether the anxiety does exist among the first year non- English major students in UTEHY, the total speaking anxiety score of 30 participants in this study was summed and averaged The full detail of the level is provided in table 2 below:

Table 2: Level of speaking anxiety experinced by UTEHY non- English major freshmen

Speaking anxiety In UTEHY non- English

surveyed in the study

Furthermore, to get more insights into the degree to which the participants felt anxious in English speaking classes, the questionnaire items were analyzed to explore the three possible causes of learning anxiety, which will be presented below:

1.1 Communication anxiety:

As being noted in section 3.1, items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were designed to measure the level

of communication anxiety Responses to these items are presented in table 3

Table 3: Level of communication anxiety experinced by UTEHY non- English major freshmen

1 Tôi chưa bao giờ cảm thấy an

tâm khi nói tiếng Anh trước lớp

4 Tôi thấy lo sợ vì không hiểu từ

nào khi cô giáo chữa bài

5.Trong lớp học nói, tôi hay lo lắng

đến nỗi quên mọi thứ mà tôi từng

biết

6 Ngay cả khi tôi chuẩn bị kỹ

lưỡng thì tôi vẫn thấy lo lắng

7 Trong lớp học nói tôi lại thấy lo

lắng hơn so với các môn khác

Apart from the most outstanding mean number showing the highest level of anxiety (3.9 in statement 1) as being shown in the table, that is the common feelings from students in speaking class, the most significant thing needed to mention here is the feeling of anxiety when not being well prepared before going to speaking class (statement 2), which accounts for the mean of 3.7 and it attracts 64% of the responses of “agree” The next highest average level

of anxiety (3.6) was obtained from statement 6 with 56% of the subjects showing their agreement of being worried even when they are well prepared These two things show clearly