iii
ABSTRACT The present study is concerned with sources of speaking anxiety on the basis of learners’
responses presented in the survey questionnaire and in the informal interview. The quantitative
questionnaire first examined the existence of speaking anxiety and factors causing students’
anxiety when speaking English. The qualitative interview further looked at sources of students
speaking anxiety. A total of 135 tenth form students at Nguyen Quan Nho high school, Thanh
Hoa province participated in the survey. The results showed that the tendency of students’
nervousness was obvious. Based on students’ explanations, factors viewed as causing anxiety
was divided into four categories: the content of the lessons, communication apprehension, test
anxiety and fear of negative feedback. From the students’ suggestions in the interview, the
researcher proposed some strategies for students and teachers to ameliorate negative effects of
speaking anxiety. It is also hoped that this research will be of some help to Vietnamese
learners and teachers in general in having a better understanding of the nature of FLA and
speaking anxiety in particular to improve the teaching and learning of English.



v
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Chart 1: Student’s anxiety in speaking lessons

Table 1: Student’s attitudes toward speaking skills
Table 2: Speaking anxiety associated with content of the lessons
Table 3: Speaking anxiety associated with communication apprehension
Table 4: Communication apprehension associated with students’ previous learning experience
Table 5: Communication apprehension associated with learners’ speaking environment
Table 6: Communication apprehension associated with learners’ personality
Table 7: Factors associated with learners’ self perception of their inability to speak English
Table 8: Learners’ communication apprehension associated with teachers’ factor
Table 9: Speaking anxiety associated with test
Table 10: Learners’ speaking anxiety associated with teacher’s negative feedback
Table 11: Learners’ speaking anxiety associated with peers’ negative feedback

1.2.2 .The role of speaking in language teaching and learning 8
1.2.3. Principles of teaching speaking 9

vii
1.3 Speaking Anxiety 10
1.3.1. Related studies of language anxiety in speaking skills 11
1.3.2. Sources of foreign language anxiety and speaking anxiety 12

CHAPTER 2 : THE STUDY

2.1 Overview of current teaching and learning speaking at Nguyen Quan Nho high
school 16
2.2 Data gathering instruments 17
2.3. Procedures 17
2.4. Techniques of data analysis 18
2.5. Data analysis and findings 18
2.5.1. Student’s attitudes toward speaking skills 18
2.5.2. Student’s general speaking anxiety 19
2.5.3. Sources of speaking anxiety experienced by students at Nguyen Quan Nho high
school 20
2.5.3.1. Speaking anxiety associated with the contents of the lessons 20
2.5.3.2. Speaking anxiety associated with communication apprehension 21
a. Communication apprehension associated with learner’s factors 22
Previous learning experience 22
Learners’ learning environment 23
Learners’ personality 24
Learners’ self-perception of their own speaking ability 25
b. Communication apprehension associated with teachers’ factors 27
2.5.3.3. Speaking anxiety associated with test 28
2.5.3.4. Speaking anxiety associated with fear of negative feedback 29


1. Rationale

Nowadays, English is considered as an international language, which is spoken by millions
of people all over the world. The number of people who desire to learn English has
multiplied. Some learn English to get more wisdom, some wish to get well-paid jobs, some
learn English for other purposes. That is why English has been now widely taught in
almost all educational institutions, at every level.

In Vietnam, English is being taught as a compulsory subject and it is one of the six subjects
in the national examination that students have to pass if they want to get General
Certificate of Secondary Education (G.C.S.E). In recent years, the teaching of foreign
language in Vietnam has seen a remarkable change in methodology, followed by a new
approach to language teaching. That is Communicative Language Teaching. This approach
represents a fundamental shift in the teaching-learning process from structure mastery to
communicative competence. Accordingly, learners’ ability to communicate becomes its
first priority, which means that when learning English, learners have to grasp all the four
skills: speaking, reading, writing, and listening because those skills are integrated with one
another. Speaking well is of great importance to students when communicating with others
in a second language, not only in teaching and learning environments, but also outside the
classroom. The students should be able to speak in a well structured way and develop their
ability to take part in conversations, discussions and negotiations and to express with
subtlety their own views and consider those of others. Speaking does not only reflect the
speaker’s social and cultural background, but is also a part of speaker’s identity. However,
among the four skills, speaking seems to be the most difficult one but paid the least
attention to in most high schools. Speaking has only become a compulsory skill in the
curriculum since the new English textbook was officially put into use in 2006. This results
in numerous problems inflicting students in learning the speaking skills, one of which is
Foreign Language Learning Anxiety. Besides, having considerable levels of anxiety in the
classroom has been regarded as an experience that is more likely to occur in foreign

anxiety is focused on in this research with its causes in terms of contents of the lessons,
communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative feedback and solutions
based on each source of anxiety. Due to the local condition constraints, this study only
involves one hundred and thirty-five 10
th
form students at Nguyen Quan Nho High School. 3
5. Significance of the study

This study could be of some help to teachers and students at Nguyen Quan Nho upper
secondary school:

(i) to improve the teachers’ theoretical understanding of foreign language anxiety,
especially the causes of speaking anxiety.
(ii) to enhance the students’ awareness of causes of speaking anxiety they have in
foreign language, and from this they can control and overcome their nervousness in
speaking skills. Hopefully, the possible solutions suggested in this research can help
learner reduce the speaking anxiety and motivate them to learn and make progress in
speaking.

6. Method of the study

In order to realize the above aims of the study, quantitative method was mainly used. The
data collected for the study came from the 10
th
grade students. Survey questionnaire was
used to gather information and evidence for the study.


PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

5

The main aim of this chapter is to review the literature on second language anxiety in
general and speaking anxiety in particular. The chapter starts with a literature review on
anxiety. This is followed by an overview of speaking. The end of the chapter is a
discussion of speaking anxiety.

1.1. Overview of anxiety

1.1.1. Definition and types of anxiety


Foreign language anxiety is a universal phenomenon that has a significant factor adversely
affecting the language learning process. Gardner & MacIntyre (1993, cited in Arnold
1999:59) refer to language anxiety as “fear or apprehension occurring when a learner is
expected to perform in the second or foreign language."

Scholars have studied anxiety and its effect on foreign language learning for many years.
However, “for all the work conducted in this area, many fundamental questions remain
unanswered” (Speilmann & Radnofsky, 2001). “Teachers have long been aware of the fact
that many of their students experience discomfort in the course of language learning [yet]
researchers have been unable to establish a clear picture of how anxiety affects language
learning and performance. (Horwitz and Young, 1991: xiii). Alpert and Haber (1960)
determined that anxiety could have a beneficial or facilitative effect on student
performance (as cited in Elkhafaifi, 2005: 208). In 1977, Kleinmmann’s (cited in Aida,
1994) study of Spanish-speaking and Arabic-speaking ESL students found that facilitating
anxiety was correlated with students’ oral production of linguistically difficult (thus
challenging) English structures (e.g., infinitive complements and passive sentences).
However, there was no evidence that debilitating anxiety negatively influenced oral
performance. Spielman and Radnofsky (2001) concluded that anxiety has a detrimental
effect on language acquisition. Horwitz (2001) reiterated that the issue of understanding
the relationship between anxiety and achievement is unresolved.

A more detailed description of language anxiety was provided by Horwitz, et al. (1986).
They regarded communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation
as the conceptual building blocks for the description of foreign language anxiety.
Communication apprehension is considered as fear or anxiety related to communicating

7
with people. They suggested that the inability to express one’s thoughts and ideas in the
foreign language or the inability to comprehend another person were potential sources of
anxiety for language learners. Test anxiety is a type of performance anxiety due to a fear of

8
contrast, it can be helpful in some ways such as keeping student alert and trying to make
the necessary preparation beforehand for the learning activities.

1.2. Overview of speaking

1.2.1 Definition of speaking

Florez (1999) defined speaking was “ an interactive process of constructing meaning that
involves producing and receiving and processing information.” (cited in Balley, 2005:2). It
is “often spontaneous, open-ended and evolving”, but it is not completely unpredictable. In
other words, “speaking consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey
meaning.” (Balley, 2005:2)

Bygate (1997) stated that speaking was a skill which deserved attention every bit as much
as literacy skill. It is often thought of as a “popular” form of expression that uses the
unprestigious “colloquial” register. Speaking is in many ways an undervalued skill.
Perhaps this is because we can almost speak, and so take the skill to much for granted. In
his own view, Mackey (1965) defines “Oral expressions involves not only the use of the
right sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and
inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning.” (cited in Bygate, 1997: 5).
According to him, for the students who want to be good at speaking, he/ she has to choose
the right forms, put them in correct order, sound it like native speaker and even produce the
right meanings. Therefore, speaking skills generally have to be learnt and practiced
carefully before giving a presentation.

1.2.2 The role of speaking in language teaching and learning

Speaking plays an utmost important role among the four language skills since it helps to
identify who knows or does not know a language. Pattison (1992) confirms that when

sentences, so it is also reception

Secondly, teachers ought to “give students practice with both fluency and accuracy”. As
being mentioned by Brown & Nation (1997), students must learn both knowledge and the
way native speakers use the language to speak well.
On the other hand, it is recommended to “provide opportunities for students to talk by
using pair work and group work, and limit teacher talk”. Pair work and group work are

10
good tools to encourage students to talk in the class, so it will reduce teacher’s talking time
easily.

Moreover, tasks planned should “involve negotiation of meaning”. By asking for
explanation or clarification, students can understand the speech and maintain the talk for a
long time.

Lastly, “design classroom activities that involve guidance in both transactional and
interactional speaking.” Students have chances to communicate in various and unpredicted
topics related to the real life so that they are stimulated to talk in speaking lessons.

To conclude, these principles are not all, but they are more important than others, so they
are reviewed to help teachers and learners have good speaking classes.

1.3. Speaking anxiety

The anxiety associated with second language speaking performance is called speaking
anxiety. Speaking anxiety has been supposed to be the result of speaking and has also been
found to influence speaking.

MacIntyre (1999: 33) claimed speaking seems to be “the single most important source of


Tsiplakides and Keramida (2009) examined the characteristics of anxious students in order
to implement classroom interventions to reduce foreign language speaking anxiety and
provide teachers with strategies to cope with anxiety stemming from students’ fear of
negative evaluation from their peers and perception of low ability. Fifteen students
participated in the study and the researchers used three techniques of qualitative data
collection: semi-structured interviews, group discussion and direct observation. The data
analysis showed that six of those students were experiencing English language speaking
anxiety as a result of fear of negative evaluation from their peers and perception of low
ability in relation to their peers. Having established the sources for English language
speaking anxiety, the researchers implemented the following classroom interventions to
overcome it: project work, establishing community and a supportive classroom atmosphere
by considering teacher-student relations, providing indirect rather than direct correction,
accepting the need for self-worth protection, employing teacher’s immediacy and praise.
The researchers also pointed out that oral production in a foreign language is a potentially

12
stressful situation for some students and therefore, the teachers should help their students
to overcome foreign language anxiety.

1.3.2. Sources of foreign language anxiety and speaking anxiety

It has been estimated that approximately one third of students learning a foreign language
experience some types of foreign language anxiety (Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, 1986).
Research has shown that there are a number of ways that learning a foreign language can
cause anxiety for the language learners. The causes can be broken down into three main
sources: learners’ characteristics, teacher characteristics and classroom procedures.

Learner characteristics that can cause foreign language anxiety include low self-esteem,
competitiveness, self-perceived low level of ability, communication apprehension, lack of

expectations about the language learning process, and thus cause some anxiety.

As far as teacher factors are concerned, a judgmental teaching attitude (Samimy, 1994)
and a harsh manner of teaching (Aida, 1994) are linked to student fear in the classroom.
Palacios (1998) found the following characteristics of the teacher to be associated with
anxiety: absence of teacher support, unsympathetic personalities, lack of time for personal
attention, favoritism, a sense that the class does not provide students with the tools
necessary to match up with the teacher’s expectations, and the sense of being judged by the
teacher or wanting to impress the teacher. Young (1999) noted that teaching too much
grammar or avoiding grammar altogether as well as using speaking activities that put the
learner “on the spot” in front of peers without allowing prior preparation are also sources
of anxiety for many students. Ando (1999) found that having a native speaker for a teacher
can cause anxiety, as the teacher may lack the sensitivity of the learning process or the
teacher may be hard to understand in English.

A third source of foreign language anxiety is classroom procedures. Young (1990)
compiled a list of classroom activities which are perceived by students as producing
anxiety: (1) spontaneous role play in front of the class; (2) speaking in front of the class;
(3) oral presentations or skits in front of the class; (4) presenting a prepared dialogue in
front of the class; and (5) writing work on the board.

Error correction also turned out to play an important role: being negatively evaluated by
either the teacher or peers is often associated with anxiety. Palacios (1998) found the

14
following classroom characteristics to be anxiety-producing: demands of oral production,
feelings of being put on the spot, the pace of the class, and the element of being evaluated
(i.e. fear of negative evaluation).

Oxford (1999) emphasized learning and teaching styles as a potential source of language

participants’ responses suggested that perfectionism is another personality trait that can
come into play (cited in Gregersen and Horwitz, 2002). According to Price (1991), anxious
learners often engage in self-comparison with classmates and peers – a practice which can
lead to anxiety.

To sum up, the chapter reviews the literature on many issues related to anxiety and
speaking anxiety. These include a definition of foreign language anxiety and its types,
definition and the role of speaking in language teaching and learning, principles of
teaching the skills, factors causing speaking anxiety and previous studies related to
language anxiety in speaking skills. This knowledge, therefore, serves as a basis for further
work in the latter chapters.
CHAPTER II: THE STUDY

speaking skills is one period every two weeks. In addition to the time constraint for
speaking, students do not have much chance for further practice. Consequently, students at
Nguyen Quan Nho high school face a great variety of problems with speaking skills, one of
which is their anxiety when speaking English. In the following sections, the factors causing
their nervousness will be revealed.
2.2 Data gathering instruments 17
The instruments used in this study were: (1) a questionnaire, (2) informal interview with
the students.

The questionnaire consists of three parts. Firstly, students were asked to give their personal
information about gender, their years of learning English. Secondly, the students responded
about their attitudes toward speaking skills. Thirdly, the subjects were asked to identify
their problems that increase their anxiety in speaking lessons by responding to statements
on the basis of the five-point scale (never, seldom, sometimes, often, and always). The
questionnaire was designed after a review of the literature about factors viewed as causing
anxiety that influence speaking skills. The data obtained form the questionnaire was
tabulated, presented, and frequencies and percentages were calculated.

The informal interview with the students were conducted. The major concern was their
opinion of why each problem of speaking skills, which was shown in the third part of the
questionnaire, made them nervous and stressful in speaking classes. The data obtained
from the informal interviews was transcribed and analyzed so that the researcher of this
study could gain a deep understanding of the problems, from those giving possible
solutions to help students alleviate their anxiety. In the analysis, a numerical system was
applied to identify each data entry. Their answers were translated into English.

2.3 Procedures

1. How is speaking skills important to you?
Very important
Rather important
Little important
Not important at all
Students’ No.
28
44
53
10
Students’ %
20.7%
32.6%
39.3%
7.4%

2. How do you enjoy speaking English?
Very much
Not much
little
Not at all
Students’ No.
26
55
41
13
Students’ %
19.3
40.7%
30.4%

Always
16%

Chart 1: Student’s anxiety in speaking lessons

Chart 1 reveals that the great majority (77%) of the students in the study responded that
they felt more tense and nervous in English speaking class than in other classes. 16% of the
respondents admitted that they always felt tense and nervous in speaking classes. 42% of
them often said they often and 19% said sometimes. Only 23 % were in disagreement with
this idea. The students’ level of anxiety reported on the survey was also supported by their
answers in the interview. In a word, the tendency of speaking anxiety of students at
Nguyen Quan Nho high school was obvious.

2.5.3. Sources of speaking anxiety experienced by students at Nguyen Quan Nho high
school.