VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGESAND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUTAE STUDIES
********************

NGUYỄN MINH NGUYỆT

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON 10TH FORM STUDENTS’
LISTENING ANXIETY AT THUONG CAT HIGH SCHOOL
(MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU THĂM DÒ VỀ SỰ LO LẮNG TRONG VIỆC HỌC
KỸ NĂNG NGHE CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT THƯỢNG CÁT)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2017


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGESAND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUTAE STUDIES
********************

NGUYỄN MINH NGUYỆT

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON 10TH FORM STUDENTS’
LISTENING ANXIETY AT THUONG CAT HIGH SCHOOL
(MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU THĂM DÒ VỀ SỰ LO LẮNG TRONG VIỆC HỌC
KỸ NĂNG NGHE CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT THƯỢNG CÁT)

been able to finish this study.
Secondly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my respectful professors
of the Faculty of Post-Graduated Department at University of Languages and
International Studies for their devotion and their interesting lectures.
I also want to give my big thanks to students from three classes 10D1, 10D2,
10D6 who participate in this research.
Last but not least, special thanks go to my family who are always by my side
and support me during the time I carry out this study.

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ABSTRACT

Anxiety is a common feeling that learners have to face when learning a foreign
language, especially with a difficult skill like listening. This study aims at exploring
the listening anxiety of grade 10 students at Thuong Cat High school. There are 130
students from three classes participated in this survey. The researcher used both
quantitative and qualitative. The survey questionnaire was used to examine the
existence of listening anxiety and factors causing students’ anxiety. The informal
interview further looked at the sources of students listening anxiety and found out
some suggested solutions. The findings showed that the majority of participants
experienced high listening anxiety. Factors causing listening anxiety were divided
into three categories: factors related to listening process, factors related to listening
text and factors related to students’ learning habits. From the students’ suggestions
in the interview, some solutions were proposed for both teachers and students.On
the part of teachers, they should pay more attention to choose appropriate listening
materials, help students raise their language proficiency and teach them listening
strategies. Students also need to build their self-confidence and have more practice
to reduce listening anxiety and improve their listening comprehension.

School ....................................................................................................................13
3.2. Participants....................................................................................................15
3.3. Research method ...........................................................................................15

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3.4. Data collection instruments .........................................................................16
3.5. Procedure .......................................................................................................17
3.6. Data analysis method ....................................................................................17
CHAPTER 4: THE FINDINGS .............................................................................19
4.1. Students’ background information. ............................................................19
4. 2. Reliability of the FLLA ...............................................................................22
4. 3. Descriptive analysis .....................................................................................22
4. 4. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) ...........................................................23
4.5. Participants’ suggested solutions for reducing listening anxiety. ............34
CHAPTER5: CONCLUSION ................................................................................38
5.1. Summary of the main findings. ...................................................................38
5.2. Implication .....................................................................................................40
5.2.1. Recommendation for teachers. ..............................................................40
5.2.2. Recommendations for learners .............................................................46
5.3. Limitations and suggestions for further study ...........................................47
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................48
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... I

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LIST OF ABBRIVIATION


APPENDIX 7: TABLE CONTENTS OF TEXTBOOK TIENG ANH 10……….59
APPENDIX 8: UNIT 1- TIENG ANH 10…………………………………………60

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides the overview of the research. The researcher presents the
reasons for choosing the topic, research questions, the purpose, scopes, significance
and the structure of the study.
1.1. Rationales of the study.
English has become the international language and it is used in many countries.
It is undeniable that the number of people who learns English as a second language
is increasing because of its importance. In Vietnam, English is getting more and
more popular and it is one of the compulsory subjects in most high schools. In
recent years, teaching English has changed remarkably from the traditional teaching
methods to Communicative Language Teaching. Accordingly, learners’ ability to
communicate is the first priority. When learning English, learners have to master
four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening is one of the most
important skills for a student to communicate effectively. However, it seems that
many Vietnamese learners have difficulty in listening to English. One of the most
major factors that influence on students’ listening comprehension is the anxiety.
MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) asserted that “anxiety poses several problems for the
students of a foreign language because it can interfere with the acquisition,
retention, and production of the new language” (p. 86). Every learner experiences
anxiety in different degrees. Feeling anxious in the classroom makes learners show
negative reactions, emotions and behaviors and they are not able to develop their
full ability in language learning. From the reality in Thuong Cat High School,
many students perform poorly and they feel stressful when they learn listening
lessons. Some of them are very nervous when they are faced with a difficult task.

This research will also help students identify their anxiety in learning listening
and from this they can find some ways to manage their anxiety level not only in
listening skill but also in other skills when learning a foreign language. Hopefully,
the findings of this study will be of some help to the improvement of the teaching
and learning listening skills of teachers and students in high schools in general and
at Thuong Cat High School in particular.

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1. 5. Scope of the study
In this study, the researcher only focuses on the causes of listening anxiety of
10thform students at Thuong Cat High School and gives some solutions for teachers
and students to help students reduce anxiety.
1. 6. Structure of the study
The study is divided into five chapters.
- Chapter 1: Introduction. This chapter presents the rationale, the purpose, scope,
significance and the structure of the study.
- Chapter 2: Literature review. This chapter provides the literature review of foreign
language anxiety in general and listening anxiety in particular. It also gives the
theories of listening comprehension.
- Chapter 3: Methodology. This chapter discusses the participants, method of the
study, data collection instruments and data analysis.
- Chapter 4: The findings. This chapter presents the information about participants,
the findings from questionnaires and interview.
- Chapter 5: Conclusion. This chapter makes a brief summary of the major findings,
the implications, limitations and suggestions for further research.

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knowledge, and by applying what he knows to what he hears and trying to
understand what the speaker means.
Buck (2001) in his definition says that “listening comprehension is an active
process of constructing meaning and this is done by applying knowledge to the
incoming sound” (p.31). This means that listening is the ability to recognize and
realize the meaning of what the speaker is saying, by grasping the meaning and
understanding the way of pronouncing the words and language that shows, accent,
pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.
Richards and Schmidt (2002) describe listening comprehension as “the process
of understanding speech in a first or second language. The study of listening
comprehension processes in second language learning focuses on the role of
individual linguistic units (e.g. phonemes, words, grammatical structures) as well as
the role of the listener’s expectations, the situation and context, background
knowledge and the topic”(p.313). In other words, listening is a process of
understanding a text by activating various kinds of phonology, grammar,
background knowledge and experience.
In short, listening comprehension is not a passive but an active process in
which the listeners construct meaning from what they hear with intended meaning.
Listeners need to get involve actively in the interpretation of what they hear, bring
their own background knowledge and linguistic competence to reach full
comprehension of what they hear.
2.1.2. The listening comprehension process
The processing of listening is viewed as interactive process including two
levels: bottom-up processing and top-down processing.
The bottom-up processing involves constructing meaning from the smallest unit
of the spoken language to the largest one in a linear mode (Nunan, 1998). It is

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State anxiety occurs within specific, temporary situations and fades when the
threat (or situation) disappears (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991). It is the type of
anxiety that that a person experiences at a particular moment in time as a
response to a definite situation.

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-

The situation-specific anxiety is the specific forms of anxiety that occur
consistently over time within a given situation (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991).
It is related to a particular type of situation or event such as public speaking,
examinations or class participation.
In short, anxiety is a psychological concept which is associated with negative

feelings such as uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension and tension.
Anxiety can be experienced at three perspectives: trait anxiety, state anxiety and
situation-specific anxiety.
2.2.2. Foreign language anxiety
Foreign language anxiety is a situation specific anxiety that is related to
foreign language learning. Many researchers have considered anxiety as one of the
most important factors that influence second language learning.
Foreign language anxiety is defined as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions,
beliefs, feelings and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from
the uniqueness of the language learning process” ( Horwitz and Cope ,1986, p.128)
According to Gardner and MacIntyre (1993), language anxiety is “the
apprehension experienced when a situation requires the use of a second language
with which the individual is not fully proficient. It is, therefore, seen as a stable

fear of failure in an academic setting. It is the fear of exams, quizzes, and
other assignments used to evaluate students’ performance. Many students
experience a high level of anxiety when taking tests. The unfamiliar test
items, the format of the test, different materials and questions types with
which leaners are not familiar are generally believed to create anxiety.
When test anxiety occurs, even students with a great deal of knowledge in a
foreign language may perform at a considerably lower level than their true
ability.

-

Finally, the last component of foreign language anxiety is fear of negative
evaluation. Fear of negative evaluation is defined as “apprehension about
other’s evaluations, distress over their negative evaluations, and the
expectation that others would evaluate oneself negatively” (Horwitz, 1986,
p.128). Fear of negative negation is broader in scope than the test anxiety
because it may occur in any social, evaluative situation such as
interviewing for a job or speaking in foreign language classes. People who
fear negative evaluation rarely initiate conversation and interact with other

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people. Students who experience this anxiety tend to sit passively in the
classes and do not participate in learning activities actively.
In short, anxiety is a kind of troubled feeling in mind that may cause negative
effects for language learners. It is a feeling of tension, apprehension and
nervousness associated with the situation of learning a foreign language. Anxiety
has an important role in determining the success or failure of the learners. Horwitz
(2001) found a significant association between anxiety and poor performance in

and instructional and personal factors easily produced listening anxiety. Moreover,
Kim (2000) in her study indicated that characteristics of the text, personal
characteristics and process-related characteristics were main factors causing
anxiety. Hang (2006) divided listening anxiety sources into characteristics of
listening comprehension, listening materials and listening tasks, social and
instructional factors, foreign language proficiency and listening level. In addition,
Chang and Read (2008) concluded that low confidence in comprehending spoken
English, taking English listening courses as a requirement, and worrying about test
difficulty were the three major factors which contributed to listening anxiety.
Beside, factors such as authenticity of the listening text, incomprehensibility of the
listening material and other external environmental factors such as noise and
inaudibility can create anxiety among language learners.
2.2.4. The previous studies of listening anxiety
Anxiety in listening comprehension is a problem that has received a lot of
concerns from many researchers. There have been a number of studies about
listening anxiety. Vogely (1998) carried out a descriptive study with 140 university
students of Spanish to investigate the foreign language listening comprehension
anxiety in students and offer solutions that might alleviate students’ listening
anxiety. She found four main sources of listening comprehension (LC) anxiety: (a)
LC anxiety associated with characteristics of foreign language input; (b) LC anxiety
associated with processing-related aspects of foreign language: (c) LC anxiety
associated with instructional factors; and (d) LC anxiety associated with attributes
of the teacher or learner. As to level of input, the speed of delivery was the most
frequently reported cause of LC anxiety, followed by bad diction, variety of accents,

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and teachers who spoke too quietly. As to level of difficulty, exercises that were too
complex, unknown vocabulary, difficult syntax and unfamiliar topics were other

In the study by Chang (2008), she found from the self-created Listening
Anxiety Questionnaire that the college business major students had high levels of
listening test anxiety compared to their general listening anxiety, which implied that
the learners were more anxious when their language proficiency was being
evaluated. Three sources of listening anxiety were reported: low confidence in
comprehending spoken English, taking a listening course and feeling worried about
the difficult of the test.
From what has been discussed in this chapter, it is concluded that anxiety is the
feeling of uneasiness, apprehension, tension and frustration. Anxiety is divided into
three types: trait anxiety, state anxiety and situation-specific anxiety. Trait anxiety is
relatively stable personality characteristic while state anxiety is a social type of
anxiety that occurs under certain conditions. Situation-specific anxiety is caused by
specific situation or event such as public speaking, examinations, or class
participation. Foreign language anxiety is a situation specific anxiety that is related
to foreign language learning. It means the learner feels anxious whenever he learns
a foreign language. Three components of language anxiety are identified:
communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation.
Communication

apprehension

is

characterized

by

fear

and

realized that at the secondary school, students often learned in a passive way. They
learnt English structure rules, did grammar exercises and translated reading text.
Speaking and Listening skills was not paid much attention. Moreover, in the last
year at secondary school, students mainly focused on preparing for Entrance Exam
to High school, they did not spend much time on studying English. Therefore, when
they entered High school, they had some difficulties with English at first and many
students even did not have basic knowledge about English. They have limited
vocabulary and poor background knowledge. Another problem is that students do
not have the habit of learning by themselves, they only learn in class do not spend
time studying at home. Moreover, like most other students in suburban schools they
rarely have opportunities to communicate with English speaking people in both
classroom and outside classroom. Consequently, their speaking and listening skills
are not really good.
At the moment, the 10th form students are using the new textbooks “Tieng
Anh 10” published in 2006 by Hoang Van Van, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Do Tuan
Minh, Nguyen Thu Phuong and Nguyen Quoc Tuan. “Tieng Anh 10” is developed
based on the new national curriculum. The book is claimed to adopt a theme-based
syllabus. Lessons are arranged according to topics which are true to life, and

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familiar with upper-secondary students. The book consists of sixteen units; each
unit presents a theme which is updated and relevant to many aspects of the daily
life: school talks, people’s background, technology, mass media, community,
national parks, music, films and cinema, the world cup …. This is an important
advantage of the textbook as it is relevant to the students’ needs, interests and
experience of life; therefore, it motivates students. The methodology used in the
book is the learner-centered approach and the communicative approach with taskbased teaching being the central teaching method .Each unit is structured in 5
sections: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus with the

studentsperformed poorly and some of them seemed uninterested in listening
lessons and felt tired or anxious when they had to listen to the recordings. When I
talked with 10th form students, many of them shared that they had never learned
Listening skill before so their listening anxiety level seemed higher than grade 11
and grade 12 students.
3.3. Research method
In this study, the researcher used both quantitative and qualitative methods to
collect data for the research work.
According to Paton(2002), the advantage of a quantitative approach is that it’s
possible to measure the reactions of a great many people to a limited set of
questions, thus facilitating comparison and statistical aggregation of data. This gives
a broad, generalizable set of findings presented succinctly and parsimoniously.
However, as O’Malley and Chamot (1995) state, quantitative methods like
questionnaires “fail to provide the depth of information yielded in interviews”
(p.94). On the other hand, qualitative methods produce a wealth of detailed
information about a much smaller number of people and cases. This increase the
depth of understanding of the cases and situations studied but reduces
generalizability (Paton, 2002).
Therefore, in this research study, both quantitative and qualitative methods
were used to help researcher get some insights into the issue of students’ listening

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