Language anxiety in learners of English (A case study of Bachelor students in Islamia College University)

Abstract

Researcher had investigated various kinds of anxiety students faced in presentation at BS level in English in Islamia College Peshawar and it was the main objective of this study. Most of the time at BS level when students are required to give presentations in English; they were unable to give an appropriate oral presentation due to various anxiety factors. The data was collected through observation sheet during student's presentation and through pre-designed interview questions after presentation. Anxiety factors like fear of public speaking, fear of negative evaluation, peers and teacher pressure and fear of speaking sentences wrong in English were such factors which hindered their oral presentation. The study recommended that teachers need to be patient and sympathetic in their interaction with students and need to use such appealing and pleasant communicational strategies in teaching English which have the ability to invite student attention, and they might feel comfortable in the classroom.

Headnote

Abstract

Researcher had investigated various kinds of anxiety students faced in presentation at BS level in English in Islamia College Peshawar and it was the main objective of this study. Most of the time at BS level when students are required to give presentations in English; they were unable to give an appropriate oral presentation due to various anxiety factors. The data was collected through observation sheet during student's presentation and through pre-designed interview questions after presentation. Anxiety factors like fear of public speaking, fear of negative evaluation, peers and teacher pressure and fear of speaking sentences wrong in English were such factors which hindered their oral presentation. The study recommended that teachers need to be patient and sympathetic in their interaction with students and need to use such appealing and pleasant communicational strategies in teaching English which have the ability to invite student attention, and they might feel comfortable in the classroom.

Key words: Anxiety, presentation, pleasant communicational strategies, bachelor students, public speaking

Introduction

The development of oral skills in English is the aim of every university course because monolinguals are the demand of the 21th century world, without it the plethora of needs could not be achieved. Hence for every community bilingualism has become a practical concern. Due to some psycho-social factors English has become an international auxiliary language for the whole non English speaking countries as well as south Asian states. English has become so "deeply in their soil and in their consciousness that the choice of English or one's vernacular is no longer advisable" (Canangarajah, 1999, p.1). In order to improve students oral skills teachers have adopted presentations as a strategy in the class. But most of the times students become stressful due to the public nature of this strategy. The same problem is faced by the weak speakers as well as by the confident speakers. To know about feelings of learners, the researcher most of the time uses presentations in teaching, the main objective of this study is that the researcher is always interested to deeper his information about those factors which are the causes of anxiety in his learners when they are asked for presentation in English class.

Research Question

1. During oral presentation in English what are the anxiety signs which are evident in learners in the class room?

2. According to students, while speaking in English how does anxiety hinder their performance?

Literature Review

Horvitz & et. al, (1986, p125) define language anxiety "a subjective experience", so it varies from person to person, and most of the time it also depends on the context of performance, learners may feel easy when they are speaking in English with friends but if they are asked to present something in front of the class an obvious difference is observed in their performance. Language anxiety is defined in various ways by different researchers, chain(2012) suggests that when one is stressed he will not be in a position to make proper decisions and it would be the reason of negative performance in result with special reference to learning language. Clement, (1980) argues about language anxiety that it is a difficult concept which is related to learner's psychology in terms of their self -confidence, feelings and self-esteem. Young, (1992) says that language anxiety is a "complicated psychological phenomenon peculiar to language learning" (P.157). Different researchers have suggested that intense language anxiety most of the time adversely affects learner self-confidence, self-esteem which in result automatically hinders fluency in language acquisition (crook all & oxford, 1991 von word, 2003: Tanveer, 2007).

Hassan, (2004) Pakistani English analysis focuses on psychological barriers made by imperialism. He says that the myth of Standard English pronunciation and overemphasis on it has stopped Pakistani learners from using English because they are always evaluated not on what they said, but they are judged how they said it. They are always in fear of being on trial, ridiculed or corrected every time when they open their lips. Being a non-native speaker of English such mistakes are natural. Pakistani English is not British language. Pakistani English "is a reassembled form of communication loosely based on British English collared by several Pakistani frames of perceptions and some recent imports of America. It's the product of certain organic features of this society" (Hassan, 2004).

Factors causing language anxiety

Hurwitz & et. al, (1986) mentioned related to learning of foreign language three anxieties: First one is test anxiety, second is apprehension of communication and third is the fear of negative evaluation. Ayres and hope (1993) identified the most important foreign language anxiety type and named it public speaking fear. McCrockery (1984) view of communication apprehension "a broadly based anxiety related to oral communication" (P.B).The lack of confidence is the result of communication apprehension which mostly lead to an unwilling desire to speak in a foreign language (Woodrow, 2006). In Hurwitz et al, (1986) view, negative evaluation fear is enhanced by the idea of being observed and assessed by the friends and teacher. Young, (1992) suggested that student most of the time fear that they might make verbal errors, therefore they do not speak in English. In addition Kitano (2001) argues that due to the learners comparison made between own speaking skills and other leaners, who are competent speaker also promote language anxiety. Public speaking fear refers to anxiety of public speaking and stage fear (Ayres &Hop, 1993). In class room Presentation it refers to target language speaking fear in front of teacher and students, where he is the centre of attention for everyone which causes anxiety, and it results in making the presenter mind blank (Macintyre &Gardner 1994).

Methodology

Researcher conducted case study research in order to note leaner's personal experiences. As language anxiety, according to Hurwitz et at, (1986) "a subjective experience" Therefore it varies person to person. This research is qualitative as well as quantitative because this "begins with individual and sets out to understand and interpret their experience of a particular phenomenon" (When et. al, 2000). Research Questions were investigated to know symptoms of language anxiety and to judge the participants reported experiences.

Participants and context

The participants were BS students of English at Islamia College Peshawar. Most of the students belong to such a social back ground where English is not considered even second language, there were 20 students in class, 5 among them voluntarily took part in study (three female and two male). As a part of their routine course all students have to give presentation.

Date collection

As a part of their routine course, learners were required to take part in presentation on "my school life" and their presentation time was maximum 5 minutes, in all of them no one spoke for more than 2 minutes.

Observation sheet

During presentation in the class, the researcher noted certain language anxiety symptoms which were observable; such symptoms of anxiety were identified by the researcher from literature, for example quivering voice, nervous gesture, and incomplete pronounced words, dryness of throat and avoidance of eye contact. By using Observation sheet (Appendix 1), the researcher assessed these on a frequency scale occurrence which was ranging from always to never. A quantitative measure was provided by the checklist during each presentation of the anxiety degree which was observed.

Interviews

Semi structured interview was used by the researcher in English in order to investigate the learner own understandings of language anxiety in English speaking. As a one researcher tool this semi structured interview was considered because it was understandable to analyse the learner views, ideas, thoughts, opinion, beliefs or intentions of the participants as reported by them (Ohata, 2005). The interview also gave opportunity to the participants to report on the basis of their own experience and also to select and reconstruct (Ohata, 2005)

Ethical consideration

Researcher ensured that the learners participated on voluntary basis with informed consent. They were informed about the nature and purpose of the study at the outset, and anonymity and confidentiality were observed. In advance written permission was also obtained from the chairman of institution.

Data analysis and findings

In this section, presentation, observation and semi structured interviews and findings are presented.

Evidence of anxiety

As mentioned earlier, 5 students were observed while giving presentation, for the assessment of the frequency of various anxiety symptoms, researcher used a checklist. F1 from the female participants, she kept properly the eye contact with the students and teacher but she most of the time lost concentration and forgot what she was required to say. Trembling legs, stammering, breathlessness, nervous expressions and excessive sweating were observed. F2 the second presenter, her voice was quivering and avoided eye contact throughout presentation, she was nervous and her hands were shaking, her breathing was normal. However, she lost concentration frequently. Signs like, shyness and forgetting, avoidance of eye contact, breathlessness, lack of concentration, looking nervous and shivering hands were the signs observed in F3 presenter too. In male participants M1 presenter kept no eye contact, no concentration, forgot his ideas and were stammered while presenting, his hands and legs were observed trembling in front of the classmates and teacher. However, symptoms of sweating and breathlessness were not shown by him. The last presenter M2 also forgot his ideas, had no concentration and eye contact was also avoided by him. He looked uneasy, trembled and frequently stammered.

Student's perspectives

Soon after presentation researcher interviewed participants individually to share their feelings about their experience. The following analysis focuses on anxiety, four areas that were observed in our conversation.

Fear of public speaking

It was reported by the learners that public speaking fear is the root cause of anxiety, when they were asked to speak English in front of others. One of the male participants M1 reported that he gets nervous and forget what to say. I worry about other people who look at me when I speak English [....] when I come in front my mind get blank I forget most of words and things. The second participant (F2) also recorded the same public speaking fear which most of the time let her mind blank, she reported:

[...] i get confuse and become nervous when i try to come in front to present, I am unable to remember the vocabulary, I don't know what to say.

Fear of negative evaluation

M1 participant said that he become nervous and stressed whenever he is required to give presentation in English in front of his friends in class room, he reported:

My friend will consider me illiterate, this is the reason that I feel my friend will get me uneducated therefore I cannot speak in English. Moreover, they may also argue that I am speaking wrong sentences.

F2 female participant reported that the fear of teacher's evaluation discourages her to speak f lawless English. She reported:

I feel uneasy [...] I use to look at my teacher [...] how is my teacher's observation about me when I am unable to speak English.

Inability to express themselves

M2 a male participant was of the view that he felt anxious when he was unable to find appropriate words while expressing in English, he said:

While speaking English I am thinking of suitable words and this problem make me nervous.

A female participant F2 were of the opinion that she cannot speak fluently because she forgets words, and feels it is difficult to keep on speaking in English. Most of the time she compares herself with other fellows who are good than her in English speaking, it makes her more nervous:

When I cannot express fluently I feel difficulty and am unable to recall English words, when I observe other students who are better in speaking than me it makes me more nervous, I am unable to use right words to make other understand.

Oral communication apprehension

Most of the students were of the opinion that they were feeling easy or good in writing as compared to speaking, one of the male respondents M1 reported that "I can write well but speaking English is difficult for me" moreover, the similar anxiety was reported by F 1 She said:

I am able to write on any topic but I cannot say [speak] what I am writing, sometimes I also face difficulty while writing as well but when I compare both I can write on any topic but unable to speak.

Discussions

When the researcher was observing students so it occurred to him as if he was observing his own case when he himself was a degree level student. This study confirmed that speaking in English publically is an anxiety-inducing experience which was my previous observation. This study results showed that there were a number of L2 Speaking anxiety symptoms in participants and the same anxiety symptoms make the students unconfident to speak in English in front of others. Most of the participants believed that they feared speaking English because their friends and teachers were constantly observing their mistakes. They also deemed that this will result is low marks and peer criticism. The mentioned problem was discussed already in literature review. A prominent impact of anxiety was observed on students memory, most of them reported that they forget the English words when they have to speak English in presentations and it is due to the formal situation pressure and negative comparison with other, in contrast the same pressure and comparison is absent in writing ,so they are able to write. Overall, this study shown that language anxiety is a psychological problem or barrier that results in lack of self-confidence and self-efficiency in students. Kinds of insights emerged from this research can help educationist and teachers to understand students experiences and problems which will help them to eradicate those hurdle which hinders the students oral skills in a most cooperative and attractive manner.

Conclusion

This small scale study points out the anxiety that BS students of university may face in Pakistan especially in KPK when they are supposed to appear in oral presentation in English in classroom. In our country, further such sort of study is needed to highlight different kinds of language anxiety in different universities context, which will help in solving the problems. Being a teacher the insights researcher have obtained from this research study make him to empathize more with his student and to find out ways to make this difficult process easy for them.

References

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