Luận văn STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LISTENING ANXIETY CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐÀO THỊ KIM NHUNG STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LISTENING ANXIETY: CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS (Lo lắng sinh viên học nghe: nguyên nhân giải pháp) Course: Cohort 12 Supervisor: Prof Silvia Spence Hanoi, 2013 ABSTRACT Why most students experience an overwhelming amount of anxiety when listening to English? How can teachers address such affective feeling in order to improve students’ listening comprehension and English proficiency? The researcher conducted a study on a sample of 30 English major students in their first year at Tay Bac University, Son La The instruments of the study were a questionnaire and an informal interview Data was collected quantitatively and analyzed qualitatively The study confirmed that the students are highly anxious in listening classes The study identified factors viewed as leading to listening anxiety such as listening material, speaker, listener and listening environment factors The study also revealed that the students perceive native speaker pronunciation and fast speed of delivery posed the most difficulties for them while they are engaged in EFL listening activities After the investigation, some solutions are proposed to help the students alleviate their anxiety and discomfort in their listening classes, and promote students’ English listening comprehension Abstract Table of contents PART A: INTRODUCTION Research Justification Purpose of the Study Research Questions Significance of the Study Scope of the Study Structure of the Thesis PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Overview of Anxiety 9 1.1 Definition and Types of Anxiety 1.2 Foreign Language Anxiety 1.3 Components of Foreign Language Anxiety 1.3.1 Communication Apprehension: 11 1.3.2 Test Anxiety 12 1.3.3 Fear of Negative Evaluation 12 Overview of Listening Comprehension 12 2.1 Definition of Listening Comprehension 13 2.2 Significance of Listening Comprehension 13 2.3 The Listening Comprehension Process: 14 2.3.1 Two Levels View: Bottom-up and Top-down 15 Processing 15 2.3.2 A Sequential Process of Listening Listening Anxiety 16 3.1 Related Studies of Language Anxiety in Listening Skill 17 3.2 Causes of Listening Anxiety 3.2.1 Listening Anxiety associated with Listening Text Factors 17 a) Complexity and Difficulty of the Lexis and Syntax b) Uninterested or Unfamiliar Topic 19 c) Visual Support 19 3.2.2 Listening Anxiety associated with Speakers factors 19 a) Fast Speech Rate b) Phonological Modifications c) Unfamiliar Accents d) Hesitation and Pause Phenomena (usually grouped together) 3.2.3 Listening Anxiety associated with Listener Factors a) Limited Vocabulary 21 b) Memory 21 c) Background knowledge d) Application of Strategies 3.2.4 Listening Anxiety associated with Listening Environment 22 22 22 3.3 Instructional Approaches for Listening Anxiety Reduction CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 23 23 Participants 23 Data Gathering Instruments Procedures 24 Techniques of Data Analysis 25 Data Analysis and Findings 26 5.1 Students’ Attitudes toward Listening Skills 26 5.2 Students’ General Listening Anxiety 26 a) Students’ feelings about their listening skills 27 b) Reasons for their feelings about listening skills 27 5.3 Listening anxiety associated with each listening factors 27 27 PART C: CONCLUSION 29 Summary of the findings 29 Suggestions for classroom practice 29 2.1 Solutions related to Listening Text 31 2.2 Solutions related to Speakers 2.3 Solutions related to Listeners 34 2.4 Solutions related to Listening Environment 34 Limitations and suggestions for further research 36 REFERENCES 37 Appendix 1: Questionnaire Appendix 2: Informal Interview 39 42 43 45 49 PART A: INTRODUCTION Research Justification Teachers and researchers of foreign language are too familiar with statements like the ones above, which indicate a common problem that the majority of foreign language students are faced with It is well recognised that foreign language anxiety is a rather pervasive phenomenon (Aida, 1994) Although language anxiety could be considered as facilitating anxiety that motivates learners, many language teachers and researchers have been concerned about the possibility that anxiety may function as an affective filter (Krashen, 1982), preventing a learner from achieving a high level of proficiency in a foreign language (Scovel 1991) Anxiety should be reduced because anxious students are not able to develop their potential foreign language skills Reducing anxiety is a key to success in foreign or second language learning It “directly influences how often students use second language learning strategies, how much students interact with native speakers, how much input they receive in the language being learned (the target language), how well they on curriculum-related achievement tests, how high their general proficiency level becomes, and how long they preserve and maintain second language skills after language study is over ” (Oxford and Shearin, 1996, p.121-122) Purpose of the Study The major purpose of the research is to find out why the first year English major students at Hong Duc University feel anxious or embarrassed while listening to English In other words, this study seeks to identify the factors or causes that make students stressful and nervous while listening to English in the language classroom setting This includes considering the factors that originate from listening text, listeners, speakers, and listening environment The second most important aim of this study is to find out and suggest some solutions in order to alleviate English listening anxiety in the students Research Questions The research is carried out with an attempt to address the following research questions: - What are the possible causes that make the first-year English major students at Tay Bac University anxious and nervous while listening to English? - What are possible solutions that may reduce listening anxiety of the students? Significance of the Study Foreign language anxiety is a universal phenomenon that has a significant factor adversely affecting the language learning process This study could be of considerable interest to teachers and students at Tay Bac University: (1) to improve the teachers’ theoretical understanding of foreign language anxiety, especially causes of listening anxiety; (2) to enhance the students’ awareness of causes of listening anxiety they encounter in foreign language, and from this they can manage their anxiety level in other language skills This study is also significant with respect to the understanding of the students’ anxiety and the causes of that anxiety, thereby solutions can be suggested to help learners reduce their listening anxiety Hopefully, all given solutions will be more motivating for the students to learn and make progress in listening Scope of the Study A study of the students’ listening anxiety is such a broad issue investigated by many authors However, in my study, I will focus on the students’ listening anxiety – its causes and solutions: A study of the first year English majors in the Department of Foreign Language, Tay Bac University, Son La Structure of the Thesis The thesis is divided into three parts: Part is the introduction, which presents the research justification, the purpose, the research questions, scope and the structure of the thesis Part is the development which includes two chapters Chapter one review the literature in terms of foreign language anxiety in general and listening anxiety in particular Chapter two presents the study Part is the conclusion which presents a summary of the study and concluding comments derived from the findings of the study It also discusses the limitation of the study and suggestions for further research Finally, some solutions to reduce listening anxiety are suggested PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW The main aim of this chapter is to review the literature on second language anxiety in general and listening anxiety in particular The chapter starts with a literature review on anxiety This is followed by an overview of listening comprehension The end of the chapter is a discussion of listening comprehension anxiety Overview of Anxiety 1.1 Definition and Types of Anxiety “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) In another definition, Scovel (1978: 134) suggests that anxiety is associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, or worry Spielberger (1983), as cited in Horwitz, E.K., Horwitz, M.B, and Cope, J (1986: 125), defines anxiety as “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system” According to many psychologists, anxiety can be experienced at three perspectives The first one is trait anxiety, which is defined as an individual’s likelihood of becoming anxious in any situation (Spielberger,1983 cited in MacIntyre et al 1991, p.87) Some people are generally anxious about many things in a number of different situations Therefore, state anxiety is viewed as “a steady personality feature” (Brown, 2007) Its negative effects are thought to “impair cognitive functioning, to disrupt memory, to lead to avoidance behaviors, and to have several other effects” (Eysenck,1979, in MacIntyre et al 1991: 87) The second perspective is state anxiety which is “interested in the hereand-now experience of anxiety as an emotional state” (MacIntyre et al 1991, p.87) State anxiety is an apprehension experienced at a particular moment in time, for example, prior to taking examinations (Spielberger, 1983, cited in MacIntyre et al 1991, p.90) Finally, situation-specific anxiety is related to apprehension unique to specific situations and events such as public speaking, examinations, or class participation (Ellis, 1994:480) The last one seems likely to be more closely related to attempts to learn a foreign language and communicate in it 1.2 Foreign Language Anxiety Research on the affective factors in second language acquisition has been mounting steadily for a number of decades because students are “physical and cognitive, but primarily emotional, being” (Rogers, cited in Brown, 2007: 97) “Among the affective factors influencing language learning, anxiety ranks high” (Arnold, 1999: 59) The construct of anxiety has been recognized as one of the most important predictors of foreign language performance Foreign language anxiety is a universal phenomenon that has a significant factor adversely affecting the language learning process Gardner & MacIntyre (1993, cited in Arnold 1999:59) refer to language anxiety as 10 possible solutions to cope with the above-mentioned causes of listening anxiety and they are classified into four categories as follows: 2.1 Solutions related to Listening Text : Provide diversified and suitable listening texts The findings indicate that high anxiety is detrimental to performance on difficult listening texts It follows that there is a great need for low-anxiety listening texts that increase student confidence and prospects for success Great care needs to be taken when selecting listening texts, which are appropriate and interesting for students so that it can create more opportunities for students to experience, at least, small success in the target language If the students are attracted by the listening message, they will have incentive to make greater efforts The following points should be taken into account regarding the choice of listening materials: (1) Authentic materials should not be much more difficult than the students’ level, as too advanced speech will not be comprehensible for students Listening messages of simulated real-life situation are usually of great interest to the students (2) Besides using textbooks, teachers should provide a wide range of materials to help students increase listening content such as live talk, lectures, radio news, English songs, films, TV plays, interview, announcement, storytelling, everyday conversations, and so on The language should be real with current expressions and natural hesitations, repetitions and so on (3) Teacher should provide different styles of listening exercise (multi- choices questions, gap-filling, note-taking, etc.) in order to avoid the boredom because of the identity and repetition of exercise patterns (4) Different contents, such as environment, shopping, health, food, and so on, should be provided to improve students’ vocabulary and syntactic 37 structure and background knowledge It is useful to be introduced the syntactic structure of the target language and its uses before they are required to listen for the meaning As soon as students have been familiar with the vocabulary and syntactic structure, they will have more opportunities to succeed in listening process 2.2 Solutions related to Speakers The other main obstacle to successful and rewarding L2 listening learning process among the students is difficulties proceed from listening messages which are delivered in fast speech rate, full of hesitation, pause, assimilation, elision, and so on, at varied accents It is due to the fact that students lack exposure to natural English and have little opportunities to interact with English native speaker To solve these problems, the author offers some solutions below: (1) As far as pronunciation is concerned, teachers should help students get accustomed to how English is spoken out by the English native speaker from listening to authentic recorded materials Teachers need to adopt the bottomup processing mode, which emphasize on linguistic information at lexical and syntactic level Two forms of pronunciation exercises should be available in the listening classes First, exercises that help distinguish the pronunciation of every single word Second, exercises that show students when words are put together to make sentence in informal speech (2) With reference to fast speech rate, teacher should encourage students to practice listening to English authentic texts every free time (inside and outside the classroom) to make familiarize with the nature feature of the spoken English To identify the stress, liaison and elision of words in speech Teacher should give them some common phenomenon of how real-English is pronounced 38 (3) Imitating the ways English is pronounced is suggested a good way to gain good pronunciation Therefore, students should listen to the spoken English, imitate it, record their imitation, and then compare what they have pronounced with what the native speaker did to revise Gradually, students would also be used to features of spoken English and would understand listening material more effectively (4) When listening process finishes, teacher may help students shadow-read the tapescript, i.e., they read the script with the tape This activity helps students familiar with natural and normal speech which is delivered in different stress, pronunciation, fast speech rate, varied accents, expressions, etc 2.3 Solutions related to Listeners The result shows that the students were anxious due to some certain difficulties while listening to English such as limited vocabulary, weak memory, lack of background knowledge, and ineffective application of listening strategies Students experiencing anxiety when listening to English may be less effective at processing information Therefore, in order to lessen students’ listening anxiety, teachers can teach in a manner that makes information easier to process However, it is not an easy task for EFL teachers Here are a few helpful ideas: (1) providing background knowledge and linguistic knowledge - Teachers need to build students’ awareness about intercultural communication Teachers need to provide background knowledge and syntactic structures which are relevant to the listening topic, especially when the topics demand cultural backgrounds that differ from that of the student Teachers need to highlight the major role in the interpretation of discourse and energize students’ involvement in different cultures, too Surely, students 39 understand the context of the discourse before listening to spoken messages This would make the listening task easier so that students get all students involved in the listening process - Here are some types of pre-listening activities which may enrich students’ background knowledge such as: questioning and discussing about the listening topic, making a list of possibilities, describing a picture, etc (they are suggested to be done in groups) (2) Teaching listening strategies - The bottom-up processing is believed to improve the students’ linguistic knowledge; however, teachers should not ignore the importance of top-down processing and listening strategies The study showed that students were always trying to follow the spoken language word by word, busy on recognizing a word or a phrase they haven’t understood, and then miss the next part of the tape; or try to translate what is heard into their mother tongue This habit should be discouraged They should be encouraged to listen for general understanding first rather than trying to pick out details immediately - Students were unable to apply listening strategies effectively such as predicting what a speaker is going to say, getting the general ideas, and so on To improve the students’ listening strategies, teachers should design some listening activities purposefully in order to lead students to get the information with certain purpose and option To enhance the ability to take gist, students should know which the prerequisite of understanding the whole discourse are, or which is the most important (3) Increase students’ retention of information - In order to reach full comprehension, teacher should help students increase the speed of short-term memory and put the short-term information into long-term memory Factors affecting students’ retention of information are 40 vocabulary, syntax, amount of information that has to be processed and the amount of time available Thus, processing a lesser amount of information for a longer time would reduce excessive memory load, and then retain information longer The information asked for should relate to specific problems or a specific situation The length of time should be approximately 10-15 minutes - Repetition and dictation are of high practical value to extend the span of short-term memory To save information longer, information should be periodically repeated, or rehearsed During dictation, the text is split up into phrases or chunks of several words, students need to consciously remember as much words as they can at a time so as to write down the whole sentences correctly 2.4 Solutions related to Listening Environment Choosing a suitable listening text is only the first step, a great care of environment factors need to be taken to help students hear clearly and comfortably - Selecting high-quality recordings and playing them on adequate equipment with a moderately powerful amplifier A pair of speakers designed to fill a room of that size is also helpful The equipment should be efficiently operated because teachers have to start, stop, pause and rewind the tape during the listening practice - Closing all the doors and windows to cut out the background noise and to absorb the best-quality sound - Adjusting the volume so that every student sitting anywhere in the classroom hear clearly and comfortably In conclusion, the part discusses some major findings and limitations of the research, and suggestions for further research It concludes with the 41 possible solutions, which are believed to help students reduce listening anxiety Limitations and suggestions for further research It was acknowledged that there were some inevitable limitations of the study One is that sample size is small The investigation focused on only thirty students who are studying in the Faculty of Foreign Language, Hong Duc University It might not be representative of all university students Another limitation is the self-designed questionnaire that needs to be further validated Therefore, both internal reliability and external reliability of the data might be a problem All subjects in the study viewed listening skill as the most difficult one, whereas many teachers think that listening is not difficult to teach Future study should explore teachers’ belief about students’ listening anxiety to find out the gap between teachers and students’ beliefs about listening anxiety Correlational studies to identify the correlation between students’ listening proficiency and their anxiety are highly recommended 42 REFERENCES Aida, Y (1994) Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope’s construct of foreign language anxiety: The case of students of Japansese Modern Language Journal, 78, ii, 155-168 Anderson, J R (1983) The architecture of cognition Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press Anderson, J.R 1985 Cognitive psychology and its implications [M] New York: W.H.Freeman Anderson, A and Lynch, T (1988) Listening Oxford University Press Arnold, J 1999 Affect in language learning Cambridge University Press Aydin, S (2008) An investigation on the language anxiety and fear of negative evaluation among Turkish EFL Learners Asian EFL Journal, Teaching Articles, 421—444 Brown, H.D (1994) Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy London: Prentice Hall Regents Brown, S (2006) Teaching listening Cambridge University Press Brown, G and G Yule 1983 Teaching the spoken language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Buck, G (2001) Assessing listening Cambridge University Press Call, M 1985 Auditory short-term memory, listening comprehension, and the input hypothesis TESOL Quarterly 19, 765–81 Chang & Read, J (2008) Reducing listening test anxiety through various forms of listening support Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language June 2008, 12, 43 Chastain, K (1971) Developing second-language skills: Theory to practice Chicage: Nally College Publishing Djiwandono, P.I.( 2006) Cooperative listening as a means to promote strategic listening comprehension English teaching Forum, 3, 36 Ellis, R 1994 Instructed second language learning Blackwell Elkhafaifi, H (2005) Listening comprehension and anxiety in the Arabic language classroom The modern Language Journal, 89(2), 206-220 Hatch, E (1983) Psycholinguistics: A second language perspective Rowley, MA: Newbury House Helgesen, M and Brown, S (2007) Practical English language teaching: Listening The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc Horwitz, E.K., Horwitz, M.B, and Cope, J (1986) Foreign language classroom anxiety Modern language journal, 70, 125-132 Horwitz, E.K & Young, D.J (Eds) (1991) Language anxiety: From theory and research to classroom implications Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall 44 Appendix 1: QUESTIONNAIRE Dear Participants, We’re undertaking a research project on what makes students feel anxious or nervous while listening to English This questionnaire is aimed to understand what causes your anxiety while listening to English Please answer ALL the questions as truly as you can Your responses are not assessed or marked and they are used confidentially for the research purpose only Thank you for your cooperation Part I Put a tick (√) in the “True” column if the statement is TRUE to you and in the “False” column if it is NOT true to you 10 I feel nervous when I listen to English if … speakers speak too fast speakers’ pronunciation is unfamiliar I don’t have knowledge about the topic being spoken about The speaker uses words I don’t know The speaker uses the grammatical structures that I don’t know I find it difficult to concentrate while listening I don’t know how to listen effectively I am completely satisfied with my current listening comprehension ability I feel comfortable in my listening classes I am really disappointed with my limited vocabulary True (1) False (2) II Listening Problems Put a tick (√) in the appropriate column Ite m No Listening Problems Neve r (1) 45 Seldo m(2) Someti mes(3) Ofte n (4) Alwa ys (5) 10 11 I find it difficult to predict what speakers are going to say from the title of the spoken text After my teacher stops the tape I find it difficult to predict what will come next I get upset when I cannot catch the main idea of the spoken text from the first listening I feel anxious when I hear a word I don’t know I sometimes can understand all words but I still didn’t know what the speaker was trying to say, this bothers me I find it difficult to understand natural speech which is full of hesitation and pauses I find it difficult to understand the meaning of the spoken text without seeing the speaker’s body language I find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak too fast I find it difficult to understand well when speakers speak with varied accents Visual clues help me understand the spoken text (picture, diagrams, charts, video, etc.) Tape scripts provided 46 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 before listening exercises help me understand the text I find it more difficult to listen to a recorded spoken text than to my teacher reading aloud Unclear sounds resulting from poor-quality taperecorder interfere with my listening comprehension Unclear sound resulting from poor classroom conditions or outside noise interfere with my listening comprehension I find it difficult to get a general understanding of the spoken text from the first listening I feel nervous and worried when I don’t understand the spoken text I find it difficult to answer questions which require other than a short answer (e.g why and how questions) I find it difficult to understand the spoken text which is not of interest to me It is difficult to listen to the recorded materials because the classroom is so large III Personal Information Your gender: 1.□Male □ Female According to you, listening skill is 47 1.□the most difficult skill □as difficult as other skills □easier than other skills □easy How is listening skill important to you? □very important □rather important □little important □not important at all How you enjoy listening to English? □ very much □ not much 3.□ little □not at all Are you willing to participate in a 30-minute interview after completing this questionnaire? If yes, please give me you name and telephone number or your email address (if possible) Your name: ………………………………………… Class: ………………………… Telephone: ……………………………… Email: ……………………………………… THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION 48 Appendix 2: INFORMAL INTERVIEW 1.Em có thấy cảm thấy căng thẳng học nghe không? Nếu có, miêu tả cảm giác (Ví dụ: tim đập nhanh, run, lo lắng, quên hết thứ vừa nghe,…) ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… 2.Em giải thích khó khăn sau khiến em cảm thấy lo lắng hay căng thẳng học nghe? Và theo em, giải pháp phù hợp cho khó khăn (giải pháp từ phía em từ phía giáo viên mà em nghĩ giúp em chế ngự lo lắng hay căng thẳng)? a) Khi em nghe thấy từ, cụm từ mà em nghĩa ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Giải pháp: ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Khi nghe chủ đề mà em không thích ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Giải pháp: ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Khi người nói nói ấp úng, ngập ngừng hay giọng phát âm khác (accents) ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Giải pháp: ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Khi người nói nói nhanh 49 ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Giải pháp: ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… b) Khi em thiếu kỹ nghe (VD: nắm bắt ý chính, nghe từ khóa, đoạn văn nghe ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Giải pháp: ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… c) Khi em liên hệ kiến thức sẵn có đề tài nghe ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Giải pháp: ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… d) Khi em bị hổng kiến thức văn hóa, hiểu sai ý tưởng cần truyền tải người nói ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Giải pháp: ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… e) Khi bị ảnh hưởng yếu tố gây nhiễu tiếng ồn, chất lượng băng kém,… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Giải pháp: 50 ………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… f) Tại câu hỏi Yes-No questions lại dễ câu hỏi Wh-questions (Why, how, what,…) ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Giải pháp: ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… 51