A STUDY OF LANGUAGE ANXIETY ON THE 1
stYEAR
STUDENTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT IN UNIVERSITY OF
MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
THESIS
By:
ENCE ADINDA DIANASTA ALMAS
201210100311124
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
A STUDY OF LANGUAGE ANXIETY ON THE 1
stYEAR
STUDENTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT IN UNIVERSITY OF
MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve
Sarjana Degree in English Language Education
By:
ENCE ADINDA DIANASTA ALMAS
201210100311124
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
This thesis is written by Ence Adinda Dianasta Almas and was approved on August 09, 2016
This thesis was defended in front of the examiners of the Faculty of Teacher Trainning and Education of University of Muhammadiyah Malang and accepted
as one of the requirements to achieve Sarjana Degree in English Language Educationon August 09, 2016
Approved by
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education
University of Muhammadiyah Malang
Examiners:
1. Dr. Sri Hartiningsih, M.M 2. Drs. Jarum, M.Ed
Mottos
“Doubts kill more dreams than failure ever will”
“One’s value does not decrease based on other’s inability to see one’s worth”
DEDICATIONS
Statement of Work’s Originality
The undersigned:
Name : Ence Adinda Dianasta Almas NIM : 201210100311124
Depatment : English Language Education
Faculty : Faculty of Teacher Training and Education
I hereby declare that in this thesis there is no any thesis or paper that have been proposed to receive a bachelor degree, and there is no idea or notion written or published by another person, unless what has been written in this thesis and mentioned in the references.
E
Mottos
“Doubts kill more dreams than failure ever will”
“One’s value does not decrease based on other’s inability to see one’s worth”
DEDICATIONS
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my deepest gratitude and thanks to my first advisor, Rahmawati Khadijah Maro, S.Pd., M.PEd. and my second advisor, Teguh Hadi Saputro, S.Pd., M.A. for the supports, advices, patience and great guidance throughout the time I was researching and writing this thesis. I am also thankful to all lecturers at English Language Education Department who help me during the study.
Foremost, I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my mum, Meinita Wulandari and my dad, Ence Hasbi for the encouragement, motivation, affection and best wishes as sources of my inspiration to finish this study successfully.
I would like to give my special thanks to my brother, my second favourite guy, Ence Aditya for always by my side and support me through the ups and downs. I’m truly indebted to my sisters Mahsa Livia, Hesti Kartika, Hanan Amirah, Annisa Maharani, Istia Purwandari for the supports, advices, loves, and laughs during these 4 years.
I am extremely thankful to all the participants who provided me rich and detailed data for the study.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPROVAL... i
MOTTO AND DEDICATION ... iii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... iv
ABSTRACT ... v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS………...……….………vii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1.Background of the Study ... 1
1.2.Statement of the Problems ... 5
1.3.Purposes of the Study ... 5
1.4.Significance of the Study ... 6
1.5.Scope and Limitation ... 6
1.6.Definition of The Key Terms ... 7
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1.Psycholinguistics ... 8
2.2.Second Language Acquisition (SLA) ... 10
2.3.Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) ... 12
2.3.1.The Effects of FLA ... 17
2.3.2.The Factors Triggering and Lessening Students’ FLA ... 21
2.3.3.Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) ... 26
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1.Findings ... 39
4.1.1.The Language Anxiety Level of the 1st Year Students ... 39
4.1.2.The Factors Triggering Students’ FLA ... 44
4.1.2.1.Personal and Interpersonal Anxieties ... 47
4.1.2.3.Teachers’ Beliefs about Language Teaching ... 49
4.1.2.4.Teacher-Learner Interaction ... 49
4.1.2.5.Classroom Tasks ... 50
4.1.2.6.Language Testing ... 51
4.1.3.The Factors Lessening Students’ FLA ... 51
4.1.3.1.Personal and Interpersonal Anxieties ... 52
4.1.3.2.Students’ Beliefs about Language Learning ... 52
4.1.3.3.Teachers’ Beliefs about Language Teaching ... 53
4.1.3.4.Teacher-Learner Interaction ... 54
Appendix I FLCAS (Questionnaire sheets) Appendix II Interview Guide
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1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the writer presents background of the study, statement of the problems, purposes of the study, significance of the study, scope and limitation, and the definition of the key terms. All of them are explained as follows.
1.1 Background of the study
Learning English as a foreign language has become indispensable yet challenging task for most students. Current foreign language classroom settings which aim to prepare the ground for a real-world interaction with second language (L2) speakers and directly engage students in spontaneous communication in the L2 become a stressful task for most learners (Horwitz, 2000). Many students were reported to experience anxiety, frights, worries, shyness, and remain in silence during their foreign language class. SLA researchers recognize these affective variables as an influential factor to the foreign language learning which can impede students’ ability and academic achievement. Studies in this field are
considered important in language learning, therefore it draws more SLA researcher’s attention to the continuing investigation (see e.g.; Ortega, 2009;
2 (Spielberger as cited in Mahmoodzadeh, 2012). Anxiety happens mostly to those who lack of self-esteem, for example someone who is about to give speech in a community can be blank in a sudden, sweating, worried and even dreadful because he/she is worried about what people think about him/her. The types of anxiety are divided into; trait anxiety which refers to one’s continual tendency to be anxious in all kinds of situation, state anxiety is an anxiety that happened in a specific moment without much concern about how much anxious experiences occurred in a time, and situation-specific anxiety is a similar behavior pattern to be anxious in one single moment that occurs continuously (MacIntyre, 2007; Zhang, 2013). Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is then considered as a component of situation-specific anxiety (Zhang, 2013; MacIntyre, 2007; Batiha, Noor, and Mustaffa, 2014).
3 rather than to speak up spontaneously in front of their classmates and teacher who might be ready to watch every mistake that they may produce afterward. It implies that, the students are afraid of small things that will make them look “dumb” for instance; because of pronouncing word incorrectly. The students will start to think that they are not doing a good job on their speaking class and try to make themselves work harder. When the result does not match with the effort, will make the students get into deeper frustration with their foreign language class.
4
qualification still experience FLA? Regardless of the debates, the detrimental effect of FLA toward students’ performance cannot be denied.
A previous study done by Tanveer (2007) finds out that students blame a strict classroom environment as a significant cause of anxiety. Pribadi (2014) also reveals that 1st-year students of English Language Education Department in University of Muhammadiyah Malang experience trait anxiety and state anxiety. Most of them are reported to have an anxiety caused by lack of communication skill and fear of negative evaluation. It justifies the writer’s assumption that the first year students have a predisposition to be highly anxious in their class compared to other levels of university.
With regard to the issues above, the intricacy and controversy of FLA have been and will be the main concern of other SLA researchers. The writer also considers by doing a study in this field will be beneficial not only for future EFL students but also for researcher herself as a future English teacher to help her students to cope with FLA. Thus, the background study above is sufficient to justify why research on FLA is required. The writer is interested to take the problems to be analyzed under the tittle of “A Study of Language Anxiety on the 1st-year students of English Language Education Department in University of Muhammadiyah Malang”
1.2 Statement of the problems
Based on the background of the study above, the problems are formulated as follows:
5
2. What are the factors triggering language anxiety among the 1st-year students of English Language Education Department in University of Muhammadiyah Malang?
3. What are the factors lessening language anxiety among the 1st-year students of English Language Education Department in University of Muhammadiyah Malang?
1.3 Purposes of the study
Based on the background of the study above, purposes of the study are formulated as follows:
1. To investigate language anxiety level of the 1st-year students of English Language Education Department.
2. To explore the perception of the 1st-year students of English Language Education Department about factors that trigger language anxiety.
3. To explore the perception of the 1st-year students of English Language Education Department about factors that lessen language anxiety.
1.4 The significance of the study
6
language anxiety (FLA) hinder the1st year students’ ability in acquiring the second or foreign language.
In terms of practical application, this study is intended to both teachers and lecturers in general, and specifically to all English lecturers of University of Muhammadiyah Malang by providing information concerning with anxiety level of the 1st-year students of English Language Education Department in University of Muhammadiyah Malang and informing what possible factors that are triggering and reducing anxiety so teachers will be able to help their students cope with anxiety, allowing the 1st-year students of English Language Education Department in University of Muhammadiyah Malang and other students who learn a foreign language using this research findings to deal with their anxiety and enabling other SLA researchers to use the findings as a reference in conducting similar or further research.
1.5 Scope and limitation
7 1.6 Definition of the key terms
Avoiding misunderstanding of the key terms used in this study, it is necessary for the writer to define them as follows:
1. Second language acquisition (SLA) is a field of study which focuses on understanding the processes of learning another language after the L1 has been acquired, regardless of the fact that it is a second, third or fourth language (Gass and Selinker, 2008).
2. Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is a form of complex affective variables such as self-perception, beliefs, feelings and behavior that create negative cognition about one self competence and occurs merely in foreign language learning situation (Ortega, 2009; Gardner and MacIntyre, 1994; Kondo and Ying-Ling, 2004; Aida, 1994, Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope 1986).
3. First language (L1) refers to a language that a child learns from parents. Second language (L2) refers to additional languages that are being learned after the L1 (Ortega, 2008).
