MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYEN TRUONG THUY TRANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO POTENTIAL FACTORS LEADING TO EFL STUDENTS’ ANXIETY AND THEIR COPING STRATEGIES WHEN GIVING IN-CLASS ORAL PRESENTATION AT TUY PHUOC NO. 3 HIGH SCHOOL MASTER THESIS OF THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Binh Dinh – 2023 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN TRƯƠNG THÙY TRANG KHẢO SÁT NHÂN TỐ GÂY LO LẮNG Ở HỌC SINH EFL KHI THUYẾT TRÌNH TRÊN LỚP TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG SỐ 3 TUY PHƯỚC VÀ CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỐI PHÓ ĐƯỢC HỌC SINH SỬ DỤNG Ngành : Lý luận và Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh Mã số : 8140111 Người hướng dẫn: Tiến sĩ NGUYỄN TIẾN PHÙNG i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the work I completed for my Master of Arts thesis, "AN INVESTIGATION INTO POTENTIAL FACTORS LEADING TO EFL STUDENTS’ ANXIETY AND THEIR COPING STRATEGIES WHEN GIVING IN-CLASS ORAL PRESENTATION AT TUY PHUOC NO. 3 HIGH SCHOOL," was entirely original and under the supervision of Quy Nhon University lecturer Dr. Nguyen Tien Phung.
Besides, I have not turned in this thesis to any other university or college for any other degree. Additionally, I confirm that this thesis does not contain any previously written or published works, with the exception of those that are specifically referenced in the thesis. Author’s signature Nguyễn Trương Thùy Trang ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I sincerely thank my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Tien Phung, for being an inspiration and guidance for the majority of my graduate work.
The accomplishment of my M. thesis has been greatly aided by his insightful counsel, insightful criticism, patient assistance, and tremendous encouragement. Then, I would want to express my gratitude to Quy Nhon University's instructors, lecturers, and professors for their patient and sincere efforts in sharing important information and advice with me during my academic career, especially Assoc. Nguyen Thị Thu Hien.
Her mentoring together with Dr. Phung's passionate support inspired me a lot and pushed me to continue pursuing this study issue, even if doing such unusual research has its initial challenges. This project would not be where it is now if not for the patient consideration of these two thoughtful people. Moreover, it is inevitable that many other writers' thoughts in this topic will be reflected and expanded in the thesis.
Their concepts have prompted me to consider writing this paper. I am also deeply indebted to the writers cited in the references. I shall always be grateful to each and every one of these scholars. I shall always be indebted to all of these scholars.
In addition, I really appreciate the all the teachers and students at Tuy Phuoc No. 3 High School, whom I chose to be the research's target subjects, for their enthusiastic support, collaboration, and significant assistance during the research process. Finally, I would want to thank my wonderful family, friends, and coworkers for their unwavering belief in me, support during the writing of my thesis, and overall greatness. They will always be a tremendous source of inspiration and support.
I also dedicate this work to my parents, who have always supported my lifelong pursuit of knowledge. iii ABSTRACT Foreign language learning anxiety has been extensively explored and investigated in English as a Foreign Language situations. However, there has been little research conducted in Vietnamese settings on this issue, particularly anxiety about oral tasks in English classes. The current study looked at foreign language anxiety in EFL students at Tuy Phuoc No.
It attempted to uncover potential factors that may contribute to EFL students' anxiety during in-class English oral presentations, as well as the strategies that they utilized to deal with such anxiety. To pursuit this aim, this study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. Classroom observations were combined with questionnaires distributed to 40 EFL high school students, followed by semi-structured interviews with six of these 40 students. The study's questionnaires and interviews found that internal factors from participants and environmental factors from their physical environments are two major sources of anxiety among students.
At the same time, the results of analyzing observation and interview data revealed that the students utilized two types of strategies to minimize their anxiety, namely short-term coping strategies and long-term coping strategies. Based on the study's findings, many suggestions are recommended for English teachers as well as learners, which can be useful in helping students avoid negative speaking habits and produce successful presentation performances. However, anxiety in in-class oral tasks is regarded as multifaceted and complicated, and hence still requires further investigation. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.vii LIST OF TABLES .2 RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY .5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY .1 Definition of anxiety .2 Types of anxiety .3 Foreign language anxiety .4 Foreign language speaking anxiety.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF ORAL PRESENTATION .1 Concepts of speaking activities .2 In – class oral presentation as a speaking activity .3 Components of speaking for assessment .3 FACTORS CAUSING FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY IN PRESENTATION .4 STRATEGIES FOR COPING WITH IN-CLASS ORAL PRESENTATION ANXIETY .1 Short-term coping strategies .2 Long-term coping strategies .6 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 2. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. FINDING OF THE FIRST RESEARCH QUESTION. The subjunctive factors .2 The objective factors .2 DISCUSSION OF THE FIRST QUESTION .3 FINDING OF THE SECOND RESEARCH QUESTION .1 Low-anxiety level students’ coping strategies .2 Average-anxiety level students’ coping strategies .3 High-anxiety level students’ coping strategies .4 DISCUSSION OF THE SECOND QUESTION .5 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 4 .3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH.
83 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as a Foreign Language ESL English as a Second Language FLA Foreign Language Anxiety FLCAS Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale L2 Second Language viii LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: The overall Anxiety levels of Tuy Phuoc No. 3 High School EFL students .2: Level of anxiety experienced by the six chosen EFL participants .3: Participants’ responses toward The factor “Preparation time” .4: Participants’ responses toward The factor “Fear of making mistakes” .5: Participants’ responses toward The factor “Audience attention” .6: Participants’ responses toward The factor “Question section after presentation” .7: Participants’ responses toward The factor “Teacher’s grading” .1 RATIONALE Since the open policy was carried out in Vietnam, English has become a valuable and indispensable means for integrating our country into the world community. With the rising requirements from foreign companies, international trading, the tourist industry, and the students’ demand to study overseas, English has gained higher and higher status and become a compulsory subject at all levels of education (Nguyen, H. However, English as a foreign language has a challenging learning and teaching process.
For the Vietnamese, learning English requires skills including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Many learners stated that they had spent so many years studying the English language that they may be very good at writing or reading English. Still, they fail to speak it properly and understandably (Bueno, Madrid, & Mclaren, 2006). It means speaking is the most challenging skill for students to learn English.
In Vietnam, learning English as a foreign language has always been a challenge for students of all school levels, especially high school students. With the implementation of the English pilot program, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) requires a comprehensive English test and assessment for the four skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students must achieve level three of the Vietnamese foreign language framework, equivalent to level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Language. In light of the MOET document, high school students should be able to communicate in English in both spoken and written forms (Nguyen & Tran, 2018).
As a result, English-speaking assessment has gradually become the main focus of language assessments in high school. For the past few years, oral presentations have been increasingly used for assessment purposes in many language-learning classrooms. However, most EFL learners see failure to learn English as being unable to speak English in the language class, leading to tension, and fear of negative evaluation, which can be known as foreign language speaking anxiety. Besides, over the last decades, several 2 studies have been conducted on language anxiety in second and foreign language learning in general (Scovel, 1978; Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c; etc.) and in foreign language speaking skills in particular (Mak, 2011; Yaikhong & Usaha, 2012; Ozturk & Gurbuz, 2014; Ahmad Anwari, 2019; Suparlan, 2021).
In fact, contrary to what is happening abroad, fewer studies in Vietnam have been conducted and acknowledged the level and effects of students’ anxiety on in-class oral presentations. Only some empirical studies have touched on the factors of anxiety (Hoang, 2010; Nguyen, T., 2014; Bui, 2016), and few of them have focused on high school students in Middle Vietnam areas, especially those at Tuy Phuoc No. 3 High School, Binh Dinh Province. As an English teacher at Tuy Phuoc No.
3 High School, the researcher recognizes that anxiety is a dissuasive factor preventing EFL learners from successfully speaking English and requires continued investigation in the local context of Binh Dinh, where research on foreign language speaking anxiety is quite limited. Therefore, all of the above issues have aroused the researcher’s interest and motivated her to conduct the research entitled “An investigation into potential factors leading to EFL students’ anxiety and their coping strategies when giving in-class oral presentation at Tuy Phuoc No.2 RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1.1 Research aim The goal of this research is to investigate the subjective and objective factors that contribute to the anxiety that high school EFL students experience when giving oral presentations in class in two pespectives: factors and coping strategies.2 Research objectives The specific objectives of the present study are: - To identify the subjective and objective factors leading to EFL students’ anxiety when giving in-class oral presentation. - To discover the anxiety-coping strategies used by EFL students when giving in-class oral presentation.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS This research is intended to answer these questions below: 1. What are the potential factors leading to EFL students’ anxiety when giving in-class oral presentation? 2.
What are the anxiety-coping strategies used by EFL students when giving in-class oral presentation? 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY Foreign language anxiety exists in learning all four skills, i., listening, speaking, reading, and writing (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). However, within the framework of a minor M. thesis, the study limits itself to the in-class oral presentation anxiety happening among EFL students in grade 11 at high school. The type of anxiety under investigation is the one that students experience when giving oral presentations in the classroom at their school within the current English language curriculum for high school students.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Practically, this study has important pedagogical implications as it indicates that students' anxiety when delivering oral presentations does exist in the classroom and identifies the factors that contribute to EFL students' anxiety during the in-class oral presentation, thereby providing students with a more comfortable learning environment, which can improve students' language learning.
In addition, the results of this study can help teachers and students better understand the nature of foreign language speaking anxiety and show them how to use appropriate learning strategies in the classroom to reduce speaking anxiety and improve students' English proficiency. The findings will also illuminate the usefulness of language learning activities in foreign language classrooms and support teachers in providing students with a supportive environment that enables them to become successful learners. Theoretically, the current research findings are also expected to be valuable information for those concerned with teaching English as a foreign language. They 4 are also likely to contribute theoretical knowledge to the development of theorists on language teaching.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY This research paper is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction.