A Research on Speak-in-class Anxiety in English Classes of Junior Middle Schools文献综述

 2022-09-09 03:09

An Action Research on Speak-in-class Anxiety in English Classes of Junior Middle School

Nowadays, some English teachers complaint that the students are reluctant to speak English in the English oral communication classes, and a part of students are facing anxiety when speaking in class. They behave much more unwilling when it comes to speaking in the second language, while they may participate in the class in other skills such as reading, writing and listening. Speak-in-class anxiety is a widespread problem in foreign language learning, and it is a major element which affects performances and acquisition of foreign language learners. The level of the students is not an affective factors and the problem exists among English learners from beginning to more advanced levels. Therefore, speak-in-class anxiety is being studied with increasing frequency in the recent years.

Anxiety is defined as distress or uneasiness of the mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune. General anxiety is the excessive and exaggerated worry about everyday things. It is an unrealistic, or out of proportion constant worry that dominates and interferes with daily functions like work, school, relationships, and social activities. Anxiety in second language learning is similar as the general anxiety. When foreign language learner continually experience language learning anxiety, they also react physically and psychologically. Physically, they may experience the heart palpitation, sweating and trembling. Psychologically, they may react with negative thoughts, worrying about language learning and speaking, or having low level of self-confidence in class by not looking at the eyes of the teacher. Horwitz (1986) is the first one who puts forward the concept of foreign language anxiety and separates it from general anxiety. He thinks foreign language anxiety is not simply a combination of these fears transferred to a foreign language context, but a distinct complex set of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings and behaviors. The foreign language anxiety includes fear of negative evaluation, test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and so on. In 1978, Scovel defines anxiety in language learning as lsquo;a state of apprehension, a vague fearrsquo;. In his idea, the anxiety may not do harm to the language learners, believing that there is a positive anxiety type which can motivate learners to study harder and make stronger efforts to perform better. This type of anxiety called facilitative anxiety. Facilitating anxiety is that which enhances the language learning task as the learner is focused and attentive to the task at hand. That means, the foreign language anxiety has a positive relationship with the learning performances. Hurd (2007) holds the view that language anxiety has become central to any examination of factors contributing to learning process and learner achievement. However, there still remains a disagreement that this emotional state maybe not suitable for learners. Another type of foreign language anxiety is called debilitating anxiety. Debilitating is that which has a negative effect on the learner. That also means that the anxiety hinders the foreign language performances. Many researchers stand on this point, such as Arnold, Aida, Cheng, Gregersen and so on. In 1999, Arnold and brown believe that anxiety in language learning may possibly be the most pervasive obstruction to the learning process. Also, several researchers have proved that anxiety is harmful to foreign language learning. Aida (1994), Cheng (1994) and Gregersen (2003) have established a negative association between anxiety and foreign language performance. So, until now, most researchers hold the view that anxiety is bad for foreign language learning.

Foreign language leaning performances include four aspects: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Some studies have proved that the foreign language anxiety has the effect on the all four aspect. Horwitz (1986), MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) and Price (1991) focus on anxiety with respect to classroom activities such as speaking and listening, thinking that oral classroom activities are most problematic and anxiety-provoking for foreign language learners. Besides, in 1996, Hilleson observed various types of anxiety related to different skill areas in his diary study. His participant demonstrated anxiety related to not only speaking and listening but also reading and writing. Other recent studies have also attempted to measure anxiety specific to writing and reading. Cheng et al. (1999), for example, investigated the relationship between foreign language classroom anxiety and writing anxiety among English majors in Taiwan. They concluded that writing anxiety is a more specific type of anxiety, closely related to the language-particular skill of writing. Reading anxiety has also been studied. Saito et al., (1999) explored links between foreign language anxiety and reading anxiety among learners of French, Japanese, and Russian. They found that reading anxiety is related but distinguishable from general foreign language anxiety. Research about foreign language anxiety is studied around the world. Research into language anxiety was first carried out largely with English-speaking learners of Indo-European languages(e.g. Kleinmann, 1977). Later, it is studied about Japanese (e.g. Aida, 1994) mainly in the United States with high- achieving students. Given that earlier studies were conducted in the United States, it would seem worthwhile to consult studies of other ethnic groups of language learners in different learning contexts. Sila (2010), investigating foreign language anxiety in Turkish adolescent students, found that anxiety exists in the receptive skills at beginner level but that, as levels of proficiency increase, anxiety emerges in the productive skills. In the context of non-USA studies of Chinese learners of English, Mak and White (1997) noted that Chinese learners of English as a second language in New Zealand, experienced greater speaking-in-class anxiety than their American counterparts. In Mainland China, Liu and Jackson (2008) noted that ESL learners who participated in inter-personal conversations exhibited speaking-in-class anxiety. Cheng et al. (1999) made the study among the English majors in Taiwan. Barley Mak (2011) investigated factors contributing to the speaking-in-class anxiety of Chinese university students in Hong Kong.

Foreign language anxiety wildly exists. Anxious foreign language students identify speaking in the target language as the most frightening language skill. It is often reported that they feel stressed and even start to “freeze” when they have to act out a role-play or deliver a speech. For foreign language leaner, speaking in class is probably the most frequently cited concern of anxiety, according to Aida (1994) and Mak and White (1997). There is plenty of research to evidence this phenomenon: Kleinmann (1977) found her Spanish and Arabic EFL studentsrsquo; oral performance was positively related to anxiety while Baileyrsquo;s (1983: 67) students cited lsquo;the stressful, competitive nature of oral public performancersquo; as the major source of anxiety in their foreign language classrooms; American university students of Spanish reported oral presentations, role plays and charades as their most anxiety-provoking language activities (Koch and Terrell, 1991); Pricersquo;s (1991) American students of French reported speaking in the foreign language created the greatest anxiety while Samimy and Tabuse (1992) found that speaking anxiety was one of the most important factors in determining the oral performance of American university students of Japanese. Horwitz (1986) established three related performance anxieties named: 1) communication apprehension, 2) test anxiety, and 3) fear of negative evaluation. These three types of anxiety do significantly contribution to the foreign language classroom anxiety. The first one, communication anxiety is a fear about orally communicating in the class. It is also called speak-in-class anxiety. Studies have found that the Japanese culture has the highest degree of communication anxiety. That is many Japanese people fear communicating in their first language. Undoubtedly, the anxiety levels would be increased even further when speaking in a second language. And the third type of anxiety also is a cause of speak-in-class anxiety. A learner is anxious about how peers and teachers perceive her, in terms of both academic ability and personal evaluation. In a language learning context such a fear is extremely debilitating as evaluation is constantly taking place in the classroom context. For the cause of the speak-in-class anxiety, in 2009, Mohamad and Wahid found that being called on in class without being prepared to answer , is a factor that leads to shaking and sweating. As a result, students try to avoid eye-contact with their teacher, fearing that the teacher might ask them a question even if it is about a topic that has been discussed earlier. In summary, there are many reasons for speaking-in-class anxiety, such as:1)fear of public speaking;2)fear of making pronunciation mistakes;3)limited grammatical knowledge ;4)fear of being laughed at;5)taking an oral test;6)native speaker effect;7)error correction style of the teacher;8)levels of English proficiency;9)shyness and low self-confidence.( (Wouml;rde, 2003; Ohata, 2005; Woodrow, 2006; Awan et al., 2010.; Dalkıl ıccedil;, 2013; Parkamp; Lee, 2005). In order to eliminate speaking anxiety, Matsuda amp; Gobel (2004) think highly of the importance of group work in their study. They hold the view that the group work, to some extent, can reduce the speak-in-class anxiety. Expect the group work, some researchers agree on the importance of spontaneous speech. This was also mentioned in Liu amp; Littlewoodrsquo;s study (1997) “when university teachers and students are asked to choose two features (out of ten) which they consider most important for successful spoken academic communication, they agree that unplanned, spontaneous speech is the most important.” Mine Atas in his study, the reduction of speaking anxiety in EFL learners through drama, hold the view that the drama techniques significantly lowered the speaking anxiety. Drama is a kind of spontaneous activity. The study on drama and anxiety reduction was conducted with 24,12th grade students at a high school in Kozan, Turkey.

Horwitz et al. (1986) were the first to carry out a detailed examination of the dynamics of foreign language anxiety by creating and using the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). Young (1990), following Horwitz, developed a questionnaire to examine more systematically the types of in class, speaking-oriented practices that evoke anxiety from language students. And in my study, I am going to use Horwitzrsquo;s FLCAS and Youngrsquo;s questionnaire to do my research.

Reference

  1. Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M.B., amp; Cope, J.A. 1986. “Foreign language classroom anxiety”. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125-132.
  2. Liu, N., Littlewood, W. 1997. “Why do many students appear reluctant to participate in classroom learning discourse?” System, 25(3), 371- 384.
  3. Macintyre, P.D., Gardner, R.C. 1989. “Anxiety and second-language learning:toward a theoretical clarification.” Language Learning, 39(2).
  4. Macintyre, P.D., Gardner, R.C. 1991. “Methods and results in the study of anxiety and language learning: a review of the the literature.” Language learning,41(1),85-117
  5. Phillips, L. 2005. “A study of the impact of foreign language anxiety on tertiuary studentsrsquo; oral performance.” Hong kong:The University of Hong Kong
  6. Scovel, T., 1978. The effect of affect on foreign language learning: a review of the anxiety research. Language Learning 28 (1), 129e142
  7. Arnold, J., Brown, H.D., 1999. A map of the terrain. In: Arnold, J. (Ed.), Affect in Language Learning. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
  8. 郝玫、郝若平,2001,英语成绩与成就动机、状态焦虑的相关研究[J〕.《外语教学与研究》(2)
  9. 王初明,2001,影响外语学习的两大因素与外语教学[J],《外语界》(6)
  10. 王才康,2003,外语焦虑量表(FLCAS)在大学生中的测试报告「J」,《心理科学》(2)

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