A study on ESP learners’ speaking anxiety at a university in vietnam

Results indicatedthat the causes of speaking anxiety could be divided into three main categories,namely: student factors, teacher factors and learning settings/environment.. LIST OF FIGU

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC Ở VIỆT NAM

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC Ở VIỆT NAM

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Prof Nguyễn Hòa

HANOI – 2017

DECLARATION Title: “A STUDY ON ESP LEARNERS’ SPEAKING ANXIETY AT A

Bùi Thị Phương

First of all, I would like to send my sincere and special gratitude to mysupervisor, Prof Nguyễn Hòa, who has given valuable assistance, guidance,precious suggestions, advice, and reference materials to me so that I can completethis thesis

I would also like to acknowledge Mr Khoi at University of Language andInternational Studies as the second reader of this thesis, and I am gratefully indebtedfor his very valuable instructions of how to conduct the study using a new researchmethodology

I would also like to thank the third-year students in Transport Engineering inEnglish who were involved in the validation survey for this research project.Without their passionate participation and input, the validation survey could nothave been successfully conducted

Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my family and to myboyfriend for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragementthroughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writingthis thesis This accomplishment would not have been possible without them Thankyou

The findings reported that students mostly feel anxious when it comes tospeaking in English speaking classroom due to several factors Results indicatedthat the causes of speaking anxiety could be divided into three main categories,namely: student factors, teacher factors and learning settings/environment It issuggested that actions to resolve this problem are necessary but do not seem to beimplemented successfully There is a need for teachers and educators, alsoresearchers to carry out more studies on this topic, to create more motivatingteaching methods by giving the students more opportunities to practice speaking, tomake a more comfortable and friendly speaking environment; or to change thelearning setting and testing formats by giving the students a more relaxing andpractical format of speaking exams or to redesign English classes and reconsider the

aims of English teaching in order to enhance the effectiveness of English speaking lessons.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Error! Bookmark not defined.

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The timeline of the first student‟s story 17Figure 2: The timeline of the second student‟s story 17Figure 3: The key features of the third student‟s story 18

Figure 4: The percentage of subcategories causing speaking anxiety in studentfactors 20

Figure 5: The summary of subcategories of learning settings/ environment asconsidered as the cause of speaking anxiety 33Figure 6: The proportion of subcategories of teacher factors 41

Table 1: Quanlitative opinions from students about the causes of their speakinganxiety 18

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides the first look over the problems, the aims and objectives of the study, the significance of the study, the chosen research methods, and the structure of the study.

1.1 Identification of the problems

English for Special Purposes (ESP) is a learner-centered approach in whichall teaching practices are governed by specific needs of specific learners (Dudley-Evans, 1998) ESP courses (both academic and occupational) are designed for thelearners who want English for their occupation in post-academic setting or for theones who want it for academic purposes in a pre-occupational setting Within thecommunicative framework of ESP language teaching, learning to speak andcommunicate are major aims for learning English (Nunan, 2003)

Despite the significance of speaking skills, most of students have problem inspeaking the second language especially in the English class (Khairi, 2003) Anxietyhas been identified as a common emotional reaction in foreign language classrooms.Researchers have found that one-third of foreign language learners experience at least amoderate level of foreign language anxiety (Horwitz, 2001) Therefore, foreignlanguage teachers and scholars have been interested in finding out the causes of foreignlanguage anxiety in speaking classroom Among the four skills, speaking has beenrecognized as the most anxiety-provoking (Han, 2001) The view that anxiety can affectlearner‟s learning performance is supported by MacIntyre and Gardner (MacIntyre,1989) who found that students with high communicative anxiety tended to have lowerscores on oral and written vocabulary tests

Moreover, regardless of its significance of learning English as a secondlanguage, speaking skills have still received improper attention of the students inEFL context at the Hanoi-based technical university where the researcher decided tocarry out the studies There are a few available researches that have been done in

this field in the institution To ensure the anonymity, the researched university isnamed University X in this study.

With an integration of the three emerging problems mentioned above, the

researcher is urged to conduct the study “A study on ESP learners’ speaking anxiety in a university in Vietnam” with a hope to make a useful contribution to the

School‟s Researches and Studies

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

First of all, the study aims at identifying whether there is an anxious feeling

in speaking English among the ESP students at university X; then mentioningreasons that cause ESP learners‟ anxiety when speaking in English classroom incontext of the university basing on some previous researches to point out theimportance of this paper

Also, from this study, educators especially lecturers in the university andother higher learning institutions will get useful information about students‟ anxietylevel in speaking English as a second language The information will help them todesign effective teaching methods that can help to reduce language anxiety and tocreate less stressful learning atmosphere

In short, the aims and objectives of the study are to answer the followingresearch question:

What are the causes of ESP students’ speaking anxiety?

1.3 Significance of the study

As one of pioneering studies on speaking anxiety among ESP learners in theuniversity, the study would be helpful to related populations including teachersteaching speaking skills, sophomores, and the researchers who share the sameinterest

As mentioned earlier, anxiety is one of major factors that affects secondlanguage learning Bearing in mind the fact that language learners, to some extent,experience debilitating levels of language anxiety in learning a new language andthe new language anxiety can cause students to postpone language study

indefinitely; a thorough understanding of the causes of speaking anxiety may offersome potential solutions to improve learners‟ performances and increase theirlearning satisfaction.

Additionally, this study may serve as a guide for language teachers in terms

of helping them to increase their understanding of language learning anxiety fromthe perspective of the learners Studies of this nature can also provide insights intohow educators can develop appropriate interventions to decrease language anxietyamong ESP learners In addition, by understanding the causes of speaking anxiety,strategies and interventions to boost the self-confidence of learners and lower theiranxiety in language learning in general, and speaking in particular can prove to bebeneficial to all stakeholders

With regards to other researchers, this study offers some reliable and usefulinformation for their future researches Particularly, future researches could be madebetter after limitations of this study are considered

1.4 Methods of the study

Qualitative method was applied in this study The instruments used to collectdata for the recent study were a questionnaire which included an open-endedquestion and narrative inquiry The open-ended item in the questionnaire wasincluded to examine to some extent the participants‟ opinions towards the causes ofspeaking anxiety The narrative inquiry was carried out to further evaluate thecauses of speaking anxiety among participants that they could not express fully inthe questionnaire

1.5 Structure of the study

The present study consists of 5 chapters:

Chapter 1 presents the introduction to the study, in which identifies theresearch problems, aims and objectives of the study, the significance of the researchand the methods were used

Chapter 2 highlights the review of the literature on language anxiety,speaking anxiety in the English speaking classroom, and the causes of languageanxiety.

Chapter 3 introduces details of the chosen research methods, the setting andprocedure in which the methods were used and carried out

Chapter 4 consists of findings and discussions of the study which providesthe detailed results of the data analysis procedure

And lastly, chapter 5 summarizes the results of the research, limitations andsuggestions for the study

CHAP 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, all the key concepts such as “speaking anxiety” and “causes

of speaking anxiety” are defined as the frame for the study Also, a brief overview of the related studies discloses the research gap and justifies the aims and objectives

of this research paper.

2.1 Speaking

Numerous definitions about “speaking” have been given It can be seen thatmost of the definitions share the same perspectives about speaking According toChaney (1998), speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning throughthe use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” This definitionemphasizes on two aspects of speaking, i.e meaning and context This perspective

is further supported by Brown (1994) and Burn and Joyce (1997) that speaking can

be considered as the “interactive process” whose form and meaning depend on thecontext in which it occurs Also, speaking is defined as “a closed loop where in theconversation can only occur where there are two individuals, the communicator andthe recipient” (Cheng, 2007) This definition mentions another aspect of speaking,that is the involvement of the communicator and recipient It points out one of themost prominent features of speaking that is the interaction between people

In term of speaking skills, Cunningham (1999) also states that speakingrequires the learners to understand when, why and in what ways to producelanguage It is considered as the sociolinguistic competence of the learners Besides,various definitions highlight the linguistic competence of the learners whenspeaking Cunningham (1999) asserts that speaking involves the ability ofcomposing correct sentences in term of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.Bailey (2008) also emphasizes that speaking is an oral skill which includesproducing verbal utterances systematically Grammatical rules, cohesive devices,lexical items and phonological rules are all necessary to express one‟s thoughtsadequately

2.2 ESP learning

ESP focuses on the learner‟s needs, waste no time, is relevant to the learner,

is successful in imparting learning, is more cost-effective than „General English‟.Subsequent to Strevens‟ definition, Dudley-Evans (1998) proposed anotherdefinition which was largely adapted from Strevens‟ definition The definitionDudley-Evans proposes seems to enjoy some improvements over Srevens‟ (1988)

by removing the absolute characteristic that ESP is “in contrast with „GeneralEnglish‟, and has revised and increased the number of variable characteristics Thedivision of ESP into absolute and variable characteristics, in particular, is veryhelpful in resolving arguments about what is and is not ESP From the definition,ESP can neither it necessarily refers to specific discipline, nor does it have to beaimed at a certain age group or ability range

2.3 Anxiety

2.3.1 Definition of anxiety

Anxiety is one of the most well documented psychological phenomena.Chastain (1988) defines anxiety as a state of uneasiness and apprehension or fearcaused by the anticipation of something threatening

Broadly speaking, anxiety is the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension,nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the automatic nervous system(Spielberger, 1983) Traditionally, the nature of anxiety has been differentiated intotrait anxiety, situational anxiety, and state anxiety (Cattell & Scheier, 1963;MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989, 1991; Spielberger, 1966)

Trait anxiety is a general tendency to become nervous in a wide range ofsituations (Spielberger, 1983) The type of anxiety is caused by students‟personality so it can be stable over time

Spielberger also gives the definition of state anxiety which is “the feeling ofworry and stress that takes places at a particular moment under a particularcircumstance” Notably, state anxiety often goes with physical signs such as

“perspiration, sweaty palms, dry mouth, muscle contractions and tension, and

increased heart rate” This kind of anxiety is unstable and can change according to moments and circumstance.

Situational anxiety, as its name says, happens up to specific situations.Situational anxiety can change from situation to situation; however, it is quite stable.Especially, MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) stress that situational anxiety can beclassified as a type of state anxiety which “persists not necessarily across situationsbut with certain situations consistently across time” (as cited in Zhanibek, 2001).Also, situational specific anxiety is more various than trait and state anxieties

2.2.2 Foreign language speaking anxiety

MacIntyre (1999) views anxiety as a feeling of worry and emotional reactionthat arises while learning or using a second language Horwitz et al (1986) offer asimilar definition, arguing that learning anxiety can impact their learning in generaland their fluency of speech in particular Horwitz et al (1991) indicate that anxietywas significantly related to poor performance in the FL, particularly in speakingskills Mason (1995) concluded that most of the university students agreed thatlistening/speaking skills are assuming much more significance and complexity thanmere traditional note-taking and formal speaking skills This attribution ofimportance to the aural skills often leads to unwanted anxiety and stress on the part

of learners

Ortega (2009) lists out the symptoms of foreign language speaking anxiety such

as “freezing up” and “getting confused in spite of having studied hard” Furthermore,Hanna and Gibson (1987) states that speaking anxiety can lead to “blood pressure”,

“hand trembling”, weakness in some parts of the body”, “feeling anxious”, “forgettingthe prepared material” and “avoiding looking at the audience”

2.2.3 Causes of foreign language speaking anxiety

A lot of researches find out that speaking anxiety can be caused by linguisticfactors, psychological factors and cultural factors Kojima (2007) states thatstudents who have low linguistic abilities often struggle in speaking activities andfeel nerve-racking He also points out the tendency to have a high level of anxiety

of students who have insufficient linguistic knowledge This argument is stronglybacked up by numerous studies carried out all over the world The studies carriedout by Kayaoglu and Saglamel (2013), Melouah (2013), Tanveer (2007) presentsthat the language anxiety level goes up when students have low linguistic abilities

in terms of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation

Furthermore, psychological factors contribute considerably to students‟speaking anxiety Kojima (2007) states that people with extrovert personality aremuch eager and more willing to talk to other people rather than introvert ones Also,learners who often have a high level of anxiety often set a “higher performancestandards” and “higher level of worries over errors.” (Gregerson & Horwitz, 2002).They tend to be perfectionists Horwitz et al (1986) claims that communicationapprehension (fear of communication with people), fear of negative evaluation(apprehension about others‟ evaluation) and test anxiety can also cause speakinganxiety A lot of observations, interviews and questionnaires reveal that negativefeelings and attitudes are the most common cause of speaking anxiety

Additionally, the insufficient knowledge of the culture of the target languagemay cause anxiety speaking (Kojima, 2007) Tanveer (2007) indicates that languageanxiety may happen from the differences between students‟ culture and targetlanguage culture

Also, Horwitz, Tallon & Luo (2010) prove that there are a number of factorsoutside the learners can cause learners‟ speaking anxiety For example, lack ofteacher support and attention can lead to students‟ anxiety Besides, Alrabai (2014)emphasizes inappropriate teaching style, stressful classroom atmosphere, lack oftime and so on also increase students‟ anxiety

2.3 Related studies

Numerous researchers have investigated the issue of learning anxiety fromdifferent perspectives Worde (2004) investigates the causes of language learninganxiety and finds that speaking activities, inability to comprehend, negativeclassroom experiences, fear of negative evaluation, native speakers, methodology,

pedagogical practices and the teachers themselves were the main causes of learninganxiety Kondo and Ling (2003) find out that low proficiency, speaking activitiesand fear of negative evaluation by classmates are three major causes of languagelearning anxiety.

Some scholars report a negative relationship between language anxiety andsuccess in language class, i.e the higher the anxiety, the lower the performance, asclaimed by Clement, Gardner, &Smythe (1980) Others report that there is norelationship, or a positive relationship (Backman, 1976, Scovel, 1978) Morerecently, Horwitz (2001) has claimed that the issue of understanding the relationshipbetween anxiety and achievement is unresolved As stated by Philip (cited inShamas, 2006) the reason for these mixed results is conceivably that a comparison

of the experimental research examining the relationship between anxiety and secondlanguage learning is, to a degree, perplexing, presenting some conflicting evidenceand illustrating that anxiety is a complex, multi-faceted construct

Horwitz et al (1986) on the other hand, sketch parallels between languageanxiety and three related performance anxieties: (1) communication apprehension;(2) test anxiety; and (3) fear of negative evaluation Since the focus in this study is

on speaking skills, the major component communication apprehension will be dealtwithin the research

Oral communication anxiety or difficulty in speaking in groups and trouble

in speaking in public or stage fright are all indicators of communicationapprehension The vital role of communication apprehension in creating foreignlanguage anxiety is undeniable Those who naturally have trouble speaking in groupare likely to experience even greater difficulty speaking in a foreign language classwhere they feel less control over the communicative situation and their performance

is constantly observed Also, Koch and Terrell (1991) argue that more than half oftheir subjects considered oral presentations in front of the class as the most anxiety-producing activities Horwitz and Cope (1986) indicate that students with high

levels of anxiety were afraid of speaking in the foreign language and they had adeep sense of self-consciousness and viewed foreign language production inclassroom as a test situation rather than as an opportunity for communication.

In short, this chapter has provided a thorough theory which would be used asthe frame for the study Also, this chapter has given an overview of the relatedstudies

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter contains a full description of the study which aims to investigate the causes of speaking anxiety provided by ESP students at the university X based on the framework presented in the previous sections.

3.1 The Methodology

The methodology that was applied in this study was qualitative method.Heigham and Croker (2009: 137) suggest that qualitative method provides a betteranswer to a research question

The explanatory design of the questionnaire with the follow-up narrativeinquiry was valuable to the research objectives which aim to investigate the variable

in this study and to compare participants‟ perspectives on the different causes thatlead to speaking anxiety

The narrative methodology was also used to elicit students‟ opinions on thecauses of English speaking anxiety There is some growing recognition of thesignificance of narrative methodology in a variety of disciplines, especially in theresearch of language teaching The method provides researcher with opportunities to

„address ambiguity, complexity, and dynamism of individual, group, and organisational phenomena‟ (Mitchell, 2003).

Several studies were done on the applications of narrative methods The use

of this method has been seen as beneficial in many case studies, particularly fororganisational science These studies showed that using narrative method provides

an insight into organisational change or causes of cultural change (Faber, 1998;Boje, 1998; Beech, 2000) Complex tacit knowledge can be transferred withstorytelling or can also serve as a source of implicit communication (Ambrosini,2001; Linde, 2001) Other aspects were also included, such as: how narrativecreates identity (Czarniawska, 1997); narrative as the assistant to educationdevelopment (Abma, 2000; Cox, 2001) ; sense-making is clarified with narrative(Gabriel, 1998); and how narrative may act as a source of understanding (Cortazzi,

2001) Narrative may also play important roles in decision making (OíConnor,1997) or the processes of knowledge transfer (Darwent, 2000) Through stories,narrative becomes an instrument to construct and communicate meaning and impartknowledge Stories told within their cultural contexts to promote certain values andbeliefs can contribute to the construction of individual identity or concept ofcommunity.

According to Wisker (Wisker, 2008), a deep insight into the problems, richdata and information as to the participants‟ emotions, feelings, and experienceswould be provided with the use of sensitive and appropriate narrative In the presentstudy, narrative methodology was utilized to have the participants tell stories abouttheir experiences in learning English speaking skills to answer the research question

The narrative methods in this study then were analyzed by coding,paragraphing, quoting, and categorizing to provide a clearer detail on the researchquestion The full scripts of the students‟ stories would be found in the Appendices

3.2 Setting of the study and the participants

The University X where this study was carried out is one of the publicuniversities located in Hanoi This university mainly focuses on training engineers/technicians in a variety of majors such as road and bridge building, civilconstruction, automotive technology and electronic and telecommunication Thus,

to pass the university entrance exams, test-takers are required to take math,chemistry and physics, which are natural science subjects rather than social scienceones such as English For the first two years, only general communication Englishcourses are taught Afterwards, students enroll in both general English and ESPcourses at the same time in the last two years Normally, there are from 35 to 50students in a general communication English classroom Classes are equipped with

a projector and audio system As a technical university, male students heavilyoutnumber their female counterparts Therefore, the percentage of male students in

an English class often accounts for from 80 to 100 % Last but not least, thestudents‟ origin is quite various from remote areas to urban cities of Vietnam

The researcher was in charge of teaching ESP classes and General Englishspeaking classes at the university simultaneously However, since the study aims toinvestigate the causes of English speaking anxiety in general English speakingclassroom, therefore, the chosen participants were ESP students who studied in ageneral English speaking class 35 third-year male students at a chosen faculty arethe main and single subject and respondents in this research for the followingreasons The researcher at the research time was teaching the class, so the class waschosen as the target participants of the research and advance notice can be easilymade to get the cooperation from them to complete the questionnaire and narrativeinquiry.

3.3 Research design

An exploratory design was chosen, that is there was no control group anddata was collected from the pre-existing class at the University X The data wascollected to examine the participants‟ perceptions towards causes of speakinganxiety in general English speaking classroom

The data was first collected by a self-reported questionnaire to examinedifferent views of the participants on causes that lead to English speaking anxiety.The questionnaire included an open-ended question to examine students‟ views onthe causes of speaking anxiety Finally, the narrative methodology was utilised tofurther elicit the participants‟ detailed opinions towards the causes of speakinganxiety

3.4 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure of this study took place over the secondsemester at the university, from January to June 2017

The first stage of data collection procedure commenced with a self-reportedquestionnaire which involved an open-ended question The questionnaire washanded to the students after the end of the term All of the difficult terms in thequestionnaire were orally explained clearly by the teacher in order to exterminatemisunderstandings The questionnaire was submitted directly to the teacher after

being completed The aim of the open-ended item was to make qualitativecomparison of learners‟ perceptions as to the causes of speaking anxiety in Englishspeaking classroom The whole questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese andthe learners were asked to fill in the questionnaire either in English or in Vietnamese

in order to allow them to be able to freely and easily express their opinions;therefore make their answers as objective as possible

The student questionnaire response rate was 100% for as they were asked tofill in the questionnaire and hand to their teacher directly after class The responserate for the questionnaire was high thanks to their encouraging and enthusiasticattitude with regards to the topic that was carried out by the researcher

The second and the last stage consisted of the individual post-questionnairenarrative inquiry, which was carried out with 3 male student participants All of theparticipants volunteered to participate The inquiry was conducted one-week afterthe participants filled in the questionnaire to avoid leading opinions that the studentsmight have after filling in the questionnaire The inquiry was conducted inVietnamese since it was possible in the interview to ask for clarity when necessaryand to give participants comfortability to be able to further express their opinions in

a more precise way Questions, for example: “What happened next?”; “When did that happen?”; “Why do you think so”, etc were added during the inquiry to obtain

more information of the stories Each participant was asked to narrate their ownstory alone with the researcher Next, the narratives were translated into English.The aims for the post-questionnaire narrative inquiry were to examine participants‟opinions about the causes of English speaking anxiety and to offer themopportunities to make further comments which they were unable to make in the self-reported questionnaire

This chapter has provided in details the setting of the study in addition to theanalysis of data and data collection methodology that were utilised in this study

All versions of the data collecting instruments could be found in theAppendices

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter provides a thorough analysis of the data collected from chosen research instruments mentioned in the previous chapter, namely the self-reported questionnaire and the narrative interviews and then discusses about the results and the following research question:

What are the causes of ESP students’ speaking anxiety?

4.1 Results from self-reported questionnaire

Results from the open-ended item suggest that the majority of the studentswere afraid of speaking in class Answers such as:

It frightens me when I don‟t understand what the teacher and other students are saying in my speaking class, so I don‟t want to participate in speaking activities;

are found in most of the responses

Even some students also commented: “I want to escape from my

speaking class since I was too nervous.”

The results from section 1 show that most of the students were anxious inspeaking class, indicating that students who were more anxious participated less inclass They participated less in speaking activities as to the less interaction withteachers and peers; the fewer of questions and answers they provide in speakingclass; the fewer of comments they make; and the fewer of in-class discussions andconversations they actively participated Students reported that since they werenervous, they became less involved in speaking activities, were afraid of interactwith their peers and teachers, hesitated to start and participate in in-class discussions

and conversations They also passively made comments in English and spoke inEnglish speaking class by giving questions and answers The results are alsosupported by several researchers, such as Kaya (1995); Yang (1994); Allred

&Swenson (2006) and Howe &Strauss (2000)

4.2 Finding out the causes of speaking anxiety

The research question aims at exploring the causes of speaking anxiety ofESP students in University X when they learn general English The informationcollected from the open-ended questionnaire and the students‟ own stories revealsthat due to various reasons from both students and factors outside, speaking anxietyhas been a considerable concern of ESP students in this university Although therewere 35 participants joining in the questionnaires but some of them mentioned morethan one cause of speaking anxiety so therefore the reasons counted in the answerswere up to 45 Notably, the data from the open-ended question is strongly supported

by the students‟ recorded narratives The open-ended question gives some short andgeneral perspectives of the students on the reasons of their speaking anxiety Theseopinions are illustrated vividly by the interesting elaborate stories

In order to make the stories clearer to keep track of, the story timelines orstory summaries with the key events and major features are visualized graphically.Also, some thoughts of the students concerning speaking anxiety are represented.Interestingly, some events of their own stories are a bit alike, especially between thefirst and second student Both of them are from the countryside where English is notpaid proper attention to Therefore, they did not get any chances to practicespeaking English even though they started to learn it at the very early age.Meanwhile, the third student‟s parents realized the importance of learning English

so this student got more chances to learn English, especially speaking skills

However, all the stories revealed one of the real situations of teaching andlearning English in Vietnam, which is students are compelled to learn grammar andvocabulary in order to serve only one purpose: passing tests/ exams This isconsidered as one of the alarming problems of English learning context in Vietnam

Language is not taught for students to communicate and to use effectively, but as ameasure to test and test only Instead of listening and feeling the rhythms of Englishand practising speaking it, students are exposed to only written documents withboring grammatical exercises.

Figure 1: The timeline of the first student’s story

Figure 2: The timeline of the second student’s story

Figure 3: The key features of the third student’s story

Table 1: Quanlitative opinions from students about the causes of their

speaking anxiety.

From the data collected, the causes of speaking anxiety can be classified intothree large categories, which are: learning settings/ environment, student factors,and teacher factors Each category is divided into subcategories based on theopinions of students in the survey and the narratives Learning settings/ environmentconsist(s) of peers‟ influence, classroom condition, stressful class atmosphere, test-oriented teaching content Also, student factors include fear of speaking, socialbackground, low linguistic abilities and negative learning

experience, cultural background and background knowledge Meanwhile, teacherfactors comprise of test-oriented teaching style and absence of teacher support.

The table above represents not only the proportions of the four big categoriesbut also the percentages of the subcategories From the table, it is apparent that thebiggest factor to cause speaking anxiety is students themselves, which occupiesmore than half Following it is learning settings/ environment and teaching factors,which account for more than 30% and nearly 18% respectively

Noticeably, as mentioned in the literature review, low linguistic abilities areconsidered as the biggest problem to cause students‟ speaking anxiety by severalresearchers such as Tanveer (2007), Melouah (2013) and Kojima (2007) Thiscoincides with the outcome of the questionnaire when among the subcategories ofstudent factors, low linguistic abilities account for one-fifth of the whole proportion

Meanwhile, fear of speaking is considered as the second factor to lead tostudents‟ speaking anxiety (Gregersen & Horwitz, 2002; Kojima, 2007;Ohata,2005); however, in the data collected by this study reveals that to ESPstudents in University X, fear of speaking such as state anxiety or fear of negativeevaluation only comprise of approximately 12%

Notably, test-oriented teaching style seems to be a much more concern toESP students when it is the subcategory factor occupying the second highestpercentage around 16% The students‟ opinions reveal a wide range ofinappropriate teaching style such as teachers‟ negligence to give feedbacks,teachers‟ severely criticizing to students‟ mistakes and method to deliver lessons

Also, cultural background makes up for the fourth highest percentageapproximately 9% Some other factors such as peers‟ influence, classroomcondition and so on share the small proportions

Each factor is adequately analyzed as below:

4.2.1 Student factors

To begin with, student factors are divided into six subcategories: fear ofspeaking, negative learning experience, low linguistic ability, social background,cultural background and background knowledge

Figure 4: The percentage of subcategories causing speaking

anxiety in student factors.

4.2.1.1 Low linguistic ability

Apparently, low linguistic ability accounts for nearly 40% of reasons causingspeaking anxiety in student factors Low linguistic ability refers to insufficientlinguistic knowledge such as grammar, pronunciation and lexis (Kojima, 2007).From the data collected in the questionnaire, most of participants responded thattheir pronunciation is bad and they are concerned about grammar, too It is alsoclearly illustrated in the first story:

And finally, things came as it had to be I stood up and said “My name L I‟m come from Yen Bai I like read book Thank you” Some of classmates giggled and interrupted me: “should it be like reading books”, “I come from, not I‟m come …” I was almost speechless at that time.

(Và quả không sai, khi đến lượt e đứng dậy nói; em đã ú a ú ớ “My name L I‟m come from Yen Bai I like read book Thank you” Thật sự là quá xấu hổ

cô ạ Lúc ý, em nhớ 1 số bạn ở dưới lớp nhao nhao lên, có người còn nhại lại bài em nữa” Phải là reading books chứ” “ like read book á”… Ôi lúc ý tim

em kiểu muốn bắn ra ngoài luôn ạ.)

Or in the second story, the student‟s bad pronunciation not only created an embarrassing moment but also increased his sense of anxiety:

One day, teacher called me out and asked me” What are you going to do this summer” I replied: “I want to go to the beach” But the thing is, instead of pronouncing “beach”, I said another word My classmates laughed out loud.

I could not figure out the reason at first, but that was a crying shame I became so nervous.

(Xong kiểu em bị ám ảnh ạ Một lần em lên bảng, trả lời câu hỏi “What are you going to do this summer”? , em nói “I want to go to beach”, nhưng em đọc là /bɪtʃ/ Cả lớp cười ồ lên, mấy bạn trai thì lăn lộn ra cười, kìa kìa Em không hiểu sao, nhưng chỉ biết là mình đang sai cái gì đó, lúc sau hỏi cô mới biết là sai phát âm, dẫn đến một từ nghĩa xấu Từ ấy trờ đi, mỗi lần lên bảng

em lại nhớ cái cảm giác “ muốn độn thổ” ý, và cảm giác không thể nào quên được, nên em lại càng bối rối hơn )

In both cases, it can be seen that the students struggled a lot to express theirideas correctly Trying to make a grammatical correct sentence could be a painfulprocess to the students, which would create a high sense of anxiety to them Also,their mispronunciation often made them embarrassed and nervous

Noticeably, from the researcher‟s casual observation during teaching time inUniversity X and other English centers, the researcher finds that studentsspecializing in technology/ natural science majors often possess rather poorerlinguistic skills, especially listening and speaking skills than other-majored studentssuch as economics-majored and banking-majored students One of the reasons isthat their mindset of studying English, a subject considered as “a supplementary

subject” by the students themselves The students have to ignore English and focus

on the more important subjects, namely math, physics and chemistry since they aretest subjects in the entrance exams for technology/ natural science universities Thestory 1 and story 2 strongly support this argument In the first story, the studentsaid:

When I was in high school, I couldn‟t determine yet which university I should take, so I didn‟t learn English properly At last, I decided to take A group (math, physics and chemistry were included) From then on, most of

my time went to the exam preparation and other subjects were nearly ignored, including English.

(Cấp 3 thì em kiểu đầu tiên bị lung lay, chưa xác định được mình theo khối nào, nên môn nào cũng giữa chừng Tiếng Anh cũng thế Mãi sau e quyết định theo A (thi 3 môn Toán, Lý, Hóa) Kể từ lúc quyết định ôn thi tập trung vào 3 môn thi đại học, em bỏ qua gần như hết các môn học khác và chỉ tập trung vào 3 môn trên, và Tiếng Anh gần như em không động đến.)

The student in the story 3 also agreed:

Things had changed since I went to high school At that time, I intended to pursue technical major as I was really fond of being an engineer; therefore, enrolling in the university X was a must to me Plans were made in attempt

to PASS THE UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE EXAM My chosen group was group A, which include math, physics and chemistry As a result, since I was

in grade 11, I just focused on the 3 above subjects and the others were almost ignored and English was not an exception I studied English with a hope to pass the high-school graduation exam And as you may know, it was

as easy as a piece of cake, provided that all the marks of the subjects were above 0 Consequently, English were paid no attention to as it was not important for my short-term goals.

Mọi thứ bắt đầu thay đổi kể từ khi em lên cấp 3 cô ạ Lên cấp 3 em đã có định hướng theo khối ngành k thuật vì em rất th ch ngh k sư Em xác định

là phải đỗ đại học ngay từ khoảng đầu năm học lớp

hoạch được vạch ra và c ng hướng đến m c tiêu là

c a em chọn là khối A, tập trung vào 3 môn toán, lý, hóa.

lớp , bao nhiêu thời gian, công sức em đầu tư trọn vào 3 môn kể trên Tất cả các môn học khác em học chỉ để đối phó à Tiếng Anh cũng không ngoại

l Em học Tiếng Anh chỉ mong được qua tốt nghi p Mà cô biết rồi đấy, nếu muốn qua tốt nghi p chỉ cần không bị điểm li t là được ậy nên, d đã có n n tảng khá vững chắc trước đó, em xác định Tiếng Anh là không cần thiết cho

m c tiêu ngắn hạn trước mắt c a em, nên em bỏ qua tất cả Em không học, không luy n tập, không thực hành k năng Chỉ học theo kiểu chống đối Cô giáo em cũng biết mấy đứa khối A thường tập trung vào môn thi, nên cũng

k , mi n sao bọn em qua tốt nghi p là được.)

Additionally, students majoring in technology/ engineering are likely to studyEnglish like formulas in math In contrast to students majoring in social science,they often lack linguistic sensitivity, i.e the skills to use appropriate words andsyntax in the correct situations Therefore, they find a lot of difficulties tocommunicate well (not only in English but also in Vietnamese) So, it can be saidthat students specializing in technology/ natural science have more difficultyabsorbing language than social science-majored students Being unable tocommunicate well becomes a cause of their speaking anxiety

Besides, all stories reveal that the reasons of students‟ bad pronunciation arethe test-oriented teaching style and content, which belong to teacher factors andlearning settings/ environment respectively In the first story, the student explainedwhy he got bad pronunciation When he learnt English in the primary school, his

English teacher mispronounced a lot such as “Is / iz/ was pronounced “i sì , and from time to time, “goắt I sì do nêm”, “ hau” for how, goắt for watch No ending sounds or stress were noted” So he and his friends imitated the mispronunciation of

their English teacher in primary school and it became their habit to pronounce in thewrong way Also, the syllabus focusing on only grammar and vocabulary

contributed partly to the low speaking level of students Both the opinions in thequestionnaire and the narratives present that they are under great pressure to get ahigh score in English tests/ exams They learn English only for passing the tests.Therefore, there are several disastrous consequences due to this terrible teachingand learning style For example, in the second story, the student felt helpless tocommunicate in English:

We never have the speaking tests been a part of the exams, so we just ignored it and focused on other skills As a result, when communicating with foreigners, all I could say was “Hello”, “Hi”, “How are you?”, “I am fine Thank you” and then turned around as I had nothing to say.

(Mà đặc bi t bọn em không bao giờ thi nói, nên là bọn em học ngoại ngữ, nhưng không bao giờ nói được cái gì Xã hội đặt nặng vấn đ thi cử, bọn em lại càng bỏ bê, thế nên đứng trước người nước ngoài, cùng lắm bọn em chỉ nói được những câu: Hello, Hi, How are you, I am fine thank you rồi ngó lơ mặt đi chỗ khác vì không biết nói gì nữa.)

As an experienced teacher, the researcher notices that this is not only thesecond student‟s personal story but also the story of numerous technology/ naturalscience-majored students that the researcher has taught

hands trekked; my face turned red, my mind went blank, and I had nothing to say.

(Tính cách c a em Em là đứa bình thường ít nói, ít giao tiếp Hay ngại ngùng Em hiểu muốn học nói tốt là phải bật ra được, không kể sai đúng, nhưng em cứ thấy ngại sao đó ạ Em cảm thấy bản thân mình không tự tin khi phải giao tiếp 1 ngôn ngữ không phải tiếng mẹ đẻ c a mình Mà tính em lại hay xấu hổ, trước người lạ, trước đám đông, chân tay cứ cuống quýt cả lên, mặt đỏ bừng cả lên ,đầu óc em thì như lơ lửng trên mây, kiểu không có chữ nào trong đầu nên em không nói được gì cả, không bật ra được.)

Story 2

As stated by Kojima (cited in Hammad, E & Ghali, E., 2015), “extrovertedpeople are generally happier to communicate with other people” This statement istrue to this specific case The participant was shy and unwilling to communicate,which turned out to be the psychological barrier to him to speak English Based onthe classification of anxiety in the chapter 2 Literature Review, this type of anxietycan be categorized as “trait anxiety” with some physical signs such as “trekkedhands” and “red face”

However, in the opened-ended questionnaire, only one of the participantsmentioned shyness as a cause of speaking anxiety to them This contrary outcomecan be somehow explained by the characteristics of students majoring intechnology/ natural science, most of who are male (Betters, 1986), Clark &Trafford (1995) (cited in Litosseliti, L (2013)) and Ozturk & Gurbuz (2013) provethat gender is a major factor to lead to speaking anxiety In their studies, it is shownthat female ESL learners often feel shyer than male ones Male learners are likely to

be calmer and less anxious

Actually, in this study, the participants claimed that the fear of receivingnegative evaluation and perfectionism are the reasons to lead to a high level ofanxiety For example, in the survey, one student stated:

I always want to speak with correct grammar so it takes me a lot of time to finish my sentence and I get nervous when I don't speak perfectly.”

And another said:

I'm afraid of criticism and getting bad score at when speaking Vietnamese including me are afraid of making mistakes so we are reluctant and nervous when joining in group discussion and making presentation.

This result totally agrees with the theory mentioned in the chapter 2 about worriesover errors (Gregersen & Horwitz, 2002) and fear of negative evaluation (Horwitz

et al, 1986) Based on the literature review in chapter 2, this type of anxiety can becategorized as situational anxiety

To overcome this internal factor, students are likely to change their mindsettoward a positive image of themselves and practice speaking in advance sogradually they can be more confident and comfortable when speaking English

4.2.1.3 Cultural background

As Vietnamese students, the respondents are affected by Vietnamese culture.The students in the narratives pointed out the cultural gap between Vietnamese andEnglish and the cultural barrier causing them to be anxious In the second story, thestudent commented on Vietnamese‟s shame culture:

Vietnamese people are afraid of making mistakes, especially in front of the crowd or a group of people We are afraid of being criticized and being given feedbacks So that is one of the reasons we are too nervous to speak out.” (Tâm lý sợ sai c a đa số người Vi t mình ạ Người Vi t mình h đông nói là sợ sai, sợ người khác phê bình, nên không dám đưa ra quan điểm Em cũng nằm trong số đó Nhi u khi nói trước lớp, cứ sợ mình nói sai, sợ bị chê cười,

sợ bị phê bình nên em không dám nói luôn ạ.)

Sharing the same perspective, the third student told:

Moreover, one of the most important reasons is that the speaking anxiety is strongly influenced by Vietnamese culture Vietnam is located in South East

Asia, which is the geologically distant from Western and other English – speaking countries, so the cultures are definitely different The culture barrier hinders us a lot from learning the language One more thing, Vietnamese people are afraid of making mistakes, so in some cases they don‟t even dare to speak out.

(À, xong nữa cũng có thể mình bị ảnh hưởng văn hóa c a người Vi t nữa cô ạ.

Vi t Nam nằm ở khu vực ông Nam Á, trong đó cái ngôn ngữ mình học (Tiếng Anh) lại nằm cách khá xa Vi t Nam v mặt địa lý, nên có khá nhi u khác bi t văn hóa, nên khi học một ngôn ngữ, mà đặc bi t là học để nói, để giao tiếp

em cảm thấy có rất nhi u rào cản Người Vi t mình kiểu sợ nói sai, sợ bị nhận xét nên là nhi u khi nghĩ nhưng không dám nói Em có mấy bạn nước ngoài, bạn ý kiểu thẳng thắn phê bình, thẳng thắn đưa ra suy nghĩ c a mình, nhưng

i t Nam mình còn e dè chuy n đó quá Thế nên k năng nói mà cứ phải suy nghĩ cái này, phải tránh cái kia, em thấy hi u quả chưa cao cũng một phần vì thế cô ạ.)

This point of view is backed up by the passive learning style Vietnamesestudents tend to sit down quietly and follow teachers‟ instruction This perspective

is supported by the questionnaire when one respondent stated “I guess Vietnamese students are they tend to keep silent in class so they are not comfortable joining in speaking activities.” As a consequence, students obviously do not get comfortable

to speak To break this barrier, teachers need to “step down” and encourage students

to express their own opinions Furthermore, teachers may utilize new teachingapproaches such as communicative approach and so on to help students removetheir cultural barriers

Additionally, “keeping face”/ “fearing of losing face” is thought to beobstacles for students to get out of fear and speak This cause is likely to bereciprocally related to fear of negative evaluation to some extent Being reserved tokeep face will make students with low linguistic ability more nervous to performspeaking tasks Notably, the third student commented that:

“I have some foreign friends who are very eager to give comments and criticism; but Vietnamese people are not confident to do that We have to consider a lot of things to not to lose one‟s face That is the reason why we are not eager and confident to speak out.”

Người Vi t mình kiểu sợ nói sai, sợ bị nhận xét nên là nhi u khi nghĩ nhưng không dám nói Em có mấy bạn nước ngoài, bạn ý kiểu thẳng thắn phê bình, thẳng thắn đưa ra suy nghĩ c a mình, nhưng i t Nam mình còn e dè chuy n đó quá Thế nên k năng nói mà cứ phải suy nghĩ cái này, phải tránh cái kia, em thấy hi u quả chưa cao cũng một phần vì thế cô ạ).

He pointed out the difference between Vietnamese culture and foreign culture(maybe Western) that the foreigners are more open-minded to criticism andcomments so they are more voluntary to engage in speaking activities This culturalcharacteristic should be considered by educators to find out the best way to helpVietnamese students overcome the quietness to join in speaking activities

4.2.1.4 Social background

Social background refers to social demographics such as people‟s race, color,education, lifestyle, religion and nationality Specifically, in the collected data,social backgrounds are represented by the regions where students are from and thefamily backgrounds As can be seen in the stories, two out of the three students arefrom the countryside, Yen Bai and Thai Binh in particular Their narratives share thesame events that in their school and province, English is not paid proper attention

to The first participant said:

As you may know, I come from Yên Bái Tourism is the backbone of economy

in this area; consequently, local people can speak English quite fluently, especially ones in the ethnic minorities But they can neither read nor write However, the situation is different in my neighborhood; tourism is not our strength, so English doesn‟t receive proper attention We learn English just

to deal with the exams only.

(Cô biết đấy Em quê Yên Bái Khu vực Yên Bái, Lào Cai , Sapa phát triển du lịch lắm, dân ở đây nói tiếng Anh cũng khá tốt, đặc bi t là người dân tộc thiểu số ý cô Họ nói được, nhưng họ không biết viết đâu Em cũng ở Yên Bái, nhưng khu em ở không phải là nơi phát triển du lịch nên Tiếng Anh vẫn chưa được chú trọng lắm; ch yếu bọn em học ngữ pháp để đối phó với thi cử

ý cô.)

And the second one concurred:

I come from Thai Binh In my hometown, no one was aware of the enormous importance of English It was considered as a subsidiary subject, and its main purpose was to scrape through the exam.

(Em quê thành phố Thái Bình ạ Quê em hồi ý Tiếng Anh chưa được chú trọng, kiểu moi người hồi ý chưa nhận thức được tầm quan trọng c a tiếng anh Em và các bạn em đ u coi Tiếng Anh là 1 môn ph , học chỉ để đối phó, để cho qua kì thi.)

It shows the fact that in the remote or small provinces, where there is no need

to use English, this subject is underrated Even in the first case, Yen Bai isconsidered as a tourist destination but in the student‟s region, tourism does notdevelop so there are few foreigners, which cannot push people to learn and useforeign language Therefore, it is taken for granted This result totally matches withthe reasons pointed out by the participants in the questionnaires The respondents inthe survey also agree that the students from the countryside or remote areas areworse at speaking English That makes them more nerve-racking than the studentsfrom the city, where there are a considerable number of English centers and parentspaying more attention to their children‟s learning English The third story backs upthis argument when the third student told:

My parents were quite updated, and they understood the importance of English, so they advised me to learn English with the aim to improve my English skills and later on, to study abroad But everything happened

differently from what we expected My parents took me to some English centers since I was 5 years old, which is definitely an advantage for me (Bố mẹ em kiểu cũng đón đầu xu thế, hiểu được tầm quan trọng c a Tiếng Anh, nên từ bé bố mẹ đã rèn luy n cho em học Tiếng Anh, với mong muốn học Tiếng Anh cho tử tế, rồi ý định hồi ý là khi em vào đại học cho em đi du học Nhưng đời không như mơ cô ạ Bố mẹ em cho em học trung tâm từ nhỏ, chắc là đi u này khiến em thuận lợi hơn các bạn Em bắt đầu học từ khi em 5 tuổi.)

However, it is noticeable that in the third story, the student from the city is

better at English because he had more chances to practice English outside the classwhile in his school, he was still compelled to study grammar and English structuresfor tests/exams

This poses a problem for policymakers in provinces of Vietnam when theyneed to implement more policies to raise people‟s awareness of the importance ofEnglish in this globalization era and parents‟ and school‟s perspectives on English

as a mere subject to pass the test/exams

4.2.1.5 Background knowledge

Background knowledge refers to essential information for students to talk/discuss/make conversation around the topics Apart from the unrealistic topicsmentioned in the analysis of the factor “test-oriented teaching content”, it is needed

to say that the lack of background knowledge is a factor that makes studentsnervous and be at loss for words However, only the third story and two respondentsparticipating in the survey mention this factor as the reason for speaking anxiety.The data is not large enough but still, it raises an interesting problem to beinvestigated In the third story, the student told:

That is about the familiar topics, about which I had many ideas to speak However, there are some topics that are unfamiliar with us or even strange to

us In these cases, we area almost speechless as we didn‟t know what to say For example, one day, I was about to talk about technology As you may know, I am a technophobe I don‟t care much about hi-tech equipment or

these kinds of things When I was told to talk about this topic, I even shook like a leaf as nothing slipped on my mind.

ấy là với những ch đ em đã quen thuộc, thì có nhi u cái để nói, hoặc còn

có thể nói được Nhi u ch đ em còn không biết chém sao, sợ nhất là bốc vào những bài mà mình không thể chém được, lên bảng là cứ gà mắc tóc là sợ lắm cô ạ Ví d , ch đ kể v 1 sản phẩm công nghê mà em thích Em vốn là đứa không thích công ngh , không quan tâm đến công ngh , nên nói v ch đ mình không biết nói gì, không có thông tin cứ ấp a ấp úng cô ạ.)

Later, he again mentioned this problem:

Furthermore, the language we are learning is the living one, so we are supposed to discover the spiritual as well as material life of Western people

in developed countries, but this is somewhat too challenging for us.

Thêm vào đó, ngôn ngữ mà bọn em đang học là ngôn ngữ thật, là bọn em có

cơ hội được tìm hiểu v đời sống vật chất cũng như tinh thần c a người phương Tây, c a các quốc gia phát triển; nhưng thực tế những đi u này hoàn toàn xa lạ với người học bọn em ạ.)

To deal with this problem, the researcher thinks that students should preparethe topics in advance and broaden their knowledge as much as possible

4.2.1.6 Negative learning experience

In the survey and stories, negative learning experience is mentioned as one ofthe factors to cause speaking anxiety In this case, the researcher believes that thistype of anxiety belongs to “situational anxiety” when it happens in only specificsituations and is quite stable In both the data from the narratives and thequestionnaire, it can be understood that the pattern of this anxiety develops asfollows: Students experience bad situations, which can be various from terriblespeaking performances in the front of the class to receiving negative anddiscouraging comment from peers and teachers Then, the negative feelinggradually grows inside the students‟ minds and turns out to be their fear This fearcreates a high sense of anxiety for them to do the same thing again- maybe speaking

in front of teacher again because they are afraid of getting the same result The story

of the second student represents this factor very clearly and vividly:

Also, there is an embarrassing moment that I can never forget, which contributes to my speaking anxiety One day, teacher called me out and asked me” What are you going to do this summer” I replied: “I want to go

to the beach” But the thing is, instead of pronouncing the word “beach”, I mispronounced it to a very sensitive word…You know … My classmates laughed out loud I could not figure out the reason at first, but that was a crying shame I was so embarrassed I could only hide my face in shame Later on, my teacher explained my mistake But from then on, whenever I made a speech, that feeling rushed back and it made me more confused (Xong kiểu em bị ám ảnh ạ Một lần em lên bảng, trả lời câu hỏi “What are you going to do this summer”?, em nói “I want to go to beach”, nhưng em đọc là /bɪtʃ/ Cả lớp cười ồ lên, mấy bạn trai thì lăn lộn ra cười, kìa kìa Em không hiểu sao, nhưng chỉ biết là mình đang sai cái gì đó, lúc sau hỏi cô mới biết là sai phát âm, dẫn đến một từ nghĩa xấu Từ ấy trờ đi, mỗi lần lên bảng

em lại nhớ cái cảm giác “ muốn độn thổ” ý, và cảm giác không thể nào quên được, nên em lại càng bối rối hơn.)

In the first narrative, the student also mentioned the “sad memory about hisfirst day in University X” haunted him every time he tried to speak in front of hisclass

4.2.2 Learning settings/ environment

Learning settings/ environment refer to a test-oriented teaching content,peers‟ influence, classroom condition and stressful class atmosphere The graphbelow shows the number of students mentioning this subcategories as the cause ofspeaking anxiety in the questionnaire

Figure 5: The summary of subcategories of learning settings/ environment as

considered as the cause of speaking anxiety.

Test- oriented teaching content is supposed to be the chief reason while theother factors, namely peers‟ influence, classroom condition and stressful classatmosphere share the same number of respondents

4.2.2.1 Test-oriented teaching content

This subcategory is a broad term which includes the unsuitability of syllabus,the boredom and impracticability of speaking activities and the grammar-focusedcourse objective In the questionnaire, one respondent finds the learning materials quitedifficult in comparison with the level of students This factor, accompanied with thelow linguistic level of students mentioned in the category “student factors”, makes theclass “nightmare” (quoted from the second narrative) and students get a higher sense ofanxiety However, the unsuitability of the content is not mentioned in the narratives.Therefore, some more studies should be carried out to conclude if the learningmaterials are difficult to the ESP students‟ level in University X Also, in the firstnarrative, the student complains that they did not have any chances to access to otherauthentic materials of English except English textbooks in high school: