I would like to begin by expressing my deep gratitude to Almighty Allah who has granted me sound health and strength throughout my research journey. I am also grateful to all our esteemed faculty members of BRAC University who have enabled me to write the paper from the very beginning to the end of my undergraduate journey. In addition, I would like to thank the teachers who gave their valuable opinions through the interview and the students who participated in the survey.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents and husband - without them none of this would really be possible. This study's emphasis on teaching techniques is followed by the teachers, and how they deal with the anxious students. A mixed method is applied here to arrange teachers' interviews and students' opinions regarding foreign language learning and to communicate with each other.
The findings and results reveal different personal and interpersonal motivations for language learning anxiety and how anxiety affects students' academic lives. In addition, some recommendations are given to establish a neutral learning environment at the end of the study.
Introduction
Background
English medium students use English for all academic purposes, but non-English medium students are given the opportunity to use English only in their English classes.
Anxiety
Types of anxiety
Factors behind foreign language anxiety
On the other hand, MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) argue that test anxiety is a general problem for students and is not related to foreign language anxiety. It develops a fear of the consequences of failure and destroys the artist's confidence. Students' beliefs about learning a foreign language influence the learning process and their ability to learn a new language.
Moreover, the author also mentioned Walsh and pointed out that the control of the classroom is usually limited to the teachers' language and ensures that the students acquire the target language. Most of the students are not sure enough about their self-efficacy and they feel lost during the language class. Aydın (2009) highlighted the correlation between 'foreign language learning anxiety' and 'test anxiety' among students.
The effects of test fear are 'speech fear', 'test anxiety', 'fear of failure' and 'negative attitudes' (p.129). Inadequate qualities of the candidates, unfamiliar content, strict behavior of the teachers regarding the answer script and a complicated and unusual test format reduce test performance and increase anxiety (Joy, 2013, p.3).
- Methodology
- The Purpose of the Study
- Research Design
- Research Questions
- Data collection process
- Participants of the Study
This research is based on an open-ended interview with the teacher to understand the in-depth perceptions of the interviewers. As a phenomenological research, this interview is intended to examine their real experiences, memories and opinions (Cresswell & Cresswell, 2018). What are the common factors associated with language anxiety that students and language teachers feel are responsible for?
In order to complete this research and obtain an explanation of my research questions, I have chosen two schools. I have previously talked to teachers and conducted their individual interviews about the reactions and feedback they receive from students during English class and how they teach English in the classroom. Kothari suggests that the researcher must ensure that the questions are clear, meaningful and flowing in order for the questionnaire to be effective and to elicit appropriate responses.
Furthermore, I surveyed the students using a brief questionnaire to identify the student's anxiety about learning English. I conducted this survey on different classes of the students of those two schools to know their interest in learning English language. I also tried to find the reasons behind the anxiety of students to learn English individually in rural areas.
The answers from the interviews and the survey are evaluated as the main sources to carry out this study. On the other hand, to make this research more fruitful, I studied some articles and online journals of well-known researchers that described these issues, and to prove the fruitfulness of this research, I used those information as secondary sources to study about anxiety. . Finally, to save the whole process, I have inspected the reliability of all the collected data and information that I have collected from multiple sources.
Although the target group of students has an average Bangla background and English is not the first language in Bangladesh, this study can be pushed as a foreign language context. Because they come from different classes and from grade six to grade ten, all participants are in a high school context. A short semi-structured interview was conducted with three secondary English teachers from the selected schools to explore how teachers would explain their students' English language learning anxiety.
Analysis of the teachers' responses
One of the teachers mentioned that the English speaking environment helps the students to speak. An English environment can increase the students' interest and encourage them to speak English. The lack of motivation was also highlighted by one of the teachers as a reason for the students' poor participation in the use of the English language.
He believes that the students are shy at first, but later they get into the habit of speaking English. After all, sixth graders also enjoy lessons in the English version more. Another teacher answered that he always tries to make the learning process interesting for the students.
This anxiety basically happens to students due to extreme nervousness and lack of confidence. Whenever he uses English in his class, most of the students become nervous and feel anxious. All students feel comfortable when they speak Albanian, but feel difficulties when they try to speak English.
One of the teachers answered that there are many effects on students due to oral anxiety. All three teachers agreed that in order to make students anxiety-free, different kinds of game tasks can be offered in the classroom, which are both entertaining and educational. All students must know that no one is allowed to laugh in time at other people's presentations.
According to one of the teachers, the NCTB took into account all the learning capabilities of the students when designing the textbook. According to him, that may not be enough for the students to practice and develop themselves. However, the choice of subject based on the class level and other tasks is good enough for the students.
Analysis of the students' response
One of the teachers said that the textbook is not a perfect material for learning English. I have given three options and one blank option so that they can also give their own opinion. In response, 45% students choose the option "if my classmate laughs at me", which is the highest amount of the result.
42 percent have the second highest result and they feel fear of becoming a failure in front of others. In the fifth question, I wanted to know, do they feel nervous while their teacher and other classmates speak better in English. 55% students said that their teacher helped them to correct and 43% of the students agreed that their teacher always gives effective feedback.
The next question was, are they afraid if they don't understand what their teacher is saying. 22% of students are not afraid and 13% of students said that they are sometimes afraid if they do not understand what their teacher is saying.
The survey (question 10) also shows that many of the students answered that they feel anxious because they do not get motivation. The majority of students claim that they feel anxious and nervous while the teacher is selecting them to answer or while answering the teacher's questions. Zhengs findings also support teachers' remaining opinion that anxiety about learning a second language is responsible for making students less confident.
Anxiety can cause the fear of speaking among some of the students or cause them to freeze. For example, students can join various supplemental pedagogies or any supportive group to reduce personal and interpersonal anxiety. Instructors should provide positive reinforcement to the students and help them develop more practical expectations.
Young suggests the instructors to be friendly, relaxed and patient with a good sense of humor to make the students more comfortable. To make an anxiety-free classroom, teachers should pair work, group work, play language games and monitor their activities to make the learning process more effective (p.431-433). The teachers confess that they also help their students to become an anxiety-free speaker.
Teachers try to be aware of anxious students and create an environment of acceptance, offering mutual support and mutual cooperation, which helps increase students' self-confidence. They offer different tasks, divide them into small groups and let them speak freely. To reduce anxiety, the relationship between teacher and student is also very important here.
This environment can reduce the impact of social differences between students and teachers and reduce student anxiety (Tanveer, 2007). Teachers also said that they correct students' mistakes and provide effective feedback so that they are clear about where they need to improve and how. The students also agreed that the teacher helps them with corrections and always provides effective feedback.
Conclusion
Recommendation
Language anxiety: its relation to other fears and to processing in native and second language *. ESL/EFL students in learning speaking skills and its influence on communication in educational science, Faculty of Education: unpublished. Helping students overcome the fear of speaking foreign languages in the English classroom: theoretical issues and practical recommendations.
Do you agree that anxiety in learning a second language is responsible for students being less confident?. Are you nervous while your teacher and other classmates speak English better than you? Do you feel worried because you never got motivation to speak in English from your teacher, family and friends.
