EXPLORATION OF EFL GRADUATE STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN IN-CLASS DISCUSSIONS, ACMC AND SCMC DISCUSSIONS

By Jasmine Lee

Introduction

Globalization Learning anxiety (Krashen, 1986) CMC –reduce learners’ anxiety

Purpose of the study

to investigate if EFL graduate students feel anxiety in CMC and face-to-face discussions

Causes of the anxiety

Literature Review (overview) Anxiety (1) definition: (2) Trait anxiety and state anxiety (3) Deblitative anxiety and facilitative anxiety (4) Foreign Language of anxiety

CMC (1) definition (2) advantages of CMC (3) Some doubts about CMC (4) CMC anxiety

The definition of anxiety

(Brown, 2007) 1. Spielberger: feeling of tension,

apprehension, nervousness and worry Scovel: feeling of uneasiness,

frustration, self-doubt, apprehension or worry

2.Trait anxiety and state anxiety 3. Deblitative anxiety and facilitative

anxiety

Foreign Language Anxiety

Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope (1986) Liu (2006): the anxiety in Chinese EFL

students at different proficiency levels. Lin (2005): the higher the students’

language anxiety, the more likely they were to receive low grades.

Peng (2011) : investigated English learning motivation and test-anxiety for regular and vocational high school students.

CMC

(Liu, 2006): synchronous or asynchronous Advantages of CMC (1) Beauvois (1995): learners’ positive

attitude and motivation (2) Sevingil and Bayyurt’s (2010):learning

facilitation (3) Gerbic (2005):increasing participation (4) (Liu, 2006), Tallon’s (2009) :anxiety

reduction

Some doubts about CMC

Abrams’ study (2003):no significantly difference in the quality

Loewen and Erlam (2006) :not differ significantly from each other in performance of two types of feedback (SCMC / classroom)

CMC anxiety

Meunier (1998): language and /or computer related

Brown, Fuller and Vician (2004): individual’s level of fear or apprehension associated with actual or anticipated use of information technology to communicate with others

Leen and Ramayah (2006): computer anxiety, oral and written communication apprehension

Research Questions

(1) Do the EFL graduate students experience foreign language anxiety in in-class discussions, ACMC discussions and SCMC discussions?

(2) What are the factors that cause EFL graduate students’ anxiety in in-class discussions, ACMC discussions and SCMC discussions?

Methodology

Participants: --- 8 students (1male and 7 females) --- at a private university in southern Taiwan --- in CMC course for Applied English majors

The CMC course -- in-class discussions -- 2 ACMC discussions -- 2 SCMC discussions

Data Collection

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale surveys of in in-class discussions, ACMC discussions and SCMC discussions

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)survey

-- a 5-point Likert scale, -- anxiety scale was 30 to 150; --the higher the number, the lower the level of

foreign language anxiety

Questionnaires

Results Research Question 1: Do the EFL

graduate students experience foreign language anxiety in in-class discussions, ACMC discussions and SCMC discussions?

A:  yesitems Class

discussions

ACMC SCMC

Mean scores

33 37 35

anxiety The highest high high

Results

Research Question2: What are the factors that cause EFL graduate students’ anxiety in in-class discussions, ACMC discussions and SCMC discussions?

Answer: in in-class discussions: homework preparation “When I did not finish reading the assigned paper before class, I

always felt uncomfortable and feared the teacher asking me questions.”

in SCMC discussions: computer anxiety “While doing SCMC discussions, I always typed too slowly and could not keep up with the coming messages. I felt nervous about that.”

in ACMC discussions: writing apprehension, computer anxiety and limited time.“I felt more anxiety when doing ACMC discussions because there was a time constraint and it took me more time to revise my writing.”

Discussion

Reasons for high anxiety in the three discussions

1. teacher’s teaching style 2. students’ personalities - lack of self-confident - careful learners

Reasons for high anxiety in SCMC 1. computer: slow typing 2. teacher presence 3. no experience with SCMC before

Conclusion

Limitations: small sample size Implication: make the learning context

less stressful future research: larger sample size,

explored learners’ anxiety in detail, effective strategies for those anxiety-provoking causes