STUDEN
TS’ ANXIETY TOWARDS TOEFL TEST :
THE CAUSED FACTORS AND THE EFFECTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Indri Limandra 112006077
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
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STUDEN
TS’ ANXIETY TOWARDS TOEFL TEST :
THE CAUSED FACTORS AND THE EFFECTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Indri Limandra 112006077
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
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Abstract
Students feeling anxious about TOEFL test is a common phenomenon. Test anxiety itself is a disorder which leads to a nervousness, fear, and worrying that can affect the way we feel or behave toward something (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/anxiety/). Test anxiety also leads human body to different physical and mental problems. Therefore, since it is a must for English Department students to take TOEFL test, this issue grabs the researcher’s
curiousity about what types of test anxiety symptoms the students’ have prior the profiency test, focusing on factors that lead them to anxiety, and the effects of it. Using qualitative research method, which included open-ended semi structured questionnaire and interview, the result shows they had experienced the test anxiety symptoms such as nervousness, digestive problem, rapid heartbeats, and still many others. It happened because of both external and internal factors. Fortunately, as an effect of test anxiety the students become more motivated to perform better in TOEFL test.
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Introduction
“TOEFL is like a PASSPORT for non-English speaker to go to the US”, this is what some foreign students said about what TOEFL means for them because they cannot continue their study in the USA without passing it. In fact, hundreds of people with different intentions take TOEFL test only to go to the United States of America (USA) because they know that it is one of the rules if they want to move there, but what exactly TOEFL means?
In general understanding, Test of English As Foreign Language (TOEFL) is one of the requirements for speakers of English as a foreign language who intended to study or to settle down in the USA. For educational purpose, TOEFL is used as a requirement to know the potential of a non-native applicant in the USA university or a college to measure their English proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing in standard American English.
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anxiety. Looking at this situation, individual may response differently on how they react to their anxiety towards the TOEFL test.
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in class activities, and even it gets worse when they must face the test. These are simple cases of anxiety in a second-language classroom. Macintyre and Gardner (1991) categorized the students’ anxieties, which include test anxiety among other types of anxiety in classroom such as learning anxiety, state anxiety, audience anxiety, etc.
Test anxiety can be associated with cognitive anxiety. Novita (2005) stated that cognitive anxiety is something of an upcoming event or an unpredicted situation that an individual concerns and which causes an anxiety. For example, a student may not be feeling well that makes him/her difficult to concentrate during the test, or perhaps the room is not in a good condition to support them while they are doing the test. This problem may cause anxiety because students feel that they cannot do the test well. She also explains that there are some certain symptoms because of anxiousness such as being not relaxed, scared, nervous, restless, and even afraid to lose control. In simple understanding, students know and experience it as a worry, diziness, stress, insomnia, nervousness, fear, etc.
The study in Alabama University shows that the symptoms of test anxiety are the same for almost all students who experience it. The following is a typical case of test anxiety:
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the test, and when they read the test, they feel that the questions do no longer make sense. This means they experience a mental block. Their mind refuses to cooperate and make them feel frustrated, upset, and they cannot relax. Amazingly, everything that they could not remember suddenly comes back to them after the test is over. Finally, the began to feel angry to themselves because they could not remember the materials well during the test.
(http://www.ctl.ua.edu/ctlstudyaids/studyskillsflyers/testpreparation/whatc ausestestanxiety.htm)
Students who experience test anxiety usually puts lots of pressure on themselves. They tend to have a high expectation to perform well in every test. They concern about how people think of them if they failed the test. This situation may lead them to an irrational thinking and self-doubt which makes them hard to think logically during the test.
The students’ anxiety can occur because of some factors. They are an internal or external factor, even in some cases, both factors can also take part.
Internal factors may appear because of students’ self perception in studying a
second language. A research in Alabama University (http://www.ctl.ua.edu/ctlstudyaids/studyskillsflyers/testpreparation/whatcauseste stanxiety.htm) introduced about mental component, which said that an anxiety can
be created by someone’s self concern about what is likely to happen. If a student believes that they will perform poorly in a test, then they will do so. Therefore, if a student believes in his/ her ability and has a positive expectation of how they will perform in a test, it will help them to reduce their anxiety. In addition,
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concept of ability”. Second language students usually can doubt their own skills
on a certain language subject or language skill. This phenomenon is very common among second language students. Students think that they are not good in certain skills such as reading, writing, speaking, or listening. This thought may create inconfidence while they are doing the test and lead them to an anxiety. Heider in Santrock (2003) said, another factor of a test anxiety may come from the social environment. Students’ may not have doubt on their English skills, but when they have heard or seen that the other students have failed on a subject or a test, they will experience an internal factor. Their confidence may be lost and they have start questioning themselves whether the subject or the test is too hard for them and whether they will be able to pass it. This feeling will make them feel unsafe and become aware of the threat which indirectly opens a chance for anxiety to come in their mind. At this situation, we can say that the student is experiencing both internal and external factor which is very possible to happen.
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“Achievement motivation is a power which pushes each individiual to reach their success in a competition with an exellence goal. The goal here means self achievement or task perfection”. Mc Clelland (1987) also stated that every individual with the needs of high achievement will like every challenging task they have been given and curious to know how far they can go to reach their achievement. As an addition, Clegg in Udju (2006) defined that a motivation can appear because there is a will or a need inside someone to reach their purpose. He also shared four aspects which are connected with a motivation:
A hope to perform better and get up from their failure to gain success.
A self desire to not repeating the same mistake in the future.
Learn from their failure and never give up.
A self encourage to study more.
So far it is not too exaggerating to say that the English Department students who take a TOEFL test may experience different fears that may occur because of some factors, and they may have different effects on each individual. Finding out what kind of anxious feelings the English Department students face, and how the anxiety has effect on them, and how they deal with it are the focus of this study.
The Study
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Based on the common phenomenon about student’s anxiety, this study will
discuss about students’ anxiety towards TOEFL test that happens among the English Department students at Satya Wacana Christian University. Then, this idea is extended by answering these questions: What kind of anxious feeling students’ have about TOEFL test? How does it affect them? And how do they deal with it?
To find out “What kinds of anxious feeling do students’s have?” There are several symptoms which can occur when a student experience a test anxiety such as being not relaxed, self-doubt, lost control, nervous, restless, worry, etc. Through this study, we want to know how far the students go with their test anxiety by finding out which reactions that are usually felt by the students before, during and after the TOEFL test. Those symptoms may appear differently or the same in each student.
The writer is also curious about “How does the anxiety affect them?” An anxiety can occur when a student creates his/her own perception inside their mind and believe that a worse thing will happen. This is a case of internal factor. On the other side, an external factor happens when a student is being socialized and heard bad news or issues about the TOEFL test, and then they will start wondering whether they are able to pass the test. When that proccess happened, without their realization they has doubted themselves and created anxiety inside their mind. This study will also discuss about these factors, and there is a possibility that a student may experience both factors at the same time.
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which blocks the students to perform better on a test. Each student has a different response towards their anxiety. Some will face their anxiety as a challeng and face it by studying more to pass the test, while the others are giving up to their anxiety and avoiding to study. Again, this study will try to answer this question too.
In brief, this study focuses on the students’ anxiety towards TOEFL test, factor creates that anxiety, and effect of test anxiety which experienced by the students.
Participants
This study will take the English Department students at Satya Wacana Christian University who are still taking TOEFL class and about to face TOEFL test as the participants. The reasons why the writer chose them as the participants is because it will be easier for the writer to reach them and to keep the validity of their statements in answering the questionsgiven by the researcher while their memories are still fresh, because they are experiencing the test anxiety at the time being. It is important to note that this study will only focus on the TOEFL class students, without any participation from the English teachers.
Method And Methodology
From the previous study about test anxiety, most researcher used
qualitative data methodology.
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(2000), qualitative research is an approach to gain a deeper understanding of a
person’s or a group’s experience which is not presented in a form of numbers. For the instruments on this study, the researcher used semi structured open-ended questionnaires and she also used an interview only when it is needed to clarify statements in the questionnaires. The researcher uses qualitative data collection because the evidences can be subjective and can vary. Besides, the answers are also considered valid because it depends on personal experiences.
Data Collection
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of their answers on the open-ended questionnaires they have been filled. The time and location of interview will be arranged flexibly following both interviewer or
interviewee’s free schedule, or they can use a cellphone as an instrument just in
case if both of them cannot see each other. In short, the questionnaires ask about test anxiety symptoms, factors, and effects.
Data Analysis
To analyze the data, the writer divides the discussion of the questionnaires into two parts, and it will be discussed qualitatively. The first part contains the discussion about the test anxiety symptoms and the caused factors. Then, the second part only discusses about part the effects of test anxiety.
Discussion
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would be, and how high they will achieve the score target . Moreover, they feel uncertain whether they will be able to reach their goal score. Such uncertainty which the students cannot control, is potential to cause test anxiety. Through a questionnaire, the researcher found some symptoms and factors contributing to TOEFL test anxiety, which will be discussed in the first part in this analysis. It is then followed by the discussion on the effects of test anxiety experienced by the students.
Symptoms of and factors contributing TOEFL to test anxiety
The data collected through questionnaires about the test anxiety shows that all participants experienced a test anxiety durings the TOEFL test. They experienced various symptoms. According to Coan & Raymond in Fauzi (2004), test anxiety symptoms may appear in different ways such as a stomach ache, upset, handscold, sweaty, headache, muscle tense and a rapid heartbeat, and still many others. On the questionnaire number 1 and 2 which is related with test anxiety symptoms, the students answered that they felt nervous and had experienced those kinds of test anxiety symptoms. Moreover, most participants confessed that they experienced around six anxiety symptoms from eight proposed questions about test anxiety symptoms.
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President of Anxiety Center (http://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-tips/nausea.shtml) wrote on one of his blog that “Stomach and digestive symptoms are very common symptoms of anxiety. They are caused by how stomach and digestive tract react when the body is under stress (Anxiety stresses
the body).” Another supportive statement comes from a celebrity stress coach and the Queen of Stress Relief, Kristen K.Brown who said on Rheanne Weaver’s
article entitled “Are Stress And Anxiety Causing Stomach Problems?” that
stomach issues is a common symptom of an anxiety.
(http://www.empowher.com/mental-health/content/are-stress-and-anxiety-causing-your-stomach-problems). It means that stress is common reaction experienced by students, triggered by the uncertainty and the high expected target.
Besides stomach ache, some students said their hands felt cold and their heart beat so fast during the test. Gary Wickman on his blog, explained how an anxiety or a stress may cause hands cold and rapid heartbeats. Stress can influence
human’s breathing patterns. Instantly, the person will get a hyperventilation (rapid breathing) which makes our body hard to absurb enough oxygen, and produce more adrenaline which increases the speed of our heartbeat. That is why we can feel cold in some parts of our body. (http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/15717/1/Cold-Hands-and-Feet.html).
Indeed, stress or fear may affect human’s metabolism.
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thirteen students experienced it. It shows that their test anxiety did not really influence their sleep time. The rest of the students explained that they get used to sleeping late, or even to stay awake overnight watching movies or any other thing on purpose, and it becomes their habit everynight. So that, no matter whether they have a test or not, they still sleep late at night. It explains why only a small number of students experienced insomnia. In the other words, insomnia is not only caused by stress, but also by people’s habitual and random activities.
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The next test anxiety symptom is forgetting the materials that the students have studied. Mc’ Donald in Kaplan (1991) mentioned that experiencing too
much anxiety in an academic competition can influence the students’ mindset and
decrease their memory. The result shows thirty five of fourty TOEFL students experienced it. They tended to forget the materials they have studied prior the test. No matter how hard they tried, they still could not remember it. What annoyed them was that all those memories suddenly came back right after the test was
over, but it was too late for them to check their answers. “Regret always comes late.” They could only accepted it. The two cases above shows that anxiety can minimize the work of brain.
Moreover, many students also often overanalyze the test questions. It gives them too many possibilities of a right answer and made them miss the simpler correct one. It lead them to make careless errors in answering the questions. For example, one of the students, CA, explained that he overanalyzed during the reading sections. When he tried to connect the question and the answer, sometimes he found so many possibilities of the correct answers. Some answers seemed to make sense to him. So, he overanalyzed, and could not think clearly, and ended up by choosing an incorrect answer.
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it too seriously. They only tried to enjoy the TOEFL class, the lecturing, and focus more on improving their English skills to pass the test. It was a good way for them to keep their emotional feeling in a stabil condition. Although test anxiety can also
influence the students’ emotional feelings, it seems they know how to manage that so that it is not become a big problem.
Those test anxiety symptoms above might appear because of two factors.
Mc’ Clelland in Hapsari (2005) divided two factors that may cause an anxiety. They are external and internal factors. An internal factor comes from individual self challenged (intellectual skill, self-doubt, self-abillity). While, an external factor comes from outside (social environment, competitive situation, goal achievement, etc). The next discussion is exploring more about what factors can cause test anxiety among the students.
Half of the TOEFL students stated that they have experienced an internal factor by doubting their own skill when they did the test eventhough they have studied well before. Hurlock (2003) said that anxiety may come because of an uncertainty of what people will face an uncomfortable feeling toward themselves. The students were uncertain about how hard the test would be. Besides that, they
“overquestioned” themselves whether the test was too hard for their level, or
whether they would be able to reach the score target, etc.
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questionnare, they wrote that they heard from their senior friends that the TOEFL test was horrible and it was really hard to pass the score. These rumours have influenced their minds. They thought that the test would be as hard as what their
senior told them. Then, they started to doubt themselves and felt anxious to face the TOEFL test.
Effects of anxiety to the participants
When people feel anxious with a situation or an object, they have two options to choose. They can go away to avoid it, or they can use it as a motivation and face it. Bahar in Hapsari (2005) mentioned that anxiety is needed because it makes the the person become aware of what makes them anxious, and it encourages them to reach their a self-improvement. Generally, we all know that in order to achieve something, we need not only a motivation, but also the four aspects that Clegg (2006) has shared before.
The first aspect is a hope to perform better and get up from their failure to gain success. Although the students felt scared toward the TOEFL test, they still did not lose their hope to perform as well as they could on the final test. The second aspect is a self desire to not repeating the same mistake in the future. Hearing bad rumours about TOEFL test from their seniors made the students aware to not fail on their test like their seniors did. No matter whatever it took, they struggled to success on their test. The next aspect is a self consistency.
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never gave up. The junior students learned from their seniors’ bad experienced, and tried to gain more informations. They also studied more, hoping that they would not fail on the final TOEFL test. The last one is a self encourage to perform better. Because of their worry toward TOEFL test, the students were finally motivated themselves to improve their English skill so that they could do the test well. In brief, it seems that their anxiety really helped them in facing the TOEFL test.
Basically, there are many definitions about what a motivation is. Purwanto (2007) defined that motivation is a reason to move, to lead, and to watch
someone’s attitude on the right track. So, ones will be pushed to do something until they reach their purpose or their achievement. Mc’ Clelland (1987) explained that a motivation is a stimulus that move a person to finish their challenges and work harder to achieve what they want. Santrock (2003) mentioned that a motivation is a will to reach a success.
The results on the questionnaire shows that almost all students in TOEFL class feel a positive effect because of their test anxiety. Most of them were afraid to skip the class, because they did not want to miss the materials. Not only that, they also studied more and tried to prepare their English skills well to face the test. Even, some of them took a special TOEFL test outside the class (in Language Training Center or other English courses), only to get prepared for the final TOEFL test.
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had the four aspects as what Clegg shared above. So, the researcher may conclude that a test anxiety gave the students positive effects.
Conclusion
For students of the English Department in Satya Wacana Christian University, it is a must to take a TOEFL test, but it can become a problem when they feel anxious toward it. This research has found that almost all students experienced test anxiety while they were preparing and facing TOEFL test. The anxieties appear in various mental and physical symptoms. The majority of symptoms that the students have experienced are nervousness, stomach problems, hands cold followed by rapid heartbeats, disability to think clearly in understanding the test questions, and overanalysis in finding the correlation between the questions and the correct answers. The other symptoms such as insomnia and emotional problems were experienced only by the minority students.
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the test. At this level, we can say that the students has experienced both external and internal factors of test anxiety.
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Acknowledgment
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References
Crosta ,P. (2009). What Is Anxiety?. Retrieved from
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/anxiety/
Christiany ,L. (2001). Hubungan Antara Kecemasan Terhadap Kompetisi Akademik Di Kelas Dengan Motivasi Berprestasi Pada Siswa Kelas 2 Di SMU Virgo Fedelis. Skripsi (tidak diterbitkan). Salatiga: Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
Hurlock. (2003). Psikologi Perkembangan: Suatu Pendekatan Sepanjang Rentang Kehidupan. Jakarta: Erlangga.
Osband. (2012). What Causes Test Anxiety?. Retrieved from
http://www.ctl.ua.edu/ctlstudyaids/studyskillsflyers/testpreparation/whatca usestestanxiety.htm
Hapsari, S. (2005). Hubungan Antara Harga Diri Dengan Motivasi Berprestasi Pada Remaja Di Dukuh Sidoharjo Salatiga. Skripsi (tidak diterbitkan). Salatiga: Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
Conway, J. (2007). Anxiety In Second Language Learning; Causes and Solutions. Michigan University.
Ninawati. (2002). Hubungan Motivasi Berprestasi Dengan Prestasi Kerja Karyawan. Phonesis-Volume 5 Nomor 8. Hal 75-90.
MacIntyre, P.D., & Gardner, R.C. (1991). Investigating Language Class Anxiety Using The Focussed Essay Technique. [Electronic version]. The Modern Language Journal, 75(3), 296-304.
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Novita ,D.J. (2005). Perbedaan Stress Kerja Berdasarkan Kepribadian Tipe A dan Tipe B Pada Supervisor Bagian Produksi PT. Daya Manunggal Salatiga. Skripsi (tidak diterbitkan). Salatiga: Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
Folk , J. (2012). Nausea and Stomach Symptoms, Stress. Retrieved from http://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-tips/nausea.shtml
Mc Clelland. (1987). Memacu Masyarakat Berprestasi. Terjemahan: Suyatno. Jakarta: Intermedia.
Puspitasari, E.N. (2007). Hubungan Antara Motivasi Berprestasi Dengan Kebermaknaan Hidup Pada Remaja. Skripsi (tidak diterbitkan). Salatiga: Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
Weaver, R. (2012). Are Stress and Anxiety Causing Your Stomach Problems?. Retrieved from
http://www.empowher.com/mental-health/content/are-stress-and-anxiety-causing-your-stomach-problems
Horwitz, E.K, Horwitz, M.B, & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety. [Electronic version]. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125-123.
Purwanto, F.A. (2007). Hubungan Self Efficacy Dengan Kecemasan Dalam Menghadapi Lingkungan Baru Pada Fakultas Mahasiswa Fakultas Psikologi UKSW Angkatan 2006/2007. Skripsi (tidak diterbitkan). Salatiga: Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
Wickman, G. (2013). Cold Hands and Feet. Retrieved from
http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/15717/1/Cold-Hands-and-Feet.html
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Appendix
Name/Student Number:
Phone Number:
Instruction:In order to do a study about “Test Anxiety” I need your cooperation
to fill this questionnaire. Please feel free to write down your answer and explanation on the space given on the paper. Your answer will not affected your grade on TOEFL class. Thank you.
Part A
1. Are you aware of being really nervous on a test, that you do not do your best and lose points even though you have studied and prepared well?
2. Does your stomach ever get tight, feel upset, hands cold, headache, muscle tense, rapid heartbeat before the test?
3. Do you have trouble sleeping the night before the test?
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5. During the test do you ever forget the material you have studied and learned, maybe only to remember it again after the test is over?
6. Do you “overanalyzed” questions, see too many possibilities, choose the complex answer, overlook, and miss the simpler correct one?
7. Do you make any careless errors on a test?
8. Do you find you are easily crying, feeling irritable, emotionally upset, or getting frustrated?
Part B
1. Do you doubt your own skills before the TOEFL test?
2. Do you get affected when you heard bad rumours from the other students about TOEFL test? Please explain.
Part C
1. After you have answered the questions part A and B, does test anxiety in part A and B makes you study more to perform better in TOEFL test?
