Foreign language anxiety in a new English program in Thailand

Despite the decades-long integration of EFL in the Thai education system, Thai EFL students in general still perceive the English language as very difficult to be learned and thus, respond negatively to acquiring the language. With their Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA), they carry to their EFL classes certain notions rooted in past and current experiences, and such beliefs can be influential on their present study and expectation of future performance. Employing Park's (2014) five-factor model into the Thai-translated Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) survey, the study identified the specific factors that 2 nd-3 rd year Thai EFL learners at Ubon Ratchathani University associate the most with their FLA. Overall, the research aimed to reveal the specific factors that contribute the most to the English language anxiety of the Thai students.

2015

The present study investigated upper-secondary school EFL Thai students’ anxiety in English language classroom. The participants were 40 Matthayomsuksa 4 students (relatively equivalent to grade 10) enrolling in the first semester of 2014 academic year at the K.M. school (pseudonym). They were 14 males and 26 females. Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) was used to measure the extent to which the students felt anxious in EFL classroom. Based on items in FLCAS scale, anxiety has three components: communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. The results revealed that overall the majority of the participants (75%) experienced moderate or high level of EFL classroom anxiety. As indicated by the FLCAS gained scores, the participating students could be grouped according to level of anxiety as having low ( x =0-1.69), average ( x =1.70-3.49), and high ( x ≥ 3.5) anxiety. Regarding the components of foreign language...

Journal of College …, 2010

The present study examines anxiety in English undergraduate classes with regard to the type of situations that provoke anxiety during different stages of the learning process and the relationship of anxiety with learners' achievement. Participants of the study include 149 undergraduates enrolled in second and sixth semester of different departments of University of Sargodha who are learning English as a foreign language. The questionnaire used in this study is the abbreviated form of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). An inventory is also used to determine different situations that provoke anxiety. Finally, students' GPA in English classes is taken to find its relationship with language anxiety. The results show that language anxiety and achievement are negatively related to each other. It is also found that female students are less anxious in learning English as a foreign language than male students. 'Speaking in front of others' is rated as the biggest cause of anxiety followed by 'worries about grammatical mistakes', 'pronunciation' and 'being unable to talk spontaneously'. It is suggested that the classroom environment should be encouraging and motivating. Moreover, teachers need to deal with anxiety-provoking situations carefully.

Foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) is prevalent among Thai learners, affecting language learning achievement. This problem has been rooted in ineffective pedagogical practice informed by native speaker (NS) ideology of English language teaching (ELT) policy in Thailand. This has made learners struggle to reach an unrealistic goal of NS norms as the only way to be proficient users of English, leading to low self-esteem and fear of speaking English. This study aims to investigate a paradigm shift in ELT as a means to reduce students' FLCA. By incorporating World Englishes (WE) into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom practice, it is believed that students will develop a more realistic goal of being efficient English users rather than struggling, and failing, to become like native English speakers. As a result, they will develop self-esteem and more confidence in using their own English, considered a crucial anxiety-buffering factor. Quasi-experimental research with 92 first-year students at one government university in Bangkok was employed over 17 weeks in one of their required English courses. FLCA questionnaires and English achievement tests were used as a pretest and posttest to find out anxiety and achievement levels, while a focus group interview yielded supplementary data. Means, SD, T-test results and content analysis were used for data analysis, showing a significant reduction in anxiety resulting from the WE-based instruction and an increase in achievement from the FLCA reduction. Therefore, this study concludes that global ELT curriculum should incorporate more WE in classroom practice as an alternative means to reduce FLCA and indirectly increase language achievement. Key words: English as an international language, L2 learning anxiety, students' L2 achievement, world englishes

English Teaching & Learning

Inspired by Horwitz et al.'s, (1986) workon Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA), there has been a plethora of studies drawing on their theoretical framework and instrument to investigate the anxiety experienced by language learners in various contexts. As Dornyei and Ryan, (2015) observed, language anxiety (LA), which covers both foreign and second language, 1 "has been in the limelight of L2 research for several decades" (p. 176); it is commonly recognized as one of the most researched individual-differences variables in the field of L2 (second language) acquisition. In the ensuing discussion, to avoid inconsistency of terms, FLA is used to cover both second and foreign languages.

IOSR Journals , 2019

This study was designed to explore Foreign Language Anxiety and its Relationship with Grade Nine Students’ English Language Achievement at HawassaTabor,Yirgalem, and HawassaLangano Preparatory and Secondary Schools. The study was designed on quantitative basis.The participants of the study were 362 grade 9 students and they were selected randomly. Questionnaire and document analysis were employed as data collection instruments. The questionnaire designed by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) was slightly modified and used for the study. The data was analysed with multiple analysis methods including descriptive statistics, chi-square test and ordinal logistic regression. The results of study revealed that there existed different levels of foreign language anxiety in grade 9 students at Hawassa Tabor, Yirgalem, and HawassaLangano Preparatory and Secondary Schools. Of the sample subjects, 6.6 % of the subjects showed high level foreign language anxiety, 77.1 % showed medium-level foreign language anxiety and 16.3 % showed low level of foreign language anxiety. Among the four categories of foreign language classroom anxiety scale, communication apprehension (SD= 0.61) and general English classroom anxiety (SD=056) were the most anxiety type the participants experienced most. Second, there was no strong relation between foreign language anxiety and residence of students(P value=0.739>0.05); however, majority of urban students have lower anxiety level than rural students. Third, there was strong relationship between foreign language anxiety and students’ sex; that is female students experienced more anxiety than male students (F=0.62SD and M= SD0.60). Meanwhile, ordinal logistic regression analysis showed foreign language anxiety and English language achievements were negatively correlated especially for high and low anxiety levels. On the other hand, medium anxiety level and average achievement had direct relation (P Value=0.000<0.05).

English Language Teaching, 2016

The main aim of this study was to investigate the correlation among test anxiety (TA), foreign language anxiety (FLA) and language achievement of university preparatory students learning English as a foreign language. The sample of the research consisted of 301 (211 females, 90 males) attending a one-year EFL preparatory school at Ondokuz Mayıs University, School of Foreign Languages. The TAI (Test Anxiety Inventory) developed by Spielberger (1980), FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale) developed by Horwitz (1986) and the students’ language achievement scores were used to collect data. In addition, this study aimed to determine the effect of gender on both TA and FLA. The findings of the study revealed that there was no relation between students’ TA and their language achievement. It was also found a significant positive correlation between students’ TA and FLA. Besides, the result demonstrated that there was a significant reverse correlation between students’ FLA and the...

This research was carried out to investigate foreign language anxiety among adult learners and young learners of ESL in Kosovo, as well as to study the relationship between foreign language anxiety and language achievement. Data was collected from 40 Kosovar participants who are learning English as a foreign language. Among the respondents 20 were adults whereas 20 were young learners. Two instruments were used: The Foreign Language Classroom Scale (FLCAS), which was adapted from Horwitz (1983), and achievement tests. Several statistical analyses were employed to analyze the data including descriptive statistics and Pearson Correlation. The obtained results indicate that there is a significant negative correlation between foreign language anxiety and language achievement, furthermore, the findings also suggest that adult learners of ESL experience higher levels of language anxiety compared to young learners. I.

2015

This study aims to investigate the relationship between foreign language anxiety and gender, years of study experience, and academic achievement. The utilized a mixed-method approach where 292 respondents completed a questionnaire on foreign language anxiety. The quantitative results of the questionnaire were used as a basis to form interview questions for students who volunteered to be interviewed. It was found that with the sample of the study, there was no correlation between gender and foreign language anxiety, a weak positive correlation between year of study and foreign language anxiety, and a negative correlation between academic achievement and foreign language anxiety. The interview data presented a slightly different response, though, where interviewees attributed foreign language anxiety to personality type, and the environment where English was taught.

This study investigated the relationship between foreign language classroom anxiety and English language achievement among male and female high school third-graders in Urmia, a city in north-west of Iran. A sample of 400 students (187 males, and 213 females) was assessed for their levels of foreign language anxiety using the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). Participants' scores on their final English test were also used as the measurement of their English achievement. The results of Pearson correlation revealed foreign language classroom anxiety was found to be significantly and negatively correlated with English achievement (r = -.472, p < .01). Gender was also found to be related to levels of anxiety, indicating that girls had higher levels of anxiety than boys (t = -3.840, p = .000). Gender differences were significantly correlated to English achievement and FLA. It was recommended that foreign language teachers should be aware of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) level, its causes and results.