Anxiety in academic speaking situations among EFL majors: a case study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-132
Author(s):  
Biljana Radić-Bojanić ◽  
Jagoda Topalov
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
The Self ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Speaking Anxiety ◽  
Response Variable ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Perceived Difficulty ◽  
Language And Literature

Abstract In the study reported a total of 145 students pursuing the academic title of a BA in English language and literature were tested with the aim of establishing which explanatory variables have the independent power to explain the level of English language speaking anxiety. The instrument used in the study was taken from Yaikhong et al. (2012) and adapted for the purposes of the current investigation. The response variable in the study was the average level of anxiety measured by means of the questionnaire, whereas the explanatory variables included gender, the year of study, the number of presentations students gave during the course of their studies, the grade in language skills, the expected grade, the self-perceived proficiency and the perceived difficulty of the English language. The results reveal that gender, the expected grade and the self-perceived proficiency can account for the variation in the levels of anxiety among students. The paper ends with suggestions of interventions for helping students cope with the negative effects of anxiety on their speaking performance and learning experiences.

Investigating the Causes and Negative Effects of English Language Speaking Anxiety: A Case Study among EFL Learners at Kandahar University

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-21
Author(s):  
Ahmad Anwari
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Research ◽  
English Language ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Speaking Anxiety ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
English Speaking

The present study has been conducted to investigate the causes of English language speaking anxiety among EFL learners at Kandahar University. Furthermore, the second goal of the study to investigate the negative effects of speaking anxiety. This study uses a quantitative research approach. Similarly, the questionnaire had two parts the first part had comprised 14 items and the second part 7 items and applied randomly. Besides, the data analyzing was performed in SPSS (version, 24) and bring out the mean and standard division. Finally, the findings revealed those factors which caused EFL learners to feel anxiety during English speaking and numbered as follow: (1) I feel fear of making pronunciation mistakes, (2) I am afraid that my classmates will laugh at me when I speak English. (3) I feel worried during Performing communication orally. In addition, the following factors are the negative effects of anxiety on learners: (1) Anxiety limits my speaking fluency, (2) Anxiety causes me to become under pressure during presentation and (3) Anxiety decreases my oral performance and self-confidence.

scholarly journals Investigating the Causes and Negative Effects of English Language Speaking Anxiety: A Case Study among EFL Learners at Kandahar University

2019 ◽  
pp. 10-21
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Research ◽  
English Language ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Speaking Anxiety ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
English Speaking

The present study has been conducted to investigate the causes of English language speaking anxiety among EFL learners at Kandahar University. Furthermore, the second goal of the study to investigate the negative effects of speaking anxiety. This study uses a quantitative research approach. Similarly, the questionnaire had two parts the first part had comprised 14 items and the second part 7 items and applied randomly. Besides, the data analyzing was performed in SPSS (version, 24) and bring out the mean and standard division. Finally, the findings revealed those factors which caused EFL learners to feel anxiety during English speaking and numbered as follow: (1) I feel fear of making pronunciation mistakes, (2) I am afraid that my classmates will laugh at me when I speak English. (3) I feel worried during Performing communication orally. In addition, the following factors are the negative effects of anxiety on learners: (1) Anxiety limits my speaking fluency, (2) Anxiety causes me to become under pressure during presentation and (3) Anxiety decreases my oral performance and self-confidence.

scholarly journals The Dichotomy of Specialization: Is a Literature Teacher Necessarily a Language Teacher?

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-133
Author(s):  
Mariam Anana
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Oral Literature ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Effective Teaching And Learning

This study investigates the dichotomy of specialization in Literature and English language. In many primary and secondary schools in Nigeria, many teachers who teach Literature are the same teachers who teach English Language. This is responsible for lack of ultimate successes in academic performance, foundational establishment and progressive developments in Literature and English language. Set against the backdrop of the inseparability and non-specialization in individual subjects in question, the study examines the need for a dichotomy of specialization in English Language and Literature with a view to reducing the rate of errors and students’ failures in both subjects. Adopting the simple randomisation, the researcher uses selected primary and secondary schools in Lagos State as the case study; the paper raises four questions and these are: Can English Language teachers effectively teach poetic devices? Are segmental phonemes easily taught by Literature teachers? Can English Language teachers proficiently teach oral literature, literary criticism and non-African literature? Can Literature teachers competently teach stress and intonation? This research uses a qualitative approach and adopts The Speech Act Theory as its theoretical framework. Questionnaire of fifteen (15) items was used for data collection and the simple percentage was applied for data analysis. The researcher discovered that: It is not possible for English Languageteachers to effectively teach poetic devices. Segmental phonemes cannot be easily taught by Literature teachers. Students would lag behind in areas where teachers are not proficient in the subjects they teach. Also, it is not possible for a teacher to place equal emphasis on both English Language and Literature in classrooms. The study therefore recommends the need for a dichotomy of specialization in the two subjects so as to ensure effective teaching and learning of these subjects.

A statute is divided into: Vocabulary • sections; Repeal— abolition of all or part of a • sub-sections; previous statute. • paragraphs; Amend— changing part of a previous • sub-paragraphs; statute. • Parts; • Schedules (at the end). Parliament can enact laws about anything—but a law may prove impossible to enforce. Legend records that one particular King of England, Canute, was humbled when he attempted to demonstrate his sovereign power by seating his throne on the beach and ordering the tide not to come in! For come in it did, much to his embarrassment. When approaching a statute as a new law student the most difficult task is understanding, at a basic macro- (wide) level, what the statute as a whole is striving to do and at the micro- (narrow) level what each section is saying. As proficiency is gained in handling statutory rules it will be found that it is not usually necessary to deal with the entire statute. The overall statute can be briefly contextualised and only relevant sections need to be extracted for detailed consideration, analysis, or application. However, ‘sections’, those micro-elements of statutes, will be all the more confidently analysed because, at any given moment, it is known how to relate any aspect of the statute to its general layout. Often, initial understanding eludes the law student. Doubts concerning the meaning of parts of the statute do not occur at the level of sophisticated analysis. They occur at the basic level of combining English language skills and legal skills to obtain foundational understanding. If doubts remain at this level, there can be no possibility of attaining sophisticated analysis! 3.4.4 Case study: breaking into statutes 3.4.4.1 Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 To explore methods of breaking into statutes and understanding statutes at the macro- and micro-level the rest of this chapter will deal with a real statute, the Unfair Contract Terms Act (UCTA) 1977. Figure 3.10, below, builds on the abstract general layout of Figure 3.8, above, by customising it to fit UCTA 1977. This statute will continue to be used for demonstration purposes for the rest of the chapter. The full text of the statute can be found in Appendix 1. Study Figure 3.10, below, carefully. Note which parts are linked and which are not by following the lines and arrows. Reading the summarised headings constructs a basic overview of what the statute is about. Before considering how to break into statutory language in such a way as to be able to confidently précis whole sections for the purposes of such a layout, it is important to study the layout until it is familiar and comprehensible. There are no shortcuts; this takes time.

2012 ◽  
pp. 58-59
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Detailed Consideration ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
To Come ◽  
Law Student ◽  
Micro Elements ◽  
Basic Level ◽  
Sophisticated Analysis

scholarly journals STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD TEACHER’S TALK IN EFL CLASSROOM OF INDONESIA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL: A CASE STUDY

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-91
Author(s):  
ERLY MULFIAS YULI
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
Research Subject ◽  
Eleventh Graders ◽  
Language Classrooms

This study is a case study to investigate students’ perceptions toward teacher’s talk in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms. It is conducted for two months on a single entity as the research subject, ie on 35 Eleventh-graders with varying English language skills and an English teacher. Since it focuses only on a certain entity, the results of the study cannot be generalized to the broader context. This study uses a qualitative approach by showing data from the results of questionnaires, observations and interviews with research samples. The study focuses on a research question on how Eleventh graders' perception on a teacher’s talk in EFL classrooms. Regarding to the research question, it aims to determine the thoughts of students on teacher’s talk, so that the teacher can organize and modify the class based on the perceptions that can implicate the learning process by reducing students’ anxiety. It provides students opportunities to be able to process information or lessons learned more comfortably, thus it reduces obstacles in learning. The findings of the study show that the majority of students of Eleventh-grade want to fully use English although they still have difficulties in understanding and feel less confident in using English.

scholarly journals Evaluating an ESP textbook: a case study of English for banking purposes at EDBI

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (32) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Mohammad-reza Takrousta ◽  
Parviz Behrouzi ◽  
Sholeh Kolahi
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Physical Appearance ◽  
New Materials ◽  
Text Book ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Language Needs

An English language textbook for banking purposes had been designed based on the language needs of EDBI staffs. Consequently, an English course for banking purposes was held at EDBI using the designed book. To ensure about the validity and quality of the textbook, it was evaluated by 2 language experts through an interview before the course and 30 bank’s staffs as the learners through a set of questionnaire after the course. Based on the quantitative and qualitative findings of the study, both language experts and EDBI’s staffs had positive attitudes toward the materials, topics, activities and tasks, language skills and physical appearance of the text book and recognized it relevant to their language needs. However, they asked for some modifications such as edition of misspelling and ungrammatical use of some sentences and additions of new materials such as a glossary and business and banking correspondences to the existing ones. The results of the study became a basis to further improvement and correction until the draft would be finalized as a ready use material. Therefore, some modifications and alternations were conducted based on their evaluations to make the product more valid and more practical. The findings of the present research bear significant implications for materials developers and teachers especially in applying appropriate materials in ESP courses and evaluating the textbooks in the related studies.

Increasing Retention of Linguistically-Disadvantaged College Students in South Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 146-180
Author(s):  
Denise Carpenter Mussman ◽  
Venicia F. McGhie
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Historically Black ◽  
English Language ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
The Self ◽  
Written Feedback ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Course Assessment ◽  
Historically Black University

This chapter discusses a two-week pre-semester course in English academic language skills to improve learning outcomes of second and additional English language speaking students at a historically Black university in South Africa, a country that faces tremendous challenges with educational inequities. Prof. Venicia McGhie created and organized the program, and Dr. Denise C. Mussman taught the course content. This chapter reports on and discusses the challenges that cause many students to fail or dropout of higher education studies, the curriculum of the pilot course, assessment results, and written feedback from students on which lessons helped them most. The smaller class size, speaking activities, and explicit lessons on grammar and writing all contributed positively to the self-efficacy of the students.

Spurious effects in variational corpus linguistics

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Tummers ◽  
Dirk Speelman ◽  
Dirk Geeraerts
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Multiple Correspondence Analysis ◽  
Multivariate Model ◽  
Data Matrix ◽  
Response Variable ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Confounding Variables ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Attributive Adjectives

As repositories of spontaneously realized language, corpora generally have an uncontrolled and unbalanced structure where all variables operate simultaneously. Consequently, a variable’s real effect can be concealed when studied in isolation because of the exclusion of the impact of other potentially confounding variables. Analyzing a variational case study, the alternation between inflected and uninflected attributive adjectives in Dutch, it will be demonstrated how confounding variables alter the impact of explanatory variables on the response variable, resulting in spurious effects in the bivariate analyses. Multiple Correspondence Analysis will be used as a heuristic tool to unveil the association patterns between explanatory variables in the data matrix which induce the spurious effects. Based on these findings, we will argue for a thorough analysis of the database patterns to gain insight in the underlying associations between explanatory variables before modeling their real impact on the response variable in a multivariate model.

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