Minimizing Anxiety of Students in Learning English
A Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Teaching English as Foreign Language Course in Double Degree Program of Language and Art Faculty of State University of Makassar
By Rini Rahmawati 1252044073
Double Degree Program Language and Art Faculty State University of Makassar 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER
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TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ......................................................................
1
CHAPTER II DISCUSSION ...........................................................................
3
A. DEFINITION OF ANXIETY ..............................................................
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B. CAUSES OF STUDENTS’ ANXIETY ..............................................
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C. MINIMIZING STUDENTS’ ANXIETY .............................................
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CHAPTER III CLOSING ................................................................................ 10 REFERENCES................................................................................................. 11
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
In Indonesia, English as a foreign language because it does not use in common place, it is only taught as a school subject and does not serve as a medium of instruction in school. Because it does not use every time, many obstructions are faced by students when they studied English overtime. One of causes is English in Indonesia is not use as daily activity even though someone has to often produce a language if she want to speak its fluently. Many factors affect students’ success and failure in learning English. One of the factors is anxiety. It is with Brown (2006: 152) states factors influence students’ achievement are self- esteem, willingness to communicate, risk taking, anxiety, empathy, and motivation. Anxiety is feeling nervous, worry when doing something related to learning and teaching process. Spielberger, MacIntyre and Gardner in Rini’s thesis state that anxiety has negative impact to success in learning a foreign language especially in oral language. When a student speaks with anxiety, she may contribute to poor oral performance. Usually, a student with anxiety is fear evaluated by her peers or fear of losing face. Many causes that contribute to anxiety of students, they are: teacher’s negative evaluation, peers’ negative judgments, lack of preparation, fear of making mistakes, classroom environment, and fear of being laughed at by other students. Learner characteristic has role in students’ anxiety. Usually students who low self confident usually cannot speak fluently in English class.
In this situation, Teachers have important rule. When teaching and learning process, a teacher should modify her teaching method becomes interesting and makes condition of classroom comfortable so the students can minimize anxiety of students as minimize as possible. From the background above, the writer as a candidate teacher is interested to know how to minimizing anxiety of students in learning English under the title “Minimizing Anxiety of Students in Learning English.”
CHAPTER II DISCUSSION
A. Definition of Anxiety These are several definitions of anxiety according to Scientifics: Spielberger in Abderrezzag’s Dissertation (2010:5) defined anxiety as the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the automatic nervous system. Besides that, Mussen et al (1974) defined Anxiety is not a pathological condition is itself but a necessary and normal physiological and mental preparation for danger. Anxiety is necessary for the survival of the individual under certain circumstances. Failure to apprehend danger and to prepare for it may have disastrous results. Another definition from Atkinson (1971) anxiety is defined as a psychological construct that is described as a state of apprehension, a vague fear that is only indirectly associated with an object. According to McIntyre in journal of Lucas et al (2011:97) anxiety is the worry and negative emotional reaction aroused when learning a second language. And Gardner defined anxiety as a subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the automatic nervous system. Young defined foreign language anxiety as “worry and negative emotional reaction aroused when learning or using a second language” (Ling Lee, 2013:167)
Different with definitions above, Bailey’s study (Brown, 2006: 162) of competitiveness and anxiety in foreign language, facilitative anxiety was one of the keys to success. She found in herself analysis, however that while competitiveness sometimes hindered her progress; at the other times it motivated her to study harder. She explained the positive effects of competitiveness by mean of the construct of facilitative anxiety. Based on the definitions above, the writer concludes that anxiety is worried feeling, nervousness of someone and gives negative impact to her performance. For some students, anxiety has positive impact. With anxiety, they are motivated to study harder than usual. B. Causes of Students’ Anxiety Many factors that causes of anxiety, researches of Horwitz and Cope as quoted Tallon (2013:2) have shown that there are a number of ways that learning a foreign language can cause anxiety for the language learner. The causes can be broken down into three main sources: learner 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 group membership with peers, and beliefs about language learning. Student beliefs about language learning can also be associated with anxiety. Students can have unrealistic expectations as to how a person should perform in a foreign language classroom; when those expectations are not met it can lead to negative feelings about one’s intelligence and abilities. Young (Tallon, 2013: 3) listed the following role-related beliefs which have been shown to evoke feelings of anxiety: it is necessary for the teacher to be intimidating at times; the instructor is supposed to correct
every single mistake made by the students; group or partner work is not appropriate because it can get out of control; the teacher should do most of the talking; and the instructor’s role is that of a drill sergeant. As far as teacher factors, a judgmental teaching attitude (Samimy in Tallon’s Journal, 2013: 4) and a harsh manner of teaching (Aida in Tallon’s Journal, 2013: 4) are linked to student fear in the classroom. Palacios (Tallon, 2013: 4) 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 (Tallon, 2013: 5) 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 (Tallon, 2013: 5) 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 in Tallon’s jornal (2013: 6) 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.
Those being negatively evaluated by either the teacher or peers is often associated with anxiety. Palacios (Tallon, 2013: 6) found the 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). C. Minimizing Students’ Anxiety Many ways to minimizing students’ anxiety, the following below are several ways to help them overcome it as quoted by Scientifics: 1. Project work Short-term projects were used due to the following benefits of project work in foreign language settings cited in the literature: a) students are more personally involved, so they usually have increased motivation (Lee, 2002), b) they do not feel that they are constantly assessed, and c) it is easier for them to focus on communication, rather than on accuracy, and are less concerned with language errors and the consequences of “imagined failure” (MacIntyre, Noels, and Clement, 1997:269). An additional advantage of project work is that students have an active role and responsibilities in the implementation of project work, which can boost their confidence and reduce the effect of perceptions of low ability in the target language.
2. Establishing a learning community and a supportive classroom atmosphere Creating a learning community that provides the environment for “optimal motivation” (Alderman, 2004), and a “collaborative atmosphere” (Gregersen, 2003:30) can help reduce fear of errors. The following classroom interventions were made, drawing principally on suggestions for
creating a supportive learning classroom community (Brophy, 2004; Dornyei, 2001).
3. Teacher-students relations A set of classroom rules and norms was negotiated with the students. Making fun of a wrong answer was not accepted, and a norm of “mistake tolerance” was ratified. Errors were considered a natural part of learning a foreign language and students were encouraged to ask for help without running the risk of embarrassment (Dornyei, 2001). In addition, teaching practices communicated expectations of success for all students. For example, as far as grouping practices were concerned, groups were formed from mixed ability students, students were given equally academically challenging tasks, and the same questioning strategies were used for all students (Alderman, 2004), so that they realized that there was no differential treatment with respect to their language performance and outof-school support.
4. Providing indirect, rather than direct correction We avoided direct, on the spot correction in speaking activities, since it can undermine students’ confidence, and because it discourages learners who are anxious about “sounding silly” to experiment with new language (Lightbown and Spada, 1999). I also tried to foster the belief to anxious students that they should aim at continuing a speaking activity, despite making errors. For example, we provided scaffolding so that the students had an opportunity to continue speaking despite making a mistake. Scaffolding included cognitive modeling, in which I explained the steps necessary for task completion. Alternatively, prompts and questions were provided in order to foster the development of repair strategies in case of a breakdown in communication.
5. Accepting the need for self worth protection Behaviour that could be considered a threat to these students’ social image and a potential source of anxiety was avoided. For example, information about students’ test scores was kept private and was not announced to the whole classroom, while portfolios were used to evaluate their progress. These measures aimed at reducing preoccupation with fear of negative evaluation, which can lead to withdrawal from activities that “could increase their language skills” (Gregersen and Horwitz, 2002: 563).
6. Teacher immediacy Both verbal (use of humor, use of students’ first names) and nonverbal (eye contact, positive gestures) types of immediacy behavior were employed, since they can reduce anxiety and impact positively on motivation to learn (Christophel & Frymier, ).
7. Provision of praise Thompson in jornal of Keramida et al (2013: 42) states praising these students in front of their classmates for a minor accomplishment had a negative effect, since they considered it as an indication that the teacher had little confidence in their abilities. As a result, non-verbal praise (e.g. a positive head movement) was most often used, instead of direct verbal praise.
CHAPTER III CLOSING A. Conclusion Based on the presentation result of explanation above, the writer gives conclusions as follows: Teachers and students can play major roles in dealing with anxiety. 1. Teacher, they believe can make stress- free language learning environment in which students can learn the material confidently. Other techniques that teachers can employ to reduce their students’ anxiety level include running group work activities, removing the worry among students and increasing their learning motivation. 2. Students, they fear of making mistake, peer’s negative judgment, and lack of preparation. With interesting technique of teaching, students can help themselves lessen their anxiety in order to be more successful in their language learning. They should get enough preparation for each class session, be actively involved in classroom activities and enhance their self confidence.
B. Suggestion For teacher : removing fear of tests, establishing a friendly relationship with students, running pair and group work activities, increasing students’ motivation to learn the language, enhancing students’ self confidence. For students: being well prepared for class, attending all class sessions and having an active role in class, practicing lesson with their classmates.
REFERENCES
