Foreign Language Anxiety:Understanding Its Status and Insiders’ Awareness and Attitudes

TRAN THI THU TRANG

Hue University

Hue, Vietnam

RICHARD B. BALDAUF JR. AND KAREN MONI

University of Queensland

St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) has been found to exist in all of the cultures where it has been studied, yet the literature provides limited empirical evidence to indicate whether foreign language students and teachers, as the direct stakeholders in the phenomenon, are aware of it. This study investigated the extent to which foreign language students and teachers are aware of the existence of the phenomenon of FLA and their attitudes towards it. Some 419 non-English-major students, who were undertaking various majors in a university in Vietnam, and eight teachers of English as a foreign language participated in the study. Methodological triangulation, which involved collecting data using questionnaires, interviews, and student autobiographies, was adopted. The findings indicate that approximately two thirds of the students suffered from FLA to some degree, yet the teachers did not attribute adequate importance to it. The study suggests that FLA has an impact on the majority of students and that teachers should take this into account in their teaching.

doi: 10.1002/tesq.85

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is defined as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986, p. 128). In their theory of FLA, which has been widely used in FLA research, Horwitz et al. (1986) have conceptualised FLA as a unique type of anxiety specific to foreign language learning(see review by Tran, 2012).

FLA research has been conducted in different learning environments, including traditional classroom settings (e.g., Casado & Dereshiwsky, 2001; Kostic-Bobanovic, 2009; Liu, 2006; Liu & Jackson, 2008; Tallon, 2009; Von W?orde, 2003) and online/distance learning environments (e.g., Coryell & Clark, 2009; Donahoe, 2010; Hauck & Hurd, 2005; Hurd, 2007; Hurd & Xiao, 2010; Pichette, 2009). Research has also been conducted among different types of learners, including heritage students and nonheritage students (e.g., Tallon, 2006, 2009), mainstream students (e.g., Pappamihiel, 2002), and second or foreign language students. The findings have consistently indicated the existence of anxiety in students learning languages.

Research into the effects of FLA on learning achievement has mainly provided evidence for the detrimental effects of FLA (e.g., Aida, 1994; Bailey, Onwuegbuzie, & Daley, 2000; Chen & Lin, 2009; Elkhafaifi, 2005; MacIntyre & Doucette, 2010; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994; Pappamihiel, 2002; Rodríguez, 1995; Sellers, 2000; Woodrow, 2006; Yan & Horwitz, 2008; Zhao, 2009). Some studies have reported stories of anxious students who perceived foreign or second language learning as their worst learning experience and who found every way possible to avoid language learning (e.g., Price, 1991). Research has also provided evidence that FLA explains considerable variance in foreign language achievement; that is, FLA has been found to be one of the best predictors of foreign language achievement(Horwitz & Young, 1991; Onwuegbuzie, Bailey, & Daley, 2000; Sanchez-Herrero & Sanchez, 1992). Onwuegbuzie et al. (2000) thus have postulated, “Any model that seeks to predict foreign-language achievement that does not include a measure of foreign-language anxiety likely would be underspecified” (p. 5). These findings support the hypothesis that FLA is one of the factors influencing students’ performance and achievement.

Given the prevalence of FLA and its impact on foreign language learning, it should be expected that foreign language students and teachers are aware of FLA. Nevertheless, despite the importance attributed to FLA by researchers from many countries, the extent to which foreign language students and teachers are aware of it as an issue is still an open question. In addition, it is not clear whether foreign language teachers and students have an accurate understanding of the status of FLA, and whether they have a positive or a negative view of it. Although foreign language teachers may intuitively recognise the existence of student anxiety, it should not be assumed that the issue is familiar to all language teachers(Ewald, 2007). According to Von W?orde (2003), “unless teachers are sensitised to the issue of classroom anxiety, they may not feel the need to expend the additional time and effort in confronting the problem or may not realise that a defined problem exists” (p. 10). As for students, if they are aware of the nature of their anxiety, they may know how to work with it, because “a person who is intimately aware of what is going on in his or her mind-heartbody environment ... has the best chance of preventing an instance of initial stress from becoming distress” (Bigdeli & Bai, 2009, p. 105). Students and teachers are the direct stakeholders in the language teaching and learning process; therefore, studies that examine their awareness of, and attitudes towards, FLA are very important if the issue is to be understood and handled appropriately. Unless students and teachers perceive FLA to be a factor in their learning or in their teaching process, efforts to find strategies to manage it are not likely to occur.

To date, there has been limited research that investigates teachers’ and students’ awareness of and attitudes towards FLA. The only survey that focused on teachers’ awareness of student anxiety involved teachers of sociology, not foreign language teachers, and it was conducted more than 30 years ago (Rosenfeld, 1978). In addition, although anxiety research to date has shown FLA to be pervasive, no research has examined whether students perceive FLA to be a problem. Students may be aware of their anxiety, but it is not clear whether they perceive FLA as a separate phenomenon in foreign language learning or consider it part of their own struggle to learn a foreign language. Thus, how foreign language students and teachers are aware of student FLA in their language learning or teaching process, and whether they have positive or negative attitudes towards FLA, are not well understood. This study, therefore, aimed to contribute to our understanding of these questions with the focus being on FLA in English as a foreign language (EFL) learning. The following research questions guided the study:

1. To what extent does FLA exist in Vietnamese non-English-major students?

2. To what extent do EFL students and teachers report being aware of the existence of FLA as a phenomenon in foreign language learning?

3. What are EFL students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards FLA?

METHOD

Participants

The participants included both EFL students and teachers in a public university in Vietnam. There were 419 non-English-major student participants (162 male and 257 female) who enrolled in a Basic English Level 2 course. These students came from five schools (i.e., Business Administration, Accounting and Finance, Economic and Development Studies, Economic Information Systems, and Political Economics). Their background information is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Background Information of Student Participants

The students’ broad diversity in terms of place of origin, major, and EFL learning experience might help to enhance the generalisability of the findings of the study to a broader population. The student participants took English courses that were typically teacher fronted and had 50-60 students in each class. Due to crowded class size, the dominant classroom interaction pattern was teacher-student(s) oriented.

The teacher participants were eight female teachers who taught English to the student participants. Most of them were in their early 30s, with the youngest 24 and the oldest 42. At the time the data were collected, the oldest teacher had been teaching English for 19 years, and the youngest had been teaching for 2 years. Two teachers had more than 10 years of teaching experience, and the other four had 7-8 years of teaching experience. With regard to qualifications, five teachers had an MA, one was pursuing a PhD, and two were pursuing MAs.

Instruments

Data were obtained using a student questionnaire, a teacher questionnaire, student autobiographies, student interviews, and teacher interviews. The student questionnaire comprised background information, the Generalised Belief Measure (GBM), the Generalised Attitude Measure (GAM), and the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). The teacher questionnaire included background information, the GBM, and the GAM. In order to improve the validity of the data and to avoid participants’ misunderstanding or failing to fully express their views due to their English proficiency limitations, they were requested to use Vietnamese in interviews and autobiographies, and the questionnaires were presented in an English-Vietnamese bilingual format.

Generalised Belief Measure. The GBM (McCroskey, 2006; McCroskey & Richmond, 1989, 1996) was adapted to measure general beliefs about the existence of FLA. This 7-point, 5-item scale was developed using the semantic differential technique (see Dunn-Rankin, 1983; Heise, 1970). The scale measures beliefs using 5 bipolar items that focus on the degree to which an individual accepts a statement as representing an acceptable belief. For the purpose of this study, the belief that was measured was learning English as a foreign language makes many students anxious (see Appendix S1 for the English version of the GBM).

Generalised Attitude Measure. The GAM (McCroskey, 2006; McCroskey & Richmond, 1989, 1996) was adapted to measure general attitudes towards FLA. This is a 7-point, 6-item scale with six bipolar pairs of adjectives. Like the GBM, the GAM was developed using the semantic differential technique. The concept that was measured in this study was foreign language anxiety (see Appendix S2 for the English version of the GAM).

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. The FLCAS developed by Horwitz et al. (1986) was adapted to measure students’ level of anxiety. This scale consists of 33 statements which assess communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation associated with FLA. The original scale includes 24 positively worded and 9 negatively worded statements, with total scores ranging from 33 to 165 (the responses to the 9 negatively worded items are reversed and recoded before calculating total scores) and with lower total scores indicating higher levels of anxiety. In this study, the questionnaire used a 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree, with higher total scores indicating higher levels of anxiety (see Appendix S3 for the English version of the FLCAS).

Reliability analyses performed for the GBM, the GAM, and the FLCAS reveal high internal consistency levels for the three scales (see Table 2).

Table 2. Reliability of Scales (N=419)

Note. GBM=Generalised Belief Measure; GAM=Generalised Attitude Measure; FLCAS=Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale.

Student EFL learning autobiographies. Selected participants in this study were asked to write an autobiography about their EFL learning experiences based on prompts that aimed to direct the focus of their experiences to their emotions and feelings in EFL classes. The prompts were selected to facilitate students’ reflections on their EFL learning experiences. No limit was placed on the length of the autobiography. The students were encouraged to provide as much information as possible.

Semistructured interviews. The purpose of student interviews and teacher interviews was to elicit more information about their awareness of and attitudes towards FLA. The interviews were face to face and semistructured, with the interview protocol being designed in advance. The main interview questions were as follows: How would you describe your/ your students’ feelings in English language sessions? Before you were involved in this study, had you ever thought that many students are anxious about learning EFL? What is your opinion about the degree of student anxiety about EFL learning? What do you think about the feeling of anxiety in EFL learning? Based on the interviewees’ responses, suitable probes were used to elicit additional information.

Procedures

The student questionnaires were administered to 10 intact classes of non-English-major students, which were randomly selected from 25 classes of 1,298 students enrolled in a Basic English Level 2 course. Of 434 collected questionnaires, 419 could be used (15 were discarded because they were incomplete). Students’ overall anxiety levels were determined by summing the responses to all of the questions in the FLCAS and dividing the total by 33(the total number of questions). Based on the criteria set by Horwitz (2008), students were identified as high anxiety (HA=averages near 4 and above), medium anxiety (MA=averages around 3), and low anxiety (LA=averages below 3). Eighteen students (6 HA, 6 MA, and 6 LA) were randomly selected for student interviews, following a maximum variation sampling scheme. Forty-nine autobiographies were collected from anxious students, following a critical case sampling scheme (see Onwuegbuzie & Collins, 2007).

The eight teacher participants first completed the teacher questionnaire, then participated in teacher interviews.

Data Analysis

Data for this study include both quantitative data (questionnaires) and qualitative data (interviews, autobiographies). The statistical package SPSS was used to process the quantitative data, and NVivo software assisted in processing qualitative data following content analysis procedures (Bryman, 2008; Tonkiss, 2004). The mode of data integration was complementary, whereby each data source and data analysis addressed differently framed research questions (Brannen, 2004, 2008), but was also connecting in that different data sets were connected at the stage of interpretation (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The findings about the existence of FLA at the research site (Research Question 1), students’ and subsequently teachers’ awareness of FLA (Research Question 2), and students’and subsequently teachers’ attitudes towards FLA (Research Question 3) are presented sequentially in the following sections. In order to facilitate tracing references from the data, the following codes are used: Int=interview; Aut=autobiography; L=line. For example, (Lan, Int, L5) indicates that the reference is from the interview with Lan, Line 5 in the transcript. All names are pseudonyms.

Existence of Foreign Language Anxiety

Twenty-nine out of 33 statements on the FLCAS were supported by more than one third of the students in the study. In particular, 20 of these 29 statements were supported by over half of the students (see Appendix S3), indicating that the students felt affected by a wide variety of FLA-related indicators. Among the 419 students, 68.7% (n=288) had scores of 99 or above (i.e., averages above 3) and were considered to be suffering from some degree of anxiety. This indicates that FLA in this population of students, as measured by the FLCAS, was very noticeable. The descriptive statistics for the FLCAS show a mean score of 108.26, with the minimum score of 51 and maximum of 163 (SD=19.777).

In order to develop a general view of the level of anxiety of this population in comparison with other populations of university students, the results obtained in the previous studies which used the FLCAS to measure students’ levels of anxiety from 2000 onwards were examined (see Table 3).

Table 3 shows that the mean FLCAS score obtained in the present study was higher than that in other studies. Based on this observation only, it was unpersuasive to conclude this population of students was most anxious about studying English compared to other populations of students. In fact, it was found that the degree of agreement between reviewers was larger when using meta-analysis than when doing a narrative review (Botella & Gambara, 2006; Cooper & Rosenthal, 1980). Therefore, a meta-analysis was then performed which compared the mean and standard deviation of the FLCAS obtained in the current study with those in other studies with comparable data. Except for the data in the study by Marcos-Llinas and Garau (2009) and the data from the Korean college students taking a conversation course in Kim’s (2009) study, where there were no significant differences found (p.05), the mean FLCAS scores for all of the other studies were significantly lower than that in this study (p