scholarly journals English Language Speaking Anxiety, Self-Confidence and Perceived Ability among Science and Technology Undergraduate Students: A Rasch Analysis

Author(s):  
Kamal J I Badrasawi ◽  
Noor Lide Abu Kassim ◽  
Ainol Madziah Zubairi ◽  
Elia Md Johar ◽  
Siti Sakinah Sidik

The purpose of this paper is to analyse English language speaking anxiety, self-confidence, and perceived ability in English oral communication among Science and Technology undergraduate students. It also aims to identify any significant differences in these constructs based on selected students’ demographic variables. The study employed the survey method with a 41-item questionnaire administered to a voluntary response sample of three hundred 3rd and 4th-year science and technology undergraduates from three Malaysian public universities. The Polytomous Rasch model was used to analyse the data. The analysis showed that the participants experienced English speaking anxiety, low confidence, and high perceived ability in English oral communication. There were significant mean differences in English speaking anxiety across the type of university as well as in confidence and perceived ability based on academic program. The participants were more confident and could perform better in familiar situations and communicate on familiar topics to familiar audiences. The findings suggest that the participants need more training on English oral communication. More authentic situations are also needed for them to practise and improve their proficiency levels. Other suggestions include providing lecturers with training modules, re-assessing the current language policies, and implementing certain programmes at the tertiary education level. Language programmes could be directed towards more social situations to enable undergraduates to make English a social practice, lower English speaking anxiety, and boost confidence.

Author(s):  
Ahmad Anwari

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.


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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Muhammad Riaz Khan ◽  
Shehla Riaz Khan ◽  
Saeed Ahmad

The graduates of Jazan University (Saudi Arabia), like anywhere else in EFL or ESL settings, require effective oral communication skills in English language for a highly competitive and expanding market economy of the country, and the worldwide too. The study was taken to evaluate the students’ perceptions about the need of speaking skills and the urgency to participate in language enhancement activities keeping in view the generally unsatisfactory position of the Saudi students in speaking English language. The sample population for this research was taken from three colleges, i.e. the first grade students from Engineering, Business and Computer Science of this university. A survey method technique was adopted in which data was obtained using a structured questionnaire about students’ responses on multiple items indicating their understanding of the importance of speaking skills, their existing level of oral communication and the need to participate in the extra coaching programs offered by the university. The quantitative data were analyzed by using SPSS 17. The data shows the participants’ understanding of the importance of communication skills for social needs, personality development, attaining and survival in the job market, and their needs for attending extra language training sessions other than their normal routine courses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
BI SHANSHAN

This research adopts the questionnaire survey method and selects 208 freshmen from the Guangxi Arts University as the research objects. The research studies the English self-efficacy and mobile learning situation of art college students and understands students’ views on using mobile devices/platform to assist in their learning of the English language. Results found that all students have mobile phones which allow teachers and students to use them for English learning. Besides, most art college students have a low sense of English self-efficacy, including low self-confidence, low enthusiasm in English learning, and average level of solving English learning difficulties. In addition, more than half of the students agree with the use of mobile devices/platforms to assist in English learning. Only a small number of people oppose it. This finding lays a preliminary foundation for later empirical research on using mobile learning to cultivate the English self-efficacy of art students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Khaled Elkotb Mahmoud Elshahawy

The present study aimed at indicating the effect of the affective variables (motivation, attitude, self-confidence and willingness to communicate) on the acquisition and learning of English language among the students of Languages and Translation Departments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study participants were 40 students (20 males and 20 females) from the students specialized in English language. The study used three instruments: The semi-structured interview, affective variables questionnaire (AVQ) and English language proficiency observation checklist (ELPOC). The study adopted the quasi-experimental design mixed with the qualitative interpretation. The study employed the correlational analysis and the simple liner regression to indicate the relationship between the independent and dependant variables. The findings of the study showed that there is a positive significant relationship between the affective variables (motivation, attitude, self-confidence and willingness to communicate) and the process of English language acquisition as a second language. The study also demonstrated that the most influential factors in the learners' English language acquisition process is their willingness to communicate. Recommendations and suggestions based on the study results were directed to the L2 (EFL/ESL) instructors and all the specialists in English language acquisition and learning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-39
Author(s):  
Abdu Rahim III Kenoh

Despite being competent in the English language, pre-service teachers struggle a lot when it comes to public speaking. Their ability to deliver and speak competently is hindered by speaking anxiety. The purpose of this study is to determine the causes of speaking anxiety among pre-service teachers and identify how pre-service teachers cope up with speaking anxiety. This study was administered to 7 pre-service teachers using a convenience sampling technique from a reputable public state university in Southern Philippines. The findings showed that speaking anxiety among pre-service teachers is caused by the fear of committing mistakes, having high expectations from the audience, nervousness, and lack of preparation. Additionally, the techniques used by pre-service teachers to cope up with speaking anxiety include preparing an outline, practicing before the actual speech, and boosting one’s self-confidence. Research revealed that speaking anxiety can be eased by employing techniques such as exposure to speaking engagements, preparation, and believing in oneself.


Author(s):  
Muriatul Khusmah Musa ◽  
Rushita Ismail

This action research was carried out to find out whether the speaking activities that were done during English lessons could encourage the low proficiency students to speak English confidently. These students admitted that they were afraid of speaking English, particularly in front of their classmates. They had very low self- confidence and felt very anxious when they were asked to speak or present in English. For this research, five speaking tasks were incorporated in the English class with the aim of building up students’ confidence and at the same time encouraging them to speak and participate in the English speaking activities. The five tasks were: self- introduction, fairy tale role-play, open mic, product advertisement campaign and group decision making. These activities were carried out individually as well as in small groups. In short, all the students were given an equal chance to speak English and actively participate as individuals and as group members. Students’ positive responses signify the speaking tasks have helped to reduce their speaking anxiety, build up their confidence in speaking English and improve their speaking skills.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anh Tuan Pham ◽  
Hieu Trung Hong ◽  
Tien Thuy Chau ◽  
Nhi Vo Anh Le ◽  
Phuc Thuy Thy Tran ◽  
...  

<p>This research aimed to discover the relationships between students' self-confidence and their English-speaking performance. In our research, self-confidence was divided into three components which are affective confidence, behavioral confidence, and cognitive confidence. In addition, speaking performance included eight components which are vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, fluency, coherence, comprehension, task, and content. A sample of 150 English-majored students at a university in Vietnam was surveyed in this study by using a convenience sampling technique, and then conducting semi-structured interviews to seek for qualitative information from 10 participants out of 150. The result from our study showed that there are significant relationships between the two variables. The more confident the students are, the more accomplished they would be in the presenting procedure since they have superior cognition and understand how to modify their learning methods to build a comprehensive individual in learning English language. We expect that these findings can help students adjust their learning methods to improve their self-confidence as well as English speaking performance and by that way, universities can add more speaking-related subjects so that students can have more opportunities to speak and learn more speaking skills.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0870/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>


Author(s):  
Habiburrahim Habiburrahim ◽  
Risdaneva Risdaneva ◽  
Ghina Putri ◽  
Syarifah Dahliana ◽  
Safrul Muluk

In this study, we analyzed the effects of speaking anxiety of Acehnese students in English learning classroom by looking at the causes of students’ speaking anxiety and their strategies in coping with it. The researchers used purposive sampling to select the participants of this research. Ten respondents from sophomore students of Department of the English Education at Teacher Training Faculty of Ar-Raniry State Islamic University in Aceh, Indonesia were selected by identifying their answers of Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety questionnaires developed by Horwitz et al. (1986). To have in-depth information on the subject matter, a semi-structured interview was employed. The results of this research showed that speaking anxiety caused some negative effects to Acehnese students’ speaking ability, which could be observed through the difficulties in constructing sentences and expressing the idea when they spoke in the target language. Low self-confidence, lack of competency, and being afraid of making mistakes were some of the factors considered as the major causes of speaking anxiety that could debilitate students’ classroom participation.


2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingyue Gu

This paper reports on a qualitative study that investigated the identity negotiation and English learning investment transformation of learners in a Chinese university. The informants included three female undergraduate students from English and Bioscience majors enrolled in a Chinese university. Recordings of conversation, students’ self-reports, and interviews were collected over one and a half years. This paper draws on ideas from the framework of communities of practice (Wenger, 1998), and employs the notions of identity, investment (Norton, 2000). The paper examined how English second language (L2) learners constructed multiple identities to position themselves in a Chinese educated urban community and an English speaking Christian community. It analysed how their participation and identities in the two communities were constructed, and how their motivation for learning English was transformed. The study reveals how, in an era of globalization, and specifically in the rapidly changing economic, sociocultural and political context of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), English language learning entails complex and intertwined issues of motivation, identity and culture, which demand further exploration.


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