RESEARCH PROPOSAL

TITLE: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE ANXIETY WITH STUDENTS’ LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY

AND THEIR PERFORMANCE IN SCHOOL BASED ORAL ASSESSMENT (SBOA).

OBJECTIVES:

1) To examine the relationship between second language anxiety and students’ level of

proficiency

2) To examine the relationship between second language anxiety and students’ performance in

School Based Oral Assessment (SBOA).

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

The research questions of this study are:

1) Is there any relationship between the students' levels of anxiety and their language

proficiency?

2) Is there any relationship between students’ levels of anxiety and their performance in SBOA?

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

1) High English Proficiency (HEP) students will have low levels of anxiety and Low English

Proficiency (LEP) students will have high levels of anxiety.

2) Students with low levels of anxiety will perform better in SBOA compared to students with

high levels of anxiety.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Language anxiety in ESL classrooms is not a new phenomenon due to its influence on second

language learning, performance and ultimate achievement. The ability to find the reasons for such

anxiety will help language educators to get useful information about students’ language anxiety

levels in speaking activities in general and during SBOA in particular. With the information gained, it

would help the teachers to come up with strategies and methods that can help the student to

overcome their anxiety problems and help the teachers in creating a less stressful learning

environment.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This case study plans to be conducted on 60 form four students in a suburban school in Batu

Pahat. It focuses students’ responses towards the questionnaire given. For this study, FLCAS (Foreign

Language Classroom Anxiety Scale) questionnaire which was developed by Horwitz Horwitz and

Cope (1986) will be used to collect the data. Students selected for this study will be divided into two

groups; the High English Proficiency (HEP) and the Low English Proficiency (LEP). The division will be

based on their PMR results. Students’ scores on SBOA also will be used for comparison purposes.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Anxiety in Language Learning

Experiencing language anxiety is normal among second language learners. It is normally

caused by personal factors which very much related to psychological theory that has much

influenced to the second language learning. Students who have high levels of language anxiety are

said to be unable to acquire the target language than those who have low levels of anxiety.

Anxiety in language learning is defined as “a subjective feeling of tension, apprehension,

nervousness and worry associated with arousal of an autonomic nervous system” (Horwitz, Horwitz

and Cape, 1986).

When ‘anxiety’s barrier’ occurs, process of acquiring a language is retorted. Learners tend to

feel uneasy when they are in language classes. Krashen (1985a, 1985b) asserted that “anxiety

inhibits the learner's ability to process incoming language and hinders the process of acquisition”.

An interaction is often found among anxiety, task difficulty, and ability, which interferes at the input,

processing, retrieval, and at the output level. If anxiety impairs cognitive function, students who are

anxious may learn less and also may not be able to demonstrate what they have learned. Therefore,

they may experience even more failure, which in turn increases their anxiety.

There are two different types of anxiety namely state anxiety and trait anxiety. According to

McCroskey (1982), state anxiety is the type of anxiety experienced by an individual due to the

situation or other external factors that trigger the person’s apprehension. On the other hand, trait

anxiety refers to the type of anxiety where it is part of the individual’s personality or attribute.

Anxiety in language learning is categorized as state anxiety as it is situational in nature. As stressed

by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cape (1986), anxiety in language learning is categorized as specific anxiety

reaction where the learners only experience anxiety in specific situation only.

From this definition of anxiety, we can see that anxiety is the negative feelings that an

individual experiences when she or has to perform a task. In the case of language learning, these

negative symptoms are experienced by the learners prior to learning a language. According to

scholars such as McIntyre and Gardner (1994) as well as Horwitz, Horwitz and Cape (1986), these

negative symptoms are found to impede the learning process. Krashen (1985) also emphasizes this

in his Monitor Model as the fifth hypothesis stresses on the importance of reducing the affective

filter of the learners to promote the acquisition of the language.

METHODOLOGY

PARTICIPANTS

This case study plans to be conducted on 60 form four students in a suburban school in Batu

Pahat. Students selected for this study will be divided into two groups; the High English Proficiency

(HEP) and the Low English Proficiency (LEP). They will be categorized based on their PMR results.

INSTRUMENTS

As this study is inspired from Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986), the FLCAS (questionnaire

(Refer to Appendix A) which was used by Horwitz Horwitz and Cope (1986) will be used in this study.

The questionnaire will have 2 parts; Part A and B. Part A is designed to obtain students’ background

and as it directly asks the students’ PMR English result. The data obtained from this section is meant

to categorize the students into HEP and LEP groups. The real FLCAS questions will be used in Part B.

Next, students’ scores from their SBOA also will be used to answer research questions

number 2; ‘Is there any relationship between students’ level of anxiety and their performance in

SBOA?’

DATA ANALYSIS

The data will be analyzed quantitatively. The scores obtained from FLCAS questionnaire and

students’ SBOA will be processed and analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science).

By using SPSS, it is hoped that it will provide the evidence whether there is a correlation between

levels of anxiety with language proficiency and the correlation between levels of anxiety with SBOA’s

scores.