3.2. Quantitative description of results from the questionnaire and qualitative
3.2.2. Causes related to studying habits and gathering related materials
N0 Causes Strongly
disagree Disagree Agree
partly Agree Strongly agree
7
I feel anxious when I do not study hard enough for examination.
0 0%
3 3.6%
16 19.0%
41 48.8%
24 28.6%
8
I think that it is difficult for me to collect materials for English exams.
0 0%
2 2.4%
14 16.7%
37 44.0%
29 34.5%
9
I find it difficult to do samples of tests before examination when I only spend a few days reviewing knowledge
0 0%
5 6.0%
20 23.8%
31 36.9%
28 33.3%
10
I find it difficult to search for appropriate sorts of exercises from books and on the Internet.
0 0%
3 3.6%
18 21.4%
35 41.7%
28 33.3%
11
I feel nervous when I only learn vocabularies and structures by heart but do not know how to use it in context.
0 0%
6 7.1%
19 22.6%
31 36.9%
28 33.3%
12
I feel nervous when I have trouble collecting a kind of books to practice exercises related to vocabularies and phrases.
0 0%
6 7.1%
15 17.9%
41 48.8%
22 26.2%
Table 7: Causes related to studying habits and gathering related materials
Items 8, 10, and 12 (See Appendix 1) refer to causes associated with gathering related materials. The results of the item 8 in the table 7 show that the rate of the students at Huynh Thuc Khang high school who found collecting the materials for the exams fairly complicated was the highest. It is clear that this figure accounted for 78.5% (66 participants) in the 84 participants. By contrast, the numbers partly agreeing was approximately 16.7% and those who did not share the opinions and did not completely share the opinions with the item were similar, just up to 2.4%.
Items 7, 9, and 11 (See Appendix 1) refer to causes related to studying habits. It can be also seen that a wide range of the students expressed positive opinions of the item 7.The rate of the students agreeing and completely agreeing with the item experienced a relatively high trend reaching up to 77.4%, whereas the number of the students partly agreed and disagreed approximately 19.0% and 3.6%
respectively.
The findings of questionnaire indicate that the difficulty in selecting extra exercises from a suitable source was the major cause of anxiety of this group.
Based on the students ‟ answers in the semi-interview (See question 2, Appendix 2), three out of ten students shared the views that they found themselves not studious enough for the English exams. In addition, they had several hardships in selecting the best materials close to the content of the English examination during the period of revision. Student A admitted that A did not spend much time revising the knowledge and shared the idea that A often felt under pressure of time. Besides, she only spent 2 or 3 hours a week on it.
The main one is that I have not spent much time revising the knowledge contents before the English examination. I myself find not concentrate on selecting the answer. Sometimes, I had trouble preparing for the exams, simply because content is rather difficult to understand such as sentence concerning vocabulary. I
do not seem to do it. Another is that I only spent 2 or 3 hours a week revising knowledge. (Student A).
The cause is that I tend not to acquire knowledge for the exams. In other word, I lack confidence. After finishing the English Test about half of time. I often replaced the correct answer with false one because I could not control of knowledge. In addition, content is difficult for me. In addition to this, I could know meanings of words but I did not know how to use it. Hence, I chose the incorrect answer. (Student E).
Of all the sample of test designed by teacher, I only can do some questions.
Especially, I do not seem to be interested in it. In addition, of course, I myself find unable to do it .If I try, I tend to be tired and anxious, and I feel stressed for the next one. Moreover, I am not concentrated on revision and I took no pleasure in doing the samples of tests. In other words, I am too lazy to prepare knowledge and skills for the English Exams. (Student I ).
Besides, students A, B, C, D, E G, H, and K also added some other ideas showing that it was not easy for them to select the best documents (See question 2, Appendix 2).
May be, I do not seem to study hard. I only spend 5 days preparing for it.
Moreover, working out difficult questions in English Test makes me exhausted. If so, I usually choose answer randomly. In addition, I have many difficulties looking for a variety of exercises from other sources. (Student C).
I often lose the control of knowledge before the exams. My heads seems to go blank before it. Furthermore, sometimes I hope to acquire further knowledge but I did not know which books are suitable for me. I bought some. One is difficult. The others are easy. I feel confused and uninterested in it. (Student D).
I also found out materials for extra samples of tests but I did not know which ones and which authors were suitable for the content of English Test. Moreover,
there were too many compulsory subjects for the national exams. I had to separate the amount of time into each subject. And I found that I did not spend much time on revision for the English Test. (Student G).
During the period of samples by teachers, I only completed approximately half of the questions. Perhaps, content was a barrier to me. Sometimes, It challenged me a lot. Actually, I really wanted to improve it but I did not know where I could find the best extra books for the English examination. (Student H).
The results of interviews for students show that not finding which kinds of exercises they had better do to prepare knowledge for an actual examination was the main cause of anxiety.
Based on teachers ‟ answers from interviews for teachers, 5 out of 7 interviewed teachers shared their ideas that the students at Huynh Thuc Khang high school had hardship selecting suitable materials. Some students tried to find sources of books to get ready for an actual examination but they failed, others only tried to do the exercises provided by the teachers. Hence, they did not seem to have a right skill to do the samples of tests.
Almost all of my students felt nervous about making the choice of materials orientation for the actual examination. There were so many English practice tests by the different authors that they could not decide which ones were good for their actual examination. (Teacher A).
My students were anxious about selecting the books to practise at home.
Some of them shared the opinions that they tried to find exercises on the Internet but they failed because they found that several exercises were difficult while others were not. They seemed to lose control of making choice of the suitable exercises for the actual examination. (Teacher B).
Sometimes, they were tired when they could not find which materials were suitable for the actual examination. Particularly, they seemed to be depressed when
they felt that to finding materials containing all the contents related to both vocabularies and structures of the textbook was too difficult for them to do.
(Teacher C).
Almost all of my students felt bored with collecting related materials for their revision. They expressed that they found a variety of sources of exercises on the Internet. Nevertheless, they did not make decision on which ones were suitable for them. They did not know what types they should follow because they had no orientation for English knowledge of the examination. (Teacher D).
Most of my students were anxious about deciding on suitable materials for the knowledge preparation. Some of them told me that they spent a few days going to the bookstores to buy some books to practise English tests at home. However, they did it in vain. They could not find any books. They also shared that when they glanced at the contents of books, some of books seemed to be easy but the rest seemed to unfamiliar to them. (Teacher H).
The results of the interviews for teachers indicate that the difficulties in collecting related materials were one of the main causes of students ‟ anxiety.
In all, the results of the questionnaires and students and teachers interviews reveal that lack ability of selecting related materials was the leading causes of anxiety.