VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỢP A STUDY OF THE ANXIETY OF THE 12TH GRADERS BEFORE THE ENGLISH TEST IN THE NATIONAL UPPER SECONDARY GRADUATION EXAMINATION AT HUYNH THUC KHANG HIGH SCHOOL (Nghiên cứu về sự băn khoăn, lo lắng của học sinh lớp 12 trước khi làm bài thi môn Tiếng Anh tại kỳ thi tốt nghiệp Phổ thông trung học Quốc Gia tại trường THPT Huỳnh Thúc Kháng) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỢP A STUDY OF THE ANXIETY OF THE 12TH GRADERS BEFORE THE ENGLISH TEST IN THE NATIONAL UPPER SECONDARY GRADUATION EXAMINATION AT HUYNH THUC KHANG HIGH SCHOOL (Nghiên cứu về sự băn khoăn, lo lắng của học sinh lớp 12 trước khi làm bài thi môn Tiếng Anh tại kỳ thi tốt nghiệp Phổ thông trung học Quốc Gia tại trường THPT Huỳnh Thúc Kháng) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc. Trần Xuân Điệp HANOI - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I certify that I myself write this thesis entitled “A study of the anxiety of the 12 th graders before the English Test in the National Upper - Secondary Graduation Examination at a School in Hanoi.” It is not a plagiarism or thesis written by others.
I assure that I wrote anything related to others‟ works in quotation. If then the pronouncement proves wrong, I am ready to accept any academic punishment, including the withdrawal or cancellation of my academic degree. Hanoi, May 2017 Nguyễn Thi ̣Hơ ̣p i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincere appreciation to many people supporting me to complete this current study. Firstly, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my respectful supervisor, Assoc.
Tran Xuan Diep, who gave me a lot of professional advice on the thesis writing. I am grateful to his kind consideration, tender guidance, critical feedback, and insightful suggestions. Without his care, I could not have been able to finish this study. Secondly, I would also like to acknowledge my gratefulness to the participants of this study the 12 grader students at Huynh Thuc Khang high school.
This study could not have been conducted but for their willingness to complete the questionnaires and participate in the interviews. Finally, I wish to express my deep thanks to my dear family, especially my husband for their love, encouragement, immeasurable support, and concrete help for me to complete this research. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Test anxiety plays a significant role in one‟s educational, professional, and emotional life. Therefore, it is not surprising that the testing environment causes anxiety to a number of individuals.
This study carried out aimed at investigating main causes of anxiety and some possible solutions. Data collected from the participants (class 12A and 12B at Huynh Thuc Khang high school with 84 students) by employing quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative (interviews) methods as research instruments including study skills, perceived threat of tests, and performance attributions. The results are interpreted to propose that some causes believed to contribute to students‟ anxiety were also identified, among which the difficult content, the poor preparation and the difficulties in selecting the related materials seemed to be most highly considered by the students. Moreover, The results revealed that giving a clear introduction for the difficult types of the exercises, providing well-designed samples of tests and doing exercises from different sources were offered to help students acknowledge, cope with and reduce anxiety as well as select an appropriate method of learning to take the actual English Examination with the lower anxiety.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.
viii PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale for the research. Aims and Objectives of the study. Scope of the study.
Methods of the study. Organization of the study. Definitions: Anxiety and Test anxiety. Kinds of anxiety.
Causes of test anxiety. Solutions to anxiety. Review of previous related studies .10 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The context of the study.
Definition of Survey Research. Advantages of Survey Research. Main steps in conducting Survey Research. Data collection instruments.
Data collection procedures. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Descriptive statistics of causes related to knowledge content and personal barrier. Descriptive statistics of some factors concerning studying habits and gathering related materials.
Descriptive statistics of causes related to poor preparation and performance beyond control. Descriptive statistics of solutions to anxiety. Quantitative description of results from the questionnaire and qualitative description of results from semi-interview. Causes related to knowledge content and personal barrier.
Causes related to studying habits and gathering related materials. Causes related to poor preparation and performance beyond control .29 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Solutions to anxiety. Implication from the study.
Limitations and suggestions for further study. XI vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS TAS : Test Anxiety Scale SPSS : Statistical Package for Social Sciences vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Page Table 1: Reliability Statistics .17 Table 2: Reliability Statistics .17 Table 3: Reliability Statistics .18 Table 4: Reliability Statistics .18 Table 5: KMO and Bartlett's Test .19 Table 6: Causes related to knowledge content and personal barrier .20 Table 7: Causes related to studying habits and gathering related materials .24 Table 8: Causes related to poor preparation and performance beyond control .29 Table 9: Solutions to anxiety .33 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the research Nowadays, the significance of tests and academic achievements tends to be drawn much more attention by society. Hence, it puts pressure on students to “succeed,” which leads students to have high anxiety and stress and then affects the individuals‟ results.
It is urgent that anxiety and the immediate need for treatment draw more and more attention of educators, not only for today but also for the future. Anxiety is becoming one of the most common and wide-spreading mental illnesses. The need for treatment should be drawn more attention and the school has become a wonderful place to treat anxiety (Masia -Warner et al. In Vietnam, nowadays test is becoming a growing issue to the society especially to the students and parents respectively, simply because there have been so many changes in the examination regulation in recent years in a short time.
At Huynh Thuc Khang high school, where I have been teaching English for a long time, in some classes, students expressed negative attitude towards the change in English Test format in the National Upper-Secondary Graduation Examination. From my personal observation and professional experience, I realized that students were unable to work out all of the answers to the questions in the samples of tests they had to do in class and at home. Therefore, they seemed to be tired when doing the samples of the English Tests. In addition, students were confused about selecting the best ways to prepare for the actual examination.
Moreover, I was aware that students spent a great deal of time discovering exercises from a variety of sources but they seemed to fail, because they did not have enough abilities to find out what materials were suitable for their revisions. As an English teacher, the researcher feels anxious about finding the proper teaching method to help the students to have a better orientation of examination. Such a situation has inspired the author to carry out “A study of the anxiety of the 12th graders before the English 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Test in the National Upper-Secondary Graduation Examination at Huynh Thuc Khang high school. Aims and Objectives of the study The aim of the study is to do research on causes of anxiety and some possible solutions to the 12th graders before the English Test in the National Upper- Secondary Graduation Examination.
The objectives of the study were: 1. To find out the main causes of anxiety among the 12th graders before the English Test in the National Upper-Secondary Graduation Examination. To suggest some solutions to anxiety 1. Research questions In dealing with the aims above, the thesis should focus on finding out the answers to the following questions: 1.
What are the main causes of anxiety among the 12th graders before the English Test in the National Upper-Secondary Graduation Examination? 2. What are some possible solutions to anxiety? 1. Scope of the study The researcher focused on the subjects‟ anxiety of the English Test in the National Upper-Secondary Graduation Examination with its causes of anxiety and solutions before the examination. Moreover, due to the pressure of the time, this study carried out at the mid-term of school year 2016-2017 only involves a small number of the 12th graders (two classes with 84 students) at Huynh Thuc Khang high school.
Methods of the study The data serving the research analysis collected by employing both quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative methods (interviews) provided the study with information and evidence. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Organization of the study The thesis consists of three main parts. Part A is the INTRODUCTION, which consists of rationale, aims, and objectives of the study and research questions.
It also covers scope, methods, and organization of the study. Part B is the DEVELOPMENT separated into three chapters: + The first chapter provides the basic theoretical background related to anxiety, test anxiety, and kinds of anxiety. Especially, this chapter mentioned possible causes of anxiety and solutions, which are the main issues of the study and the previous studies in brief. + The second chapter is concerned with methodology used in the study.
In the first place, author restates the research questions and emphasizes the context, settings, participants, instruments, data collection, and analysis procedure in the process of conducting the study. + The third chapter shows the main content with findings as well as discussions based on the results from questionnaires and interviews. Part C is the CONCLUSION offering a summary of the mentioned issues, the implication for the study and the limitations and suggestions for further study. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter aims to shed light on the theory and research findings related to anxiety and test anxiety and the previous related studies of this issue that the researcher utilized to construct the conceptual framework for the present study.
The theoretical background covers the following topics: definition of anxiety and test anxiety, types of anxiety, main causes of anxiety and its solutions. Definitions: Anxiety and Test anxiety 1. Definitions of anxiety At the beginning of the twentieth century, Freud (1920) thought anxiety was akin to “fear” or fright.” Scovel (1978: 134) suggests that anxiety relates to feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, or worry. Horwitz, et al.
(1986), define anxiety as “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system” 1. Definitions of test anxiety Test anxiety is a strong emotional response in which an individual experiences before and during an examination (Akca, 2011). Usually, situations in which personal evaluations is allowed by individuals are defined as situational evaluation, will possibly cause high levels of performance. Kinds of anxiety 1.