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The effects of Foreign Classroom Anxiety and the
use of Language Learning Strategies in Language
Proficiency
Introduction
Can the effective use of language learning strategies help reduce
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety and foster language proficiency? The aim
of this study is to identify what the major sources of foreign language anxiety
are and the correlation between those results and the use English as a foreign
language proficiency. The importance of this research lies on the reality that I,
as EFL teacher, encounter everyday in my own classrooms when students
seem to fail to engage in meaningful, fluent and accurate use of language,
mainly due to the fact that their level of anxiety has risen to the level of creating
mental blockages that refrain them from being engaged in interactions. I want to
investigate if, by training students in the use of effective learning skills, students
can decrease their levels of anxiety and perform better in the language
classroom.
Review of Literature
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety
EFL teachers have for sure faced the situation in which students in their
class claim to have a mental block against learning a foreign language, but
those students are normally average or above average in other subjects. Why
would this then happen? One of the reasons might be that they feel anxiety.
This anxiety prevents them from successfully perform or interact in the
foreign language classroom. Anxiety is defined in terms of the subjective
feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness and worry associated with an
arousal of the autonomic nervous system (Spielberger, 1983). Anxiety plays an
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important element when learning a foreign language, as it is a major obstacle to
overcome (Horwitz, 1983).
Many studies have been carried out in the field of identifying the role
anxiety plays hindering or fostering language learning. Horwitz (2010)
enumerates 44 research milestones in the study of foreign language classroom
anxiety. Interestingly enough, she mentions Scovels (1978) research as the
turning point for the subject, as his main conclusion is that the inconsistency in
the results in early anxiety studies derives from imprecision in the
conceptualization and measurement of anxiety. I, myself, consider that Elaine
Horwitz takes on Socvels assumption and develops the Foreign Language
Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) which becomes the standard to measure this
trait. Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) are often credited with introducing the
construct of FLA (Foreign Language Anxiety) as a situation specific anxiety and
their scale, as the standard measure of language anxiety.
Language Learning Strategies
Learning strategies are behaviors or thoughts that a learner engages in
during learning that are intended to influence the learners encoding process
(Weinstein & Mayer, 1986). It can be assumed that most learners use strategies
in order to manage their learning, however, the extent, quantity and efficacy are
still challenged in many contexts. More directly, for L2 learning, learning
strategies are defined as specific actions, behaviors, steps or techniques []
used by students to enhance their own learning (Scarcella & Oxford, 1992).
There are many authors and studies that argue for the inclusion and the
importance of learning strategies as they help build learner autonomy, which
requires the learner to take conscious control of his or her own learning
processes (Hsiao & Oxford, 2002).
Also, those strategies used by successful students are closely related to
proficiency of achievement. There are some studies that suggest that there is a
strong link between the use of language learning strategies and effective orgood learners (Naima, Frolich, & Todesco, 1975); and its moved towards
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making this link explicit and quantitative as they have underscored that
relationship with measurable features (Bedell & Oxford, 1996; Dreyer & Oxford,
1996; among others). The above, confirms the importance of taking into
account not only the use but the opportunities created in the classroom and the
training students receive in the proper use of language learning strategies, to
develop acquisition.
In my own context, the results or outcomes in language are the particular
interest as they circumscribe the sustainability of the institution I work for.
Therefore, this study aims to find the plausible link between the use of language
learning strategies by different-type of anxious students and attempts to
discover if there is an overt relationship in them seeking to find the pedagogical
and methodological implications of this connection, as in the review of literature
conducted, no explicit study has focused their efforts to discover them, if any.
Research Questions
1. What are the main causes of anxiety students at A1, A2, B1 and B2
proficiency level manifest when learning a foreign language?
2. What is the relationship between the different causes of anxiety and the
language learning strategies students, at each one of the proficiency levels,
use?
3. Can identifying such relationships lead to methodological and pedagogical
changes in the classroom, so that, acquisition is fostered?
Methodology
The study has the features of action research as it is context-specific
oriented and seeks to find particular implications in the teaching methodology
teachers apply in the light of the results drawn from it.
The participants.
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The participants of the study are a students of the Bi-national Center
Colombo Americano in Pereira, Colombia, South America. The Bi-national
Center offers EFL courses to people between ages 15 to 80. In average, the
participants for this study are in the age range of 15-26. Most of them have not
lived in an English speaking country and their only environment to interact or
have contact with English is at the Colombo. They will be divided into
proficiency levels ranging from A1 to B2 according to the competences stated in
the Common European Framework of Reference for Language Teaching,
Learning and Assessment (CEFR).
Research Design: Groups
Students will be grouped according to their CEFR level into A1, A2, B1
and B2 according to the CEFR. There will be a pre-data collection stage in
which students will be explained that they are going to be asked to complete a
couple of surveys, for which there are not right or wrong answers. There will be
another proficiency test and their effort to answer each question correctly is
important for the purpose of the research. They will be asked to answer as
honest as possible as their answers will not be disclosed to the public;
furthermore, the surveys are anonymous and only general data such as age,
academic and working background, and previous language learning
experiences will be taken into account.
Data collection instruments
There will be three instruments to be carried out for research purposes
and according to the grouping of the subjects:
Language Proficiency:
Students will take the OOET (Oxford Online English Test) by Oxford
University Press. The test is administered online and its an adaptive one, itmeans that the question student answers sets the level of difficulty for the next
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one. The OOET evaluates the skills of reading, listening, writing and grammar
and its results are correlated to the CEFRs levels (A1, A2, B1, B2)
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety
The Foreign Language Classroom Anxietywill be measured by Horwitzs
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. The survey has 33 items and
categorizes the main areas that cause students anxiety into (Horwitz, Horwitz &
Cope, 1986):
Communication apprehension: it is defined as a type of shyness
characterized by fear or anxiety about communicating with people.
Some common manifestations of anxiety due to communication
apprehension are, difficulty in speaking in groups or dyads or in public
(stage fright), or in listening to or learning a spoken message (receiver
anxiety).
Test anxiety: this refers to a type of performance anxiety stemming from
fear of failure.
Fear of negative evaluation: defined as apprehension about others
evaluations, avoidance of evaluative situations, and the expectation that
others would evaluate oneself negatively.
The FLCAS is to be administered in L1 as it addresses psychological and
intrapersonal issues that require fully understanding of the question. Each type-
item has answers in the typical five-level Likert scale (from Strongly disagree to
Strongly Agree)
Language Learning Strategies
In order to measure the language learning strategies activity, the S.I.L.L
(Strategy Inventory for Language Learning) will be used. The S.I.L.L. (Oxford,
1986) is a strategy questionnaire developed to identify the types of language
learning strategies language learners use and its dived into metacognitive,
cognitive, social, affective, memory-related and compensatory, and requires the
subjects to rate, on a scale from one to five, and the frequency with which they
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use each strategy listed. It is the most widely used and comprehensive
strategy questionnaires currently available.
Data Collection Procedures
For data collection procedures, each one of the students will be asked to
complete the three instruments in different days to avoid overwhelming them
with administering the three at the same time and data could be tainted
because of personal factors. Once data is collected, statistical treatment is
carried out mainly with the application of the Pearsons correlation coefficient,
which aims to establish the correlation between the following variables:
Independent Variables: FLCAS and S.I.L.L.
Dependent Variable: English proficiency (OOET)
Expected results and contributions
It is expected that, by finding the links and relationships between the
variables, the following areas of teaching English can be improved:
Teacher Training: defining teacher training programs that address the
importance of taking into account elements such as training learners to
use language learning strategies effectively and how to deal with anxious
and non-anxious students.
Methodological adjustments in tasks designing: teachers can be
provided with a framework to design language tasks that include a
consistent and coherent use of language learning strategies, as well as
environments that foster interaction in a low-stress classroom.
Bibliography
Bedell, D., & Oxford, R. L. (1996). Cross-cultural comparisons of language
learning strategies in the People's Republic of China and other countries. In R.
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L. Oxford (Ed.), Language learning strategies around the world: Cross-cultural
perspectives (Tech. Rep. No. 13, pp. 47-60). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i
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Dreyer, C., & Oxford, R. L. (1996). Learning strategies and other predictors of
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Horwitz, E. (1983) "Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale," unpubl.
manuscript, Univ. of Texas, Austin.
Horwitz, E. (2010), Research Timeline: Foreign and second language anxiety,
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Horwitz, E, Horwitz, M, & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety.
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Naiman, N., Fr6hlich, M., & Todesco, A. (1975). The good second language
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Scarcella, R. C., & Oxford, R. L. (1992). The tapestry of language learning: The
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Scovel, T. (1978) "The Effect of Affect; A Review of the Anxiety Literature,"
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Weinstein, C. E., & Mayer, R. E. (1986). The teaching of learning strategies. In
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