Anxiety in english speaking classes experienced by english majored freshmen at a teacher training college in vietnam

The aims of the quantitative study were 1 to measure the level of anxiety when students studying speaking skills, 2 to measure students‟ motivation to learn English speaking skills and t

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

COLLEGE IN VIET NAM

(Sự lo lắng trong giờ học kỹ năng nói của sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngành

tiếng Anh tại một trường cao đẳng sư phạm ở Việt Nam)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

COLLEGE IN VIET NAM

(Sự lo lắng trong giờ học kỹ năng nói của sinh viên năm thứ nhất chuyên ngành

tiếng Anh tại một trường cao đẳng sư phạm ở Việt Nam)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

i

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the study entitled “Anxiety in English speaking classes

experienced by English majored freshmen at a teacher training college in Vietnam” is the result of my own work in the fulfillment of the requirements for the

Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Hanoi, 2018

Nguyễn Thị Châm

ii

ACKNOWLEGDMENT

My study has been completed with the assistance and guidance of a number

of significant people I would like to acknowledge them here

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Huong Ngo for her valuable suggestions, academic guidance, and critical comments

on my study Without her support, I would not have been able to complete this study

Moreover, I am grateful to the lecturers and staff at the Faculty of graduate Studies, at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Their inspiring lectures, together with their tireless academic support and encouragements have been a great motivation for me to realize the dream of completing my higher study

Post-Furthermore, my thanks also go to the students who participated in my research Their willingness to support will be always remembered

Last, I wish to acknowledge the support and invaluable help of my family while the work was in progress They have been part of my interesting journey

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ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to investigate anxiety in English speaking classes

experienced by English majored freshmen at a teacher training college in Viet Nam This study used a mixed methods design to achieve its research aims In the quantitative phase, a questionnaire was administered to a group of 46 first year English major students at the teacher training college The aims of the quantitative study were (1) to measure the level of anxiety when students studying speaking skills, (2) to measure students‟ motivation to learn English speaking skills and the level of students‟ self-perceived speaking proficiency reported by the students and (3) to examine the correlations between students‟ level of anxiety and their motivation and self-perceived English speaking proficiency In the second phase, the qualitative study employed a number of semi-structured interviews with seven participants The interviews sought to understand the sources of anxiety in speaking classes and solutions to alleviate anxiety in English speaking classes

This study found that freshmen experienced a moderate level of anxiety in speaking classes, a moderate level of motivation in learning English speaking and a low level of self-perceived speaking proficiency The findings revealed that there was a negative and significant correlation between speaking anxiety and motivation

in learning English speaking The findings also revealed a negative and significant correlation between speaking anxiety and students‟ self-perceived English speaking proficiency The five solutions were suggested to reduce students‟ anxiety in speaking classes The study is expected to contribute to the enhancement of teaching speaking skills and help to improve students‟ speaking participation and speaking‟s ability at my college in particular and in Vietnamese school in general

iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

CLT Communicative Language Teaching

FLCAS Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale

RQ Research Question

Table 3.3. Correlations between the three Subtypes of Anxiety and Students’ perceived Speaking Proficiency 30

Self-Table 3.4. Correlations between the three Subtypes of Anxiety and Students’ Motivation 31

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEGDMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Significance of the study 2

4 Research questions 3

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Method of the study 3

7 Structure of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Foreign language learning anxiety 5

1.1.1 Definition and types of anxiety 5

1.1.2 Anxiety in foreign language learning 6

1.1.2.1 Definition of foreign language anxiety 6

1.1.2.2 Impact of anxiety on foreign language learning 7

1.2 Foreign language speaking skills 7

1.2.1 Definition of foreign language speaking skills 7

1.2.2 Approaches to teach foreign language speaking skills 8

1.2.3 Speaking proficiency 9

1.2.4 Factors affect speaking proficiency 11

1.3 English speaking anxiety 13

1.3.1 Anxiety in English speaking skills 13

1.3.2 Sources of foreign language anxiety and speaking anxiety 14

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1.3.3 Previous studies of foreign language anxiety in speaking skills 16

Chapter summary 19

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 21

2.1 Context of study 21

2.2 Research questions 22

2.3 The study 23

2.3.1 Participants 23

2.3.2 Data gathering instruments 23

2.3.3 Data gathering procedure 25

2.3.4 Data analysis procedure 25

Chapter summary 26

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 27

3.1 The findings from questionnaires 27

3.1.1 The level of students’ speaking anxiety 27

3.1.2 The level of students’ motivation in learning speaking and students’ self – perceived speaking proficiency 28

3.1.3 Relationship between speaking anxiety and students‟ self-perceived speaking proficiency 29

3.1.4 Relationship between speaking anxiety and students‟ motivation 31

3.2 The findings from interviews 31

3.2.1 The level of speaking anxiety experienced by freshmen majoring in English at the teacher training college 31

3.2.2 Sources of English speaking anxiety experienced by freshmen majoring in English at the teacher training college 32

3.2.3 Suggested solutions to reduce anxiety in English speaking classes 35

3.3 Discussion 38

Chapter summary 44

PART C: CONCLUSION 45

1 Summary of the key findings 45

2 Implications 46

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3 Limitations of the study 47

4 Suggestions for further study 47

REFERENCES 48

Appendices i

Appendix A: Questionnaire i

Appendix B: Interview questions xv

SAMPLED INTERVIEW xvi

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In the global era, English as a language is considered one of the most common means of international communication in a wide range of areas, including economics, politics and education As a result, having a good command of English language is an advantage, even a must for people in non-English speaking countries like Vietnam Recently English has been made to be a compulsory subject at schools and university

in Vietnam Moreover, in 2008 Prime Minister announced Decision No 1400/QĐ-TTg that approved the Plan for “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Education System, Period 2008 to 2020” The goal of this project is that “by the year

2020 most Vietnamese youth whoever graduate from vocational schools, colleges and universities gain the capacity to use a foreign language independently This will enable them to be more confident in communication, further their chance to study and work in

an integrated and multi-cultural environment with variety of languages This goal also makes language as an advantage for Vietnamese people, serving the cause of industrialization and modernization for the country” (MOET, 2008, p.1) Having such changes in its foreign language policy, the Vietnamese government believed that it could help improve Vietnamese people‟s English language proficiency levels, enabling them to confidently use English to communicate in the international communication However, despite many attempts made by the Vietnamese government, research has indicated that Vietnamese people still demonstrate limited levels of English proficiency The English capacity of Vietnamese people is limited (To, 2010) According to Le (2013) the English language proficiency of college students is very low and “many college graduates do not meet the foreign language requirement of the recruiters” (p.66) Le pointed out that the level of college students‟

is lower-intermediate after 240 hours of general English That is, they struggle with using English at work They feel anxious when communicating with foreigners and believe English speaking skills are among the most difficult skills when they learn

English Mounting evidence has indicated a strong relationship between language learning anxiety and language proficiency levels Specifically, Iakovos (2009) found that the students rather remain silent, mostly withdrawn and do not like to participate

in classroom activities In fact, it is well recognized that foreign language anxiety is a rather pervasive phenomenon (Aida, 1994) Also, anxiety prevents a learner from achieving a high level of proficiency in a foreign language (Scovel, 1991) As a teacher of English, this concerns me Through a number of observations conducted during my English lessons, I have realized that my students often experience language anxiety in speaking lessons It is questionable if my students‟ limited levels of English proficiency, particularly that for oral skills, is caused by their anxiety when learning English While this topic has been researched extensive in other countries, research into this area in Vietnam is scant

The aforementioned reasons have encouraged me as a teacher of English at the college to conduct research investigating Vietnamese students‟ English speaking

anxiety which is titled “Anxiety in English speaking classes experienced by English

majored freshmen at a teacher training college in Vietnam” Hopefully, the

researcher would make the contribution to complete the insightful understanding about learners‟ speaking anxiety, enhancing teaching and learning English speaking skill, which can lay a foundation for subsequent research

2 Aims of the study

The present study has four research objectives First of all it investigated the levels of language learning anxiety that students reported when learning English speaking skills Secondly it measured the level of students‟ motivation in learning speaking and students‟ self - perceived speaking proficiency Thirdly it examined the relationship between students‟ language anxiety and their self-perceived English speaking proficiency and their motivation Finally, it attempted to seek ways to reduce students‟ anxiety in speaking classes

3 Significance of the study

The current study which explored the anxiety in English speaking classes of majored freshmen at a teacher training college is significant at both practical and

theoretical levels At a practical level, the study identified the students‟ level of speaking anxiety, the relationship between speaking anxiety and students‟ self-perceived speaking proficiency and their motivation and possible ways to reduce anxiety in English speaking classes These findings may help significant others such as lecturers and students to find ways to reduce students‟ anxiety in speaking classes, which may help to improve the quality of teaching and learning English speaking skills At a theoretical level, the present study complements existing literature of anxiety as it addressed the gaps in this area The proposal would be a reference source for English language teachers when teaching oral skills Furthermore, the study is expected to contribute to the enhancement of teaching speaking skills and help to improve students‟ speaking participation and speaking ability at the college in particular and in Vietnamese schools in general

4 Research questions

To achieve aforementioned aims, the study set out to seek answers to the following research questions:

(i) What is the level of students‟ speaking anxiety?

(ii) What are the levels of students‟ motivation in learning speaking and students‟ self - perceived speaking proficiency?

(iii) What is the relationship between English speaking anxiety and students‟ self - perceived speaking proficiency and their motivation?

(iv) In what ways can the teachers help reduce the level of anxiety in English speaking classes?

5 Scope of the study

While foreign language learners may experience foreign language anxiety when learning all the four skills, this study only investigated anxiety that students have during their speaking classes Moreover, due to the limited time, this study only involved the first year English major students in a teacher training college to participate in the questionnaires and semi-structure interviews

6 Method of the study

The current study employed a mixed methods research design, comprising two phrases In the quantitative phase, a questionnaire was administered to a group of first

year students (N= 46) at a teacher training college The questionnaire was composed

by a number of scales (1) anxiety in English speaking class adapted from Horwitz et

al (1986), (2) motivation in learning speaking adapted from Ely (1986), (3) perceived speaking proficiency adapted from the CEFR The questionnaire was used

self-to measure students‟ levels of English speaking anxiety, their levels of motivation while learning English speaking skills, their self- perceived English speaking proficiency levels, which addressed Research Questions (RQ) 1, 2, and 3 The questionnaire also aimed to examine the relationships between students‟ English speaking anxiety and their motivation and self-perceived English proficiency In order

to dig deeper into the answers to the RQs, the qualitative phrase was conducted A number of face-to-face individual interviews with students (n = 7) were employed The interviews provided more depth to RQ 1, 2, 3 Moreover, the qualitative phase aims to identify possible solutions that teachers can do to reduce students‟ levels of anxiety while they are in English speaking classes (RQ4)

7 Structure of the study

The study is made up of three parts: Part A introduction, Part B development, Part C conclusion

Part A: Introduction

This part covers the rationale for the study, aims, significance, research questions, scope, methods, and structure of the study

Part B: Development

This part is organized around three chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: Literature review synthesizes the theoretical framework of the

studies related to anxiety in foreign language learning anxiety, foreign language speaking skills and previous studies of language anxiety in speaking skills

Chapter 2: Methodology of the research presents the context, the

methodology used in this study including the participants, data gathering instruments, data gathering procedures and data analysis procedures The detailed results of the survey and a comprehensive analysis on the data collected are focused

Chapter 3: Findings and discussion consists of a comprehensive analysis of

the data from questionnaires and interviews and discussion on the findings

Part C: Conclusion gives the conclusion from the results of the findings,

implications, limitation of the study and some suggestions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter starts with a discussion of what anxiety is and its types Following this is the definition of foreign language speaking skills, approaches to teach foreign language speaking skills, speaking proficiency, and factors affect speaking proficiency The final section discusses anxiety in speaking skills, sources of foreign

language anxiety and speaking anxiety and then summaries and discusses the research

findings of foreign language anxiety in speaking skills which provide an overall picture of the anxiety field and help to identify the resarch gaps for the present study

1.1 Foreign language learning anxiety

1.1.1 Definition and types of anxiety

As a psychological construct, anxiety was described as "a state of apprehension,

a vague fear that is only indirectly associated with an object" (Scovel, 1991, p.18) Speiberger (1976) distinguished anxiety from fear by pointing out that although anxiety and fear are both "unpleasant emotional reactions to the stimulus conditions perceived as threatening," fear is usually derived from a "real, objective danger in the external environment" while the threatening stimulus of anxiety may not be known Much in the same vein Horwitz, and Cope (1986) defined anxiety as “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system” (p.125)

Several types of anxiety have been described, two of the most well-known being trait anxiety and state anxiety Trait anxiety is a relatively stable personality trait A person who is trait anxious is likely to feel anxious in a variety of situations State anxiety, on the other hand, is a temporary condition experienced at a particular moment A third type of anxiety is situation specific anxiety which is anxiety in specific situations Research into language learning anxiety has indicated that language

learning be classed as situation specific (MacIntyre and Gardner 1991; Horwitz 2001) That is, a trait which happens in language learning situations, namely classrooms

1.1.2 Anxiety in foreign language learning

1.1.2.1 Definition of foreign language anxiety

Anxiety in foreign language learning has been an interest in education research for the past few decades and there are various definition of anxiety Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) who are one of the pioneers to conduct a study of the sources of foreign language anxiety defined foreign language anxiety as “a distinct complex of self-perception, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” (p.128) Foreign language learning process is a unique process, because learners are required to communicate using a language which they have not mastered perfectly and foreign language anxiety would take place only in foreign language learning situations From this viewpoint, Horwitz et al assert that language anxiety is unique due to the way it involves learners‟ self-concepts to communicate competently and to present themselves genuinely

Another definition of foreign language anxiety was given by MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) who defined this linguistic phenomenon as “the feeling of tension and apprehension specifically associated with second language contexts, including speaking, listening and learning” (p.284) In other words, foreign language anxiety is worry and negative emotional reaction aroused when learning or using a second language (MacIntyre, 1999)

Oxford (1999) stated that language anxiety is simply a passing state of fear when students have to perform using a second language However, if anxiety repeatedly occurs and students associate it with language performance, then anxiety transforms into a trait rather than a state Oxford went further that once language anxiety has evolved into a lasting trait, it can have pervasive effects on language learning and language performance Therefore, the learners expect to be anxious in language learning process

To sum up, from the definitions above, the definition of foreign language anxiety offered by MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) strongly influences and serves as the present study background definition as the present study investigates foreign language anxiety in language learning process, specifically speaking classes, to examine the unpleasant feelings, tension feeling apprehension that students experience during English speaking classes

1.1.2.2 Impact of anxiety on foreign language learning

Research into language anxiety has consistently shown that anxiety can hinder foreign language production and achievement When learners have high level of anxiety, acquisition of foreign language is unlikely to be successful Indeed, Campell

& Ortis (1991) reported a half of all language students experience a different level of anxiety Language anxiety is experienced by learners of both foreign and second language; research related to language anxiety stated that anxiety posed the potential problems for language learners because “it can interfere with the acquisition, retention and the production of the new language” (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991, p.86) Oxford (1991) revealed that serious language anxiety may cause other related problems with self-esteem, self-confidence, and risk-taking ability, and ultimately hampers proficiency in the second language and automatically affects academic achievement Therefore, it is crucial to understand the role of anxiety in language learning Language anxiety ranks high among factors that can influence language learning, regardless of whether the setting is formal or informal For the case of the present study, the hypothesis is that the students experience a certain level of anxiety The anxious students may attribute their anxiety to the difficulties they face during their learning Hence, anxiety would be an barrier against the language learning progress In the following section, a discussion on foreign language speaking will be provided

1.2 Foreign language speaking skills

1.2.1 Definition of foreign language speaking skills

There are a variety of definitions for the term foreign language speaking skills Burns and Joyce (1997) stated that speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information In this

process, speaking form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking Nunan (2003) defined speaking is the productive oral skill that consist of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning Speaking is oral activity in producing sound that express opinion and construct the meaning Therefore, the students can get information and can understand the meaning of information and the students can share the information to other students Likewise, Harmer (2007) defined foreign language speaking is the ability to speak fluently and presupposes not only knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and language “on the spot”

1.2.2 Approaches to teach foreign language speaking skills

English language teaching has changed over the years with different methods and approaches Traditionally, methodology to teach speaking skills usually meant repeating after the teacher, memorizing a dialogue, or responding to drills known as audiolingual method and grammar-translation method The development of communicative language teaching (CLT) leaded to the changes of syllabuses and methodology, which are continuing to shape approaches to teaching speaking skills today

The audiolingual method emphasizes aural and oral work and includes memorization of dialogues, pattern drills, and substitution drills to form habits Also, the method follows a strict sequence of language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing (Abdel, 2009), and the presentation-practice-production sequence makes the teacher the center of the classroom (Kumaravadivelu, 2006) Although the method provides foreign language teachers a framework, the method has a number of disadvantages One of the disadvantages is that students often complain about dull, uninteresting, and mechanical drills (Abdel, 2009) In addition, students do not learn to communicate spontaneously (Abdel, 2009) and have problems transferring isolated vocabulary and grammar items into real-life communicative situations (Kumaravadivelu, 2006)

Grammar-translation method featured memorization of grammar rules and vocabulary and application of this knowledge to translation of sentences into the target

language The emphasis was mainly put on reading, not on oral communication in the target language The grammar-translation method can help students understand the grammatical rules of the target language and can help develop students‟ reading and writing skills in the target language (Chang, 2011) However, the method has been criticized for its teacher-centeredness, very little oral work and little use of the target language, reliance on rote memorization and ignorance of students‟ interests (Chang, 2011)

Regarding CLT, grammar-based syllabuses were replaced by communicative syllabus with notion, functions, skills, tasks or other non-grammatical units of organization Fluency became a goal for speaking course and this could be developed through the use of information-gap and other tasks that required learners to attempt real communication strategies and engage in negotiation of meaning, both of which were considered essential to the development of oral skills CLT offers learners many opportunities to use the target language such as pair work, group work, role-plays, simulations where they must fulfill meaningful communication tasks whose realization is important and a teacher's attention is focused on the content rather than the form (Harmer, 2007) However, it has been criticized for its focus on fluency rather than accuracy, avoidance of the first language, and focus on meaning against form (Wu, 2010) In addition, the major goals of foreign language classes are communicative competence Communicative competence presents a big challenge to teachers and students as it involves real communication with people in authentic contexts Teachers face the challenge to create the right kind of interaction for students (Koosha, & Yakhabi, 2013) because speaking, a major component of communicative competence, has been reported

as one of the main anxiety-provoking activities in the foreign language classroom (Horwitz et al., 1986) and researchers identified anxiety as one of the challenges faced by the students in a foreign language classroom (Xiao & Wong, 2014)

1.2.3 Speaking proficiency

There has been a variety of definitions of oral competence or speaking proficiency Bygates (1991) defined speaking proficiency as the ability to form abstract sentences that are produced and adapted to circumstances at the moment of speaking Therefore, making rapid decisions and contributions that adequately fit the situation According to O‟Maley and Valdez (1996) oral competence referred to an ability to understand meaning between two or more speakers Brown and Yule (1983)

considered oral competence as an interactive process where a meaning is built on by producing and receiving processed information

In foreign language learning it is crucial to assess speaking proficiency of the learners The formal assessment of speaking proficiency is often carried out through performance assessment where the learners can be tested individually or in groups or pairs Learners can demonstrate their proficiency by interacting with a partner (face-to-face, on the telephone, digitally, a peer-to-peer conversation), or in the format of an oral proficiency interview In the oral proficiency interview, a trained examiner is conducting an interview of the candidate In the peer-to-peer test, two or more candidates interact with one another He and Young (1998) are in favour of language proficiency interviews which are done with one learner and one assessor, preferably a native speaker These interviews are largely question-and-answer based They argue that having a native speaker assess a learner is the best way to judge whether someone

is proficient or not

Proficiency rating scales like the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) can also be used to assess speaking proficiency CEFR divides learners into three broad divisions that can be divided into six levels, A1 to C2, for each level, it describes what a learner is supposed to be able to do in speaking skills A1 (beginner) is a basic ability to communicate and exchange information in a simple way A2 (elementary) is an ability to deal with simple, straightforward information and begin to express oneself in familiar contexts B1 (intermediate) is the ability to express oneself in a limited way in familiar situations and to deal in a general way with no routine information B2 (upper – intermediate) is the capacity to achieve most goals and express oneself on a range of topics C1 (advanced) is the ability to communicate with the emphasis on how well it is done, in terms of appropriacy, sensitivity and the capacity to deal with unfamiliar topics C2 (mastery) is the capacity

to deal with material which is academic or cognitively demanding, and to use language

to good effect at a level of performance which may in certain respects be more advanced than that of an average native speaker The CEFR can be used for assessment in three ways It can be used for identifying what needs to be tested, how

learner performance can be interpreted, and how comparisons can be made (Council of Europe, 2001, p 178) The Council states that the Framework “seeks to provide a point of reference, not a practical assessment tool” (p 178) North (2014) states that users can use the CEFR as a starting point for assessment, but should definitely think about what they want to get out of the assessment and what needs to be tested

Another way to assess learners‟ speaking competence is the use of can-do statements or self-assessment form Self-assessment is also known as self-rating, self-appraisal, self-control, or self-evaluation Second or foreign language learners are asked to rate their speaking abilities of performing tasks described in can-do statements According to Blanche and Merino (1989) the accuracy of self-assessment was high, since the values of the correlation coefficients between teacher and self-ratings ranging from 5 and higher were not uncommon Ross (1998), however, rejected this argument through his meta-analysis of 29 studies on speaking self-assessment The studies were reported to have effect sizes (i.e., the degree of association between teacher and self-ratings) of a range of 09 to 0.79 He concluded that the wide range of the effect size across studies suggested that self-assessment of speaking is susceptible to extraneous variables Although there has been debate on whether learners can or cannot assess speaking ability, there are a great deal of study used self-assess or self-perceive speaking ability as their scale due to the condition of the study that the researcher cannot conduct a speaking test to rate the speaking ability

Linguistic Factors

The use of correct form in learning language is important for oral proficiency Linguistic factors include several features like pronunciation, grammar, and

vocabulary Mispronouncing the sounds or the stresses and intonations cause misunderstanding In addtition, grammar play an imporatnt role in the structure of English It is rather difficult for learners to transfer the correct grammar to their speaking (Larsen-Freeman, 2001) Vocabulary is essential for learners as it acts like bricks to a building It is necessary for learners to have a wide range vocabulary in their long-term memory In addition, the ability to remember words from one's mind may cover the speaking fluency (Levelt, 1989)

Motivation

Motivation plays an important role in foreign language learning and it is considered as

a crucial factor influencing the achievement and proficiency of language learning Wilona et al (2010) claimed that there was a correlation between motivation and speaking proficiency Indeed, Wilona et al believed that when language learners were intrinsically motivated they can achieve higher language proficiency, specifically on the speaking skills And it enables them to perform well in their speaking He supposed that those who are intrinsically motivated tend to spend some time to practice the skill by engaging in classroom activities, watching English movies, listening to English songs, and even having a conversation with a native speaker Because they know the importance of the learning process and the will to learn the language comes within them, they always seek a way to use the language Therefore, their speaking skills are improved

in speaking classes and seek for the countermeasures to reduce the level of anxiety In the following section English speaking anxiety will be discussed in more details

1.3 English speaking anxiety

1.3.1 Anxiety in English speaking skills

Speaking has been generally recognized as the most anxiety provoking skill associated with foreign language learning According to Horwitz et al (1986), anxiety

is a major obstacle to be overcome in learning to speak another language Indeed, Horwitz and Young (1991) points out that speaking is problematic because the spontaneity allows the speaker no preparation time in which to monitor and correct what he or she wants to say, thus the risk of being wrong in an oral class is high Students with anxiety will have difficulty concentrating and processing input in class and consequently the output of the language is negatively affected They tend to hesitate to volunteer to participate in activities in activities and they are unwilling to take risks They are apprehensive, worried and even fearful in the classroom (MacIntyre & Gardner 1991) Such conditions interfere with learning and anxious students are thus lack of many opportunities to practice the target language Anxiety is therefore considered a major obstacle to developing language skills, and particularly

speaking skills．

When students are nervous, they tend to make more mistakes The more mistakes they make, the more nervous they will be, and the less likely they are to perform well at speaking skills thus resulting in a vicious circle The relationship between anxiety and speaking is not difficult to identify The important question is whether it is the anxiety that gets in the way of developing good speaking skills or it is the poor speaking skills that create the anxiety There is no definitive answer yet (Allwright & Bailey 1991) What is certain, however, is that anxiety can make the difference between success and failure in language learning (MacIntyre 2002)

1.3.2 Sources of foreign language anxiety and speaking anxiety

According to Aydın (2001) there were four main sources of anxiety in speaking classes including the learners‟ personal reasons, the teacher‟s manner in the classroom, learners‟ beliefs and the testing and teaching procedures

Personal reasons

Personal reasons are related with a learners self-assessment of ability and self comparison to others Learners usually evaluate their own capabilities that can be positive or negative Research shows that learners‟ negative evaluations promote anxiety (Price, 1991) However, if this evaluation is positive, it helps learners to develop their language skills (MacIntyre, Gardner, & Clément, 1997) According to Kiato (2001) self-assessment of ability refers to self-perception of speaking ability, and it is considered to be a significant anxiety-provoking factor Kiation points out that among all the skills taught in the foreign language class speaking is usually the first skill that learners compare themselves with peers, teachers and native speakers Thus,

it is reasonable to consider that low self-perception of speaking ability is likely to be a source of anxiety

Self-comparison to others is associated with learners‟ competitive behaviors in the class (Aydın, 2001) When learners realize that they have weaker language skills than others, they start to compete with them and this causes them to feel anxious Yan and Horwitz (2008) conducted an interview study on how language anxiety functions

in language learning The researchers found 12 major affinities related to language anxiety One of the affinities was the learners‟ self comparisons with their peers The majority of the participants reported comparing their language ability to that of others

Learners’ beliefs

Learners‟ own beliefs about language learning have also been found to be related to foreign language anxiety and speaking anxiety Some students may think that particular skills are more important than others in language learning According to Aydın (2001), learners may have unrealistic ideas about language learning, and these ideas could have negative effects on their achievement That is,

if learners‟ beliefs do not match the real situations, they may start to feel anxious

(Ohata, 2005) Horwitz (1988) found that speaking was perceived as more difficult than reading, writing, or listening Kim (1998 as cited in Horwitz, 2001) reported that students in a conversation class were more embarrassed and anxious than students in a reading class

Teachers’ manner

The way the teacher deals with the learners‟ errors is important because research has shown that learners‟ sense of self-efficacy in language learning and their motivation are affected by the kind and amount of feedback (positive or negative) they receive (Williams & Burden, 1997, cited in Aydın, 2001) The teachers‟ manner of error correction has been assumed to be an anxiety-provoking factor In addition to the ways of error correction, some attitudes that teachers may have towards students have been found to be anxiety-provoking Cheng (2005) conducted a study to investigate the role of teachers‟ manner and characteristics in language anxiety The results revealed that teachers who were friendly, relaxed and patient were found to reduce anxiety However, teachers who give unexpected quizzes were found to be anxiety-provoking In addition, being a poor communicator, unpredictable and rigid were some anxiety-provoking teacher characteristics When the teacher ignores the efforts that some students make or only praises successful students, it can cause anxiety (Aydın, 2001)

Teaching and testing procedures

Speaking classes usually involve several different activities such as role plays, pair work or presentations that require learners to participate orally Research has shown that learners feel rather anxious when they are supposed to speak in front of the teacher and the class, and the majority of learners find giving presentations anxiety provoking (Aydın, 2001; Woodrow, 2006; Young, 1991) The main reason for getting anxious in giving presentations is “the feeling of conspicuousness and fear of negative evaluation” (Aydın, 2001, p 111) The study conducted by Cheng (2005) indicated that speaking in front of the class was the major anxiety-provoking factor In addition

to public speaking activities, being called on by the teacher has been found to be another anxiety-provoking situation Wörde (2003) found that the participants did not

want to be called on by the teacher Koch and Terell (1991) conducted a study to investigate the techniques and activities that can reduce the amount of anxiety in the class, and they found that the participants did not like being nominated by the teacher, and that they felt more relaxed in group and pair work activities

In addition to teaching procedures, research has shown that most students feel anxious in testing situations due to worrying about getting low marks and not satisfy their high expectations (Aydın, 2001; Ohata, 2005) Research has also shown that students with high test anxiety are less successful in language tests Phillips (1992) who analyzed the effects of language anxiety on oral tests found that slightly anxious students performed better than highly anxious students, and they used more complex structures than highly anxious students

1.3.3 Previous studies of foreign language anxiety in speaking skills

Language anxiety has attracted the attention of many researchers (Horwitz, 2010) The results of their studies contribute to understanding how language learners‟ feelings of language anxiety interact with the process of acquiring a foreign or second language (MacIntyre, 1995; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989; Piechurska-Kuciel, 2008) A learner in a foreign language classroom may experience, among other things, “the worry and negative emotional reaction aroused when learning or using a second language” (MacIntyre, 1999, p 27), which denotes language anxiety It may be mani-fested by the physical symptoms of nervousness, for instance sweating, heart pounding

or feeling cold, as well as impaired cognitive abilities such as limited performance, creativity and concentration (Woodrow, 2006, p 310)

Horwitz et al (1986) was one of the pioneers to conduct a study on foreign language anxiety One valuable contribution of Horwitz et al‟s research is that it offers a Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) to explore second language anxiety as a specific of its type The FLCAS consisted of 33 items divided into three related performance anxieties intervening in classroom language anxiety namely communication apprehension (items 1, 4, 9, 14, 15, 18, 24, 27, 29, 30, 32), fear of negative evaluation (items 2, 7, 13, 19, 23, 31, 33) and test anxiety (items 3, 5, 6, 8, 10,

11, 12, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28) The first one observed in oral communication

contexts was a fear about real or anticipated communication with other people This type

of anxiety may be manifested by a fear of speaking in class, called oral communication anxiety, or a fear of speaking in public Fear of negative evaluation was encountered when a learner fears being evaluated negatively in a range of social situations The last one, test anxiety appeared in contexts of formal evaluation, during which a learner experiences feelings of worry In Horwitz et al‟s study the Cronbach‟s alpha was 0.93 which is a representation of high internal reliability of the scale In Aida‟s (1994) study the reliability was reported as 0.80 The findings of various studies using this instrument for research were consistent and unvarying showing negative relationship between anxiety and achievement (Horwitz, 2001)

There are a number of studies conducted to exemplify the relationship between levels of language anxiety the way learners perceive their own foreign language abilities, including self-perceived L2 speaking proficiency MacIntyre et al (1997) did

a survey on 37 students learning French as L2, who were asked to self-report on their perceived French proficiency, in the areas of speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing They used a 6-point Likert scale, where 0 indicated no competence and 6 indicated fluency The participants also did a number of proficiency tests Language anxiety was measured on a 19-item scale that consisted of Gardner‟s French use anxiety and French class anxiety scales The results were clear on the hypothesis that “actual competence, perceived competence and language anxiety are all interrelated” (MacIntyre et al., 1997, p 274) The negative significant correlation was found between language anxiety and self-rated speaking proficiency Kitano (2001) investigated the relationship between language anxiety and learners‟ self-perception of target language among 212 foreign language students The study focused

on learners‟ self-ratings of speaking ability in the Japanese language The self-rating of the individuals‟ current level of speaking ability was negatively related to class anxiety

(r = -.509, p = 00) The results indicated a moderate negative relationship between

anxiety and self-ratings, and the conclusion was that anxiety amongst students was stronger when the learner perceived his or her speaking ability to be less developed than that of his or her peers

Attention has been drawn to the correlation between language anxiety, learners‟ self-perception of target language and motivation MacIntyre et al (2002) investigated willingness to communicate in a second language, second language anxiety, perceived second language competence, and second language learning motivation amongst junior high school French immersion students The authors found significant negative correlations between anxiety and perceived competence Results also showed that those students who had higher perceived competence tended to have higher motivation towards learning French

Much in the same vein, Takahashi (2008) conducted a research on 98 Japanese students in order to investigate the relationship between language anxiety and self-perception of language competence and motivation intensity amongst Japanese university EFL learners The study insisted that the students who self-perceived to have higher English proficiency showed lower levels of language anxiety in the EFL classroom The results revealed that self-perception was related to all the three variables: negatively with anxiety, and positively with motivational strength and proficiency Takahashi‟s study also indicated a negative correlation between language anxiety and strength of motivation The results revealed that students with higher levels of language anxiety showed weaker motivation for learning English

There is a range of studies exemplifying the relationship between language motivation and anxiety in language learning For example, Gardner et al (1992) stated that motivated students are less anxious in second language contexts Brown, Robson, and Rosenkjar (2001) pointed out that learners‟ motivation and anxiety were negatively correlated and a lack of motivation could cause anxious behaviors Aida (1994) supposed that the more anxious foreign languages students are, the less willing they are to get involved in learning activities, and thus to have lower performance results than those who are less-anxious students Liu (2012) conducted a study on 150 first-year non-English major undergraduates from a university in central Taiwan to investigate the relationships between foreign language anxiety, learning motivation, autonomy, and language proficiency The findings indicated that more than half of the participants reflected different degrees of learner anxiety The results revealed that

learning motivation had a negative significant correlation with foreign language anxiety (r = -.515) Liu claimed that learners who experienced higher levels of anxiety

in the language classroom tended to have lower motivation and became less autonomous in language learning

Although a number of studies have been conducted to measure language anxiety and explore the relationship between language anxiety and other variables, the majority

of these have involved in foreign context There is no previous research has discussed the anxiety of English majored freshmen of the teacher training college in English speaking class Moreover, there has not much previous research analyzing the level of anxiety, motivation of learning English and self-perceived in learning speaking English

of students With this gap from the previous research, the author decides on exploring anxiety in language learning for students in English speaking class

Chapter summary

In summary, this chapter states the theoretical background related to the overview of anxiety with the definition of anxiety, types of anxiety and anxiety in language learning It also shows the overview of speaking with the definition of speaking, approaches to teach speaking skills, speaking proficiency and factors affect speaking proficiency Moreover, the chapter discusses anxiety in English speaking anxiety, sources of speaking anxiety and previous studies of language anxiety in speaking skills The next chapter will describe the methodological background for the study as well as the description of the study again

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Context of study

English has been made a compulsory subject in Vietnam at both lower and upper secondary level and an elective subject at primary level However, the English proficiency of most Vietnamese students is still low According to Le (2013), however, after seven years studying English at lower and upper secondary schools, the level of the students is just somewhere between elementary and lower-intermediate At tertiary level, English is introduced nationally both as a discipline and a subject (Hoang, 2010) Hoang explains that for those who are trained English as a discipline to get BA, MA or doctoral degree in English can become teachers, interpreters or researchers either in linguistics or in English teaching methodologies There are several institutions in Vietnam which train English as a discipline For pedagogical major including English language teaching major, there are a lot of colleges and universities which train students to be a teacher Basically, there are two levels of teacher training in Vietnam: colleges (3 years training) and universities (4 years training) The students who graduate from a university are eligible to teach at a university, a college or an upper secondary school and those with a college degree are only qualified to teach students at primary and lower secondary school In order to become students at these colleges or universities, the students have to pass the national high school graduation examination with separate tests in Maths, Literature, English and one of the subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Geography, Biology, and History The total scores in three of these tests are used to determine which universities or colleges, if any, the students will be accepted However, recently, the entrance marks for teacher training universities is low and it is even lower for teacher training colleges The minimum entrance mark for teacher training college is “a shockingly low 9 out of 30 in some parts of the country” (Le, 2017) Meanwhile, teacher training universities accept students with a 15.5 mark It can be said that the low required minimum scores show the students‟ lack of interest in pedagogical schools As far as the English language teacher proficiency in Vietnam is concerned, Nguyen & Dudzik

(2013) reported 83%, 87%, and 91% of teachers at the primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary level, respectively, were underqualified As a teacher of English a teacher training college, this concerns the researcher as the researchers‟ students who soon become a teacher get low entrance mark and encourages the researcher to find some solutions to improve students‟ proficiency especially speaking proficiency Of all the affective factors that affect language acquisition, language anxiety is the most negative one Language anxiety can hinder the success in foreign language acquisition Hence, it is important that the researcher investigate the anxiety among the freshmen at the teacher training college

The study was conducted at a teacher training college which is located in Hanoi, Vietnam The teacher training college was established in 1959 During nearly

60 years of the establishment and development, the college continuously develop and contribute to the development of education in general and Hanoi city in particular

Foreign Language Department is one of the main departments of the college There are 12 teachers in the department with experienced and good qualification in teaching English There are 7 teachers with Master degree and 5 teachers with BA degree of English linguistics Foreign Language Department is in charge of teaching English for major students and for non-majored students at the college There are 46 freshmen in the Foreign Language Department The first-year English majored students are learning speaking skills with course book named Innovation Elementary

by Hugh Dellar and Andrew Walkley (2005) The course book included 9 modules equivalent to 9 topics According to the syllabus students have two periods a week for speaking skills In addition to the time constraint for speaking, students do not have much chance for further practice Consequently, freshmen face great variety of problems with speaking skills, one of which is their anxiety when speaking English

2.2 Research questions

As mentioned in section 3 of Introduction part, the study was carried out to answer the following research questions

1 What is the level of students‟ speaking anxiety?

2 What are the level of students‟ motivation in learning speaking and students‟ self – perceived speaking proficiency?

3 What is the relationship between English speaking anxiety and students‟ perceived speaking proficiency and their motivation?

self-4 In what ways can the teachers help reduce the level of anxiety in English speaking classes?

After completing the questionnaires, the students participated in the informal interviews Seven students (n =6 females, n= 1 male) were invited to the interviews and all of them agreed The data obtained from the informal interviews was transcribed and analyzed so that the researcher of this study could gain a deep understanding of the problems

2.3.2 Data gathering instruments

The present study used a mixed research method Two instruments used for data collection were questionnaires and interview The questionnaires were selected as the first tool for the process of data collection According to Dornyei (2003), questionnaires that is a relatively limited period of time to collect data, straightforward

to process and analyze the data and appropriate for providing a general understanding

of the subject matter It, hence, would be very useful for the researcher to investigate the level of speaking anxiety, the levels of students‟ motivation in learning speaking, the levels of students‟ self-perceived speaking proficiency and the relationship

between speaking anxiety, students‟ self-perceived speaking skills and students‟ motivation The general feature of questionnaires (length, layout, and topic), the main parts of questionnaire (title, instructions, questionnaire items, additional information, final “thank you”), questionnaire content and questionnaire items were carefully studied Therefore, there were 47 items in the questionnaire divided into four main parts The first part was the personal information about the participants The second part was the anxiety in speaking classes which was adapted from the FLCAS designed

by Horwitz et al (1986) The 33 items in the second part is a five point Likert type scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree The word “foreign language class” in the original version was replaced by “English speaking class” in order to be suitable to the present study The next 7 items (5 Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree) related to the strength of motivation developed by Ely (1986) This scale was slightly modified such as replacing the term “foreign language” with

“English language speaking” The last part was self-perceived speaking skill included two items to self-assess speaking skill adapted from the CEFR

Taking into account that the questionnaire was written in English and after presuming that the misunderstanding of the items could pose to serious problems to obtain reliable and valid result, the questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese Moreover, in order to see how these questionnaires worked in the process of data collection, the study needed to pilot the questionnaire The researcher, hence, asked the supervisor to check carefully before delivering to the participants Besides, in order to make sure that the instrument for the study were reliable, Cronbach‟s alpha is considered to be an appropriate measure of internal consistency within an instrument Therefore, the researcher calculated Cronbach‟s alpha with the help of computer

Interviews were chosen as a follow-up step after questionnaires to triangulate the data and to provide further insights into their opinion of the problems of speaking skill which made them nervous and stressful in speaking classes which could be missed from questionnaires The data from the interviews were transcribed, translated into English and analyzed so that the researcher could gain deep understanding of the problems, from those giving possible solutions to help student alleviate their anxiety

The following section will discuss about detailed procedures for collecting data from questionnaires and interviews

2.3.3 Data gathering procedure

The first stage of data gathering procedure was questionnaire distributions The questionnaires were administered in 2 classes when the students had completed the first semester of the academic year 2017 – 2018 The researcher attended the class, explaining the aims of the study and invited them to participate in the questionnaire The researcher explained the students the purposes of answering this questionnaire are

to collect the data about anxiety of students in learning English speaking supporting the research The researcher also explained any questions related to the questionnaire that the students were not clear during the process The entire procedure took about 15 minutes for each class

The second stage was semi-structured individual interviews Time for each interview was about appropriately 10 minutes on average In order to obtain reliable and valid result, the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese The author recorded the interviews by mobile phone and then transcribed After the interviews were transcribed, the responses were categorized from some factors cause anxiety in English speaking classes and some ways to reduce anxiety in English speaking classes

2.3.4 Data analysis procedure

When all the questionnaires were collected, the researcher started to analyze the data The responses from questionnaires were entered into the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 22 Before analyzing the data were screened for missing data and error data One case was removed due to answering “5” (strongly agree) and “3” (neither agree nor disagree for nearly all of the items) As such, a total

of 45 cases were retained for further analysis

Descriptive statistics including reliability tests, frequency, mean and standard deviation and correlations were calculated for each item In order to measure the level

of students‟ speaking anxiety, the level of students‟ motivation in learning speaking and students‟ self – perceived speaking proficiency, mean analyses were used While examining the level of speaking anxiety, the researcher categorized the items into three main categories which are communication anxiety (CA) (items 1, 4, 9, 14, 15, 18, 24,

27, 29, 30, 32), Feedback anxiety (FA) (items 2, 7, 13, 19, 23, 31, 33) and Test anxiety

(TA) (items 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28) Correlations were generated to examine the relationships between English speaking anxiety and students‟ self-perceived speaking proficiency and their motivation

For the qualitative data from interviews, the researcher transcribed and translated into Vietnamese The researcher read the answers of the interviewee several times and made the keys words and common concepts in bold Then, the key words and common concepts were categorized depending on how they related or differed from each other

Chapter summary

In summary, this chapter has discussed methodologies used for the study It has stated the participants, data gathering instruments, data gathering procedure, data analysis procedure The next chapter will present the findings discussion of the data collected from questionnaires and interviews

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 The findings from questionnaires

The findings from questionnaires were divided into four sections including the level of students‟ speaking anxiety, the level of students‟ motivation in learning speaking and students‟ self – perceived speaking proficiency, the relationship between speaking anxiety and students‟ self-perceived speaking proficiency and the relationship between speaking anxiety and motivation in learning speaking

3.1.1 The level of students’ speaking anxiety

One of the objectives of the present study was to investigate the level of speaking anxiety of the first year students To answer the first RQ “What is the level of students‟ speaking anxiety?” mean analyses were conducted

As can be seen in Table 3.1, the mean score of the items for Communication

anxiety was 3.03 (SD=0.55), for Feedback anxiety was 3.33 (SD= 0.63) and Test anxiety was 3.07 (SD = 0.42) Among these three categories, feedback anxiety ranked

the highest level, fear of failing in test was the second one with a slight higher than communication anxiety Oxford‟s (1990) key to understanding mean scores on SILL-based instruments with response scale range 1 to 5 was used to report the level of speaking anxiety in this study Average scores of 3.5 to 5.0 were defined as high level, 2.5 to 3.4 were at avarage level, and 1.0 to 2.4 were low level The mean for the total

anxiety in speaking classes was 3.15 (SD = 0.31) which indicated that students

experienced medium level of anxiety in speaking classes In addition, reliability analyses with Cronbach alpha were generated for the three subtypes of anxiety and total anxiety Communication anxiety, feedback anxiety, test anxiety and total anxiety were reliable at Cronbach alphas of 0.82, 0.74, 0.75 and 0.72 respectively

Table 3.1

Mean levels, standard deviation and Cronbach Alphas for three Subtypes of Anxiety

In order to answer RQ 2 of the present study mean analyses were conducted

As shown in Table 3.2 the mean score for motivation in learning speaking was

2.49 (SD = 0.36) which revealed a moderate level of motivation to learn speaking

Students‟ self-perceived for speaking skills was assessed in terms of spoken interaction and spoken production adapted from the CEFR CEFR divides learners into three broad divisions that can be divided into six levels, A1 to C2, for each level, it describes what a learner is supposed to be able to do in speaking skills In the present study, the researcher coded the level of students‟ self-assessment of speaking proficiency A1 to C2 by the number from 1 to 6 respectively As can be seen from Table 3.2 the mean score of students‟ self-perceived of spoken interaction was 2.44

(SD = 0.86) and students‟ self-perceived of spoken production was 2.36 (SD = 0.85)

The mean scores revealed the low level of self-perceived speaking skills

To assess the reliability of the motivation measure, students‟ self – perceived spoken interaction and students‟ self – perceived spoken production measure, Cronbach alpha was generated Motivation has a Cronbach alpha of 0.53 Students‟ self – perceived spoken interaction and students‟ self – perceived spoken production had a low Cronbach alpha at 0.59 According to Pallant (2013) it is very common that short scales (those with lower than 10 items have low Cronbach alpha at 0.5) However, outside Cronbach's alpha, corrected item – total correlation is also used to

test the reliability The data will be accepted when corrected item – total correlation is above 0.3 (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994; Hair et al.,1998) As no corrected item – total correlation were belowed 0.3, motivation, students‟ self – perceived spoken interaction and students‟ self – perceived spoken production were reliable in this study

students‟ self-perceived of spoken interaction (r = -0.43, p = 0.003) Feedback anxiety was not significantly correlated with students‟ self-perceived of spoken interaction (r =

- 0.30, p = 0.042) Test anxiety was not significantly correlated with students‟ perceived of spoken interaction (r = - 0.27, p = 0.072) Total anxiety was found to

self-have a negative significant correlation with students‟ self-perceived spoken interaction

(r = -0.58, p = 0.000)

Regarding the relationship between the three variables of speaking anxiety and students‟ self-perceived of spoken production, communicative anxiety was not