A Study of Anxiety among Chamran University’s EFL Sophomore and Senior Students

1959 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: the importance of learning strategies in the classroom

Introduction
Anxiety plays an important affective role in second or foreign language acquisition. Even though everybody has experienced feelings of anxiousness, anxiety cannot be defined easily in a simple sentence.
The research on anxiety puts forward the idea that anxiety can be experienced at different levels (Horwitz, 2001; Oxford, 1999). Horwitz and Cope (1986) described foreign language anxiety as a distinct complex phenomenon of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning mainly resulting from the uniqueness of the language learning process. In addition, Macintyre (1995) noted that anxiety plays different roles in the learning process. It may facilitate or debilitate performance of the learners.Facilitating anxiety motivates the learners to confront the new learning task without reluctance. Debilitating anxiety motivates learners to select an avoidance attitude and therefore tends to escape from the learning task.Oxford (1999) uses the terms “harmful” and “helpful”(as cited in Brown, 2007) anxiety for debilitative and facilitative anxiety, respectively. Both facilitative anxiety and debilitative anxiety are connected to one's academic performance. Sometimes anxiety helps students to increase their motivation for harder studying. Therefore, a little anxiety can have positive effects on students’ performance. But, according to Brown (2007, p. 163) “too much and too little anxiety may hinder the process of successful second learning”.
Many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students who seek admittance to a university where the foreign language, here English, is the medium of instruction do not have sufficient language skills to understand lectures, comprehend textbooks, particip...

... middle of paper ...

...e anxiety: Institutional responses. In E.K. Horwitz&D. J. Young (Eds.).Language anxiety: From theory and research tclassroom implications (pp. 169-176). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Samimy, K. K. (1989). A Comparative study of teaching Japanese in the audio-lingual method and the counseling-learning approach. The Modern Language Journal,
73 (2), 169-177.

Spielmann, G., &Radnofsky, M. L. (2001).Learning language under tension: Newdirectionsfrom a qualitative study.The Modern Language Journal, 85 (2), 259-278.

Schwarzer, R. (1986). Self-related cognition in anxiety and motivation: An introduction. R. Schwarzer (Ed.), Self-related cognition in anxiety and motivation (pp. 1-17). Hillsdale, NJErlbaum.

Young, D. J. (1991). Creating a low-anxiety classroom environment: What does language anxiety research suggest? The Modern Language Journal, 75 (4), 426-439

Show More
Related

  • Foreign Language Education in American Primary School

    2059 Words  | 5 Pages

    “Foreign Language Education.” Encyclopedia of Education. Ed. James W Guthrie. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. N.p.: MacMillan Reference USA, 2003. 893-899. Print.

    Read More

  • Anxiety Disorders in the Classroom

    1636 Words  | 4 Pages

    Anxiety can present a significant challenge in the classroom. It can take many different forms depending on its source. Determining why a child is suffering from anxiety is the first step in making sufficient accommodations. Coping skills and other anxiety treatments may present a different set of obstacles in the classroom however, adapting the learning environment to meet the needs of the anxious child contributes to their overall academic success.

    Read More

  • When Cultures Collide: The Challenges of Raising African Children in a Foreign Country

    735 Words  | 2 Pages

    Another difficulty cultures deal with is language and the way people speak. In some cases, people struggle to belong by making changes in the way they speak the English language just to be assimilated. They attempt to use words and letters, as well as body language that fit in the norm; all in an attempt to denounce their original intonation and style of pronunciation. One ...

    Read More

  • Diversity in Elementary Schools: What I Learned from ESL Academy

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the first day of ESL academy, I realized the inadequacy of my knowledge concerning the needs of ELL students and how woefully lacking my instruction had been for former students whose first language was not English. Partici...

    Read More

  • Describe The Relationship Between Feelings And Response Patterns In Critical Thinking

    657 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anxiety is an extremely common feeling that occurs in everyday life. If I go out and meet new people, I get anxious while initiating a conversation with them. If any kind of crisis will happen in front of me for the first time I will get anxious for sure. For example,

    Read More

  • Language Acquisition Principles for ELL Students

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    We as educators must first develop reading skills for our ELL students so that they will get in the habit of reading and writing. We must also look at different avenues to increase their literacy skills. We must work on the strengths of our ELL students. When we work on what our ELL students already know then we can help build upon students learning from multiple languages. We can even have the ELL students share their native language with other students. This can help make learning interesting when they share their cultural background.

    Read More

  • Anxiety In Beowulf

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anxiety is a monster that most people have to deal with on a daily basis. Even though anxiety is not actually a monster it still torments thousands of people every day, leaving them weak and scared. Anxiety defined means “distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune” defined by Dictionary.com. In the epic poem of Beowulf, one could say that the townspeople had anxiety when it came to Grendel because they feared what he could do to them.

    Read More

  • Challenges Faced By ELL Essay

    767 Words  | 2 Pages

    Of the several challenges that ELL students may face at school, one of the most important to remember is that these students not only have the pressure of learning at the same pace of their peers that have most likely spoken English their whole lives, but they have to do so while attempting to understand the English language. Graves' makes a paramount point on page 411 of his text where he states "it is not that English language learners come to school with a language deficit. They come with a lack of knowledge of the particular language that is used in the schools they will be attending-English."1 Therefore, it is easy to assume that even the most ready-to-learn student will have huge amounts of trouble trying to learn everything in a language that is foreign to them.

    Read More

  • Returning Adult Student

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    3 Cleary, M. N. (2012). Anxiety and the newly returned adult student. Teaching English in the

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Standardized Testing

    987 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...occupying their minds with irrelevant things that do not pertain to the task at hand (Vassilaki, 2006). Thus, their energy is wasted when it could be used for task elaboration or to help improve their overall academic performance. Students with academic anxiety are self engrossed and lead to their own academic demise. Test anxiety does not only affect a students performance on a test, but Huberty (2009) asserts that test anxiety overtime tends to contribute to more common underachievement. He describes the consequences of constant test anxiety including lowered self-esteem, reduced effort, and loss of desire to complete school tasks. Students who have academic anxiety also have a higher risk of developing depression, and often feel deprived of confidence (Cunningham, 2008). Thus, academic anxiety can become extreme, and have negative effects of students’ well being.

    Read More

  • Pros and Cons of Using L1 in the Classroom

    1173 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the twentieth century, the avoidance of the using L1 in classrooms dominated teachers’ minds; as well it was implemented in many policies and guidelines of language teaching (Cook, 2001). Thornbury (2010) listed a set of arguments against using L1 in L2 classrooms mainly for that the translation of L2 into another language will play negative effects on students’ learning process. He pointed out that the use of L1 will result learners to have a cognitive dependence on their mother tongue at the expense of developing independence TL learning. Although the two language systems are not equivalent in many aspects, students may have an awareness of the notion of equivalence of the two languages if translation serves to convey meanings. Some argue that the use of translation to convey the meaning of the TL is more efficient and more memorable. However, Thornbury (2010) sees the opposite. He stated that the simple and direct way of translation will make L2 knowledge less memorable since the process lacks mental efforts in working out meanings.

    Read More

  • Second Language Acquisition in Childhood

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (2008). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course. Google Books. Retrieved April 14, 2011, from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fhnbMj597-4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=second

    Read More

  • Language Learning Experience In Language, Spanish, Arabic And English

    2695 Words  | 6 Pages

    Anytime I had to present in front of the class I would become anxious if I wasn’t extremely confident in my presentation because I become anxious in my classes that aren’t Arabic related. I would also feel anxious if I had to speak with a student who was more familiar with the language than me because I was afraid to mess up or not understand the words they were using. I still believe motivation is the most important aspect of language learning. Every year I studied Arabic, it seemed as if my motivation to learn decreased. I believe this is because the topics we learned about were less relatable than they were when we got to choose what we talked about, compared to the increased lessons on history and geography. Now that my time learning Arabic in college has ended, I have new motivation to learn because I will be looking for a job in the field, motivation I regret not having while I was learning it in

    Read More

  • Adolescent Education Essay

    1237 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a result people suffer from psychological disorders. Although anxiety is not so serious, people experience it everywhere and constantly within all cultures. But the educational system is worried about students’ anxiety which can be intolerable for some. Academic anxiety during education is the most important kind of anxiety in teenage. It threatens student psychological health and affects their efficiency, aptitude, personality formation and social identity. Academic anxiety is a general expression which refers to a social phobia or social anxiety in which the person falters in their function and cannot confront situations assessing themselves, such as examinations. This anxiety is functional and different studies show that 10%-30% of students are involved. In fact, academic anxiety is a self-obsession which is characterized by feelings of self-inferiority, regarding their abilities and students often tend toward negative cognitive assessment, lack of concentration, undesirable physiological reactions, such as increase of heart rate, cold fingers, drop in blood pressure and lower educational performance. This anxiety is related to students competition with their classmates and reduction in standards of educational performance, assignments, examinations and high rigidity, ability to study and worry about the future. It seems that in our country fear of low

    Read More

  • Reflections on Appropriate Feedback and Error Correction in ELL

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    The question of whether receiving error corrective feedback can actually hurt an ELL student’s ability to learn is the focus of the Error Correction Hypothesis. Stephen Krashen, in his Affective Filter Hypothesis, puts forth the idea that learners have an Affective Filter which is triggered by emotional variables such as anxiety or stress. Once activated, this filter can operate as an unintended barrier, hindering one’s ability to receive input, and therefore learning. As a result, Krashen advocates for limited error correction in second language instruction, and primarily as a clarification in meaning.

    Read More

More about A Study of Anxiety among Chamran University’s EFL Sophomore and Senior Students

Open Document