An investigation into speaking in class anxiety of english majored students the case of the second year students at the school of foreign languages, thai nguyen university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES   - o0o TRẦN THỊ PHƯƠNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO SPEAKING-IN-CLASS ANXIETY OF ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS: THE CASE OF THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Nghiên cứu lo lắng nói tiếng Anh lớp học sinh viên chuyên Anh: Trường hợp sinh viên năm thứ hai khoa Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Thái Nguyên M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 Hanoi, 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES   - o0o TRẦN THỊ PHƯƠNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO SPEAKING-IN-CLASS ANXIETY OF ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS: THE CASE OF THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Nghiên cứu lo lắng nói tiếng Anh lớp học sinh viên chuyên Anh: Trường hợp sinh viên năm thứ hai khoa Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Thái Nguyên M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 60140111 SUPERVISOR: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYỄN PHƯƠNG NGA Hanoi, 2016 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis entiled “An Investigation into Speakingin-Class Anxiety of English-Majored students: The Case of the Second-year Students at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts is the results of my own work and that this thesis does not contain material which has been accepted for the award of any degree or diploma in any university, nor does it contain material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis I agree that the origin of my thesis deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan and reproduction of the paper Hanoi, December 2016 Signature Tran Thi Phuong i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe many great thanks to so many people who have supported me all the way throughout my study to this final achievement First of all, I would like to express my special thank to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Phuong Nga, for her wholehearted guidance, valuable suggestions and academic advice during the course of writing this thesis, without which this work would hardly have been accomplished I would also like to send my sincere thanks to all lecturers at PostGraduate Studies Department, ULIS – VNU who gave me interesting lessons and comprehensive knowledge I also wish to send my deep appreciation to my colleagues and students at English Department, School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University who have encouraged me and helped me with the research data Last, to my family, words are not enough to express my gratitude I am grateful to my parents, my husband, my little daughter Without their help and encouragement, I could not have completed this study Hanoi, December 2016 Signature Tran Thi Phuong ii ABSTRACT Feeling of anxiety, apprehension and nervousness are commonly expressed in a language classroom by second/ foreign language learners when learning to speak These feelings are considered to affect learners‟ speaking performance The present study was conducted with the aim to 1) investigate levels of in-class speaking anxiety experienced by the second-year Englishmajored students at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen university, 2) find out the types of in-class speaking activities that provoke or reduce students‟ in-class speaking anxiety, and 3) examine what teachers‟ behaviors and characteristics can reduce students‟ anxiety The research subjects were 101 SFL students majoring in English in the two programs, namely English Education Program and English Language Program A multi-part survey questionaire was employed to collect the data The simple descriptive statistics, namely frequency, percentage were used to analyze the data The findings revealed that the students‟ anxiety about speaking English in classroom, on the whole, was at the high level In addition, among the three categories of language anxiety, namely communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation, it was found that the subjects of the present study reported fear of negative evaluation and communication apprehension as the main cause of speaking anxiety The findings also showed that the activities with high self-exposure requirement; namely, make an oral presentation or skit in front of the class, role play spontaneously in front of the class, or speak in front of the class were the most anxiety-evoking to students On the other hand, those activities gave students a chance to work in pairs or in groups; especially in class games caused the least anxiety to them iii Regarding the teachers‟ behaviors and characteristics, the findings showed that the students would feel less anxious if the teacher is patient and friendly, has a sense of humor, makes students feel comfortable In addition, teachers‟ appropriate teaching practices on class management and error correction are reported to effectively reduce student‟s anxiety and so create a comfortable learning atmosphere in classroom Finally, the pedagogical implications of these findings for understanding second/foreign language anxiety for enhancing learners‟ communication abilities in the target langage were discussed, as are suggestions for future research iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES .vii LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims and objectives of the study 3 Scope of the study Significance of the study .4 Methodology Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of anxiety 1.2 Types of anxiety 1.3 Foreign language anxiety 10 1.3.1 Definition of foreign language anxiety 10 1.3.2 Models of foreign language anxiety 11 1.3.3 Manifestation of foreign language anxiety 16 1.3.4 Measurement of foreign language anxiety 18 1.4 Foreign language speaking anxiety 20 1.4.1 Definition of foreign language speaking anxiety 20 1.4.2 Speaking as a source of anxiety 20 v 1.4.3 Other sources of foreign language speaking anxiety 23 1.4.4 Ways of creating a low-anxiety classroom 28 1.5 A review of previous studies on speaking-in-class anxiety 32 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .37 2.1 Context of the study 37 2.2 Participants of the study 38 2.3 Instruments .38 2.4 Data collection procedures .40 2.5 Data analysis 41 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 43 3.1 In-class English speaking anxiety 43 3.1.1 Overall of students‟ responses to in-class speaking anxiety .43 3.1.2 In-class speaking anxiety categories 50 3.2 Anxiety towards in-class activities 58 3.3 Teachers‟ characteristics and techniques related to anxiety reduction 64 PART C: CONCLUSION 69 Summary of the research findings .69 Implications .70 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 71 REFERENCES 73 APPENDIX .I vi 78 56 Tran, T T T, Moni, K & Richard, B B J (2012) Foreign Language Anxiety and its Effects on Students‟ Determination to Study English: To Abandon or not to Abandon? TESOL as a Global Trade: Ethics, Equity and Ecology, Special Edition S3 57 Tran, T T T, Moni, K & Richard, B B J (2013) Foreign Language Anxiety: Understanding Its Sources and Effects from Insiders‟ Perspectives The Journal of ASIA TEFL, 10(1), 95-131 58 Tran, T T T & Moni, K (2015) Management of Foreign Language Anxiety: Insiders‟ Awareness and Experiences Cogent Education, 2, 120 59 Tsui, A B M (1996) Reticence and Anxiety in Second Language Learning In K M Bailey & D Nunan (Eds.) Voices from the language classroom: Qualitativeresearch in Second Language Education Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 60 Woodrow, L (2006) Anxiety and Speaking English as a Second Language Regional Language Centre Journal, 37(3), 308-328 61 Wu, C P & Lin, H J (2016) Learning Strategies in Alleviating English Writing Anxiety for English Language Learners (ELLS) with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) English Language Teaching, 9(9), 52-63 62 Young, D J (1990) An Investigation of students‟ perspectives on anxiety and speaking Foreign Language Annals, 23(6), 539-553 63 Young, D J (1991) Creating a Low-Anxiety Classroom Environment: What does Language Anxiety Research Suggest? The Modern Language Journal, 75(4), 426-439 64 Young, D J (1992) Language Anxiety from the Foreign Language Specialist's Perspective: Interviews with Krashen, Omaggio Hadley, Terrell, and Rardin Foreign Language Annals, 25(2), 157-172 79 APPENDIX THE ADAPTED ENGLISH SPEAKING-IN-CLASS ANXIETY SCALES Item FLCAS by Horwitz, Horwitz, No and Cope (1986) I never feel quite sure of myself when I am speaking in my foreign language class I don‟t worry about making mistakes in language class I always feel that the other students speak the foreign language better than I I am afraid that the other students will laugh at me when I speak the foreign language I tremble when I know that I‟m going to be called on in language class It wouldn‟t bother me at all to take more foreign language classes It embarrasses me to volunteer answers in my language class I I feel very self-conscious about speaking the foreign language in front of other students I worry about the consequences of failing my foreign language class 10 Language class moves so quickly I worry about getting left behind 11 I start to panic when I have to speak language class 12 In language class, I can get so nervous I forget things I know 13 I can feel my heart pounding when I‟m going to be called on in language class 14 I get nervous and confused when I am speaking in my language class 15 I get nervous when the language teacher asks questions that I haven‟t advance II 16 I am afraid that my language teacher is ready to correct every mistake I made 17 I am usually at ease during tests in my language class 18 The more I study for a language test, the more confused I get 19 It frightens me when I don‟t understand what the teacher is saying language 20 Even if I am well prepared for language class, I feel anxious about it 21 I often feel like not going to my language class 22 I feel more tense and nervous in my language class than in my other classes III APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE Dear students, This survey questionnaire is designed for my research into Speaking-inClass Anxiety of the secondyear students majoring in English at School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University Your assistance in responding to the following questions is highly appreciated All the information provided by you is solely for the study purpose and you can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data PART 1: IN-CLASS ENGLISH SPEAKING ANXIETY SCALE The following items are about identifying the anxiety level students have in the English speaking class There is no wrong or right answer Please read the items carefully and circle the number corresponding to the degree of your agreement or disagreement The options stand for: = Strongly Disagree, = Disagree, = Neither disagree nor agree, = Agree, = Strongly Agree Item Items No Communication Apprehe I never have self-confidence English inclass I tend to tremble when called question in class I wouldn‟t bother me to take speaking classes IV 10 11 12 13 14 15 I feel uncomfortable when speaki front of my classmates I get worried when I have to spea without prior preparation in class When I feel nervous, I tend to for intended to speak I always feel my heart pounding w to be called on in English class I tend to get nervous and confuse speaking tasks in class I tend to get nervous when asked questions without prior preparatio I am frightened when I don‟t und the teacher is saying in English Even if I am well prepared for En feel anxious about it I don‟t like my English speaking I feel more tense and nervous in m speaking class than in my other c I feel nervous to speak English no difficult or easy a speaking task is Whether I will be worried in Eng depends on the difficulty of the ta I feel bad about my speaking abil 16 speaking in the English class beca English is not good 17 I feel uncomfortable speaking En even though I have good preparat 18 I dislike participating in pairwork V discussions in speaking class I am tense and nervous using Eng 19 pairwork and group discussions in class 20 Using English in a pairwork and g discussion with unfamiliar studen tense and nervous Test Anxiety 21 While having an English-speakin afraid that my English teacher wi mistake I make 22 23 24 I usually feel relaxed while havin speaking test The more I study for the English confused I get I not worry about making mist having a speaking English test Fear of Negative Evaluati 25 26 27 28 29 I don‟t worry about making mista speaking English I always feel that the other studen English better than I I am afraid that the other students me when I speak English I feel embarrassed to volunteer an English class I always worry about the consequ my English class 30 VI I feel that my English-speaking cl quickly and I am afraid of getting PART 2: SPEAKING ANXIETY TOWARDS IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES Below are a series of descriptions related to in-class English speaking activities Please read the items carefully and circle the number that matches with your feelings The options stand for: = Very Relaxed; = Moderately Relaxed; = Neither Relaxed Nor Anxious; = Moderately Anxious; = Very Anxious Activity No 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Wo Com Ope part Spe the Rep List resp Rol fron Do indi Rep Rea Inte Wo skit Rol Pre the Spe Wo film Ma of t PART 3: TEACHER’S BEHAVIOR AND CHARACTERISTICS Below are a series of descriptions related to English teachers’ behaviors and characteristics Put a tick in the box next to the descriptions that you think useful to decrease your anxiety in English speaking class You can tick more than one item in the list What teacher’s behaviors and characteristics you think are useful to decrease your anxiety in English speaking classroom? Teacher compliments students Students can volunteer answers Students are not called on to provide responses Teacher corrects your errors in front of the class Teacher tries to fail students by using difficult tests Teacher makes students feel comfortable Teacher says that he/she is not going to fail the students Teacher is patient Teacher creates casual atmosphere in the classroom 10 Teacher says that he/she will fail you if you not study 11 Teacher‟s manner of correction is not harsh 12 Teacher is rigid and never smiles in class 13 Teacher has a good sense of humor 14 Teacher overreacts students‟ errors 15 Teacher is very friendly 16 Teacher has attitude that mistakes are no big deal when learning English  17 Teacher‟s manner is relaxed 18 Teacher often gives students a quiz without notice VIII 19 Teacher does not make you feel stupid when you make a mis 20 Teacher scolds students 21 Teacher says that you will have no future if you don‟t have good English  22 Teacher encourages students to speak English 23 Teacher has attitude that mistakes are made by everyone learning English 24 Teacher understands students 25 Teacher assigns pairwork in English speaking class 26 Teacher assigns groupwork in English speaking class 27 Teacher calls students equally 28 Teacher assigns many tasks for students to practice spea class 29 Teacher gives students time to think about the question b calling students to answer 30 Teacher explains materials well 31 Others: Thank you very much for your cooperation IX ... NGA Hanoi, 2016 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis entiled ? ?An Investigation into Speakingin -Class Anxiety of English- Majored students: The Case of the Second- year Students at the School. .. examine the levels of speaking- in- class anxiety experienced by the second- year English- majored students at School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University - To investigate the types of in- class. .. to investigate speaking- in- class anxiety with the main focus on the second- year English- majored students at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen university The specific objectives of the