1. Anxiety in Chinese EFL students at different proficiency levels 1 Presenter: Yi-Han Yang Instructor: Dr. Pi-Ying Teresa Hsu Date: March 9, 2011

2. 2 Citation Liu, M. (2006). Anxiety in Chinese EFL students at different proficiency levels. An International Journal of Educational and Applied Linguistic, 34, 301-316.

3. 3 Content Introduction I Literature Review II Methodology III Result & Conclusion IV V Reflection

4. 4 Introduction

5. 5 Introduction Reading Listening 1970s Writing Speaking

6. 6 Purposes

7. 7 Literature Review

8. 8 Literature Review There were three components of foreign language anxiety: (Horwitz et al., 1986 ) Communication apprehension Test anxiety Fear of negative evaluation

9. 9 Literature Review Hortize et al. (1986) developed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS),which has gained widespread popularity in subsequent research studies on anxiety in language learning situations. (Aida, 1994; Chen, 2002; Cheng et al., 1999; Kitano, 2001; Phillips, 1992; Saito et al., 1999; Wang and Ding, 2001; Worde, 2003)

10. 10 Literature Review Experience had a significant effect on anxiety and female students were found to score on the anxiety scale higher than did males. (Aida, 1994)

11. 11 Research questions 1. To what extent do the students experience anxiety in oral English classroom? 2. What is the difference in anxiety among the students at different proficiency levels? 3. In which classroom activity are the students the most anxious? 4. Is there any change in student anxiety in different classroom activities over the term?

12. 12 Methodology

13. 13 Methodology Time: A full term (14 weeks) Participant: 547(430male and 117 female) first-year undergraduate non-English majors enrolled in the English Listening & Speaking course. Instruments: Survey, observations, reflective journals and interview

14. A 36-item survey adapted from the FLCAS developed by Horwitz et al. (1986) ex: It frightens me when I don’t understand what the teacher is saying in English. 14 Foreign Language Class Anxiety (FLCAS)

15. 15 Instruments Semi- structured interview

16. 16 Semi-structured interview A semi-structured interview is a method of research used in the social sciences. A semi-structured interview is flexible, allowing new questions to be brought up during the interview as a result of what the interviewee says. The interviewer in a semi-structured interview generally has a framework of themes to be explored.

17. 17 Results and discussion

18. Achieving a reliability score of 0.92 in the present research. 18 Result and discussion the real number percentage

19. 19 Result and discussion These numbers indicate that at least one-third of students experienced moderate to high anxiety

20. 20 To what extent do the students experience anxiety in oral English classroom?

21. 21 To what extent do the students experience anxiety in oral English classroom? Anxious students were afraid of making mistakes in the English class. Anxious students feared they would not understand all the language input was also consistent with communication apprehension. Anxious students reported that they were afraid to speak and felt deeply-conscious when asked to risk revealing themselves by speaking English in the present of other people.

22. 22 (2) What is the difference in anxiety among the students at different proficiency levels? ANOVA The more proficient students tended to be less anxious in English language classrooms, the difference was not significant. The ANOVA results presented that proficiency/level did not play a significant role in distinguishing the students at different proficiency levels.

23. 23 (3) In which classroom activity are the students the most anxious? Most anxious Least anxious Being singled out to answer questions and giving presentations, were the most anxiety-provoking activities in class.

24. 24 (4) Is there any change in student anxiety in different classroom activities over the term? With increasing exposure to spoken English, many students’ anxiety levels decreased in oral communication in class during the term, a tendency not only reported by the students themselves but observed by the teachers.

25. 25 Reflection

26. 26 Reflection

27. Thanks for your listening 27 "Only by coming to grips with difficulty can you realize your full potential." -- Charles de Gaulle, president of France