VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********* NGUYỄN THỊ THU HẰNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS CAUSING THE NON-ENGLISH- MAJOR FRESHMEN’S ANXIETY IN SPEAKING AT BROADCASTING COLLEGE I, PHU LY CITY, HA NAM PROVINCE AND SOME SOLUTIONS (Tìm hiểu những yếu tố gây sự lo lắng khi học nói của sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh năm thứ nhất ở trường Cao đẳng Phát thanh - Truyền hình I, thành phố Phủ Lý, tỉnh Hà Nam và một số giải pháp khắc phục) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Ha Noi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Hanoi, 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********* NGUYỄN THỊ THU HẰNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS CAUSING THE NON-ENGLISH- MAJOR FRESHMEN’S ANXIETY IN SPEAKING AT BROADCASTING COLLEGE I, PHU LY CITY, HA NAM PROVINCE AND SOME SOLUTIONS (Tìm hiểu những yếu tố gây sự lo lắng khi học nói của sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh năm thứ nhất ở trường Cao đẳng Phát thanh - Truyền hình I, thành phố Phủ Lý, tỉnh Hà Nam và một số giải pháp khắc phục) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: TRẦN THỊ TUYẾT, PhD. Ha Noi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is entirely my own work.
I have provided fully documented references to the work of others. The material in this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course of study. Ha Nam, September 2014 Signature Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my most sincere thanks to my beloved supervisor, Dr. Tran Thi Tuyet, for her expert guidance, invaluable advice and critical feedback, and continual encouragement without which the thesis would not have been successful.
Secondly, I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to all the lectures of the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies of Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their useful lessons and assistance during my course from which I have benefited a lot for the accomplishment of this study. I also wish to send my special thanks to my students, especially the first year students in 10 classes of the college of Broadcasting I. Without their willingness to complete the questionnaires and participate in the interviews, this study could not have been conducted. Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks to my beloved extended family for their love and understanding, their constant encouragement and immeasurable support in the completion of this thesis.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Anxiety is a common feeling experienced by foreign language learners, especially in learning to speak a foreign language. This study was conducted with the aim to investigate main causes of speaking anxiety experienced by the non-English-major freshmen at Broadcasting College I. The study involved 200 non-English-major students from 10 first-year classes at Broadcasting College I. Both quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews) methods were applied in the study.
The findings showed that speaking anxiety did exist among the surveyed students. Besides, it was revealed that the factors related to teachers‟ beliefs and teacher-student interactions appeared not to be major reasons for speaking anxiety among the majority of the students. On the other hand, the students‟ communication apprehension, test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, and negative self-perception of English ability were shown as highly anxiety-provoking factors for the non-English-major freshmen in speaking. Based on the findings and the students‟ suggestions in the interview, the researcher recommended some solutions for the students and teachers to reduce the students‟ speaking anxiety.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION…………….iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.……iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.vi LIST OF TABLES…….vi PART ONE: INTRODUCTION. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Method of the study.
Design of the study. 3 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of anxiety.
Types of anxiety. Foreign language anxiety. Effects of anxiety on learning. Possible causes of learning anxiety.4 Learner‟s negative self-perception of English ability.
Teacher-student interactions. 15 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Semi-structured interview. Data collection procedure.
18 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS. Fear of negative evaluation. Learner‟s negative self-perception of English ability. Teacher‟s beliefs about language teaching.
Teacher-student interactions. Recommendations for the teachers. Recommendations for students. 35 PART THREE: CONCLUSION.
Summary of the study. Limitations of the study. Recommendation for further study .I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBRIVIATION CA: Communication apprehension LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Speaking anxiety associated with communication apprehension Table 2: Speaking anxiety associated with test anxiety Table 3: Speaking anxiety associated with fear of negative evaluation Table 4: Speaking anxiety associated with learner‟s negative self- perception of English ability Table 5: Speaking anxiety associated with teacher‟s beliefs about language teaching Table 6: Speaking anxiety associated with teacher-student interactions vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Speaking is one of the four required skills in learning English, however a lot of students are not able to speak English, even though many of them have learned English for seven years.
It is believed that there are affective or emotional factors influencing the foreign language learning process. Among various affective variables, such as attitude, anxiety, interest, motivation, inhibition, and self-esteem, “anxiety is quite possibly the affective factor that most pervasively obstructs the learning process” (Arnold & Brown, 1999, cited in Dornyei, 2005, p. Anxiety is defined as a feeling of uneasy suspense (Krashen, 1985). As a teacher of English at Broadcasting college I, from my own observations and experiences, I have noticed that the feeling of anxiety, apprehension and nervousness are common phenomena expressed by my first-year students in speaking classes.
Actually, many students keep silence in speaking classes and they are usually reluctant to take part in class activities. Some students may be very good at writing or reading English but they fail to speak English fluently and naturally. Some students state that they forget words when speaking in front of the class, and some claim that they do not often speak in class as they are afraid of being evaluated by the teachers and their friends. Some frankly admit that they feel stressful and anxious when speaking English.
These negative emotional factors seem to be a barrier that prevents students from actively participating in speaking activities and accordingly, make the outcome of oral English speaking unsatisfactory. Anxiety has been a focus in research in foreign language learning since early 1970s with the ground-breaking research by the Canadian psychologists Gardner and Lambert. Since then, many researchers (Bailey, 1983; Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986; Krashen, 1985; Crookall and 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Oxford, 1991; Aida, 1994; MacIntyre, 1995; MacIntyre & Gardener, 1989, 1991, 1994; etc) have consistently claimed that anxiety can impede foreign language production and achievement. Although a number of studies have been conducted to seek out the nature of foreign language anxiety, few have been done on anxiety experienced by Vietnamese learners in their English learning process, especially in speaking skill.
Such situation has aroused my interest and inspired me to carry out a research on the topic: “An investigation into factors causing the non-English-major freshmen‟s anxiety in speaking at Broadcasting college I, Phu Ly city, Ha Nam province and some solutions. Aims of the study The major purpose of the research is to investigate factors or causes that make non-English-major freshmen at Broadcasting college I stressful and anxious in English speaking classroom, and suggest some possible techniques to reduce their English speaking anxiety. Research questions To fulfill the above aims, the study is carried out with an attempt to answer the following questions: 1. What are the possible causes that make first-year non-English-major students at Broadcasting college I anxious in speaking English in class? 2.
What are the possible solutions to reduce students‟ anxiety in speaking English? 4. Scope of the study FLA exits in the process of learning all four skills: Listening, speaking, reading and writing (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986; Young, 1986; Aida, 1994; Cheng, Horwitz & Schallert, 1999; Cheng, 2002). However, only students‟ speaking anxiety is focused on in this research with its causes 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com since speaking is the best in expressing the students‟ participation as well as their feelings. Besides, due to the time constraints, this study only involves two hundred Broadcasting students of non-English major in their first academic year.
Method of the study Both quantitative and qualitative methods are applied to collect the data serving the research analysis. A survey questionnaire for participants of 200 first-year non-English majors at Broadcasting college I was employed to gather information and evidence for the study. In addition, to gain more in- depth information of the issue, semi-structured interviews with the students were also used. All the comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the study were based on the data analysis of the study.
Design of the study This study is divided into three parts: Part one – Introduction presents the rationale, the aims, the research questions, scope, methods as well as the design of the study. Part two – Development contains four chapters. Chapter 1: Literature Review This chapter provides the basic theoretical background from literature in terms of foreign language anxiety in general and speaking anxiety in particular. Especially, the possible causes of foreign language anxiety are discussed thoroughly in this chapter.
Chapter 2: Methodology 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com This chapter addresses the setting, the participants, the instruments which are used to collect data, and data collection procedure. Chapter 3: Data analysis The findings from the data collected and analyzed are presented and discussed in this chapter. Chapter 4: Suggested solutions Some possible suggested solutions are provided to reduce students' English speaking anxiety in classroom. Part three: Conclusion This part contains an overview of the major findings, and the limitations and suggestions for further research.
4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW The main purpose of this chapter is to review the literature on anxiety in general, and foreign language anxiety as well as anxiety in foreign language speaking in particular. Definition of anxiety Anxiety, one of the most prominent and pervasive emotions, has been a focus of research in foreign language learning since early 1970s. There are a large number of definitions of language anxiety.91) calls anxiety as "an experience of general uneasiness, a sense of foreboding, a feeling of tension". Another definition by Scovel (1978, p.134) states that anxiety is associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, or worry.
Similarly, according to Horwitz et al. (1986), anxiety is “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry consisted of an arousal of the autonomic nervous system”. In addition, “anxiety is a psychological construct, commonly described by psychologists as a state of apprehension, a vague fear that is only indirectly associated with an object” (Hilgard, Atkinson, & Atkinson, 1971 cited in Scovel, 1991, p. Anxiety, as perceived intuitively by many language learners, negatively influences language learning and has been found to be one of the most highly examined variables in all of psychology and education (adapted from Horwitz, 2001, p.
In summary, we can see that anxiety is a complex psychological construct, difficult to precisely define since it arises from many sources. Generally, it can have physical, emotional, and behavioral manifestations and these manifestations can differ with each individual. 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.