Making anxiety less damaging to student oral performance

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Reason for choosing the study Objectives of the study Scope of the study Methodology of the study Significance of the study DEVELOPMENT I Theoretical background of the speaking skill Foreign language anxiety Anxiety in speaking The causes of anxiety in speaking performances The effects of anxiety in oral achievements II Some suggestions for oral English teachers III Pedagogical implications IV Effect of application (school year: 2016-2017) CONCLUSION AN SUGGESTION 3 3 5 10 12 Reference: INTRODUCTION 1 Reasons for choosing the study Learning English to communicate is becoming the primary priority of many learners And English ability is mostly attributed to speaking competence It is also believed that students with good speaking talents are apparently successful in the rest skills Because of the contributing role of oral performance in the outlook of English master, individual school has made great efforts to spark the passion as well as determination of students in speaking class by some ways such as investing money in equipping more technological tools, building English labs, buying more skill books, and sending teachers of English to training courses abroad In teachers’ side, the majority reveals their confidence and eagerness to conduct speaking lessons smoothly due to the fact that they are taking advantages of advanced technology and the amount of knowledge obtained during their training attendance However, those are thought to belong to physical need for students’ development In learners’ viewpoint they desire to enjoy teachers’ mental involvement in speaking class on account of their nonstop anxiety whenever they are about to speaking turns The mentioned suggestions of most students to their teacher’s behaviors in the speaking class inspire me for carrying out this paper I hope that the subsequent findings in this study can help teachers together with students gain satisfactions after each speaking class The study exclusively determines speaking nervousness among the eleventh graders in Yen Dinh high school; nevertheless, it is supposed to make relevant generalization about the speaking learning context in different high schools Objectives of the study The main purpose of this research is to find out the factors that cause students’ anxiety when they speak and suggest some solutions to this problem Scope of the study This study is conducted among the 11th form students at Yen Dinh high school during the school year 2016- 2017 Methodology of the study Both comparative and contrastive methods are used First of all, for the theoretical basis, a lot of reference materials on speaking skills have been collected, analyzed and synthesized carefully with the due consideration for the students’ learning situations Secondly, a survey questionnaire has been conducted with the students to collect the data Then, follow-up interviews have been carried out with students to gather the most reliable data for analysis to find the answers to the research questions mentioned above Significance of the study This study may provide insights into the process of learning the speaking skill for the students It may play a crucial role in enhancing the speaking skill to the students It motivates the students’ desire for learning English, and makes them more confident and active in speaking activities It not only gives some suggestions to help students overcome the difficulties but also helps teachers to better their lectures DEVELOPMENT I Theoretical background of the speaking skill Foreign language anxiety In a long history of linguistic and psychological field, there exists a series of references to anxiety in learning a foreign language; for example, Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1991) conceptualized 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” (p 31) It is indicated to possibly belong to affective factors but “most pervasively obstructs the learning process” (Arnold and Brown, 1999); However, this paper favorably depends on what was originally mentioned by Spielberger (1983) that anxiety in a second language class is “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system” In fact, this is a high pursuing citation made by many researchers and successfully guiding them to meet their expensive findings Anxiety in speaking Many researchers have pointed out speaking skills produce the most potential anxiety Cheng, Horwitz and Schallert (1999) mentioned that speaking causes most anxiety- provoking source in second language context (p.417) This was totally agreed by Krannich (2004) that delivering a speech and making a presentation holds the first ranking list of language anxiety Ayres, Hopt and Peterson (2000) related communication anxiety with the delivering of speech and this anxiety closely associated with anticipating the speech giving The causes of anxiety in speaking performances Language anxiety stems from different factors As mentioned by Horwitz (1986) they are communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety About communication apprehension, Daly (1991) explained that the adequacy of early communication helps reduce the level of language anxiety compared with those whose experience in talking is limited Shams (2006, p 55) noted that language learners are so attentive to their own pronunciation resulting in anxiety Highlighting in teacher’ role in speaking class, Lee (2009) said that teachers and teachers’ variables are said to weigh most heavily against students’ reticence and willingness to communicate Young (1994) exemplified teacher’s correction techniques, teacher-student interaction as a way of contributing to mediate learners’ anxiety Showing his approval with Young’ conclusion, Elkhafaifi (2005) suggested that language teachers should accept the situation of learners’ mistake making on language acquisition and that mistakes doesn’t mean any demonstration of failure Aydin (1999) reminded teachers about learners’ vulnerability, sensitivity when learning language and that they often committed to personal concerns such as intuitively negative self-assessment of language learning ability, high personal expectations and certain classroom practices Learners’ fear of negative evaluation when speaking partially derived from their peers, as explained by Young (1990); Phillips (1999); Pappamihiel (2002), students are afraid of being laughed at by their peers for their mistakes when making oral demonstration Learners themselves are to blame for their emerging anxiety, for example their personality traits, such as introverted and extraverted individuals, are relevant to anxiety mediation (MacIntyre & Charos, 1996) Brown, Robson and Rosenkjar (2001) elaborated on the case of personality traits and anxiety incidents, stating that introverts who favor individual work tend to face more serious anxiety than extraverts preferring group work Concluded by Gregersen and Horwitz (2002) in their assumption about learners as anxiety source that it is from learners’ perfectionists trends that cause language anxiety, the evidence to their conclusion is the scene that anxious students excessive expose their unsatisfaction with their accomplishment and they stay more worried about error commitment than non-anxious students who like to enjoy even the small achievements The effects of anxiety in oral achievements There appear some controversial ideas around the picture of how anxiety actually affects foreign language acquisitions Many studies conducting on a specific type of anxiety- state anxiety, advocated the decision that foreign language anxiety negatively affects on the language studying (Horwitz et al 1986; MacIntyre and Gardner 1991; Young 1991; Phillips 1992) However, Bailey (1983); Kleinmann (1977); MacIntyre and Gardner (1994); Tobias (1986) claimed the potential “facilitating anxiety” existence While Oxford (1999) highlighted the situation of learners’ tendency to remain silence or underperform deliberately in their turn when facing anxiety and other contributing findings around the oral performance quality in extreme anxiety category unveiled by Gregersen (2003) saying that high anxious students produce more mistakes, and become blind at recognizing their flaws and often inserted in more codeswitching than the less anxious participants, Brown (2000) stated that with some concerns and apprehensions over getting the task finished refrain students from the wishy-washy state Arguably early perspectives of anxiety revealed by Scovel (1978) indicating that facilitating anxiety arises at the moment that the challenge level of task invites the proper anxiety yielding and that a certain degree of anxious states acts beneficially, but the author directly warned the involvers about the side effects of too much anxiety intervention namely, learners’ avoidance of work and ineffective work conduction The more recent study carried out by Kumaravadivelu (2006) attributed the direct influences of anxiety on oral performance to “its interplay with other intake factors and intake processes” That interrelation decides on “different effects at different stages of L2 development” III Some suggestions for oral English teachers Many studies have arrived at the agreement that the instructors act a paramount role in alleviating students’ language anxiety, especially in the speaking class Those findings harmoniously meet what mentioned by Price (1991) that “instructors had played a significant role in the amount of anxiety each student had experienced in particular classes” and by Young (1990) noting that instructors by building an embracing social atmosphere can help reduce the learners level of language anxiety Originally learning environment once emphasized by Rogers (1969) voicing that establishing a rapport between teachers and students reduces threatening factors and protects learners’ images Samimy and Rardin (1994) suggested teachers should make use of group activities to constitute group solidarity as a useful way to lighten nervousness accompaniment Students’ interaction, conversation in pairs or groups is believed to create more practice opportunities and make enjoyable, comfortable learning environment Another key in softening students’ anxiety is to “make the message so interesting that students forget that this is in another language” (Krashen, 1985) Regarding to this, Young (1990) revealed the majority of her subjects’ endorsement “I am more willing to participate in class when the topics we discuss are interesting” (p.545) Concerning about teacher’s feedback delivery, Phillip (1999) raised teachers’ awareness of avoiding overt correction when students are focusing on fluent communication and that behavior should ideally occur in mechanical practice (p.138) Adding to safe correction methods, Occhipinti (2009) recommended many instructors to avoid driving the learner to “stupid” feeling but importantly harbor the attitude that errors are not a big deal, but are human nature in the foreign language practice (p 80) A good remedy to treat students’ anxiety disease as suggested by Foss and Reitzel (1988) is to directly self- report anxiety situations with their classmates Similarly, Price (1999) suggested the conduction of foreign language scales (FLSAS) by Horwitz et al (1986) and beliefs about language learning inventory (BALLI) by Horwitz (1988) to language students, the purpose is to delight student to accept anxiety living as a nature phenomenon III Pedagogical implications It cannot be denied that language teachers hold the key element in inspiring students’ learning volition, developing their speaking competence and making the anxiety interference less traumatic However, in Vietnamese high school, language teachers are said to overtly ignore their considerations about learners’ emotional needs, but directly improve individual’s intellectual standard for exam orientation As a result, they excessively create a very traditional class nature, in which teachers encourage very little communicative interactions among students as well as between the teacher and learners Besides, the nature of many formal English examinations such as graduation examinations, entrance examinations with the intended exclusion of speaking skills reinforces the marginalization of oral practice in the language class; therefore it is significantly vital for every teacher to raise students’ awareness about the language overlapping skills, of which speaking ability much decides on the overall language proficiency and facilitates the intake of the language elements It is also very important for each instructor to make full use of positive language anxiety and eliminate deleterious effects of emotional barriers Obviously, every speaking class shares certainly unique learning environment, simultaneously there are no teachers of same personality traits By and large, learners’ both intellectual and emotional demands should be nicely treated by the teacher’ appropriate reaction to students in the speaking class by some ways such as; establishing harmonious learning environment, promoting learning community, respecting their efforts in showing their oral outcome and caring for the learner’s individuality It is the fact that students of different speaking abilities, even the more salient performers feel nervous coming to their speaking turns, so teachers should promptly declare this phenomenon to their practitioners so that they can easily accept their anxiety as a normal intervention, sometimes a contributing factor to attract learning attentions This declaration also boosts learners’ motivation in speaking practices without a fear of error making and being laughed by their classmates In my experience, I realize that students speak English more confidently in a friendly learning atmosphere where members get on well with each other, familiarize with their interlocutors, at the same time, the instructor sensitively gives feedback rather than in a stressful class with a full of competitive norm This discovery prompts me to insert some personal learning experiences into my lectures to shorten the gap between the teacher and learners and reduce the level of instructors’ permanent coldness Sometimes, creating less formal learning by encouraging students to give their own comments on teachers makes the lesson more satisfactory There are times when students refuse to cooperation with certain group population and wish to belong to other community for the reason that they are in incompatible relationships and have difficulty reaching agreements in any discussions These factual situations remind teachers to wisely assign students to appropriate groups, by doing so, students gain their confidence and comfort in free negotiation, exchanging ideas, rehearing their performance with their peers, then the performance will be spontaneously preferable instead of staying silences in uncongenial groups The majority of my students report their extreme tensions when listening to the teacher’ reactions to their presentations, and that teacher’s manner in making correction significantly affects their learning motivation I notice that many students favorably avoid keeping eyes contact with the teacher, but bite nails or look at other directions etc, when the teacher gives comments on their speech Actually some reveal their bitter disappointments at given heavy sarcasms by the instructor; many virtually become embarrassed and then move on to irritated states Therefore teachers should ideally protect students’ images by praising their efforts and exclaiming good points prior to lingering on possible drawbacks Even when talking about apparent errors, teachers should give suggestions rather than directly scold every flaw More importantly, only when learners willingly accept speaking mistakes as an unavoidable obstacle on their way of English development and perfection, dare they freely display their talents Effect of application (school year: 2016-2017) The study chooses class 11 A1 with 48 students as the sample population, the following answers were revealed by the majority before the study and after the study (the duration is about two months).the following is descriptive statistics for students’ revelations about anxiety and their interest in English study after study compared to before study Questions Before After How much you speak English in class? Never 50% 0% Little 37,5% 15% Quite 12,5% 25% Much 0% 50% High interest 5% 25% Moderate interest 15% 50% Low interest 50% 25% 25% 0% Agree 75% 10% Neutral 25% 30% 0% 60% Agree 87,5% 17,5% Neutral 12,5% 15% 0% 67,5% My interest in English study No interest I will get nervous when speaking English in English class Disagree I will worry about making mistakes in answering questions Disagree The result you got in the latest oral performance or test was (than) your previous score Higher 0% 87,5% The same as 50% 12,5% 50% 0% Sure 5% 75% Somehow 17,5% 25% 77,5% 0% Lower I will receive better result in the next speaking performance or test Never Conclusion and suggestion Among the affective elements in foreign language acquisition, anxiety has ultimate effects in individual’s motivation and determination in language study The majority of students refuse to speak English publicly attributing to their nervous intervention which is so serious that their head become totally empty, and they cannot stay alert If teachers don’t realize the damage of anxiety to students’ language improvement, there are many more young generations suffering from poor speaking abilities Teachers should take more responsibilities in enhancing students’ liking to English and accelerating their oral competence by learning more about the possible causes of language anxiety, and what strategies can be used to address them In their daily teaching practice, they should follow those strategies to build an ideal learning environment, good learning community, and treat individual with respects In this way, I compromise that teachers will success in reducing students’ anxiety when uttering English, which promises higher English standards among practitioners in our countries now and forever Yên Định, ngày 15 tháng 05 năm 2017 Tôi xin cam đoan sáng kiến 10 Xác nhận thủ trưởng đơn vị kinh nghiệm viết, không chép nội dung người khác Người thực Trịnh Thị Thanh Reference: 11 Arnold, J & Brown, H D (1999) A map of the terrain In J Arnold (Ed.) 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Modern Language Journal, 75, 425-439 Young, D J (1994) New directions in language anxiety research In C A Klee (Ed.), Faces in a crowd: The individual learner in multisession courses (pp 346) Boston: Heinle & Heinl DANH MỤC 14 CÁC ĐỀ TÀI SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM ĐÃ ĐƯỢC HỘI ĐỒNG ĐÁNH GIÁ XẾP LOẠI CẤP PHÒNG GD&ĐT, CẤP SỞ GD&ĐT VÀ CÁC CẤP CAO HƠN XẾP LOẠI TỪ C TRỞ LÊN Họ tên tác giả: Trịnh Thị Thanh Chức vụ đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Yên Định TT Tên đề tài SKKN Để tiếp thu nhanh nhớ lâu Kết Cấp đánh Năm học đánh giá giá xếp loại đánh giá xếp loại (Phòng, Sở, xếp loại (A,B, Tỉnh ) C) Sở GD&ĐT C 2005-2006 phần so sánh tiếng Anh 15 ... making oral demonstration Learners themselves are to blame for their emerging anxiety, for example their personality traits, such as introverted and extraverted individuals, are relevant to anxiety. .. practical guide to creating a low anxiety classroom atmosphere (pp.124- 143) Boston: McGraw- Hill Phillips, E M (1992) The effects of language anxiety on students’ oral test performance and attitudes... state-trait anxiety inventory (Form Y) Palo Alto: Consulting Psychological Press Tobias, S (1986) Anxiety and cognitive processing of instruction In R Schwarzer (Ed.), Self-related cognition in anxiety