Luận văn factors causing students' anxiety in english speaking classes in le quy don high school dong da hanoi

‘The first aim of this study was to provide a review of major literature about foreign language Ikarning amxicly as alfective variable uniquely related to forcign language classroom situ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOT UNIVERSITY

OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

NGUYEN TL NHÀI

FACTORS CAUSING STUDENTS! ANXTETY IN ENGLISH SPEAKING

CLASSES IN LE QUY DON HIGH SCHOQL, DONG DA, HANOI

(Các nhân tô gây lo lằng cho học sinh trong việc nói tiếng Anh trên lớp tại

trường THPT Lê Quý Đôn, Đẳng Đa, Hà Nội )

M.A MINOR THESIS

Wield: English Tcaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

1IANOI — 2012

4 Scope of the sludy

5 Methods of the study

6 Organization of the study

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW à eo

6

2.1.2 ŠtatE BXEVY eo 2.1.3, Situation-specific Anxiety "—

2

2.2, Facilitating Anxicly and Debilitaling Anxicly,

IL Theorctical background of foreign lmguage classroom atisiCÉÿ

1 Deñnition of foreign language classroem arEdef neo

2 Barly studies of foreign language anxiety

3, Components of forcign language anxict

3.1 Communication apprehension

4 Manifestations of foreign language leaming anxiety - 12

6 Gender in foreign language anxiety - 1ã

7.1 Foreign language anxiety and its associations wath three stages of

7.2 Foreign language learning ansiely and ils associations wilh language

2 Students ansiety through students' journal writing 26

2.1 Fear of nking mistakes and negativs evaluation „26

3.3 Fear of being focus of attention 27

2.4, Comparison with oneself’ and with other students we 2T

2.5 Relationship between teacher and studemts 28

2.6 Result of lew achicvcment 28

1 Recommendations for students _- _- 31

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Getting students to respond in elasses is a problem that most ESL teachers face The problem of that is particularly acute with non major English students, who are gonctally considered to be more rescrved and reticent than the majored ones Language teachers, including myself, have observed on numerous occasions when teaching in

clas

„ he apprehension and discomfort experienced by muy students who are attempting to acquire and produce a foreign language The nervousness and anxiety frequently seems to become particularly aggravated when students are required to speak in fronl of loacher and othar sludenls MacInlyre and Gardner (1991), for oxample, assorted

answer: shorl as p iblc Some students even se to give any answers: when assigned Some of them admit that they cannot find words to say and they always feel nervous and anxious when speaking English with teachers

From this reality in my school and some findings in research, 1 have found that reducing anxiety in speaking Linglish is of great importance to improve the communicative competence of high school learners, Therefore, 1 decided to conduct a case study on the topic: "Factors causing students’ anxiety in English speaking classes in Le Quy Don High School, Dong Da, Hanoi.”

2, Aims and objectives of the study

‘The first aim of this study was to provide a review of major literature about foreign language Ikarning amxicly as alfective variable uniquely related to forcign language classroom situations, especially in speaking English Based on the literature review, this research aimed to take the initiative to investigate the cases’ manifestations through psychological symptoms, physical symplotns and behavioral symploms Morsover, il also analyzed anxiety factors among, students and based on those fictors, some strategies were suggested to reduce students’ anxiety in speaking English

2) How do unxious participants describe their feelings while speaking English in

Sront of teacher and ather students in class?

3) Which strategies can he used to successfully cope with language anxiety?

4, Scope of the study

this

In order 1o explore high school sluderis' English speaking axicty in classes,

study investigated and analyzed 2 non major English students at Le Quy Don high school because the researcher had an assumption that the non major English students might experience a higher level of anxiety then the major ones In addition, the researcher was doing tcaching those two studcnts during the time this rescarch was being conducted, as a result, it was most convenient for researcher to collect data itom students as well as observe the students’ manifestations This study only investigated the students’ anxiety phenomenon in English speaking performance instead of focusing on all four skills or in learning any foreign language in general

“

5 Methods of the study

Inmy opinion, qualitative research methods are the most suitable for this case study because they seek to understand the given research problem from the perspectives of the cases Moreover, qualitative methods are especially effective in obtaining culturally

specific information about the values, opinions, bchaviors and social conlexis of particular subjects, Some qualitative methods I applied in thus study are teacher's observation, students! joumal writings In comparison with quantitative methods, qualitative methods

casc in quantitative methods

6 Organization of the study

The study ix organized into three main parts:

Part A: Introduction

‘This part offers a brief introduction to the rationale for choosing the topic, the aims and objectives, roscarch questions, the scope, the methods and the organization of the study

Part 8: Development

The part consists of four chapters, as follows:

Chapter f Literature Review

This chaplor provides the thcorctieal background of anxiety with some definitions and types of anxiety, It also gives the theoretical background of foreign language anxiety,

in which stated the findings of previous researches relating to the study, gender in foreign language anxiety, the measurement of foreign language anxicty, the possible factors and sources of anxiety and anxiety in speaking skill

Chapter Ll: Methodology

This chapter addresses the research’s context, the participants and the instruments which were used to collect data including students’ journal writing, teacher's observation and interviews

Chapter HH: Findings and Discussion

‘The findings from the data collected from teacher's observation, students’ journal

writing and interviews arc presenled and disonssed in this chapler

In this chapter, I also provide some possible suggested improvements to reduce students’ anxiety in English speaking in classroom,

Part C: Conclusion and implications

‘This part offers an overview of the major findings, the implications and suggestions

for further research in this taller

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER T: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this review of literature, I shall state theoretical background of anxiety in general, as well as foreign language anxiety and language anxiety in speaking skill

T Theoretical background of anxiety

EL Definitions of anxiety

There has heen a vaticly of sludics carried onl on anxicly Simply speaking, anxicly

is a kind of troubled feeling in the mind It is “a subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the automatic nervous

system" (Horwilz, 1986) or “the womy and negative emotional reaclion aroused when learning a second language” (MacIntyre, 1999) Second language anxiety is defined here

as distinct complenity of self: perception, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to using a

forcign/ sceond language for communication beyond class language

Hansen (1977) called anxiety as "an experience of general uneasiness, a sense of foreboding, a feeling of tension” ¢p.91) Anxiety might exert a deleterious influence on language achievement, and equally intuilively, thal poor language achievernent might arouse even more anxiety

According lo Hilgard, “anxicly is a psychological consiruel, commonly described

by psychologists as a state of apprehension, a vague fear that is only indirectly associated with an object” (Ililgard, Atkinson, & Atkinson, 1971)

In short, anxiely is 2 feeting of Lension, apprehension and nervousness associaled

2.4 Trait anxiety, state anxiety and situation - specific anxiety

Usually aniiety is classified into trait anxiety, state anxiety and situation-specific

are considered in interactions with situations"

The four trait anxiety scale options are: (1) "Almost never” which responses indicates lowest degree of trait anxiety, (2) "Sometimes", (3) "Often"; and (4) "Almost

always" which signifies the highest degree of trail anxicly

2.4.2 State anxiety

State anxiety, on the one hand, is fleeting and not an enduring characteristic of an

individual's personality 11 is a "transilory slate or condition of the orgarusim thal varices in

intensity and fluctuates over time" (Speilberger, 1966, p.12)

The four stale aradoly sealo options arc (1) “Nol al all” which points to the towes! level of state anxiety; (2) "Somewhat", (3) "Moderately so”; and (4) "Very nmch so" which reflects the highest degree of state anxiety

Morris et al (1981), in their definitions of both state øpdiety and trail anxiety, take into account the importance of "situation": "State amaety refers to transitory experiences of

tension, apprehension, and activation of the autonomic nervous system in certain

situations, whercas trail, anxicly refers lo 4 personality variable of anxicly pronensss, [he

tandency to experience state anxiety in a variety of situations" (p.543)

2.4.3 Situation-specifie Anxiety

"It can be considered to be the probability of becoming anxious in a particular type

of situation, such as during tests, when solving mathematics problems, ar when speaking, a second language" (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994, p.2) The author Oh (1990) thought of foreign language anxiety as a situation-specific anxiety that "studemts experience in the classroom which is characlerived by self¢centered thought, feelings of inadequacy, fear of

failure, and emotional reactions in the language classroom"

‘As regards investigating anxiety in language learning, which is of special interest to

us here, Mactnlyre and Gardner (1991) considered thal the situation-specific approach

“offers more to the understanding of anxiety because the respondents are queried about

various aspects of the situation” (p 91)

2.2, Facilitating Anxiety and Debilitating Anxiety

Beside the classification above, other approaches have distinguished anxiety into facilitating and debititatings, Alpert & Taber (1960); Klignmnann (1977); Scavel (1978)

In which, facilitating anxiety is thought to be a kind of anxiety that improves learning and performance, whereas debilitating anxiety is associated with poor learning and performance

Some early researches suggested that difterent quantities of facilitating anxiety and debilitating anxiety may be present in the same individual at the same time Alpert and Haber (1960) asserted that “an individnal may poss

a large amount of both anxictics, or

of one but not the other, or of none of either” (p 213) and it has also been proposed that

“facilitating and debilitating anxiety may function together" (Seovel, 1978)

TT Theoretical background of foreign kinguage classroom anxiety

1 Definition of foreign language classroom anxiety

Horwilz, and her collzagues described ihe physiological and psychalogical symptoms of foreign language classroom anxiety at the Learning Skills Center at the

University of ‘Texas that many symptoms occur in amxious states in general: "tenseness,

a

trembling, perspiring, palpitations, and sleep disturbances" (p.129) In language learners,

anxicly was also observed im such symplomns as “freeing" in class, "going blank" before exams, and feeling reticence about entering the classroom, The researchers noted how these leamers “experience apprehension, wony, even dread They have difficulty

concenlraling, become forgelful, sweal, and have palpilations, They exhibit avoidance behavior such as missing, class and postponing homework" (p.126), These observations and discussions led authors to put forward a definition of foreign language classroom anxiety

as “a distinct complex of selperceplions, boliels, feclings, and behaviors related to classroom language leaming arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process"

(p.128)

2 Early studies of foreign language anxiety

With the shifting of researches focus ftom teachers to learneis in Second Language Acquisition, anxiety, as a very important affective factor, has been mainly explored by

many rescarchers since Ihe 1970s

Chastain (1975), in an investigation into affective and ability variables in relation to achicvemerd in Franch, German, and Spanish al slsmattary levols, oxplared test anxiety, trait anxiety, introversion as against extroversion, and ereativity, and reported inconsistent results, He encountered a "strong negative correlation" between test anxiety and scores in Irench that had been taught through the audio-lingual method, but no statistically significant commeclion ta grades in French that had bosn taught in the traditional way,

In a later investigation into anxiety which made use of a modified and translated

Alpert and Haber's (1960) Achievement Anxicly Tosl, Kleinmann (1977) compared a

Spanish-or-Portuguese-speaking group with an Arabic-speaking group of leamers of English Le posited that cach group would tend to avoid certain Linglish grammatical structures that were lacking in their mother tongue and spectilated that students who had higher levels of facilitating anxicty would ulilize these difficult structures

‘The major concern of the earlier studies was the causes of language anxiety, As

carly as 1983, Bailey, through the anak of the diaries of 11 Isarners, had found that

competitiveness can lead to anxiety Besides, he found that tests and learners’ perceived

three aspec

Bailey’s findings also complied,

that is, the aspecis of Icarners, teachers and instructional practice, lo which

In Scovel’s (1978) review of anxiety in language learning, he gave some other instances of the "mixed and confusing results" ép 132) cneountered in the literature, He suggested that it might be profitable to explore further Alpert and Haber's (1960) two fold approach of debilitating and facilitating anxiety He thought it might provide “an attractive path down which future rescarch on the effects of anxiety on forcign Janguage acquisition might proceed” (p 138) In view of this confusion, Scovel recommended that researchers should have a clear idea about the kind of anxiety they were investigating, such as dchititaling anxisly, facitilating anxiety, lest anxisly, ad so on, and about how these might

Lamguage Classroom Anxicty Seals) and found a-negalive correlation Going through 1

studies, it was found that the subjects participating in the studies were mostly college students Lligh school students who were at the crifical stage of foreign language learning and may experience more anxicly in this procuss, however, were negkceted,

However, to date, findings by Horwitz et al (1986) have been the most influential

‘They identified three causes of language anxiety, that is, communication apprehension, test anxicly and fear of negalive evaluation Based on these three components they also designed a Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale including thirty-three items This

seale was later widely used by researchers to measure forsign language learners’ anxiety and examine the effeel oanxicty on learning in different contexts

3 Components of forcign language anxiety

As mentioned in previous part, the findings by Ilorwitz et al (1986), which were

the most significant ones and we consider language anxicty with relation to performance

evaluation within academic and social contexts, include 3 components: communication

apprehension; tesl anxisty and (ear of negalive evaluation

3.1 Commnunication apprehension

Horwitz et al (1986) defines communication apprehension as "a type of shyness

characterized by foar or anxicly aboul commmmicating with psople According to McCroskey (1997), communication apprehension is as “an individual's level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or

persons"

Daly (1991) presents five explanations in the development of communication

apprehension which can offer an insight into the issue of understanding what causes

greeted with nicgalive reactions Gomi others in response to their allermpl to communicate develop a sense that staying quict is more highly rewarded than talking,

Communication apprehension obviously plays a large role in foreign language anxicly People who are approhensive speaking in dyads or gronps are likely 10 be even int mote trouble when doing so in a foreign language class, where “in addition to feeling less

in control of the communicative situation, they also may feel that their attempts at oral

work arc constanlly being monitored" (Horwitz ct al., 1986) This apprehension is

10

explained "in relation to the learner's negative self-perceptions caused by the inability to

understand others and make himself understood” (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989)

3.2 Test anxiety

Test anxiety, as explained by Horwitz et al (1986), "refers to a type of performance

anxiety stemming from a fear of failure" Test anxiety is quite pervasive in language

classrooms because of its continuous performance evaluative nature Test - anxious

students often put unrealistic demands on themselves and feel that anything less than a

perfect test performance is a failure Students who are test-anxious in foreign language

class probably experience considerable difficulty since tests and quizzes are frequent and even the brightest and most prepared students often make errors It is also important to note

that oral testing has the potential to provoke both test and oral communication anxiety

simultaneously in susceptible student

3.3 Fear of negative evaluation

This component is defined as the apprehension about other's evaluation, avoidance

of evaluative situation, and the expectation that others would evaluate one negatively

(Horwitz et al 1986) It's broader in scope than the test anxiety because it may occur in any

social, evaluative situation such as interviewing for a job or speaking in foreign language

classes In the language classroom, fear of negative evaluation is likely to be manifested in

a student's over concern with academic and personal evaluation of his performance and

competence in the target language (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1988) Like communication

anxious individuals, people who fear negative evaluation rarely initiate conversation and interact minimally Students who experience this anxiety tend to sit passively in the

classes, withdraw from activities that could increase their language skills and may even

avoid class entirely (Ely, 1986, Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986)

4 Manifestations of foreign language learning anxiety

Anxiety, in general, can have physical/psychological, emotional, and behavioral

manifestation and these manifestations can differ with each individual.

According to Oxford (1999, cited in Williams & Andrade, 2009, p 4, and cited in Yanling & Guizheng, 2006, p 98)

- Physical symptoms can inchide rapid heartbeat, muscle tension, dry mouth,

and excessive perspiration

- Psychological symptoms can include cmibarrassment, feelings of helplessness, fear, going blank, inability to concentrate, as well as poor memory recall and

retention

- Behavioral symptoms can include physical actions such as squirming, fidgeting, playing with hair or clothing, nervously touching objects, stuttering or stammering, displaying jittery behavior, being unable to reproduce the sounds or intonation

of the target language cven after repcated practice, More importantly, behavioral symptoms of anxiety can be manifested in negative avoidance behaviors like inappropriate silence, monosyllabic or non-commmittal responses, lack af eye contact, unwillingness to participate, coming late, arriving unprepared, showing indifference, cutting class, and

withdrawal from the course

- Other signs which might reflect language anxiety are over studying, perfectionism, hostility, cxeessive competitiveness, as well as excessive sclf-cffaccment

and self-criticism

5 Sources of foreign language anxiety

‘There are various causes or factors that lead to foreign language learning anxiety, however, T just list in the siudy some major ones thal students often cope with when learning # forsign language

The first is fear of negative evaluation, Students’ fears are brought on by the environment of the foreign language classroom, whers they are constantly being evaluated after cach presentation, Young (1990) cites that spcaking in front of teacher and other students in the classroom is particularly anxiety-producing activity She refers to studies such as Koch and Tenells (1991), im which the majorily of students leaning @ foreign

uses information ftom Young’s (1990) survey study in which students learning Spanish

said thal they would speak ont loud and answer mors questions if they ware nol altaid to give the wrong answer

According to Skehan (1989), anxiety "may be partly the result of low achievement" (p.115), He commented on an carly assertion by Spcilberger (1962) about academic achievement that the “influence of amaety changed as a function of ability level", in the sense that anxiety was shown to be beneficial to leamers of high ability, but was linked to lower achicvernenl in “low-abitity students, and espscially average abilily students" For

example, students may think that they ae unable to learn another language or pronounce strange sounds and words, unable to understand and answer questions and they don't know

how to translale their ideas into the targel language

Searching for sources of language anxiety, Bailey (1983) took into account leamers' perspectives on language anxiety and made use of the diary entries of students She

mparison of oneself with other students, either for their performance, or

for their anxicty levels

- One's relationship with the teacher, either in relation to one's perceptions of the teacher's expectations or one’s need to gain th teacher's approval

+ Comparison with oneself and one's own personal standards and goal" (Skchan, 1989, p 116)

“speaking, skill is usually the first thing that leamers compare with that of peers, teachers,

and native speakers” (p 550)

A souree of anxicty can also come ftom the fear of testing Most students experience test anxiety, especially in the oral tests Horwitz et al (1986) state that many students report that they know the grammar but forget it while taking the test when a lot of grammar items nmust be remembered ina test, Anxicty is produced when students discover that they make a mistake and give a wrong answer because of theix nervousness during the test Some learners are apprehensive about certain formats, and are anxious when they find

thal the tes docs not evaluate topics or use kinds of terns

covered in class Young (1991)

states that, “In language testing, the greater degree of student evaluation and the more unfamiliar and ambiguous the test tasks and formats, the more the learner anxiety is produced” (p 429) Te means if studonts have never soon that specific question format, the

might experience test anxiety during that test In addition, studying can cause test anxiety Some students may study a lot if they received a poor grade on a previous test or are

anxious about snaking mistakes on an upcoming test If the material that the student,

studicd is not what is on the test, fear and anxicty could produce This may Icad to

studying avoidance Horwitz et al (1986) states that, “Anxious students may avoid

studying and in some cases skip class entirely in an effort alleviate their anxiety” (p 127)

Finally, the instructor can serve as a source of anxiety Contrary to research, some

instructors think that intimidating their students will cause them to become motivated to

learn the forcign language Young (1991) slates (hat amxicly may be evoked if instructors bolicve that an authoritarian manner is conducive to improving students’ performance, if they consider that all students’ mistakes should be corrected, and if they "think their role is more like a diill sergsanu’s [han a facilitalor’s" (p 428)

6 Gender in foreign language anxiety

In general, females are thought to be more adept in language learning than males Formals studonls usually score higher than male students in English exams Therefore, it is not hard to imagine that females are more confident in their abilities to learn a new language well Cince they gain faith in their capabilities, they will be more ready to

“approach threatening situalions” (Démyei, 2001) in English classes On the contrary, males, who have higher frequency of language learning failure, are inclined to attribute their bad performance in English classes to their low ability Consequently, they are more anxious in English classes

However, possible differences between female and male participants as regards anxiety levels and in achievement have been examined in some language anxiety studies Some researches (Chang, 1997; Daly, Krescr, & Rogharr, 1994) have suggested that female students often have higher levels of anxiety than males in academic settings In the field of language leaning, Padilla, Cervantes, Maldonado, and Garcia (1988) reported that

forale students were more likely to be more apprchonsive than male learners

Cheng (2002), who investigated English writing anxiety in Taiwanese learners, discovered that females were significantly more anxious than males

ETkhafiiB (2005) found that females and males cxhibited different levels of anxicty depending on the kind of anxiety experienced: female students presented significantly higher levels of general Arabic language anxiety levels than males, but no statistically significant dilfersnecs were soon between sexes in Arabic listouing anxiety

According to Pappamihiel (2001), English language anxiety experienced by females in the mainstream classroom was related to “social performance" (p.34), and was

"a type of performance anxicty more related to interactions with pcors" (p.33), whereas in

the ESL classroom it was "more related to academic anxiety and worries about

achievement" (p.33) As regards language achiavernent, Aida (1994) reporled that females tocoivod significanily higher grades than mals in Japanese in the final sxam, fernales scoring, an average of 89.7%, as against an average mark of 86.1% for males Similarly, in

Kifano's study (2001) of Japanese college students, male students have been found to feel

more arvicly when they perccived their spoken Japanese Tess competent thin thal, of others, however, such a relationship was not observed among, female students

15

7, Effects of forcign language Icarning anxiety

7.3 Foreign language anxiety and ils associations with three stages of language

learning

Language learning includes three stages: input, processing and output and language anxicty has been theorized to occur at all these three stages This description will point out why second language leamers make mistakes and the reasons of linguistic difficulties second language learners face in learning and using the target language This can offer an insight to help understand anxiety experienced while commmnicating in the target language

Input is the first stage of language learning and anxiety at input stage Gnput anxicty) refers to the anxicty experienced by the learners when they encounter anew word

or phrase in the target language Input anxiety is receiver's apprehension when receiving information Gor audilory and visual clues According to Krashsn (1985, p.3), whal causes incomprehensibility is learners’ affective filter which needs to be lower for successfull language acquisition, otherwise input may be filtered out by nervous or bored learner that makes if, unavailable for acquisition ‘Affctive filler” al the inpul slage may reduce the effectiveness of input by restricting the amuous students’ ability to pay full attention to what their instructors say and reduce their ability to represent input imemnally (Tobias,

1977, cited in Onwuegbuzie et al, (2000, p.475)) Leamers’ with high level of input

loss of successful commmnication and an inercascd level of anxicty

Meanwhile, Onvuegbuzie et al stated that anxiety at the processing stage, called processing anxiety, refers to the “apprehension students experience when performing cognitive operations on new information” , (2000, p.476), Psychologists believe that learners have to process information and to pay attention to produce any linguistic aspect

by using cognitive sources, however, the amount of information or focused mental activity

a lcarner can engage in at onc time is limited Where limited processing mental capacity

may cause anxiety, conversely, anxiety may restrict this operational capacity of the mind, and both together may cause impaired performance or altered behavior Researchers have found a recursive or cyclical relationship among anxiety, cognition and behavior, Leary (1990); Levitt (1980) cited in MacIntyre (1995, p.92)

Anxiety while communicating in the target language is more likely to appear at the

output stage, which entirely depends upon the successfill completion of the previous

stages: input and processing Anxiety at this stage refers to learners’ nervousness or fear

experienced when required to demonstrate their ability to use previously learned material,

Onwuegbuzie et al (2000, p.475) According to Tobias (1977) output anxiety involves

interference, which is manifested after the completion of the processing stage but before its

effective reproduction as output ManIntyre and Gardner asserted, “High level of anxiety at

this stage might hinder students” ability to speak in the target language” (1994b cited in

2000, p.475)

To sum up, all the three stages of language learing have been found to be somewhat interdependent, each stage depends on the successfull completion of the previous one

7.2 Foreign language learning anxiety and its associations with language achievement

@) Debilitating anxiety

Most research on foreign language anxiety has focused on investigating the

relationship between anxiety and language achievement Empirical research has established that language anxiety is associated with "deficits in listening comprehension,

reduced word production, impaired vocabulary learning, lower grades in language courses,

and lower scores on standardized tests" (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994, pp.2-3) Numerous

studies have found that anxiety has a moderate negative correlation with language performance with some researchers claiming it is one of the strongest predictors of success

in foreign language learning (MacIntyre, 1999, cited in Woodwo, 2006, p.312) According

to Wilson (2006, p 93), various writings about language anxiety indicated that it is

difficult to determine whether anxiety is a cause or an effect of poor language learning and

achievement [t would seem logical that poor language ability might be a source of anxiety

As Horwitz (2001, cited in Wilson, 2006, p.85) pointed oul "it is easy to conecplualize foreign language anxiety as a result of poor language learning ability A student does poorly in language learning and consequently feels amxious about his or her language class" However, iL is possible thal anxiety is not simply a result of poor language capacity and achievement, but that anxiety itself may interfare with an individual's existing language ability and become a cause of poor language learning and performance Wilson (2006, p.95-96) cited several studies by Sailo ond Samimy (1996), MaoTntlyre ot al (1997), Onwuegbuzie et al, (1999), and Cheng et al (1999) to demonstrate that there might be a recursive effact between anxiety and language achievement

students to maintain their efforts in learning (Na, 2007, pp.30-31)

8 Language anxicty in the speaking skill

Speaking skill is extremely anxiety-provoking im many language students and that

is often to arouse more anxiety than the other skills Daly (1991) reported that in some

individuals “fear of giving a speceh in publie exceeded such phobias ax foar of snakes, elevators, and heights" (p.3) Anxiety reactions suffered by many students when speaking

or when being asked to speak by the teacher in the foreign language classroom include

“distortion of sounds, inability to reproduce the intonation and rhythm of the language, ficcaing up when called on to perform, and forgelting words or phrases just Leamed or simply refusing to speak and remaining silent" (Young, 1991) "Students said that they did not feel too apprehensive during drills or about speaking if they had time to plan their spoken interventions, but would ficcze if they had to speak spontancously" (Horwitz ct al

1986) ‘They also noted that students who are apprehensive about making mistakes in ftont

củ and to 7:

(p.130), Indeed, speaking tests seem to be particularly anxiety-provoking, as they probably

arouse the three constituents of language anxiety

ive every corre

Classroom avlivilies and the leaminglzaohirg environment sccm to bear directly

on students’ anxiety and on their performance in speaking Young found that "most students would prefer to offer responses orally themselves instead of being called on to

(p S47)

spontanaously in front of the ela

Like Young (1986), Phillips (1990, 1992) also attempted to assess the influence of

anxicly on siudenls perfortmanee in ani orel lest, but went furthor than Yormg He nol only carnied out correlations between oral exam grades and language anxiety but also evaluated eight criteria pertaining to the oral exam, and tried to find out if aspects of language ability might be influencing poorer grades, by means of partial correlations Ile also conducted

cxam ina foreign language? (p.16) Lo find out abont trighly anxious students! reactions to

the oral exam

Lorwitz and her colleagues carried out an investigation in two stages The first one

was a videotaped individual interview in English about ordinary everyday topics such as

1g

she reicralzd.