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Anxiety in Chinese EFL students at different proficiency levels

Presenter: Yi-Han Yang

Instructor: Dr. Pi-Ying Teresa Hsu

Date: March 9, 2011

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CitationLiu, M. (2006). Anxiety in Chinese EFL students at different proficiency levels. An International Journal of Educational and Applied Linguistic, 34, 301-316.

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Content

I Introduction

II Literature Review

III Methodology

IV Result & Conclusion

V Reflection

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Introduction

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Introduction

Listening

Speaking

Reading

Writing 1970s

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Purposes

- To investigate the issue of anxiety in non-English majors at three different

proficiency levels students

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Literature Review

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There were three components of foreign language anxiety:

(Horwitz et al., 1986 )

Literature Review

Communication apprehension

Fear of negative evaluation

Test anxiety

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Literature Review

Hortize et al. (1986) developed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), which has gained widespread popularity in subsequent research studies on anxiety in language learning situations.

(Aida, 1994; Chen, 2002; Cheng et al., 1999; Kitano, 2001; Phillips,1992; Saito et al., 1999; Wang and Ding, 2001; Worde, 2003)

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Literature Review

Experience had a significant effect on anxiety and female students were found to score on the anxiety scale higher than did males.

(Aida, 1994)

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Research questions1. To what extent do the students experience anxiety in oral English classroom?

2. What is the difference in anxiety among the students at different proficiency levels?

3. In which classroom activity are the students the most anxious?

4. Is there any change in student anxiety in different classroom activities over the term?

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Methodology

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Methodology

Time:

A full term (14 weeks)

Band 1 Band 2 Band 3

166Least

proficiency

224 157The most proficienc

y

Instruments:

Survey, observations, reflective journals and interview

Participant: 547(430male and 117 female) first-year undergraduate non-English majors enrolled in the English Listening & Speaking course.

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A 36-item survey adapted from the FLCAS developed by Horwitz et al. (1986)

ex: It frightens me when I don’t understand what the teacher is saying in English.

Foreign Language Class Anxiety(FLCAS)

Five Points Likert Scale

1 2 3 4 5

Strongly Disagree Disagree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

AgreeStrongly

Agree

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• 36-items• 5-points Likert

Scale

FLCAS

• Name, gender, age, and department

Background questionnaire

• Keep weekly record of the most/least anxiousnt students.

Teacher observation

• Be asked to write reflective journals on a weekly basis for six successive weeks .

Reflection journal

• Be observed and video-recorded three times per class.

• Focus on oral activities.

Classroom observation

• Have difficult understanding the questions in English or did not like speaking English.

Semi- structured interview

Instruments

Semi- structured interview

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Semi-structured interview

A semi-structured interview is a method of research used in the social sciences.

A semi-structured interview is flexible, allowing new questions to be brought up during the interview as a result of what the interviewee says.

The interviewer in a semi-structured interview generally has a framework of themes to be explored.

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Results and discussion

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Achieving a reliability score of 0.92 in the present research.

Result and discussion

the real number

percentage

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These numbers indicate that at least one-third of students experienced moderate to high anxiety

Result and discussion

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(1) To what extent do the students experience anxiety in oral English classroom?

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Anxious students were afraid of making mistakes in the English class.

Anxious students feared they would not understand all the language input was also consistent with communication apprehension.

Anxious students reported that they were afraid to speak and felt deeply-conscious when asked to risk revealing themselves by speaking English in the present of other people.

(1) To what extent do the students experience anxiety in oral English classroom?

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The ANOVA results presented that proficiency/level did not play a significant role in distinguishing the students at different proficiency levels.

(2) What is the difference in anxiety among the students at different proficiency levels?

The more proficient students tended to be less anxious in English language classrooms, the difference was not significant.

ANOVA

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(3) In which classroom activity are the students the most anxious?

Being singled out to answer questions and giving presentations, were the most anxiety-provoking activities in class.

Most anxious

Least anxious

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(4) Is there any change in student anxiety in different classroom activities over the term?

With increasing exposure to spoken English, many students’ anxiety levels decreased in oral communication in class during the term, a tendency not only reported by the students themselves but observed by the teachers.

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Reflection

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Reflection

• The paper did not show how the research divided the participants into three bands.

• The study did not consider others variables, for example, gender, achievement scores.

• After translating the FLCAS, did the research conduct the pilots study?

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Thanks for your

listening

"Only by coming to grips with difficulty

can you realize your full potential."

-- Charles de Gaulle, president of France