scholarly journals Speaking Anxiety in a Foreign Language Classroom in Kazakhstan

2013 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 1860-1868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziash Suleimenova
2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 205
Author(s):  
Panayiotis Panayides

Apple (2013) published a study in a commendable attempt at bringing to light the many advantages of the Rasch models over Classical Test Theory (CTT) and other Item Response Theory (IRT) models and how they can be productively used in contexts where researchers are measuring foreign language anxiety (FLA). Of special importance, and much to Apple’s credit, is the detailed procedure followed for the establishment of the unidimensionality of the Foreign Language Classroom Speaking Anxiety Scale (FLCSAS).


2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Apple

Despite the existence of skill-specific anxiety instruments measuring reading anxiety, writing anxiety, and listening anxiety, there is still no single measurement instrument specifically designed to measure levels of speaking anxiety. This research had two purposes. The first was to provide for classroom-based foreign language teachers and researchers an example of the advantages of Rasch model analysis, the use of which is increasing in first-language educational contexts for measurement instrument creation and validation. The second purpose was to create and evaluate an instrument for measuring foreign language speaking anxiety within the classroom in an EFL learning context, in which few native speakers of the language are available for interaction. Using data from a sample of Japanese university students (N = 172), the Rasch model identified misfitting items and examined the construct validity of a 20-item questionnaire to measure levels of Foreign Language Classroom Speaking Anxiety (FLCSA). リーディング、ライティング、リスニングといった特定のスキルに関する不安を測定する手段はあるが、スピーキング不安のレベルを測定する手段は現在のところ存在しない。本研究の目的は二つある。一つ目は、教室で教える外国語教師や研究者にラッシュモデル分析の利点の例を示すことである。ラッシュモデルによる分析は、第一言語の教育環境において、測定手段の作成やその妥当性を高める目的でますます使用されるようになっている。本研究の二つ目の目的は、母語話者とのやりとりの機会がほとんどない「外国語としての英語」を学ぶ教室において、外国語スピーキング不安を測る手段を作成し、評価することである。日本の大学生(N=172)のデータを使用し、外国語スピーキング不安(FLCSA)の度合いを測定する20項目からなる質問紙からラッシュモデルにより不適当な項目を割り出し、構成概念妥当性を検証した。


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 571
Author(s):  
Mehtap Bademcioglu ◽  
Hakan Karatas ◽  
Atilla Ergin

Individual differences are considered as important factors in the language learning process. Apart from individual differences, affective factors such as attitudes and motivation of individuals and their anxiety levels which affect the individuals’ language learning directly or indirectly are also believed as significant impacts in this process. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between self-regulation strategies, motivational beliefs, attitudes, speaking anxiety and foreign language classroom anxiety and to investigate the predictive power of these variables for foreign language classroom anxiety. The relational model was used in the current study. The research group included 320 male (65.6 %) and 168 female (34.4 %) English preparatory students at Istanbul Technical University. Attitudes toward English Lesson Scale, Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Questionnaire, The Motivational Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale were used as the data collection tool. The statistical methods used for analyses were correlation and multiple regression. The findings indicated that there is a significant positive correlation between foreign language classroom anxiety and self-regulation, test anxiety, and foreign language speaking anxiety. Also, there is significant negative correlation between foreign language classroom anxiety and self-efficacy intrinsic value perception, and attitude towards English. Moreover, self-efficacy, test anxiety, attitude towards English, and foreign language speaking anxiety are predictors of the university students’ foreign language classroom anxiety. 


Author(s):  
Mohd Ieruwan Mohamed Mokhtar

Speaking in a foreign language classroom can be extremely anxiety-provoking for some students. There are many studies on foreign language anxiety (FLA). The studies show that anxiety influences achievement and performance in speaking. However, most of the previous studies have investigated FLA in English-speaking contexts. Hence, this study aims to investigate speaking anxiety among Arabic Language learners in secondary schools from the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The students (n=40) were selected following the random sampling method. The established questionnaire of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) developed by Horwitz et al. (1986) was used for collecting the data. This questionnaire consists of four factors namely test anxiety, communication apprehension, anxiety in the classroom and fear of negative evaluation. The researcher followed descriptive statistical methods including means and standard deviation values to address the research questions. The study shows that the process of learning the Arabic Language has significant impact on students in learning a foreign language, especially in daily secondary schools. The findings show several concerns exist among the students while speaking Arabic in the classroom. The results can help Arabic Language teachers to understand students’ anxiety in the process of teaching the language in the daily/non-boarding secondary schools which will contribute to literacy of Arabic Language at large.


2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 210
Author(s):  
Matthew Apple

In his response to my paper concerning the use of the Rasch model for creating and evaluating foreign language classroom speaking anxiety (Apple, 2013), Dr. Panayides makes some interesting observations; however, there also appear to be several points of misinterpretation of the study results. The initial issue is his opening assertion that my paper was designed to show advantages of the Rasch model over classical test theory (CTT) models as well as item response theory (IRT) models. In fact, the paper was designed only to demonstrate the advantages of the Rasch model for Japan-based classroom teachers of English. I made no mention whatsoever of other IRT models. I also did not set the Rasch model against all CTT methods; I merely demonstrated that simple descriptive statistics were not as informative or useful as Rasch analysis when creating and evaluating questionnaires.


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