Foreigan langauge learning and anxiety

Foreign Language Reading Anxiety-4

Misconceptions about Reading － Lee (1999) hypothesized that misconceptions about

reading can lead to learner anxiety.

Successful reading equals answering comprehension questions.

Reading is a private act that takes place outside the classroom by an isolated reader.

Reading is a linear process that begins with the first word on the page and proceeds directly to the last word on the page.

Comprehension is an absolute.

Reading strategies-1

Selected Reading Strategies

Identifying the Text Structure

Text structure generally refers to how the ideas in the text are interrelated to convey a message to the reader (Chen,2005). Awareness of text structure is useful in helping readers comprehend texts more easily.

Skimming for the Topic and Main Idea

Skimming is a specific reading technique necessary for quick and efficient reading (Grellet,1981). Skimming is high-speed, purposeful skipping that can save readers lots of time.

Reading strategies-2Scanning for Details

Scanning is looking quickly and selectively through the text for a specific piece of information such as name, date, or number. This skill helps readers skip unimportant words, so that they can read faster (Grellet, 1981; Mikulecky & Jeffries, 1996; Miller & Orozco, 2001; Sotiriou &Phillips, 2000).

Drawing Inferences

Making inferences effectively may bring four primary positive outcomes (Borne et al.,2004)

－ leads to better overall comprehension

－ leads to more engagement with text

－ makes sophisticated reader

－ helps reader be metacognitive

Reading strategies-3

Deriving Word Meaning in Context

Smith (1971) argued that the best way to identify an unfamiliar word in a text was to draw inferences from the rest of the text rather than looking it up in the dictionary. Through utilization of contextual information to guess word meaning, the reader’s attention can remain on the text and the possibility of interrupting the reading process, such as looking up words in the dictionary, can be reduced.

Explicit Comprehension Instruction-1

Explicit Explanation

The teacher explains and the class discusses why learning and practicing strategies are important.

Teacher Modeling

Teachers explain the mental reasoning involved in performing various reading tasks. Teacher think-aloud is typically conceived of as an effective form of teacher modeling.

Guided Practice

The teacher first explains how to use the strategy and then gives students more and more independence in practicing and applying the strategy over time.

Explicit Comprehension Instruction-2

Independent Application

As readers accept full responsibility for making sense of the texts, they begin to use these strategies and practices independently.

Explicit Comprehension Instruction-3

MethodologyMethodology

Participants

Instruments

Study Procedures

Data Aanalysis

Participants

Item Content

School Kaohsiung Municipal Senior High School

Grade First-grade

Age The average age of 16

Numbers 84 from 2 classes of equal English proficiency (mean scores of the first monthly exam, t =.383, p > .o5)

Gender Male

Groups Based on the responses to the Chinese version of FLRAS

High-anxiety － 22, mean scores were top 27% (68-88)Low-anxiety － 22, mean scores were bottom 27% (35-55)Mid-anxiety － 40, the rest (56-67)

— Book One of Nan-I Senior High School English Textbook

— Articles in English learning magazines and newspapers

— Drills in exercise books concentrating on training reading skills

— Handouts and worksheets edited according to Duke and Pearson’s (2002) model of explicit comprehension instruction

＊ Part A — Explanation

＊ Part B — Modeling

＊ Part C — Guided practice

＊ Part D — Independent practice

Materials for Instructing Each Reading Strategy

Instruments-1

— 30 multiple-choice reading questions, with four reading passages from the college entrance examinations (CEE) of the academic year of 94, 95, 96 and 98, five passages from the GEPT Intermediate Level Test, which were published by The Language Training & Testing Center

— The possibility that students might have had access to those test question was excluded

＊ All the subjects were freshman students. ＊ None of those who had passed the GEPT Intermediate Level Tests (6) had taken exactly the same test questions.

Reading Comprehension Test (RCT)

Instruments-2

— Prior to selecting reading passages for tests, students’ reading ability should be taken into serious account. Therefore, the researcher randomly chose 6 texts from students’ textbook and computed the readability grade level according to Fry’s readability formula ( 1968 )

— The researcher categorized the 30 question items into four types.

＊ main idea questions ＊ detail questions ＊ inference questions ＊ word-in-context questions

Reading Comprehension Test (RCT)

Instruments-3

— The FLRAS designed by Saito, Horwitz and Garza (1999) was used.

— The Chinese version of the scale, which modified the statements by Huang (2001), was administered to the subjects.

— The FLRAS consisted of 20 items, and each was answered with a five-point Likert-type scale.

＊ negative statements (5 4 3 2 1) ＊ positive statements, such as item 12, 13, 14, 18 ( 1 2 3 4 5 )

Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS)

Instruments-4

The Questionnaire (QSRERSI)

Instruments-5

five- level agreement scale (21)

。 Students’ acquisition of the instructed strategies ( 1-5 )。 Students’ fondness for the strategy instruction ( 6-7)。 Students’ feedback to teaching method and materials ( 8-13)。 Students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of the strategy instruction (14-16) 。 Students’ application of the instructed strategies in tests (17-21)

two open questions

The Questionnaire on Students’ Responses toward the Explicit Reading Strategy Instruction

QSRERSI

。 Students’ comments about the benefits of receiving the strategy instruction

。 Students’ comments the difficulties they encountered in the training process

Study ProceduresPhase 1: Recruiting forty-two students excluded from the experiment to answer the Chinese version of the FLRAS in the pilot study

Phase 2: Revising and adjusting the pilot FLRAS

Phase 3: Asking the eighty-four subjects to take the FLRAS and the RCT

Phase 4: Instructing the five selected reading strategies for 10 weeks

Phase 5: Guiding the subjects to practice the instructed reading strategies in combination for 2 weeks

Phase 6: Encouraging the subjects to apply their strategies in independent reading situations for 3 weeks

Phase 7: Asking the subjects to answer the post-test QSRERSI, answer the FLARS again, and take the RCT again

Phase 8: Collecting, computing, and analyzing the data

SPSS: paired-samples t-test ★ － to see if any significant differences in the subjects’ reading anxiety and reading comprehension were related to the explicit reading strategy instruction

★ paired-samples t-test － to compare students’ pre-test and post-test scores of each question pattern

Data Analysis

★ eta squared statistics － to compare the magnitude of intervention’s effect on (1) students with different levels of reading anxiety (2) the scores of different question pattern

★ frequencies and percentages － to see how the students responded to the explicit reading strategy instruction in the post-test questionnaire e

The qualitative analysis was used to examine the open-ended questions in the questionnaire.

Results & DiscussionsResults & Discussions

Major Causes of EFL Students’ Reading Anxiety

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Comprehension

Students’ Responses to the Strategy Instruction

Major Causes of EFL Students’ Reading Anxiety-1

Limited reading proficiency Item Mean

1. I get upset when I’m not sure whether I understand what I am reading in English.

3.69

3. When I’m reading English, I get so confused I can’t remember what I’m reading

3.25

Lack of sufficient prior knowledge Item Mean

5. I am nervous when I am reading a passage in English when I am not familiar with the topic.

3.21

Major Causes of EFL Students’ Reading Anxiety-2

Unfamiliar linguistic feature Item Mean

6. I get upset whenever I encounter unknown grammar when reading English. (grammar)

3.19

7. When reading English, I get nervous and confused when I don’t understand every word. (vocabulary)

3.52

9. I usually end up translating word by word when I’m reading English. (vocabulary)

3.57

10. By the time you get past the funny letters and symbols in English, it’s hard to remember what you’re reading about. (writing system)

3.40

11. I am worried about all the new symbols I have to learn in order to read English. (writing system)

3.20

Major Causes of EFL Students’ Reading Anxiety-3

Reading experience Item Mean

12. I enjoy reading English. 3.09

13. I feel confident when I am reading English. 3.34

17. I don’t mind reading to myself, but I feel very uncomfortable when I have to read English aloud.

3.08

Low self-efficacy of reading competence Item Mean

18. I am satisfied with the level of reading ability in English that I have achieved so far.

3.92

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-1

Comparisons of the Causes of Reading Anxiety Concerning Limited Reading Proficiency Between Pre-test and Post-test

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-2

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-3

Comparisons of the Cause of Reading Anxiety Concerning Lack of Sufficient Prior Knowledge Between Pre-test and Post-test

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-4

Comparisons of the Causes of Reading Anxiety Concerning Unfamiliar Linguistic Features Between Pre-test and Post-test

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-5

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-6

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-7

Comparisons of the Causes of Reading Anxiety Concerning Reading Experience Between Pre-test and Post-test