國立虎尾科技大學學報 第二十九卷第一期 （民國九十九年四月）：75-94

A Study of Taiwanese Technical College Students’ Affective Reactions to Speaking English in the EFL Classroom

Ying-Ying Chuang

Cheng Shiu University, Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Assistant Professor

Abstract

Different from previous studies which focused on the learners’ overall foreign language learning anxiety, the purpose of this study was to investigate the sources of Taiwanese technical college students’ affective reactions to speaking English, anxiety-provoking situations, and how were their affective reactions to speak English and their attitudes toward an EFL classroom. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were conduced in this study: questionnaires and interviews. According to the results, college students’ anxiety generally came from one of these following situations: first, the teacher asked them to answer questions in English which they could not prepare in advance; second, the teacher asked them to give an English oral presentation to the class; third, students were asked to discuss unfamiliar topics in English; and fourth, students had low self-confidence in their oral performance; as a result, they kept thinking that their spoken English was worse than their peers’. Regarding students’ anxiety in the classroom, the results revealed that they felt excessively uncomfortable when they were asked to speak English in front of others, especially when they faced with topics they were not familiar with. In addition, they worried about the countless grammatical rules they have to learn to speak English, and they also feared making mistakes. The results also indicated that students’ anxiety occurred when they took part in conversations with foreign English speakers due to their lack of such experience. Concerning students’ affective reactions, the results revealed that students’ anxious feeling occurred when they did not understand what the teacher said in English, and consequently they worried about themselves being left behind due to the rapid pace of the class, especially those less-competent students. Some pedagogical implications of the study are also included.

Key Words: English as a Foreign Language (EFL); language learning anxiety; English speaking skill; affective reactions.

*Corresponding author:Department of Applied Foreign Languages, 840 Cheng-Ching Rd. Niaosong Township, Kaohsiung County 833, Taiwan, ROC

Tel: +886-7-731-0606 Ext: 6224

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國立虎尾科技大學學報 第二十九卷第一期 （民國九十九年四月）：75-94

I. Introduction

1.1. Background of the Study

Generally speaking, second or foreign language teaching was seen as helping ESL/EFL learners develop linguistic competence—to master the sounds, words, and grammatical rules of a target language for many years (Bailey, 2005). The idea was that by studying the language little by little, students could eventually put them all together and communicate. Later in the 1970s and 1980s, more and more language teachers realized that developing linguistic competence alone was not enough to be able to speak a second/foreign language well and get by in the society of the target language, the notion of linguistic competence came to be viewed as a component of the broader idea of communicative competence—the ability of language learners to interact with other speakers in order to deliver meaningful messages (Bailey, 2005). Therefore, in recent years, one of the major responsibilities of any teacher working with language learners is to enable them to communicate effectively through oral language. In other words, the mastery of speaking skills in any target language is a priority for many second or foreign language learners. In addition, learners often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how much they feel they have improved in their spoken language proficiency (Richards & Rodgers, 2008).

Today, people in English as foreign language (EFL) countries, such as Taiwan, Japan, and Thailand, use English not only within their countries but also for international communications (McKay, 2002). Also, English is taught as an academic subject of foreign/second language in many countries. In Taiwan, English courses are an academic general requirement for college freshman and sophomore years in all majors. These students are supposed to have at least six years of English language learning experience before they enter a college. In other words, their English language proficiency in four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) should all have reached a certain level. However, Wang (2003) conducted a survey of Taiwanese college students in freshman English classes, and found out that among the four language skills, speaking ability was the one that the students thought they should improve the most (83.7%) (p. 589). That means that a large part of those Taiwanese college students thought their speaking skill was deficient. Most Taiwanese students lacked speaking practice in the target language both inside and outside of the English classroom, which caused them to have a lack of confidence and an unwillingness to speak. Moreover, they felt panic when pressured into speaking English or testing English orally.

An emphasis on oral aspects of English language learning means that those students have to learn to understand what others say, and try to put into words what they would like to express in an English classroom. According to Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986), speaking in the target language seems to be the most threatening aspect of foreign language learning, the emphasis on the development of communicative competence however poses particularly great difficulties for the anxious students. Therefore, foreign language anxiety is a significant issue which cannot be ignored (Chan & Wu, 2004) in the context of language teaching and learning

1.2. Purposes of the Study

Based on the situations discussed, the role of speaking skills has become more important in language teaching and the response to that need has taken the approach of communicative language teaching (Kim, 2005). However, students’ “fear of speaking” becomes a huge obstacle for their language advancement. Research has consistently revealed that anxiety can impede ESL/EFL learners’ production and achievement (Chan & Wu, 2004; Crookal & Oxford, 1991; Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). Krashen (1987) also discussed that anxiety inhibits the learner's ability to process incoming language and short-circuits the process of acquisition. Interaction is often found among anxiety, task difficulty, and ability, which interferes at the input, processing, retrieval, and at the output level. If anxiety impairs cognitive function, students who are anxious may learn less and also may not be able to demonstrate what they have learned. They may experience even more failure, which in turn escalates their anxiety. Furthermore, Crookall and Oxford (1991) reported that serious language anxiety may cause other related problems with self-esteem, self-confidence, and risk-taking ability, and ultimately hampers proficiency in the target language.

Based on the argument of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) that among the four language skills, speaking in the target language seems to be the most threatening aspect of foreign language learning; therefore, the current focus on the development of communicative competence poses particularly great difficulties for the anxious learners. Thus, foreign language anxiety is a significant issue which cannot be ignored in Taiwanese students’ English learning, and the main purpose of this study is to investigate the sources of Taiwanese technical college students’ anxiety of speaking English and anxiety-provoking situations, their foreign language anxiety levels that they encounter in the English classroom, their anxiety of speaking English to native English speakers, and their affective reactions to spoken English and their attitudes toward EFL class.

1.3. Research Questions

This study addresses the following research questions:

1. What are the sources of Taiwanese college students’ anxiety of speaking English and anxiety-provoking situations?

2. To what extent do Taiwanese college students experience anxiety of speaking English in the EFL classroom?

3. To what extent do Taiwanese college students experience anxiety of speaking English to native English speakers?

4. How are the Taiwanese college students’ affective reactions to spoken English and their attitudes toward English classes?

II. Literature Review

2.1. Perspective of Anxiety

Anxiety as a concept has been the subject of scholarly discussion and research for more than a century. Differing definitions of anxiety by researchers reflect diverse perspectives on the concept. For instance, Spielberger (1983) argued that anxiety can be distinguished from stress and threat, and he defined anxiety as “the intensity of the subjective feelings of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry that are experienced by an individual,” and “heightened activity of the autonomic nervous system that accompanies these feelings” (p. 5). In other words, common to anxiety is its generally unpleasant nature and its similarity to fear (Lader, 1975).

Psychologists distinguish anxiety into three categories: 1) trait anxiety: a permanent disposition to be anxious, which appears to be related to upbringing, and may be closely linked to self-image; 2) state anxiety, which is linked to a specific moment in time, within a specific situation, and it may be rational, being linked to specific people—a particular teacher, for example; and 3) situational anxiety, which is aroused by a specific type of situation or event, such as examinations, public speaking, or classroom participation (Huang, 2001). However, Mason (2008) argued that not all the studies demonstrated that anxiety was necessarily negative in its effect on learning.

2.2. Foreign Language Anxiety

Anxiety experienced in the course of learning a second or foreign language is specific and unique (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). In the past two decades there has been a great deal of research on second or foreign language anxiety, or so called language classroom anxiety—this term refers to the situational trigger anxiousness that learners experience when they try to interact in the target language during lessons. Foreign language anxiety is a complex psychological construct, difficult to define precisely, perhaps due to the intricate hierarchy of intervening variables as noted by Trylong (1987). According to Woodrow (2006) that “anxiety has a debilitating effect in the language learning process” (p. 309). In addition, research also shows that some students with high levels of foreign language anxiety even have a mental block, similar to that experienced by students studying mathematics (Tobias, 1979). Indeed, Campbell and Ortiz (1991) also reported that perhaps one-half of language students at some point have experienced a startling level of anxiety. Thus, language anxiety is experienced by learners of both foreign and second language and poses potential problems "because it can interfere with the acquisition, retention and production of the new language" (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991, p. 86). Kitano’s (2001) study concluded that students’ anxiety levels were positively correlated with their fear of negative evaluation and decreased perception of their own ability in the target language significantly.

Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) claimed that there were three components of foreign language anxiety: communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. They found that, language anxiety manifested itself when students avoided conveying complex messages in the foreign language, when they displayed a lack of confidence or became stuck in role-play activities, and when they forgot vocabulary or grammar that they previously learned in evaluative situations. To identify the foreign language anxiety occurring among university students and to measure their anxiety degree, Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) developed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), which has gained widespread popularity in subsequent research studies on anxiety in language learning situations (Wang, 2003; Worde, 2003). In the present study, the researchers will revise the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) in some aspects to conduct their experiment in order to fit their specific purposes and the situations of the study.

2.3. Language Performance Anxiety: Speaking

The major significance of research into second/foreign language anxiety is in the relationship between anxiety and performance in the target language. Numerous studies have found that this anxiety is negatively related to language performance with some researchers claiming it is one of the strongest predictors of foreign language success, especially the skill of speaking (MacIntyre, 1999; Phillips, 1992).

Woodrow (2006) conducted a study regarding second language speaking anxiety as experienced by English learners studying in Australia. Her study proposed a dual conceptualization of second language speaking anxiety reflecting the distinction between classroom and communication outside of class. Her findings indicated that second language anxiety can be a significant predictor of oral achievement, and the most frequent source of anxiety was interacting with native speakers.

Several similar research studies conducted in Taiwan (Chen, 2002; Cheng, 2005; Chuo, 2005) on exploring the relationships of foreign language anxiety and classroom activities among the college EFL students, and the equivalent results yielded that anxiety-producing activities were all oral-oriented activities involving individual exposure, such as making an English oral presentation in front of the class, and being called on to give an answer in English. Huang (2008) recently also compared English language learners’ and their teachers’ preferences for in-class activities and examined the relationship between such preferences and the learners’ foreign language anxiety. Her findings revealed that university EFL students in general displayed moderate to high anxiety with the highest level of communication apprehension in their EFL oral classes. Her results showed that there was a close correlation between the learners’ foreign language anxiety and eight background factors (general English performance, English proficiency, learning motivation, self-confidence, weekly time spent on studying the course work, prior experiences of going abroad, the teacher’s use of English, and the activity mode). Moreover, general English performance was revealed to be the best predictor of students’ anxiety.

Young’s (1989) study investigated the types of in-class, speaking-oriented activities that adult second language learners (college students and high school students) find anxiety-producing and the types of instructor practices that the students perceive as anxiety-reducing. The results confirm previous research findings on language class anxiety. Based on his findings, Young (1989) gave the following suggestions for reducing learner anxiety: 1) have students verbalize their fears about language learning, then write them on the board; 2) use an anxiety graph to pinpoint the highest level of anxiety of a given interaction; 3) encourage student journal writing; 4) for anxieties stemming from learner personality, provide supplemental instruction or a support group; 5) for anxieties stemming from classroom procedures, use more pair and group work, with activities tailored to the learners' affective needs; 6) play language games with an emphasis on problem-solving; and 7) role-play with preparatory activities to instill class rapport.

2.4. Students’ Affective Reactions and Motivations

In Krashen’s (1987) natural approach theory, the affective filter is an impediment to learning caused by negative emotional (affective) responses to one's environment. It is a hypothesis of second language acquisition theory, and a field of interest in educational psychology. According to the affective filter hypothesis, certain emotions, such as anxiety, self-doubt, and mere boredom interfere with the process of acquiring a second or foreign language (Krashen, 2003). They function as a filter between the speaker and the listener that reduces the amount of language input the listener is able to understand. These negative emotions prevent efficient processing of the language input. The hypothesis states that the blockage can be reduced by sparking interest, providing low anxiety environments, and bolstering the learner's self-esteem.

Krashen (2003) also pointed out the importance of motivation, self-confidence and anxiety, and he held that these factors were more strongly related to achievement as measured by communicative tests than by formal language tests. In an earlier study he stated (1987, p. 31):

The Affective Filter Hypothesis captures the relationship between affective variables and the process of second language acquisition by positing that acquirers vary with respect to the strength or level of their Affective Filters....Those with attitudes more conducive to second language acquisition will not only seek and obtain more input, they will also have a lower or weaker filter. They will be more open to the input, and it will strike “deeper.”

Krashen deduced that “the pedagogical goals should not only include supplying comprehensible input, but also creating a situation that encourages a low filter” (1987, p. 32). In other words, the effective language teacher is someone who can provide input and help make it comprehensible in a low anxiety situation.

Many studies have proven that learners’ motivation plays a vital role in their learning process—a desire to learn or achieve some goals. In second language learning, Gardner (1985) distinguished two types of motivation: 1) integrative motivation: the desire to learn a language because it would fulfill certain utilitarian goals, such as getting a job and passing an examination; 2) instrumental motivation: the desire to learn a language in order to communicate with people from another culture that speaks that language; the desire is also there to identify closely with the target language group. Gardner found that there was a consistently positive correlation between integrative motivation and second language achievement.