Correlation Between Students’ Language Learning Anxiety

1

CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE

LEARNING ANXIETY AND THEIR SCORES IN SPEAKING

CLASS

THESIS

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan

Savira Putri Mayasari

112005072

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

2013

2



CLASS

THESIS



Sarjana Pendidikan


112005072

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

2013

3



CLASS

THESIS



Sarjana Pendidikan


112005072

Approved by:

Prof. DR. Gusti Astika, M.A. Hendro Setiawan H., M. A.

Supervisor Examiner

4

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

This thesis contains no such materials as has been submitted for examination in

any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any

university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material

previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is

made in the text.

Copyright@2013. Savira Putri Mayasari and Prof. DR. Gusti Astika, M.A.

All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means

without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English

Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University,

Salatiga.


5

PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION

__________________________________________________________________

As a member of the (SWCU) Satya Wacana Christian University academic

community,

I verify that:

Name : Savira Putri Mayasari

Student ID Number : 112005072

Study Program : English Department

Faculty : Language and Literature

Kind of Work : Undergraduate Thesis

In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with a non-exclusive

royalty free right for my intellectual property and contents therein entitled:

CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE LEARNING

ANXIETY AND THEIR SCORES IN SPEAKING CLASS

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name is still included as the writer.

This declaration is made according to the best of my knowledge.

Made in : Salatiga

Date : January 11, 2012

Verified by signee,

_______________________

Approved by:

Prof. DR. Gusti Astika, M.A Hendro Setiawan H., M. A.

Supervisor Examiner

6

CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE LEARNING

ANXIETY AND THEIR SCORES IN SPEAKING CLASS

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to find out whether there was any

correlation between students’ language learning anxiety and their scores in

speaking class. The participants of this research were 70 students of English

Department of Satya Wacana Christian University who were taking Speaking

course. The students were asked to fill the questionnaires about speaking anxiety.

The questionnaire was adopted from Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale

(FLCAS) developed by Horwitz (1986).The data of the research were also taken

from the students’ final scores in the speaking course. The result of the study

shows that there was no correlation between students’ language learning anxiety

and their scores in speaking class.

Keywords: correlation, anxiety, speaking performance

Introduction

Speaking is one of the four major skills that students should master in

English language learning. As an ESL/EFL learner, the student should be able to

speak English in every condition. In English language teaching and learning

process, speaking is one of the most important subject for students to cope with

because it examines oral production. Unfortunately, there are some problems

which occurred especially in the performance goals on Target Language (TL). For

example, teachers deal with students who have difficulties to speak fluently when

they feel anxious in performing the target language (TL).

One of the key successes of learners to study second language (L2) is

when they can develop oral skill as their way to communicate with other people.

Speaking skill in English language learning is very important for learners whether

as speakers; consciously or unconsciously people use their speech to create an

image of themselves to others (Luoma, 2003). Here, the sound of speech is one of

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an important factor to consider in assessing speaking. As the result, people might

easily judge the speakers’ performance as they use a good pronunciation or not. In

other words, Bryant and Wallace (1974) mentioned three kinds of responses when

someone deliver a speech, such as the knowledge and understanding, opinions or

attitudes, and action of one kind or another by the listeners. In addition to that,

Harmer (2001) noted down that there are two major aspects in speaking which are

accuracy and fluency, in which learners should consider their correct use of

vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation; and fluency. Thus, the inability to

pronounce words correctly or use correct grammar can lead to negative evaluation

by others that might lead to a confusion and embarrassment by the speakers

(Horwitz &Young, 1991). Furthermore, Bygate (1987) mentioned that language

teaching, learning, and testing process in speaking L2 has its own right and that

oral L2 performance had identified the accuracy and fluency in which learners

communicative performance can be influenced through communication practice.

According to Levelt (1989), there are four points to consider in speech

production: conceptualization, formulation, articulation, and self monitoring.

Conceptualization relates with planning the message content such as background

knowledge, knowledge about topic, while formulation deals with how to find

words and phrases to express meaning and thus prepares the sound patterns of the

words to be used. Next process is articulation which involves the motor control of

the articulatory organs; lips, tongue, teeth, alveolar palate, velum, glottis, and

mouth cavity. Finally, self-monitoring is concerned with the learners’ ability to

self identify their mistakes.

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Furthermore, Bygate (1987) points out that there are two aspects by the

context of speaking skills which is production and interaction skills. Productions

skills are related with making the oral production easier and sound naturally. This

skill is connected with the knowledge of the learners in producing the language in

different situations. Interaction skills, on the other hand, relates with the routines

and negotiation skills. For example, when there are many participants involve in it

such as in doctor-patient, teacher-pupil, professor-student, examiner-examinee,

parent-children, and adult-child interactions.

To master speaking skill in English language learning, the students should

consider those aspects discussed above as their asset to succeed in performing the

target language (TL). However, there is one common obstacle for L2 learners due

to their performance grades, that is anxiety in language learning. Language

anxiety according to Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) is defined as “the

subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated

with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system” (p.125). For example, language

anxiety might lead students to their disabilities to express their ideas and opinions

during their performances in target language. As the result, it can affect their

grades. Furthermore, Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) also stated that anxiety

can undermine self-esteem and threaten one self-image. In accordance to that, it

becomes one of a problems expressed by ESL/EFL learners in their speaking

class.

Some studies have been done in relation with foreign language classroom

anxiety and came with the mixed results. For example; Tanveer, (2007)

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investigated the factors that caused language anxiety for ESL/EFL learners in

learning speaking skills and the influence on communication in the target

language. His result indicate that the most anxiety provoking skill in L2 learning

was speaking skill. Another study also done by Williams and Andrade, (2008) in

Japanese EFL university classes that contained causes, coping, and locus of

control foreign language learning anxiety. The findings indicated that anxiety was

often associated with the output and processing stages of the learning process and

that students attributed the cause of anxiety to the teacher or other people. A study

by Kondo and Ying-Ling, (2004) examined about strategies for coping with

language anxiety in the case of students of English in Japan. The findings

suggested 70 basic tactics for coping with language anxiety that cohered into five

strategies: preparation, relaxation, positive thinking, peer seeking, and resignation.

Anyadubalu, (2010) also studied self-efficacy, anxiety, and performance in

the English Language among Middle-School Students in English Language

Program in Bangkok. The study concluded that English language anxiety and

general self-efficacy were significant predictors of English language performance

among middle-school students in Satri Si Suriyothai School.

Feeling of anxiety would create some negative effects such as

discouragement to speak and feeling lack of confidence in speaking class. Horwitz

et al. (1986) stated that students might be good to learn other skills in English

language learning but they will have many failures when it comes to their

performance to speak. Language learning anxiety according to Horwitz et al.

(1986) formed three points which are related with performance evaluations i.e.

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communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation.

Communication apprehension occurs when people are easier to get anxious in a

public speaking or even in a small group. Meanwhile, test anxiety and fear of

negative evaluation are dealing with the final scores since anxious students would

evaluate others negatively. Thus, language learning anxieties concern on the poor

test performance results and might lead to inaccurate grading by the teachers.

Based on the recent studies above, it has been proven that there is relationship

between language learning anxiety and L2 learners’ performances on target

language (TL).

In addition to that, some previous research also found several effects of

anxiety on language learning. Kleinmann, (1977) found that ESL students with

high level of anxiety attemped different types of grammar constructions than did

less anxious ESL students. Besides, learners also dealing with clinical experience

as Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, (1986) mentioned that the learners might deal with

such experiences such as apprehension, worry, even dread, and moreover they

have difficulty concentrating, become forgetful, sweat, and have palpitations.

Since language learning anxiety could influence student’s performance

goal on target language (TL), it gives enough reason for this study to investigate

the correlation between anxieties with their performances on the target language.

This study believes that every student who deals with language learning anxiety

might have unsatisfying result of his or her achievement.

Therefore, the scope of this study is to find out the levels of anxiety that

the learners might experience by discover the percentage of students’ feeling

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anxious before their performance in speaking class. Still, this study is also aimed

at finding out whether there is any significant correlation between students’

learning anxiety and their performance scores in Speaking class. Additionally,

later on we might expect that this study will bring advantages for teachers and

students in English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University. Hopefully,

it will help teachers in evaluating students’ performances and also help students to

improve their performances. Thus, the research question that followed this study

is “Is there any significant correlation between the student’s anxiety and their

performance scores?”

THE STUDY

A. Method

This study used a descriptive method because it analyzed the numerical

data of students’ speaking performance scores and anxiety levels that they

experienced in learning English. This study used a correlational research in order

to answer the research question. This study analyzed the correlation between

students’ learning anxiety and their test scores in Speaking classes.

B. Participants

The author selected the participants of this research who were students of

Transactional Speaking class of English Department of Satya Wacana Christian

University from the 2011 academic year. There were 70 students from group A,

B, C, E, and G of Transactional Speaking class which comprised 55 females and

15 males. The reason why the author selected class from 2011 because in this

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class students’ were trained to develop their communication skills especially

speaking in front of the class or in the daily conversations.

C. Data of the study

In this research, the first set of data was collected from the questionnaires

about language learning anxiety levels. The questionnaire had 10 questions where

the items were adopted from Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale

(FLCAS) developed by Horwitz (1986). The questionnaires used 4 Likert scale

items (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = agree, and 4 = strongly agree).

The other set of data for this research was speaking scores of Transactional

Speaking of group A, B, C, E, and G, obtained from the speaking teachers at the

end of the semester.

D. Data Collection

The first step was administering the questionnaires to the students outside

the class after they finished their speaking class. Then, the students were asked to

put circle of their answer choices; 1 (strongly agree), 2 (disagree), 3 (agree), or 4

(strongly disagree).

Next, the second data of this study was students’ speaking scores. It was

obtained by the end of the semester through the speaking teachers after the

questionnaires were collected. The speaking scores consisted of the total grade

which was 25% of daily performance including attendance and participation, 20%

individual presentations, and 55% group presentations.

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There were 14 meetings in this Transactional speaking courses and the

presentations were taken individually or in groups. Individual presentations in this

course were about Personal Opinions, Interviews and Reports. The group

presentations were about Current Affairs, Advertising, Campaign, TV Talk Show,

and Radio Broadcaster. Generally, either individual presentations or groups would

only took about 15-20 minutes as the maximum of speech performances.

E. Data Analysis

The data of this research were analyzed using SPSS 19.0 Spearman’s rho

correlation analysis in order to find out the correlation between students’ learning

anxiety in speaking and speaking scores. The data type of the questionnaire was

ordinal and the data of the speaking scores was interval data. However, the

speaking scores data need to be converted into an ordinal data in order to analyze

it (Brown, 1988). Therefore, Spearman rho was used to find out the correlation of

the two variables. The questionnaire data of this research was ordinal data and

below is a table to show the scales of the questionnaire.

Table 1. Questionnaire

Questionnaire Categories Scale

Strongly disagree 1

Disagree 2

Agree 3

Strongly agree 4

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The questionnaire data was calculated based on the scales to get the

average score from each student (Appendix A). After getting the average score for

each student then the correlation analysis was carried out.

The data of the speaking scores was interval data and therefore they had to

be converted into ordinal data as the requirement of Spearman rho correlation

analysis. Thus, the speaking scores data were categorized into 4 groups in order to

make them ordinal. Below is the table to show the scales of speaking anxiety.

Table 2. Speaking scores from interval into ordinal scale

Speaking Scores Categories Scale

0-25 1

26-50 2

51-75 3

76-100 4

The speaking scores had an interval of 25 points after they were converted

into ordinal data. For example, if a student scored 77.1 then the score would be

put into a scale of 4. After all questionnaires data and speaking scores data had

same ordinal scales, then it was analyzed using Spearman rho correlation analysis.

Result and Discussion

The purpose of this study was to find out the correlation between students’

learning anxiety in speaking and speaking scores. Further, there had been two sets

data used by this study, which was ordinal data from the speaking anxiety

15

questionnaire and ordinal data of speaking final scores, the result of conversion

from interval data (Appendix B). They were correlated using Spearman’s rho

correlation analysis.

Thus, the hypotheses of the study were formulated as follow:

H0 : There is no significant correlation between students’ learning anxiety in

speaking and speaking scores.

H1 : There is significant correlation between students’ learning anxiety in


In order to test the hypotheses of this study, if p>0.05 H0 would be

accepted because it shows that there is no correlation between students’ learning

anxiety in speaking and speaking scores. However, if p<0.05 then H1 would be

accepted because there is correlation between students’ learning anxiety in


Below is the table to show the result of the correlation analysis between

students’ learning anxiety in speaking and speaking scores using Spearman’s rho.

Table 3. Correlation between students’ learning anxiety in speaking and speaking

scores

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Correlations

Anxiety Scores

Spearman's rho Anxiety Correlation

Coefficient

1.000 -.071

Sig. (2-tailed) . .559

N 70 70

Scores Correlation

Coefficient

-.071 1.000

Sig. (2-tailed) .559 .

N 70 70

Table 3 indicates the result that there was no correlation between students’

learning anxiety in speaking and speaking scores because p was 0.559 (p>0.05).

Therefore, H0 was accepted and H1 was rejected.

Conclusion

The purpose of this study was to find out whether there was any

correlation between students’ learning anxiety in speaking and speaking scores. In

17

order to answer this question, Spearman’s rho correlation analysis was used with

SPSS 19.0.

However, as it is shown in Table 3, the correlation coefficient between

learning anxiety in speaking and speaking scores was -.071, which means that

those two variables did not correlate significantly. In other words, this study did

not find statistically significant difference between anxiety and the students’

speaking performance results. This result is not in line with Horwitz et al. (1986)

who found that communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative

evaluation effected students’ achievement. In addition to that, past researchers

also concluded that there were significant relationship between language

performance and English language anxiety and most of them found that students’

with high level of anxiety normally failed in their speech performance (Kleinman,

1977; Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986).

This study found out that there was no significant correlation between

these two variables. This finding accorded with MacIntrye and Gardner theory

(1991) who proposed that anxiety was a general problem which is not spesific to

foreign language learning.

Finally, several limitations of this study are described below. First, there

were only 5 speaking groups out of 7 speaking groups as the participants. As the

result, it only involved 70 students and therefore it might have caused no

significant correlation between two variables. Besides, it was also difficult to

collect the data from all students in English Department. Next, the second

possibilities was that the data collection were administered at the end of the

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semester, which indicates that different results might have been obtained if it had

been taken at the beginning and end of the semester. Some variables such as

speech time duration, small class size might also indicate limitations because

bigger number of people and duration of their speech might contribute to a higher

level of students’ anxiety.

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Acknowledgement

I want to express my gratitude to Father in heaven, Jesus Christ as my

Savior who always gives His blessings and strengthens me in finishing my study.

I want to give my special thanks to Prof. Dr. Gusti Astika, M.A. as my supervisor

who read my draft, guided me patiently, revised my study, gave me valuable

suggestions, and encouraged me to finish my study.

I wish to express my sincere appreciation to my mom, dad, and family members

who supported me with their prayers and finance. Thank you for giving me lots of

love, inspirations and motivations for me to complete this study. I also want to

thank my bestfriends and boyfriend Jacqueline, Andhini, Cicilia, and Rogier who

always cheer me up, listen to my stories and give positive spirits for me to finish

my study. Special thanks also to my friends Nanda and Iswara who helped me

with this study and program instalation. Finally, I am very thankful to all my

English Department friends and teachers who have helped me finishing my study.

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References

Aida, Y. (1994). Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope's construct of

foreign language anxiety: The case of students of Japanese. The Modern

Language Journal, 78, ii 155-168.

Anyadubalu, C. C. (2010). Self-Efficacy, Anxiety, Performance in the English

Language among Middle-School Students in English Language Program in

Satri Si Suriyothai School, Bangkok. International Journal of Human and

Social Sciences 5:3

Brown, J. D. (1988). Understanding Research in Second Language Learning.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bygate, M. (1987). Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Horwitz, E. K. (2001). Language Anxiety and Achievement. Annual Review of

Applied Linguistics, Vol. 21, pp. 112-126.

Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom

anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70, 125-132.

Horwitz, E. K. (1991). Preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of a

foreign language anxiety scale. In E. K. Horwitz & D. J. Young (Eds.),

Language anxiety: From theory and research to classroom implications

(pp. 37-41).

21

Keramida, A. (2009). Helping Students Overcome Foreign Language Speaking

Anxiety in the English Classroom: Theoretical Issues and Practical

Recommendations. Greek Open University.

Kleinmann, H. H. (1977). Avoidance Behavior in Adult Second Language

Learning. 27, p. 93-101. TESOL Quarterly (in press).

Koba, N. ,Ogawa, N. , & Wilkinson, D. (2000). Using Community Language

Learning Approach to Cope with Language Anxiety. Internet TESL

Journal, VI : 11.

Kondo, D.S, & Ling, Y.Y. (2004). Strategies for coping with language anxiety:

the case of students of English in Japan. ELT Journal Volume 58/3, 258-

265.

Luoma, S. (2004). Assessing Speaking. Cambridge Language Assessment Series:

Cambridge University Press, Chapter 2 (pp. 9-28).

Scovel, T. (2001). Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge

University Press: Chapter 11, 80-86.

Tanveer, M. (2007). Investigation of the factors that cause language anxiety for

ESL/EFL learners in learning speaking skills and the influence it casts on

communication in the target language. Dissertation, University of

Glasgow.

22

Williams, K. E., Andrade, M. R. (2008).Foreign Language Learning Anxiety in

Japanese EFL University Classes: Causes, Coping, and Locus of Control.

Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 2008, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.

181-191.

Young, D.J. (1991). Creating a Low-Anxiety Classroom Environment: What Does

Language Anxiety Research Suggests? The Modern Language Vol. 75,

No.4, p. 426 - 439. Blackwell Publishing.

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APPENDIX A

Language Speaking Anxiety Questionnaire

Name _____________________________ Age __________ Gender(circle one):

M / F

Directions: Circle the number that corresponds to your degree of agreement with

the statement listed on the left (strongly agree= 4; agree = 3; disagree = 2;

strongly disagree = 1)

1. I never feel sure of myself when I have to speak in front of my Speaking

class.

4 3 2 1

2. I tremble when I know that I’m going to be called on my Transactional

Speaking class.

4 3 2 1

3. I get nervous and confused when I start to speak in my Transactional

Speaking class.

4 3 2 1

4. I keep thinking that the other students are better than I am.

4 3 2 1

5. I start to panic when I have to speak without preparation in my speaking

class.

4 3 2 1

6. Even I have a well preparation before my speech, I easily forget things I

know in my speaking presentations.

4 3 2 1

7. I feel confident when I have to present my speech in front of the class.

4 3 2 1

8. I always making a good preparation for my speaking presentations.

4 3 2 1

9. I am afraid that my friends will laugh at me when I start my speech.

4 3 2 1

10. I worry if I fail in my Speaking class.

4 3 2 1

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APPENDIX B

Scores of Language Learning Anxiety and Final Grade

No. Name Anxiety Scores Final Grade

Scores

1. 112011010 2.9 4

2. 112011012 3 4

3. 112011032 2.1 4

4. 112011043 2.3 3

5. 112011049 2.3 4

6. 112011056 3 3

7. 112011081 2.1 3

8. 112011090 3.1 4

9. 112011100 1.4 4

10. 112011105 2.8 3

11. 112011109 2.6 4

12. 112011009 3.6 4

13. 112011019 2.6 4

14. 112011026 2.2 4

15. 112011028 1.8 4

16. 112011030 1.3 4

17. 112011044 2.5 4

18. 112011055 2.3 4

19. 112011058 2.8 3

20. 112011061 2.8 4

21. 112011087 2.7 4

22. 112011093 2.4 4

23. 112011106 2.2 4

24. 112011107 2.9 4

25. 112011110 2.5 4

26. 112011111 2.8 4

27. 112011113 3 4

28. 112011001 2.6 4

29. 112011004 3 4

30. 112011008 2.7 4

31. 112011013 2.7 4

32. 112011020 2.9 4

33. 112011025 2.7 4

34. 112011033 2.2 4

35. 112011042 2.5 4

36. 112011045 2.3 4

37. 112011047 2.7 4

38. 112011083 3 4

39. 112011104 2.7 4

40. 112011112 2.9 4

25

41. 112011901 2.6 4

42. 112011003 2.4 4

43. 112011015 2.1 4

44. 112011021 2.9 4

45. 112011023 2.9 4

46. 112011037 2.3 4

47. 112011040 2.7 4

48. 112011046 2.3 4

49. 112011060 2.2 4

50. 112011065 2.5 4

51. 112011067 2.8 4

52. 112011072 2.2 4

53. 112011074 2.5 4

54. 112011096 2.4 4

55. 112011098 2.6 4

56. 112011114 2.7 4

57. 112005094 2 4

58. 112006062 2.9 4

59. 112006090 2.4 3

60. 112008130 2.5 4

61. 112009156 2 4

62. 112010039 2.8 4

63. 112010074 2.4 4

64. 112010115 2.3 4

65. 112010134 2.9 3

66. 112011051 2.2 4

67. 112011052 3 4

68. 112011066 2 4

69. 112011069 3 4

70. 112011095 1.9 4

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Correlation Between Students’ Language Learning Anxiety