Learners’ anxiety in speaking lessons at Nguyen Quan Nho upper secondary school Causes and solutions

Learners‟ anxiety in speaking lessons at Nguyen Quan Nho upper secondary school: Causes and solutions Lưu Thị Hồng Sâm Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: Theory and methodology of English teaching Mã số: 60 14 10 Người hướng dẫn: Nguyen Bang, MA. Năm bảo vệ: 2011 Abstract: The present study is concerned with sources of speaking anxiety on the basis of learners‟ responses presented in the survey questionnaire and in the informal interview. The quantitative questionnaire first examined the existence of speaking anxiety and factors causing students‟ anxiety when speaking English. The qualitative interview further looked at sources of students speaking anxiety. A total of 135 tenth form students at Nguyen Quan Nho high school, Thanh Hoa province participated in the survey. The results showed that the tendency of students‟ nervousness was obvious. Based on students‟ explanations, factors viewed as causing anxiety was divided into four categories: the content of the lessons, communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative feedback. From the students‟ suggestions in the interview, the researcher proposed some strategies for students and teachers to ameliorate negative effects of speaking anxiety. It is also hoped that this research will be of some help to Vietnamese learners and teachers in general in having a better understanding of the nature of FLA and speaking anxiety in particular to improve the teaching and learning of English. Keywords: Phương pháp giảng dạy; Kỹ năng nói; Tiếng Anh Content PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Nowadays, English is considered as an international language, which is spoken by millions of people all over the world. The number of people who desire to learn English has multiplied. Some learn English to get more wisdom, some wish to get well-paid jobs, some learn English for other purposes. That is why English has been now widely taught in almost all educational institutions, at every level. In Vietnam, English is being taught as a compulsory subject and it is one of the six subjects in the national examination that students have to pass if they want to get General Certificate of Secondary Education (G.C.S.E). In recent years, the teaching of foreign language in Vietnam has seen a remarkable change in methodology, followed by a new approach to language teaching. That is Communicative Language Teaching. This approach represents a fundamental shift in the teaching-learning process from structure mastery to communicative competence. Accordingly, learners‟ ability to communicate becomes its first priority, which means that when learning English, learners have to grasp all the four skills: speaking, reading, writing, and listening because those skills are integrated with one another. Speaking well is of great importance to students when communicating with others in a second language, not only in teaching and learning environments, but also outside the classroom. The students should be able to speak in a well structured way and develop their ability to take part in conversations, discussions and negotiations and to express with subtlety their own views and consider those of others. Speaking does not only reflect the speaker‟s social and cultural background, but is also a part of speaker‟s identity. However, among the four skills, speaking seems to be the most difficult one but paid the least attention to in most high schools. Speaking has only become a compulsory skill in the curriculum since the new English textbook was officially put into use in 2006. This results in numerous problems inflicting students in learning the speaking skills, one of which is Foreign Language Learning Anxiety. Besides, having considerable levels of anxiety in the classroom has been regarded as an experience that is more likely to occur in foreign language lessons than in other subjects. This seems natural as in foreign language classroom the students have to use foreign language - an instrument they are not familiar with - to sustain communication. As a teacher of English, I have noticed that my students often experience foreign language anxiety in speaking skills. Some students experience pressure when being asked to speak in front of the whole class because they fear criticism. Some may feel nervous since they lack of vocabulary to express their ideas; consequently, they may tremble and stutter, etc. Such situation has inspired me to carry out a study on learners‟ anxiety in speaking skills to identify the causes and give solutions to alleviate students‟ anxiety in learning speaking. 2. Aims of the study The major purpose of the research is to find out factors or causes that make students stressful and nervous in speaking English and suggest some solutions to alleviate English speaking anxiety in the students. 3. Research questions To fulfill the above aims, the study is carried out with an attempt to answer the following questions: 1. What are the possible causes that make students at Nguyen Quan Nho upper secondary school anxious and nervous in learning speaking? 2. What are the possible solutions to reduce speaking anxiety of the students? 4. Scope of the study FLA exits in the process of learning all the four skills. However, only students‟ speaking anxiety is focused on in this research with its causes in terms of contents of the lessons, communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative feedback and solutions based on each source of anxiety. Due to the local condition constraints, this study only involves one hundred and thirty- five 10 th form students at Nguyen Quan Nho High School. 5. Significance of the study This study could be of some help to teachers and students at Nguyen Quan Nho upper secondary school: (i) to improve the teachers‟ theoretical understanding of foreign language anxiety, especially the causes of speaking anxiety. (ii) to enhance the students‟ awareness of causes of speaking anxiety they have in foreign language, and from this they can control and overcome their nervousness in speaking skills. Hopefully, the possible solutions suggested in this research can help learner reduce the speaking anxiety and motivate them to learn and make progress in speaking. 6. Method of the study In order to realize the above aims of the study, quantitative method was mainly used. The data collected for the study came from the 10 th grade students. Survey questionnaire was used to gather information and evidence for the study. In addition, to make the data collected more reliable and authentic, qualitative method was applied with two instruments: a follow up interview and an informal observation. All the comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the study were based on the data analysis of the study. 7. Design of the study This study is divided into three parts: Part A – Introduction presents the rationale, the aims, the research questions, scope, significance, methods as well as the design of the study. Part B – Development contains three chapters. Chapter one reviews the literature in terms of speaking, foreign language anxiety in general and speaking anxiety in particular. Chapter two presents the study. 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In Faces in a crowd: The individual learner in multisection courses by Klee, C.A. (Ed.). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle, pp.3-46 Young, D. J. (1999). Affect in Foreign Language and Second Language Learning: A Practical Guide to Creating a Low-Anxiety Classroom Atmosphere. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill College. . with an attempt to answer the following questions: 1. What are the possible causes that make students at Nguyen Quan Nho upper secondary school anxious and nervous in learning speaking? . presented in the survey questionnaire and in the informal interview. The quantitative questionnaire first examined the existence of speaking anxiety and factors causing students‟ anxiety when speaking. Learners‟ anxiety in speaking lessons at Nguyen Quan Nho upper secondary school: Causes and solutions Lưu Thị Hồng Sâm Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: Theory and methodology