DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE

Investigating ESL University Students Language Anxiety in the Aural-Oral Communication Classroom
Cris Delatado Barabas University of San Carlos, Cebu City, The Philippines cdbarabas@usc.edu.ph ; cdbarabas88@gmail.com Anxiety is one of the issues concerning language learning. Regarded as one of the influential affective factors, language anxiety in particular has raised awareness among language researchers and educators around the world. The present paper reports on an exploratory study conducted dealing with language anxiety in an aural-oral communication classroom with thirtythree ESL Filipino university students as participants. Utilizing Horwitz, Horwitz, and Copes (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the quantitative part of this paper deals with investigating the level of anxiety of the learners in three domains. Initial result shows neutrality in all domains. The qualitative aspect of this paper reports on the factors that the learners perceived to be anxiety provoking. Factor analysis yields eight categories: audience, preparations, personality, unpleasant experiences, environment, lack of skills, physiological, and learning activities. Drawing on the quantitative-qualitative analysis, pedagogical implications and directions for futures researches have been discussed. Keywords: Language Anxiety, Filipino Students, English as Second Language Introduction In the context of learning and acquiring English as a second or foreign language, several factors have been attributed to the success or failure of the learners in attaining communicative competencies. Several of these factors have long been established as learner-caused or environment-caused. As previously emphasized, these factors affecting the learning of a foreign language may include intelligence, motivation, attitude, age, gender, personality, anxiety, and so on (Skehan, 1989 as cited in Wu, 2010). Kumaravadelu (2006) summarized these different factors as individual, negotiation, tactical, affective, knowledge, and environmental factors. Among these factors, anxiety which falls under the individual factor has been widely researched since the publication of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Copes (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). Pappamihiel (2002) associated anxiety in general with threats to self-efficacy and the appraisals of specific situations as threatening. On the other hand, MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) pointed out that in terms of language learning, anxiety is the feeling of tension and apprehension in the usage of the four macro skills of language. This has been further elaborated by Horwitz, et al. (1986) as the presence of the feelings of self-consciousness, the fears of negative evaluation from peers and teachers and failure to live up to ones personal standards and goals. Anxiety then is not only caused by external factors but as well as the personal insecurities of the learners. Many researches investigating language learning anxiety in the classroom had been reported ranging from young students to adult learners as respondents. Studies on language anxiety had also been combined 1

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE with different factors such as methods used in language teaching, identifying appropriate learning environment, gender, etc. The current paper will attempt to address the issue of language learning anxiety in the aural-oral communication classroom. This paper then presupposed that indeed, there is a presence of anxiety among the learners in a listening-speaking class, especially with these students who use English as their second language. Although there are a lot of researches concerning language learning anxiety in Asia, most of these papers address learning English as foreign language such as in China, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. Most of these researches also investigated language anxiety in a much generalized English classroom. Few researches concerning language learning anxiety in the second language context, particularly in a listening/speaking set-up had been reported. In the Philippines, a country where English functions as a second language, the necessity of conducting a research concerning language anxiety is a must to recognize that even though English has been widely used especially in urban places, the presence of anxiety among the learners still has to be addressed. This paper also aims to be a modest contribution to the scarce literature of language anxiety research in the Philippines. Review of Related Literature Defining Anxiety Anxiety in general is seen as a psychological concept (Chan and Wu, 2004). It has been called an emotional response to a threat to some value that the individual holds essential to his existence as a personality (May, 1977, cited in Bekleyen, 2001). Traditionally, the nature of anxiety has been differentiated into trait anxiety, state anxiety, and situational anxiety (Zheng, 2008). Speilberger (1983, as cited in Pappamihiel, 2002) drew distinction between state and trait anxiety. Individuals who are more anxious and more likely to become anxious regardless of situation are referred to as having trait anxiety. Further emphasis stated that anxiety is part of the individuals character or an aspect of a more serious disorder. As cited in Tth (2010), Speilberger (1983) pointed out that trait anxiety refers to relatively stable individual differences in anxietyproneness. Tth (2010) emphasized this as the tendency of people to perceive stressful situations with elevation in the intensity of their state anxiety reactions. On the other hand, those people who are able to appraise situations accurately as being threatening or not within reasonable limits are having state anxiety. Tth (2010) and Kumaravadivelu (2006) collectively emphasized MacIntyre (1994) and Spielbergers (1983) elaboration of state anxiety as moment-to-moment experience of anxiety to transitory emotional states characterized by subjective feelings of tension, nervousness, and worry, and by activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system. Speilberger (1983) further emphasized that state anxiety occurs under certain conditions. Lastly, situational anxiety is related to apprehension aroused at specific situations and events (Ellis, 1994). This type of anxiety has been generally related by MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) to defining foreign language anxiety in which they also associated with second language contexts specifically in such skills as speaking, listening, and learning in general. Second/Foreign Anxiety Language Learning

Foreign language anxiety is not a new issue within the global context of foreign language learning (Marwan, 2008) as it is 2

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE usually reported to have adverse effects on the learning of a target language (Wu, 2010). Anxiety associated with foreign or second language learning and communication has long been in the focus of second language (L2) researchers as well (Tth, 2010) and is a topic that triggers significant differences of opinions over the last three decades (Tran, 2012). Cassady (2010, as cited in Tran, 2012) introduced the term academic anxiety as a unifying formulation of the collection of anxieties which learners experience in school. Horwitz, et al. (1986) narrowed this down to foreign language anxiety and proposed that anxiety should be viewed as a situationspecific anxiety arising from the uniqueness of the formal learning of a foreign language, not just a case of general classroom anxiety being transferred to foreign language learning. Brown (1994, as cited in Ohata, 2005) contested that although language anxiety is sometimes viewed as helpful energizer for approach such complex tasks as L2 learning, the potentially harmful effects of anxiety, often called debilitating anxiety cannot be easily dismissed in the context of L2 learning. For instance, the language classroom naturally presents itself as an anxiety-causing situation to some language learners, as it involves constant and periodic evaluation of the learners performance and competence (Lucas, et al., 2011). Kumaravadivelu (2006) added that language anxiety has also been found to correlate negatively with global measures of achievement such as objective tests and course grades and additionally, the measures involving specific processes such as vocabulary recall. Affective factors then are permanently involved in a foreign language learning process (Alleyne, 2010). Generally, the distinctions of positive and negative factors have been further elaborated with respect to the attitude of both the learners and the teachers. In the field of second language acquisition, MacIntyre and Gardner (1991, cited in Pappamihiel, 2002) draw upon the work done by Spielbelger (1983) to point-out that individuals who suffer from situation specific anxiety may appraise certain events as anxiety-producing only when certain factors are present. Studies Related to Language Anxiety Although studies related to language anxiety have already started in the western countries since the 1970s, many researches have been generated since the publication of Horwitz, Horwitz and Copes (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety where they were able to formulate the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). Student in the beginning language classes at the University of Texas participated in a support group for foreign language learning where discussion of concerns and difficulties of language learning, didactic presentations on effective language learning strategies and anxiety management exercises were done. The study reported the presence of psychophysiological symptoms associated with anxiety such as tenseness, trembling, perspiring, palpitations, and sleep disturbances. According to Horwitz et al. (1986), because foreign language anxiety concerns performance evaluation within an academic and social context, it must be useful to draw parallels between it and three related performance anxieties which are communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. The scale that they developed was used to asses the degree to which a respondent feels anxious in a foreign language classroom based on the construct of foreign language classroom anxiety (Katalin, 2007). The scale had demonstrated satisfactory reliability coefficients with the first samples of population which it had been administered 3

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE (Horwitz, 1991). Since then, researchers across the world employed the FLCAS to investigate anxiety in both the foreign and second language classrooms. Anxiety in general has become the well-researched subject in the North American and Canadian setting, European, and Asian (Tth, 2010). The FLCAS has been the instrument usually used to research into the role of anxiety in language learning in broad-based measures and Horwitz et al. (1986, as cited in MacIntyre and Gardner, 1994) suggested that researchers should study its more subtle effects and that is the relation between language anxiety and more specific processes involved in language acquisition and communication. MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) cited Tobias (1979, 1986) model which describes the effects of anxiety as seen in three stages, that is, Input, Processing, and Output. As further elaborated by MacIntyre and Gardner (1994), Tobias (1979, 1986) Input stage is meant to illustrate the learners first experiences with a given stimulus at a given time. According to them, input is concerned with the initial representation of items in memory and that at this stage, external stimuli are encountered and internal representations are made and attention, concentration, and encoding occur. The processing stage, as explained by MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) involves the cognitive operations performed on the subject matter in terms of organization, storage, and assimilation of the material. Lastly, Tobias Output stage according to MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) involves the production of previously learned material. They characterize performance at this stage as highly dependent on the previous stages in terms of output organization and the speed with which items are retrieved from memory. By reviewing the literature on language anxiety, another researcher offered list of potential sources of anxiety in language learning. Young (1991) associated the potential sources of language anxiety with the learners themselves, the teacher, and with the instructional practices. These factors are personal and interpersonal anxieties, learner beliefs about language learning, instructor beliefs about language teaching, instructor-learner actions, classroom procedures, and language testing. There are several literatures that dealt with the study of language anxiety in the classroom in Asia. For instance, Ohata (2005) explored the nature of language anxiety from the perspective of five Japanese learners of English with reference to their self-reflective accounts of emotional difficulties encountered in the U.S. college settings. Using qualitative interview format, Ohata (2005) found that characteristics of language anxiety exhibited by the participants were influenced by Japanese cultural norms or expectations acquired through numerous socialization processes way back in Japan. The conclusion of the research elaborated on the cultural influence on the participants anxiety formation which had a large and negative impact on their L2 performance despite the participants differences in perceiving language anxiety. In a similar Japanese context, though this time the study was conducted in Japan, Williams and Andrade (2008) examined anxiety in Japanese university EFL classes in regard to the type of situations that provoked anxiety, the perceived cause of anxiety, and the ability to cope with the anxiety. Using cross-cultural study of emotion responses, the findings with 243 Japanese learners as the participants revealed that anxiety was most often associated with the output and processing stages of the learning process. Unsurprisingly, their study revealed that the participants attributed the cause of anxiety to the teacher or other people. 4

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE In Taiwan, acculturation and L2 self were considered as causal factors in foreign language anxiety in a study conducted by Yang (2012). With 108 undergraduate students majoring in Applied English in Taiwan, the research made use of paperbased questionnaire such as the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the L2 Self Questionnaire (L2SQ), EFL Students Acculturation Questionnaire (ESAQ) and the Background Questionnaire. Results of the study indicated the presence of some levels of language anxiety; the variables which were significant predictors of FL anxiety were ideal L2 self, preservation, self-perceived English proficiency, and hours spent on English listening comprehension practice. One of the most important finding of the study is the indication that learners inclination to resist the TL culture can lead to increased levels of FL anxiety. Therefore, resistance of the learners themselves can cause anxiety with respect to learning a foreign or second language. Another Taiwan-centered research focused on the learners self-efficacy, belief in giftedness for language learning, and language anxiety. Cheng (2001) found out that there is a significant association between second language anxiety and the learners beliefs self-efficacy and giftedness. The study reported that students of low English self-efficacy had experienced significant higher level of English class anxiety than those with students who reported relatively high English selfefficacies. In another Taiwan study, Chan and Wu (2004) investigated the foreign language anxiety level of EFL primary school learners. They extended their study to determining the extent of foreign language anxietys correlation to students English learning experience and English achievement and they attempted to figure out the sources of students foreign language anxiety and anxiety provoking situations. The researchers also involved the teachers by checking on the awareness of students anxiety and the issue of lowering foreign language anxiety was later on explored in their paper. The researchers employed the English Learning Experience Questionnaire to investigate students general English learning experience; the FLCAS to investigate foreign language anxiety and qualitative interviews with students and teachers to explore the possible sources and anxiety-provoking situations. The results revealed that there was a significant negative correlation between foreign language anxiety level and English learning achievement. This means that learners achievement in learning English is greatly affected by the level of anxiety that these learners experienced in the classroom. Further, they found that low proficiency, fear of negative evaluation, competition of games, anxious personality, and pressure from students themselves and their parents were the five sources of language anxiety. Moreover, the young EFL learners considered speaking in front of others, spelling, incomprehensible input, and speaking to native speakers were the five anxiety-provoking situations. In the end, they posited that both teachers and students in their study thought that the balance of instructional languages helped lower foreign language anxiety. Marwan (2008) investigated the issue of FL anxiety within the context of FL learning in Indonesia. Attempting to determine the factors which contribute to learners foreign language anxiety and identifying whether there are differences in anxiety causing factors across demographic differences, the 76 learners participated in the study. Using a closed-ended questionnaire with a threepoint Likert scale modified from the FLCAS developed by Horwitz et al. (1986), the study revealed that there were three factors 5

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE which learners believed to have contributed to the FL anxiety. These factors were lack of preparation, lack of confidence, and fear of failing the class. The study revealed as well that participants had not experienced difficulties in understanding teachers instructions and the students did not manifest any fear in committing mistakes in their learning. An exploratory study attempting to establish whether students learning English in another country experience language learning anxiety and identifying whether there are gender differences in the perceptions of language learning anxiety was conducted by Zhang (2001). Using mainly the FLCAS, the researcher had 145 Chinese students studying ESL at two tertiary institutions in Singapore. The study reported that speaking was the greatest challenge, followed by test as the source of anxiety, and answering teachers questions in the classroom contributing to students anxiety level. The research attributed the presence of language learning anxiety to the change in learning environment. In Malaysia, Devi and Feroz (2008) investigation communication apprehension among engineering students and dealt with the learners perceived communication competence, their general performance in the oral presentation skills and identified the possible correlations that existed between these elements. They used the SelfPerceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC), Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-12) and a Presentation Evaluation Rubric. Based on their investigation, they found out that their participants fall under the modest group of speakers and have a moderate communication anxiety but it did not affect their grades. Their study further suggested that the higher the students perception of their communicative competence, the less communication anxiety there is. In African context particularly in Algeria, Idri (2012) mapped out the factors generating foreign language anxiety in Algerian students learning English as a foreign language. In Idris (2012) study, he dealt with university level students in the Algerian education context where English is considered as a foreign language. The researcher focused on the way students see and live anxiety in their foreign language classroom and how they manage to handle it. Idri (2012) posited that anxiety is inherent in the learning process of beginning university students of foreign languages. The studies previously mentioned focused on investigating anxiety in learning English as a second or foreign language in general. Apart from general foreign language classroom anxiety, many learners are highly anxious with respect to participation in speaking activities (Cheng, Horwitz, and Schallert, 1994 as cited in Tsiplakides, 2009). In the Philippines, Del Villar (2010) investigated the anxiety attributions of beginning public speaking students in the state-run university. Her findings revealed that there are eight factors that students attribute their anxiety to. These are expectation, training and experience, audience, self-worth, rejection, verbal fluency, preparation and previous pleasant experience. The majority of the students also believe that they would overcome their public speaking anxiety. Further, the students believed that the most important remedies were practice, confidence, and exposure. In the European context, Baran-Lucarz (2010) reported in her paper the study investigating whether the actual level of FL learners pronunciation and the pronunciation level perceived by Polish students can be considered significant sources of anxiety. The researcher employed the FLCAS to measure the participants degree of anxiety and a Pronunciation Test 6

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE to diagnose the actual level of pronunciation. The research showed that both the actual and perceived pronunciation levels correlated significantly with the degree of learners language anxiety. Further, the results of the study showed that perceived pronunciation level was found to be more strongly related to language anxiety than the actual pronunciation skills. The researcher emphasized on introducing regular well-planned pronunciation practice which would improve the FL learners actual pronunciation level. She posited that the relationship between pronunciation and language anxiety might be moderated by several variables, such as concern for pronunciation, motivation to speak a good accent and level of competitiveness. The Study Statement of the Problem The primary aim of this paper is to quantitatively and qualitatively account for the anxiety level of a coeducational class of tertiary level students taking aural-oral communication course during the summer term of academic year 2012-2013 at a private Catholic university in Cebu City, The Philippines. For this term, the students will receive two months of instruction. This study aims at investigating the level of anxiety of English as Second Language (ESL) learners in the aural-oral communication course context. Further, this study describes the different factors causing the learners language anxiety. Specifically, this paper will attempt to answer the following questions: 1. What is the dominant anxiety level of the ESL learners in the oral communication classroom context? 2. What are the factors that learners attribute to the development of language anxiety? Participants and Setting Thirty-three (33) coeducational Filipino university students were the participants of this study. The students age range from 1622 years and 32 of them considered English as a second language, having learned the language since kindergarten or primary school. The majority of the participants mother tongue is Cebuano, a language predominantly used in the central part of the Philippines. Based on the background questionnaire given, twenty-eight of these students claimed Cebuano as their mother tongue, one claimed Ilonggo, and one Surigaonon. Three of these students claimed English as their mother tongue with Cebuano as a second language. Despite these three student-claims that English is their mother tongue, they are still considered in this research since they indicated that they are Filipinos. These students are enrolled in an Aural-Oral Communication course, a pronunciation course with emphasis on American English which is part of select curricula at the University of San Carlos, a private Catholic university in Cebu City. The students receive two hours of instruction everyday for two months. Methodology This study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. In answering the first question of this study which is to determine the dominant anxiety level of the ESL students, the researcher employed the Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) designed by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986). Horwitz et al. (1986) developed the questionnaire to asses the degree to which a respondent feels anxious in a foreign language classroom based on the construct of foreign language classroom anxiety being a composite of communication apprehension, fear of 7

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE negative evaluation and test anxiety. The scale is a 33-item 5-point Likert scale which includes 24 positively worded and 9 negatively worded items. Some of the items of the FLCAS were modified to suit the context. After administering the survey, the researcher asked the help of a statistician to analyze the dominant anxiety level of the ESL respondents. After tallying the data and getting the result, the five highly anxious students were identified. The second question which aimed at determining the factors which learners attribute to the development of language anxiety was answered by having the students answered an open-ended question through writing. The researcher did not employ any predefined list of factors from the previous studies because the researcher is interested in knowing the range of factors that these students might point out. Data Collection The researcher administered the Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale in an auraloral communication class which is also handled by the researchers graduate school professor. The survey was conducted on the third week after the start of the classes. Both the teacher and the researcher were in the speech laboratory when the students answered the survey. The students were not informed that the questionnaire is about checking their anxiety level in order not to preempt their responses and to get a valid result. They were instructed to answer the item based on their first reaction. Since the students were scheduled for oral examination on the session, they were divided into to groups, with the first group attending the first hour and the second group attending the second hour. The researcher was only able to administer the survey to the first group and it was the researchers professor who administered the survey for the second group. After collating the data for this part of the research, a statistician will help in getting the result by determining the mean and the standard deviation for each statement. On a separate meeting, the researcher did a classroom observation. The students were performing an advertising activity, one of the major requirements of the course. Observations were done only on the five highly anxious students identified based on the FLCAS in order to support later on the discussion on the different factors that students identified which caused anxiety in this language class. The session after this activity, the researchers professor administered the writing activity wherein students answered an open-ended question that would elicit the data on the possible reasons why their classmates experience anxiety particularly in this course. All the thirty-three (33) answered the questionnaire which was then collated and categorized by the researcher in order to come up wit the different factors that can be attributed to the development of language anxiety. Methods of Analysis This paper adopted the statistical treatment previously employed by Mamhot, et al. (2013) in their comparative analysis of the language anxiety of ESL and EFL learners in answering the first question. Only the interpretation part will be adopted. As such, the following scheme will also be used in the present paper: Mean 4.20-5.00 3.40-4.19 2.60-3.39 1.80-2.59 1.00-1.79 Interpretation Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

model

This present paper utilized the threeForeign Language Classroom 8

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE Anxiety Scale as opposed to the four-model scale because it has been proven through statistical analysis that the three-factor model has the better fit, thus this model could be considered as the better model in investigating foreign language classroom anxiety (see Cao, 2011). The domains are communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation.
Figure 1. Three-factor Model of FLCAS adopted from Cao (2011)

Results and Discussion Anxiety level of the ESL learners in the aural-oral communication classroom context The table below presents the result of the ESL learners anxiety in the aural-oral communication classroom based on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. Table 1 is a summary of the results showing the mean and standard deviation of all the items answered.
Table 1 Summary of the FLCAS Result N=33 Mean SD FLCAS 3.08 0.3525

Interpretation Neutral

In answering the second question which is to determine the different causes of language anxiety, no predefined list of causes were given since the researcher is interested of knowing the range of causes that students might attribute to the development of language anxiety. Out of the causes written by students in their openended questionnaire, a factor analysis was done in order to establish answers to the second question. No statistical tool was employed in analyzing the factors and the researcher relied solely in categorizing the attributions given by the students.

Table 1 shows that the overall anxiety level of the students based on their responses has a mean of 3.08 and a standard deviation of 0.3525. Based on the given scheme the interpretation of the overall result is neutral. This means that there exist a certain level of anxiety in the classroom but it cannot be said that the anxiety level is low or high. It is safe to say that there might be some items in the questionnaire in which the students perceived to be agreeable, that the descriptions given can cause them anxiety, while there are some items as well that did not bother them at all or did not cause them any anxiety. The scale is modeled in a way that there is a balance between negative and positive construction of the questions and considering that respondents have been in the English classroom since kindergarten, then anxiety can be perceived to be minimal. To elaborate the result, the next table will present the entire scale showing the derived mean and standard deviation of the students responses.

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE

Table 2 Descriptive Statistics Showing All the Items of the FLCAS N=33 Items
1. I never feel quite sure of myself when I am speaking in my English 3 class. 2. I dont worry about making pronunciation mistakes in my English 3 class. 3. I tremble when I know that Im going to be asked to speak in my English 3 class. 4. It frightens me when I dont understand what the teacher is saying in the English 3 class. 5. It wouldnt bother me at all to take more aural-oral communication classes. 6. During the English 3 class, I find myself thinking about things that have nothing to do with the course. 7. I keep thinking that the other students are better at pronouncing than I am. 8. I am usually at ease during oral tests in my English 3 class. 9. I start to panic when I have to speak without preparation in my English 3 class. 10. I worry about the consequences of failing my English 3 class. 11. I dont understand why some people get so upset over English pronunciation classes. 12. In my English 3 class, I am so nervous that I forget what I know. 13. It embarrasses me to volunteer answers in my English 3 class. 14. I will not be nervous when speaking with native English speakers. 15. I get depressed when I dont understand what the teacher is correcting. 16. Even if I am well prepared for my English 3 class, I feel anxious about it. 17. I often feel like not going to my English 3 class. 18. I feel confident when I speak in my English 3 class. 19. I am afraid that my English 3 teacher will correct every mistake I make. 20. I feel my heart pounding when it is my turn to do the oral test. 21. The more I prepare for oral test in my English 3 class, the more confused I get. 22. I dont feel any pressure to prepare very well for English 3 class. 23. I always feel that my classmates speak better English than I. 24. I feel shy when speaking English in front of other students. 25. English class moves so quickly that I worry about getting left behind. 26. I feel tenser and have more pressure in English 3 class than in other classes. 27. I get nervous when I speak in my English 3 class. 28. I feel confident and relaxed before I go to my English 3 class. 29. I get nervous when I dont understand every word my English 3 teacher says. 30. I feel overwhelmed by the number of rules I have to learn to speak English. 31. I am afraid that my classmates will laugh at me when I mispronounce a word or words. 32. I feel easy when native English speakers talk with me. 33. I get nervous when my English 3 teacher asks questions which I havent prepared in advance. AVERAGE

Mean
2.67 2.79 3.03 2.79 3.18 2.61 3.27 3.30 3.39 3.58 3.24 2.91 3.06 3.39 2.94 3.33 2.21 3.18 2.61 3.27 2.24 2.94 3.42 3.45 3.09 2.82 3.06 3.36 2.94 3.15 3.30 3.52 3.64 3.08

SD

Interpretation
Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Disagree Neutral Neutral Neutral Disagree Neutral Agree Agree Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral Agree Agree

0.3525

Neutral

As can be gleaned from Table 2 above, the majority of the items gathered neutral interpretation as derived from the statistical method used. Two of the negatively constructed items (No. 17: I often feel like not going to my English 3 class; No. 21: The more I prepare for oral test in my English 3 class, the more confused I get) got the interpretation of disagree. This means that students are not in any way anxious or manifested hesitations in attending their English 3 class. On the other hand, the table above revealed that extra or over preparations before students attend their class did not in any way yield anxiety on the students part. The two items are actually

related in a way that both pertain to attending the communication class. The first possible explanation for this is that these students started learning English since kindergarten or primary school and that attending English class is already part of their lives as students. Even until the tertiary level in the Philippines, students are required to enroll several English classes as part of their program of study. Secondly, the students might be motivated in attending the pronunciation class because of the fact that the main objective of the course is to enhance students pronunciation skills in a way that they might become near-Native Speakers. Although this course demands 10

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE oral performance from the students, it is less rigorous compared to grammar classes where students are normally asked to write and analyze sentences. It is also worth mentioning that despite the fact that these students came from different colleges with diverse programs, they are still somewhat motivated in attending their aural-oral communication class. This result and the theory posited by the researcher manifested similarities in the result of the study conducted by Mamhot et. al (2013) with Filipino university students as respondents. The respondents of that study and this present study with Cebuano students have the consensus that they do not have any anxiety in attending their English classes nor they experience confusion when they prepare a lot before coming to the class. Table 2 also shows that another two negatively constructed items (No. 23: I always feel that my classmates speak better English than I; No. 24: I feel shy when speaking English in front of other students) yield agreement among the students. Items 23 and 24 have the mean of 3.42 and 3.45, respectively. Notice however that these means are not very far from the neutral scheme which is pegged at 2.60-3.39. The two items are interrelated since they pertain to their perception when their classmates speak English and their attitude when the students speak English in front of their classmates. However, item number 27 which is related to item 24 (I feel nervous when I speak in my English 3 class) has a neutral result. The fact that these students came from diverse background such as place of origin, nature of their basic education schools, and the people they closely interacted with, comfortability in speaking English in front of their classmates could be affected. Some of these students came from private schools in the city which really advocated English only policy while some also came from different provinces. Another positively constructed item yielded agreement from the students. Item 32 (I feel easy when native English speakers talk with me) have the students consensus that they do not feel any anxiety. This is in contrast with Mamhots et. al (2013) Manila respondents where the students manifested neutrality towards the question. The present studys respondent might have wider exposure to native speakers inside and outside the campus. Given the fact that this study was conducted in Cebu, a highly urbanized city with English native speakers coming in and out, the students might have already developed confidence in speaking with these people. With these students accent patterned after the American English and with the belief that Cebuanos/Visayans English accent is perceived to be neutral and highly intelligible for the native speakers, the students might have already boost confidence. Moreover, these students predominantly use two languages only, English and Cebuano outside the classroom and mainly English inside the classroom with very little room for code switching to Cebuano. On the other hand, item number 33 (I get nervous when my English teacher asks questions which I havent prepared in advance) was agreed to by the respondents. This manifested the somehow normal assumption that students are anxious to answer questions they are not prepared of. The summary of the result can be summed up by the table below. As previously mentioned, Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) categorized the 33 statements according the level of anxieties. These are communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation.

11

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE

Table 3 Levels of Anxiety among ESL University Students based on Categories Anxiety Category Mean SD Communication 3.13 0.1586 Apprehension Test Anxiety 3.00 0.2609 Fear of Negative 3.16 0.1566 Evaluation Totality 3.08 0.3525

Interpretation Neutral Neutral Neutral Neutral

As previously mentioned, all the categories of the FLCAS are perceived to be neutral for the students. Also, the standard deviation for each category is very low which means that it is close to the respective means. In the aspect of communication apprehension, a type of shyness characterized by fear of or anxiety about communicating with people, in this context communicating with the people in the classroom who are primarily the teacher and the classmates, the mean of 3.13 is the second highest of the three categories. In this aspect, the item with the lowest weighted mean is number 1 (I never feel quite sure of myself when I am speaking in my English 3 class) which manifested the students confidence whenever they speak in their class. With these students exposure to the English language, as previously mentioned, this aspect is not a problem with the students. On the other hand, the item with the highest mean in the communication apprehension category is number 32 (I feel easy when native English speakers talk with me). A high mean on this item means students have a positive attitude towards speaking with the native speakers. As previously mentioned, this is probably due to the confidence that the students have developed during the years that they are receiving English instruction and the accessibility of the native speakers inside and outside the campus. In the aspect of test anxiety, which refers to a type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure, the item with the highest mean is

number 10 (I worry about the consequences of failing my English 3 class). Students are obviously afraid to fail the subject as it entails retaking the subject in the next term. On the other hand, since this is an aural-oral communication course with the students expected to do a lot of oral tests, students do not want to repeat the same minor subject and experience anxiety in doing oral examinations. As what Horwitz et. al (1986) posited, oral test have the potential of provoking anxiety. It can be said then that the ultimate aim of the students is to pass the course. The item with the lowest mean on the other hand is number 17 (I often feel like not going to my English 3 class). This manifests students eagerness to attend their aural-oral communication class. In the category fear of negative evaluation which is defined as an apprehension about others evaluations, avoidance of evaluative situations, and the expectation that others would evaluate oneself negatively, item number 19 (I am afraid that my English teacher will correct every mistake I make) has the lowest mean of 2.67 interpreted as neutral. This means that students do not show anxiety when they are corrected by their teacher, in this context, their pronunciation. As this is a pronunciation class, it is expected that students commit mistake and immediate feedback or correction is expected. The English 3 class advocates audio-lingual method which emphasized on drills and repetitions, therefore students are expected to perfect the pronunciation of the words. Students are 12

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE probably used to being corrected in their pronunciation mistakes in this class. Lastly, the item with the highest mean is number 33 (I get nervous when my English 3 teacher asks questions which I havent prepared in advance). As previously mentioned, up to this date, students still acknowledge that preparedness is a factor in attaining success in a subject. Another reason could be that impressing teachers by correctly answering questions is a mindset that students still have up to these days. Students also gain confidence when they answer questions correctly. Factors that Students Attribute to the Development of Language Anxiety With the hypothesis that there is an existence of anxiety among students in an aural-oral communication class, this question has been raised at the initial part of this paper. Bear in mind however that no statistical treatment has been employed in answering this part despite the data that has been elicited from a group of students. In answering this question, the researcher relied solely on his instinct in classifying the different factors that the students wrote on an open-ended questionnaire. The thirtythree (33) students who were the respondents of this exploratory study produced a total of one hundred eighty (180) answers on the question What do you think are the reasons why others (especially your classmates) experience anxiety in your aural-oral communication class? These answers were then categorized and each category will be discussed. The factors that students attributed to as the possible causes of anxiety in the aural-oral communication class are audience anxiety, preparations, personality, previous unpleasant experiences, environment, skills, physiological aspect, and learning activities. Factor 1: Audience This factor pertains to both the teacher and the students who are the audience. Most of the activities in the English 3 class require individual presentation such as singing, hosting, advertising a product, etc. These are apart from the individual oral test on word pronunciation. Several reasons have been pointed out by the respondents why their classmates in general provoked anxiety. As one respondent wrote, the intimidating feeling whenever she presented in front with all eyes looking at her is very unavoidable which caused her to tremble and stutter. The feeling of being criticized by the classmates whenever one made a mistake was one of the respondents reasons why they feel anxious. Moreover, being an alien in the group since the class was not a block section added tremendously to the feeling of anxiety. Contrary to this, another student pointed out that the familiar faces of the audience caused him to feel nervous during presentation because of the expected bullying of his peers after. The characteristics of the audience in the class also matters a lot to the presenter. For instance, one respondent pointed out that upon finding out that his classmates are good English speakers upon hearing their conversations before the class, he developed a feeling of insecurity and this greatly affects his performance. Having foreigner classmates is also one of the reasons why ESL students are anxious. Supposedly, this pertains to the native speakers in the classroom. Inarguably, audience has a significant impact on the students performance in the class and this element shaped-up the success of failure of ones performance. In earlier paper, McCroskey (1997) pointed out that people in general experience communication apprehension when they are speaking in a formal setting to a group of people. This study somehow confirms that theory, though in this context, 13

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE classroom presentation is somehow semiformal but students still have to follow certain guidelines in speaking. Factor 2: Preparations This attribution pertains to the fear that students experience whenever they enter the class and not doing the practicing before oral tests, not being able to do the assignments or not making ones script before the scheduled presentation. This factor also involves the anxiety that the student felt whenever he is given a task on the spot and is usually caught off-guard. Moreover, the lack of time to study and prepare for the upcoming tests was pointed out by most of the respondents. The students are aware that preparation is the key to attaining success in the course. Factor 3: Personality Mamhot et. al (2013) reported in their study that both group of respondents (the EFL and ESL learners) perceive themselves as the main cause of the anxiety that they feel in their English classes. In Del Villars (2010) paper, personality has been related to students self-evaluation which involves their physical appearance, self-worth, and consciousness. Generally, it pertains to the perceived identity of the students such as defining themselves as low self-esteem or low-confidence individuals. Introversion has been the key component that the present respondents attributed to the emergence of their anxiety. This has been vaguely related to the vulnerability that they felt whenever they present in front. The students pessimistic attitude, stage fright, overthinking, uncomfortability with the classmates are encapsulated under this factor. Moreover, perfectionism is also an underlying factor in language anxiety with the students aiming not to commit any mistakes in class which in the end contributed to their anxiety. In relation to Park and Lees (2007) findings, this finding supports that confidence is closely related with the L2 learners attitude and interaction including communication strategies and social conversation skills of oral performance. Factor 4: Unpleasant Experiences Previous unpleasant experiences greatly affect students attitude towards performing in class. Speaking, probably the most demanding among the four macro-skills of language, can trigger a lot of anxiety and tension among the students, most especially if the learners have had previous unpleasant experiences which caused trauma, as identified by the respondents. Previous experiences might involve criticisms both from the teachers and classmates, being bullied or laughed at, and not being listened to. As one student pointed-out, the previous experience of being laughed at by classmates for mispronouncing words is an image that occurs whenever she is set to present in front. This experience, as emphasized by one student, made him felt degraded. Factor 5: Environment Previous literatures scarcely cite the physical environment as a factor causing anxiety. In this study, the respondents cited temperature as one of the anxiety-provoking factors. As what one student has written, the coldness of the classroom as well as extreme warmness can greatly affect his performance. Aside from this, the noise of the classmates who are practicing while one girl respondent was performing also added to her anxiety. Students also attributed anxiety to the malfunctioning of technology or their props in general when they perform in front. The use of microphone during performance has been cited as well.

14

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE Factor 6: Lack of Skills This attribution centered on the language skills of the respondents. Being in an auraloral communication class, the students are expected to showcase their different language skills. As these students are very exposed to the English language, a higher expectation has to be expected. However, the very fact that English is a second language to these learners justifies nonperfection of the usage of such. Some of the learners acknowledged that they have a hard time in speaking English due to their uncertainties in word usage, grammar, and pronunciation. Lack of experience in speaking is also a contributing factor to the development of anxiety. As pronunciation is an important aspect of speaking, the belief that good pronunciation puts students on a higher pedestal is always the usual stereotype. This then puts pressure to the students, especially those who are not very particular in speaking English outside the classroom. Factor 7: Physiological Uneasiness due to sickness, nervousness, and palpitation are some situations that students identified that trigger anxiety. The physical state of the students coupled with the emotional situations that they are currently in will immensely affect their performance in a language class. As previously identified, nervousness leads to disorganization whenever students speak and stuttering. Horwitz et al. (1986) elaborated the visible characteristics of highly anxious students such as having difficulty in concentration, being forgetful, sweating and experiencing palpitations. This resulted to students dreading attending class. The students also identified their physical characteristics as one cause of anxiety. Their insecurities with their physical self (such as perceiving themselves as ugly) and the way they dress are factors of their apprehensions. As what one of the respondents had written, comparing herself with her classmates in terms of manner of dressing affects her posture and her performance in class. Factor 8: Learning Activities This attribution pertains to the different classroom activities employed by the instructor. This may be considered as test anxiety which has been confirmed by several researches (see Lucas, 2011; Imura, 2004 ; Ohata, 2005)). Anxiety usually arises when students have to perform individually. Oral (2006) previously reported that most students find it more comfortable and easy to learn when working in small groups because they didnt have to worry about making mistakes or errors. The idea of speaking or singing in front of the class alone is unbearable to some of the respondents. Since this is a pronunciation class, the introverts and the like personalities usually register high anxiety. However, these activities cannot be avoided because of the nature of the course itself, hence students have to survive in order to attain grades in the activities. Conclusions and Recommendations This exploratory study attempted to investigate the level of anxiety in an auraloral communication classroom with ESL university students as respondents. Moreover, through qualitative analysis, the paper elicited possible factors that caused students anxiety in the class. Though this research is small scale in nature, as manifested in the results of the analysis, this paper confirms the presence of anxiety even among second language learners of English. However, the manifestation of anxiety is subdued and students themselves attempted to tone down these manifestations. The obviously high expectation set by language teachers to ESL students, due to the fact that 15

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE they had many years of exposure to English language, is a common scenario in any language classroom in the Philippines. The effects are twofold. It could be that these expectations boost students self-confidence because of the belief that they are good language speakers, as to be expected considering the amount of time they spent in English classrooms, or this may lead to a debilitating type of anxiety, because students will be forced to show-off so as to reach the high expectations set. Arguably, this is a positive thought in some way as students may attempt to give their best to master the competencies set for them to achieve. However, the presence of anxiety because of their attempts may have psychological impact on these students and rather than yielding positive results, it may have serious damage on their dignity and personality. Several factors have been identified by this paper as possible attributions to the emergence of anxiety among learners. As pointed out in the initial part of this paper, the students were asked to list the possible factors with their classmates in mind. The considerable amount of data presented revealed students awareness on why and how their classmates develop anxiety in their language class. The students capacity to instinctively formulate the reasons for the development of such anxiety may actually also manifest their awareness on how to address this anxiety, if not to eliminate its presence. With the students many years of English language exposure, the researcher posits that with the proper intervention coupled with the students awareness, subduing anxiety among the learners is not a difficult task to do. It is worth theorizing that classroom activities may help reduce the presence of anxiety among the learners. In a language class, the students and the teachers must be in tandem in order to achieve the purpose of attaining communicative competence without compromising students confidence because of the anxiety experienced. Hence, the basic precept of maintaining a harmonious and democratic classroom atmosphere must be adhered to by both the students and the teachers. The university students themselves, having awareness and full understanding on the issue concerning anxiety in the language classroom, must attempt to provide a supportive environment to their highly anxious classmates. Moreover, the students, anxious or not, must fully understand that their success in the communication class relies heavily on their selves. The teachers on the other hand, must generate a welcoming atmosphere, taking into consideration the capability and capacity of individual student. Among others, in an aural-oral communication class, the emphasis on listening comprehension and American English pronunciation must be co-identified with the development of confidence among the learners. With the limitations of this study, several recommendations are worth mentioning. First, how the students manage to cope with the anxiety identified must be explored. Considering that the different factors causing anxiety has been pointed out, it is a must to extend the paper into identifying the coping mechanisms so that it may be employed in a class where anxiety is notably very high, as literature has identified, in a classroom where English is learned as a foreign language. Second, a statistical treatment must be employed in the factor analysis to in order to verify the factors weight and come up with an idea which factor is most identified by the respondents. Third, this research is small scale in nature and it is recommended that several classes will be involved in the study in order to validate the claim. Lastly, language anxiety may also be identified with teaching methods employed by the teacher and the learning styles of the students, hence it must 16

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE be explored. Acknowledgement This paper is supervised by the researchers graduate school teacher, Professor Sunliegh C. Gador. The statistical treatment of the data was prepared by the researchers friend and former colleague, Shanna B. Alenton, graduate student at the University of the Philippines-Cebu College. References Baran-Lucarz, M. (2010). The relationship between language anxiety and the actual and perceived levels of foreign language pronunciation. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 1(4), 491-514. Retrieved from http://www.ssllt.amu.edu.pl Bekleyen, N. (2001). The influence of teachers and peers on foreign language classroom anxiety. Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 8, 70-82. Cao, Y. (2011). Comparison of two models of foreign language classroom anxiety scale. Philippine ESL Journal, 7, 73-93. Chan, D., & Wu, G. (2004). A study of foreign language anxiety of EFL elementary school students in Taipei County. Journal of National Taipei Teachers College, 17(2), 287-320. Cheng, Y. (2001). Learners' beliefs and second language anxiety. Concentric: Studies in English Literature and Linguistics, 27(2), 75-90. Del Villar, C. P. (2010). Beginning Filipino students' attributions about oral communication anxiety. Journal Media and Communication Studies, 2(7), 159169. Retrieved from http://www.academicjournals.org/jmcs Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety scale. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125-32. Idri, N. (2012). Foreign language anxiety among Algerian EFL students: The case of first year students of English at the University of Abderahmane Mira-Bejaia; LMD (licence/master/doctorat) system group. Universal Journal of Education and General Studies, 1(3), 055-064. Retrieved from http://www.universalresearchjournals.org/ujegs Imura, T. (2004). The effect of anxiety on oral communication skills. In Education: weaving research into practice. Retrieved from www.griffith.edu.au Lucas , R., Miraflores, E., & Go, D. (2011). English language learning anxiety among foreign language learners in the Philippines. Philippine ESL Journal, 7. MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1994). The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language. Language Learning, 44(2), 283-305. Mamhot, A. A., Martin, M. V., & Masangya, E. (2013). A comparative study on the language anxiety of ESL and EFL learners. Philippine ESL Journal, 10, 200-231. Marwan, A. (2008). The exploration of factors triggering foreign language anxiety: Learners' voice. TEFLIN Journal, 19(2). McCroskey, J. C. (1977). Oral communication apprehension: A summary of recent theory and research. Human Communication Research, 4(1), 78-96. 17

DRAFT-PLEASE DO NOT CITE Ohata, K. (2005). Potential sources of anxiety for Japanese learners of English: Preliminary case interviews with five Japanese college students in the U.S. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 9(3). Pappamihiel, N. E. (2002). English as a second language students and English language anxiety: Issues in the mainstream classroom. Research in the Teaching of English, 36. Toth, Z. (2010). Foreign language anxiety and the advanced language learner: A study of Hungarian students of English as a foreign language. England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Tran, T. (2012). A review of Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope's theory of foreign language anxiety and the challenges to the theory. English Language Teaching, 5(1). Tsiplakides, I., & Keramida, A. (2009). Helping students overcome foreign language speaking anxiety in the English classroom: Theoretical issues and practical recommendations. International Education Studies, 2(4), Retrieved from www.ccsenet.org/journal.html Williams, K. E., & Andrade, M. R. (2008). Foreign language learning anxiety in Japanese EFL university classes: Causes, coping, and locus of control. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 5(2), 181-191. Retrieved from http://eflt.nus.edu.sg Wu, K. (2010). The relationship between language learners' anxiety and learning strategy in the CLT classrooms. International Education Studies 3 (1). Yang, H. (2012). Language anxiety, acculturation, and l2 self: A relational analysis in the Taiwanese cultural context. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 9(2), 183-193. Retrieved from http://e-flt.nus.edu.sg Young, D. J. (1991). Creating a low-anxiety classroom environment: What does language anxiety research suggest? The Modern Language Journal, 75(4), 426-439. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/329492 Zhang, L. J. (2011). ESL students' classroom anxiety. Teaching and Learning, 21(2), 5162. Zheng, Y. (2008). Anxiety and second/foreign language learning revisited. Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education , 1(1).

18