TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

ABBREVIATIONS 6

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT 7

ABSTRACT 8

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 11
1.1 Motivation for the study 11
1.2 Aims of the study 13
1.3 Overview of the chapters 14

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 16

2.1 Foreign language anxiety 16

2.1.1 The nature of anxiety and its characteristics 16

2.1.2 Anxiety in Foreign Language Learning 19

2.2 Types of anxiety 22

2.2.1 Trait, state and situation-specific anxiety 22
2.2.2 Facilitating and debilitating anxiety 24
2.3 FLCAS as a measurement instrument of foreign 26

Language anxiety

2.4 Variables as sources of Foreign Language Anxiety 27

2.4.1 Communication apprehension (CA) 27

2.4.2 Test anxiety 29

1
 2.4.3 Fear of negative evaluation 30

2.5 Speaking anxiety in the L2 classroom 31

2.5.1 Sources of speaking anxiety in the L2 classroom 32

2.5.1.1 Competitiveness 33

2.5.1.2 Low self- esteem 33

2.5.1.3 Shyness 34

2.5.1.4 Language errors 36

2.5.1.5 Instructor beliefs about language 38

Teaching and instructor-learner interaction
2.5.1.6 Class environment 39
2.5.1.7 Gender 41

2.6 Attitude of Italian students toward speaking English 41

as a foreign language

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 43

3.1 Planning the research 44
3.1.1 The ethical issue 45
3.2 Sampling 46
3.2.1 The students 47
3.2.2 The sampling strategies 48
3.3 Pilot study 49
3.4 Quantitative research: Questionnaires 51
3.4.1 Structure and features of the questionnaires 51
3.5 Qualitative research: Interviews 53
3.5.1 Structure and features of the interview 55

questions

3.6 Limitations of this research 56

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 57

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 4.1 Variables as sources of Foreign Language Anxiety 57
4.1.1 Communication apprehension 58
4.1.2 Test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation 64

4.2 Speaking anxiety in the L2 classroom 67

4.2.1 Competitiveness 67
4.2.2 Shyness and low self-esteem 69
4.2.3 Classroom environment 71
4.2.4 Language errors, error correction and the 73
interaction between the students and the
teacher
4.2.5 Gender 76
4.3 Pedagogical implications of EFL teaching 82

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND SOME RECCOMENDATIONS 85

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

REFERENCES 90

APPENDICES 103
Appendix 1 – School consent form 103
Appendix 2 – Parent consent form 104
Appendix 3a – Questionnaire in Italian 105
Appendix 3b – Questionnaire in English 110
Appendix 4 – Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope’s FLCAS Scale 115
Appendix 5a – Interview questions in Italian 116
Appendix 5b – Interview questions in English 117
Appendix 6 – Chart used for data analysis 118
Appendix 7 – Interview transcript 126

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TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 – The three-system anxiety model. 17
Source: Powell and Enright 1990, p 23.
Figure 2.2 – electric and chemical transmission of signals 18
between two neurons.
Source: The Science of mental Illness (2005).
Figure 2.3 – Inverted U-shape indicating the relation between 25
anxiety and performance.
Source: MacIntyre and Gardner 1995, p 92.
Figure 2.4 – The vicious cycle of low self-esteem and mental problems. 36
Source: Mind 2013.
Figure 4.1 – Percentage of students feeling relaxed or anxious when 59
speaking English during the lesson.
Figure 4.2 – percentage if students feeling relaxed or anxious 61
when not understanding the target language input.
Figure 4.3 – Percentage of students who would prefer skipping the 63
English lesson due to anxiety.
Figure 4.4 – Pivot chart of students feeling relaxed or anxious 65
in evaluative in class situations.
Figure 4.5 – Pivot chart of students feeling relaxed or anxious 68
if speaking to an English native speaker.
Figure 4.6 – Percentage of students who may feel relaxed or anxious 70
when speaking English in class.
Figure 4.7 – Percentage of students influenced by the peers’ judgment 72
while speaking in English.
Figure 4.8 - Percentage of students feeling relaxed or anxious of doing 74
language errors.
Figure 4.9 – Pivot chart of males and females feeling anxious 78
during the English lesson.
Figure 4.10 - Pivot chart of males and females feeling relaxed 80
during the English lesson.

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TABLE OF TABLES
Table 3.1 – Class organisation of students involved into this project 47
Table 4.1 – Statements included in Figure 4.9 77
Table 4.2 – Statements included in Figure 4.10 80

5
 ABBREVIATIONS

CA = Communication Anxiety

EFL = English Foreign Language

FLCAS = Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale

GAD = Generalised Anxiety Disorder

MAELT = MA English Language Teaching

NTU = Nottingham Trent University

OCD = Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

PTSD = Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

6
 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

(1) Copyright in the text of this dissertation rests with the Author. Copies (by

any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with

instructions given by the Author. This page must form part of any copies made.

Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such

instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author.

(2) The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described

in this dissertation is vested in Nottingham Trent University, subject to prior

agreement to the contrary, and may not be made available for use by third

parties without the written permission of the university, which will prescribe the

terms and conditions of any such agreement.

7
 ABSTRACT

Abundant research has been done to investigate if anxiety may be an affective

factor for foreign language students. However, little research has been done so

far to investigate if anxiety may influence Italian students in learning a foreign

language. For this reason, this dissertation aims to find a respond to such a

question, also identifying which possible factors may influence the foreign

language achievements of Italian students. Indeed, both the literature review

and the analysis chapter have been structured according to specific topics that

proved pivotal for such an attempt, i.e. communication anxiety, test anxiety, fear

of negative evaluation, competitiveness, shyness and low self-esteem, classroom

environment, language errors, error correction and the relation between the

students and the teacher, and gender.

Foreign language anxiety has been separated from the other possible forms of

anxieties and related to the affect that anxiety may cause on foreign language

learners. Indeed, over the years, foreign language anxiety has raised the interest

of many researchers who identified different types of anxiety. Trait anxiety

(related to learners’ personality characteristics), state anxiety (related to a

specific situation), and situation-specific anxiety (considered as a trait anxiety of

specific situations) have been differentiated by researchers. Additionally, a core

researcher such as Scovel (1978), differentiated facilitating anxiety, that seems to

motivate learners to face more difficult language tasks, from debilitating anxiety

which, on the other hand, seems to inhibit learners from improving their

8
language performance. Nevertheless, among the language skills, speaking has

been revealed to be the most frightening and anxiety-provoking (Ellis 1994;

Cheng, Horwitz and Schallert 1999; Brown 2000; Horwitz 2001; Hedge 2002;

Dӧrnyei 2007; Fergina 2010).

For this dissertation, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)

devised by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986), and still widely used in education

research, has been adapted in order to respond to the research questions

identified for this research study (See section 1.2). In fact, upon agreement with

the school and the students’ parents, a 27-item questionnaire, preceded by a

general open question was administered to 47 Italian students from the “Istituto

Comprensivo di Manzano”. The students differ in terms of age, level of English,

gender and ethnicity. However, for the present research, only the age and

gender factors were investigated. One-to-one interviews were later conducted

with some of the students, in order to cross compare the findings obtained.

The results surprisingly contrasted with the literature, since it appeared that the

majority of the students involved seemed not to be anxious or apprehensive in

relation to the topics investigated. However, it also emerged that a small but still

important number of students reported feeling anxious in relation to the foreign

language learning class.

In conclusion, considering the limitations of the present dissertation (See section

3.6), some further research into the effect of anxiety on Italian students in

relation to learning a foreign language has been suggested to investigate

whether other factors, such as age, teachers’ pedagogical style or the extension

9
to writing, listening and reading language skills, may contribute to limiting

students’ foreign language learning anxiety.

10
 CHAPTER 1

INRTODUCTION

1.1 Motivation of the study

Over the last thirty years, anxiety has considerably aroused the interest of

researchers and psychologists to become a challenging and evolving field of

research (Beck, Emery and Greenberg 1985; Powell and Enright 1990; Nutt, Bell,

Masterson and Short 2001; Nutt, Argyropoulos and Forshall 2001) that has been

widely explored in the light of various disorders, e.g. panic disorder, generalised

anxiety disorder (GAD), social phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Shafran, Brosan and Cooper 2013).

However, only since the 1970’s, has anxiety also been associated with foreign

and second classroom language learning, proving to be a great source of interest

for those researchers and linguists who later became some of the most relevant

names in the field of foreign language anxiety (Scovel 1978; Horwitz, Horwitz and

Cope 1986; MacIntyre and Gardner 1989, 1994; Cheng, Horwitz and Schallert

1999; Von Worde 2003; Fergina 2010; Horwitz 2010).

Consequently, abundant research into foreign language anxiety has been

conducted in relation to the core language skills of reading, writing, listening and

speaking. Students’ enhancement in speaking fluency is still considered as the

most challenging skill for both researchers and instructors, with the result that

getting anxious and nervous when speaking a foreign language in presence of

11
other people (e.g. peers and teacher) is a frequent scenario for students (Orbeta

and San Jose 2013).

A first point of motivation for this research was derived from the willingness to

understand the main causes of anxiety and discomfort I experienced during my

own learning path. Although it manifested itself in different manners and with

different intensity, anxiety appeared in most of the subjects studied, including

foreign languages. In addition to the feeling of anxiety, psychological and

physical factors were also experienced, for example the constant feeling of

inadequacy, low self-esteem, doubt of my capabilities, faster heart beating and

sweating. Indeed, these effects seem to be very common among students who

are subject to anxiety in a learning situation (Oh 1992). English classes were

revealed to be the most anxiety-provoking, also due to the teacher’s promotion

of pressure, discouragement and a constant and non-objective evaluation that

enhanced an unpleasant competitive relationship. Thus, it is possible to deduce

that the level of anxiety which students may experience in the classroom may be

dependent on the teacher’s pedagogies and beliefs with a potential impact on

the students’ learning beliefs and proficiency.

A second source of motivation came from the desire to give a contribution to the

field of foreign language learning anxiety and to demonstrate that a good

awareness of teachers’ pedagogy might enable them to identify, control and if

possible reduce foreign language anxiety among students during foreign

language classes.

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1.2 The aims and research questions of the study

Research findings showed that the affect of anxiety in the foreign language

classroom is likely to be due to a set of different variables, for instance students’

variables (personality and motivation), personal apprehension, the teacher’s

didactic methods and previous language knowledge (SubaGi 2010), low self-

esteem (Kazumata 1989), fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety (Toth

2008) as well as the tendency in language classrooms to promote a negative and

discouraging attitude toward communicative apprehension (Ferdous 2012).

Although abundant research has been conducted into the correlation between

foreign language learning and the effects of anxiety among students, very little

research studies have investigated whether foreign language Italian students

may be affected by anxiety. For this reason, the main aim of this dissertation is to

assess and clarify whether Italian students may or may not feel anxious during

English classes, with a specific focus on speaking performance. In relation to a

positive response to the just mentioned aim, this dissertation will set out to

determine under what conditions and criteria this affective response may occur.

In addition, it is hoped that this dissertation will give some contribution to the

research in the field of foreign language anxiety through the promotion of

teachers’ awareness in order to ameliorate the classroom environment and

encourage students’ positive attitude toward the process of foreign language

speaking output.

13
In the light of these aims, the present dissertation will investigate three different

classes of Italian middle school students to establish whether anxiety may or may

not affect their language skills during their English classes.

Through the adoption of mixed research methods (See chapter 3), the above

aims have been identified with the purpose of attempting to answer the

following research questions:

1) Do Italian students feel anxious during English speaking classes? If yes, to what

extent?

2) What factors may or may not contribute to make Italian students feel anxious

during English speaking classes?

1.3 Overview of the chapters

This dissertation consists of five chapters that are organised as follows:

In chapter two the existing literature on the topic of foreign language anxiety has

been reviewed. It is divided into two separate sections: in the first section a

general definition of anxiety disorder has been given and briefly depicted from

both medical and psychological perspectives. In the second section foreign

language anxiety during students’ oral performance has been discussed, with a

consideration of its main causes and effects on students and an overview of the

attitude of Italian students to speaking a foreign language.

In chapter three the methodology applied for this research has been explained,

providing separate sections for samples chosen, qualitative and quantitative

14
methods adopted and the assumption of the limitations faced throughout the

planning and data collection stages.

In chapter four the analysis and interpretation of the data collected is provided.

Like the literature review (Chapter 2), this chapter is divided according to specific

topics into two main sections: variables as sources of foreign language anxiety,

and speaking anxiety in the L2 classroom. For the former, communication

apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation have been

considered, whereas for the latter, competitiveness, low self-esteem, shyness,

classroom environment, error mistakes, error correction, interaction of students

with the teacher, and gender have been included, followed by the identification

of some possible pedagogical implications for EFL teaching.

In chapter five a summative conclusion of what has been considered and

analysed in this dissertation is provided, with some suggestions for further

research.

15
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Foreign language anxiety

In this chapter, some of the main topics related to foreign language anxiety are

discussed. Besides the assumption that anxiety may often negatively affect

students’ language speaking proficiency (Na 2007), the present dissertation will

support the idea that, although some existing literature could state that anxiety

overwhelms students during the foreign language classroom, foreign language

anxiety may be controlled and reduced, together with teachers’ awareness and

support.

2.1.1 The nature of anxiety and its characteristics

The term anxiety derives from the Latin anxius, indicating a sense of agitation

and stress (Beck, Emery Greenberg 1985). Defined as a “tense emotional state” it

is “often marked by such physical symptoms as tension, tremor, sweating,

palpitation and increased pulse rate”, anxiety is a medical and psychological

condition which seems to widely affect society (Powell and Enright 1990).

Anxiety may have different physical, psychological, behavioural and emotional

characteristics and responses that may vary according to each individual (Powell

and Enright 1990). A three-system model of anxiety (Figure 2.1) was created in

which anxiety is differentiated into physical symptoms (increase of heart beat,

16
dry mouth, sweating and muscular tension), psychological symptoms (fear,

shyness, embarrassment and limited memory recall) and behavioural symptoms

(avoidance, monosyllabic responses, lack of eye contact).

Figure 2.1 – The three-system anxiety model. Source: Powell and Enright 1990, p.23.

From a biological perspective, anxiety is generated thanks to a chemical process

of the brain in which sensory information is transmitted by electrical impulses

through neuron and synaptic junctions (Figure 2.2).

The above mentioned neuronal process is considered to be the incipit of the

learning process (Nutt, Argyropoulos and Forshall 2001).

17
 Figure 2.2 - The electric and chemical signals transmitted between two neurons.

Source: The Science of Mental Illness (2005).

Furthermore there is the interesting hypothesis that anxiety, and hence anxiety

disorders, might also derive from genetic factors (Nauert 1997). Some of the

hypothetical justification that would support this statement is probably related

to an increase in the brain activity of some regions which are involved in the

emotional process, for example the amygdala and the insula regions (Nauert

1997).

A further hypothesis has been formed regarding anxiety as a human evolutionary

process known as the fight-or-flight (or freeze process). First coined in 1929 by

the American psychologist Cannon, it was described as a neural and

psychological reaction by which the body undergoes a series of physical and

psychological changes (Cannon 1929; Beck, Emery and Greenberg 1985;

Milosevic and MacCabe 2015). Even so, this assumption should be carefully
18
considered for two main reasons. First, the reliability of this theory cannot be

scientifically proven since it is just an assumption made by researchers. Second,

as Shafran, Brosan and Cooper (2013) noted, this theory might not be applicable

to some situations in today’s modern life, since the fight or flight response would

be valid for situations requiring a physical response, which is not always the case

in today’s situations. For example, when revising for an exam, or responding to a

phone call, the element which is more involved seems to be the brain, rather

than the body and this may have some kind of psychological effect.

2.1.2 Anxiety in Foreign Language Learning

Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) were the first to separate foreign language

anxiety from other types of anxiety, considering it as a distinct phenomenon

related to the learning process.

Researchers have defined foreign language learning anxiety as specific-situation

anxiety that may recur constantly over a period of time in a language learning

context within the classroom and outside the classroom, but could also be

interpreted as the strongest negative factor of language achievement (McIntyre

and Gardner 1991; Young 1991; MacIntyre and Gardner 1993; MacIntyre and

Gardner 1994; Casado and Dereshiwsky 2001; Horwitz 2001; Woodrow 2006).

Similarly, Oh (1992) defines foreign language anxiety as a situation-specific

anxiety experienced in the language classroom where students may perceive

emotional reactions and a negative attitude and thoughts about their abilities

and capability, with the feeling of inadequacy and fear of failure.

19
A further definition was provided by Spielberger (1983), who defined foreign

language anxiety as “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension,

nervousness and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous

system”.

More in general, the language learning process is also likely to be affected by the

learners’ affective variables, for instance the learners’ personality characteristics

(Swain 1977; Scovel 1978). More in detail, by affecting variables is meant those

intrinsic variables related to self-beliefs, and extrinsic variables, which on the

contrary are related to the external sociocultural motivations (Chastain 1976;

Scovel 1978). Although this approach shows interesting aspects that teachers

should be aware of, it may be questionable that due to the differentiation of

students in terms of age, level, gender, social and cultural background and their

learning needs, it would not be always easy for teachers to identify students’

affecting variables and hence provide the required learning support. Additionally,

the above deduction has also been supported by some research that has shown

that affective variables are not independent of one another, but instead they

have a complex and interrelated relationship which impact on one another

(Zheng 2008).

More specifically related to the learning process and foreign language anxiety,

Williams and Andrade (2008) listed a set of variables and grouped them into

learners’ variables (e.g. age, gender, personality, culture and learning styles) and

situational variables (course organisation and level and teacher’s instructions).

20
However, further personality characteristics, such as introversion and

extroversion, for example, may also be associated with anxiety arousal

(MacInture and Charos 1996). Moreover, it has been proven that introvert

people seem to be more anxious than extroverts, since introverts are more likely

to prefer individual work and working with other people may be a cause of

anxiety (Brown, Robson and Rosenkjar 2001; Zheng 2008).

Interestingly, the phenomenon of anxiety is also likely to exist among students of

different language level, not necessarily only with beginner students but also

with advanced learners who may feel anxious when speaking in a foreign

language (Tanveer 2007).

According to Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986), language anxiety is likely to be

based on two main skills required for language learning tasks: listening and

speaking, while speaking is claimed to probably be the most anxiety-provoking

factor for those students who feel anxious during foreign language classes (Ellis

1994; Cheng, Horwitz and Schallert 1999; Brown 2000; Horwitz 2001; Hedge

2002; Dornyei 2007; Fergina 2010). A study conducted by Horwitz, Horwitz and

Cope (1986) with 225 students from the University of Texas aimed to identify

students who may feel anxious during foreign language classes. The results

showed that speaking in a foreign language, in relation to some variables (i.e.

understanding the language input, perceiving oneself as less competent and

being afraid to make mistakes), was reported as an anxiety-provoking factor for

students who scored high levels of anxiety. On the other hand, a diary study

conducted by Hilleson (1996) demonstrated how anxiety may relate to different

21
skill areas, i.e. listening and speaking, but also to reading and writing. Similarly to

Hilleson’s study, in recent years there has been a tendency to identify anxiety

and the relationship with other language proficiency factors trying to move from

speaking being the main anxiety-provoking factor, but also considering the skills

of listening, reading and writing (Horwitz 2001; Matsuda and Gobel 2004; Tallon

2008). It is apparent that no clear and precise findings have been obtained so far

and that further research would be required to better investigate language

learning anxiety (Scovel 1978).

2.2 Types of anxiety

This section will provide an introduction to the main types of anxiety that have

previously been identified in the literature. Firstly, it will consider trait, state and

situation-specific anxiety. Secondly, it will give an explanation of debilitating and

facilitating anxiety.

2.2.1 Trait, state and situation-specific anxiety

MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) listed three possible approaches to investigating

the field of anxiety which are as follows:

• trait,

• state

• and specific-situation anxiety

Trait anxiety is defined as a stable personality trait of individuals who may be

predisposed to feel anxious about many things or situations for a more extended

22
period of time, than other people may do (Spielberger 1972; Scovel 1978; Oxford

and Ehrman 1993; Ellis 1994; Arnold 1999; Nascente 2001; Woodrow 2006). In

relation to foreign language learning, especially in speaking situations, anxiety

ideally decreases over time, but it may become a lasting and permanent trait

that may affect an individual’s language learning and performance (MacIntyre

and Gardner 1993; Oxford 1999). However this interpretation of trait anxiety has

been criticised since it would be impossible not to relate it to any situation, since

some people may feel anxious in certain situations whereas others may not

(MacIntyre and Gardner 1991).

State anxiety is the second type of anxiety listed. It indicates the feeling of

apprehension that an individual may experience in a particular moment as a

response to a specific situation, for example the feeling of apprehension before

an exam (Spielberger 1983; MacIntyre and Gardner 2001; Ellis 1994; Arnold

1999). An interesting correlation between trait and state anxiety has been found.

Indeed, it has been demonstrated that the higher the level of trait anxiety is, the

higher the level of state anxiety becomes, thus indicating a certain interrelation

between the two (MacIntyre and Gardner1991). Nevertheless, this approach has

also been criticised since it is not possible for people to accredit their level of

anxiety in any type of situation. In other words, each situation may lead to a

different level of anxiety and apprehension (MacIntyre and Gardner1991).

Situation-specific anxiety, could be described as a trait anxiety that recurs over

time in specific situations (MacIntyre and Gardner 1991, Woodrow 1996;

Spielberger, Anton and Bedell 1976).

23
Zheng (2008) suggested that the three above-mentioned categories of anxiety

may be interpreted as a continuum in which trait anxiety is the predisposition to

feel anxious in a limited situation, state anxiety is the temporary feeling of

anxiety in relation to a specific situation and specific-situation anxiety is the

likelihood to become anxious in a specific situation in the middle of this process.

2.2.2 Facilitating and debilitating anxiety

It has been previously claimed in this dissertation that anxiety generally has a

negative connotation. However, this is not always the case, since anxiety may

also stimulate and motivate people to face difficult or challenging situations. In

relation to foreign language anxiety this section will provide an explanation for

so called facilitating and debilitating anxiety.

Facilitating anxiety, as the name itself suggests, is likely to improve and

encourage learners to face more challenging tasks and ‘trigger’ their level of

anxiety in reply to such challenges (Kleinmann 1977, Scovel 1978; Zheng 2008).

On the other hand, debilitating anxiety seems to be associated with poor

proficiency of learning and performance and this demotivates the learner when

facing the difficulty of a new task, for example, leading the learner to adopt

avoidance to doing the task (Kleinmann 1977; Scovel 1978; Tanveer 2007; Zheng

2008). Nevertheless, it is also claimed that facilitating and debilitating anxiety

seem to work simultaneously to motivate and warn learners (Scovel 1978 ;

Tanveer 2007), even though such a statement may be opposed since it may not

always be clear whether the student would feel motivated or debilitated when

24
facing challenging tasks. The resulting deduction would therefore appear

confusing and contradictory.

What is interesting is the explanation given for facilitating and debilitating

anxiety that have been depicted in an inverted U-shaped graph (Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3 - Inverted U-shaped graph indicating the relation between anxiety and

performance. Source: MacIntyre and Gardner 1995, p.92.

The parabola shows the importance attached to achieving a balanced amount of

anxiety in order to obtain a good performance. In fact, a small amount of arousal

would produce a minimum performance, whereas an excessive amount of

arousal may anyway negatively affect the performance. Therefore, a more

efficient language performance would be produced with a moderate and

balanced production of arousal (MacIntyre 1995; Wilson 2006).

25
2.3 FLCAS as a measurement instrument of foreign language anxiety

The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (see Appendix 4) is an

instrument which measures the extent to which anxiety may take place during

foreign language classes. It has been widely used by researchers (in its original

form, changed or adapted) and is still considered to be a reliable tool in the field

of research (Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope 1986; Aida 1994; RodrÍguez and Abreu

2003).

The rationale behind the development of such a scale was the lack of sufficient

reliable instruments to evaluate anxiety in a foreign language classroom context

or the failing results of existing studies. For this reason, the FLCAS was designed

and developed according to various student reports, to give teachers and

learners a standard instrument on which to rely (Horwitz 1986b).

The scale has a total of 33 question items related to a 5-point Likert scale, which

has responses ranging from ‘strongly agree’ (5), ‘agree’ (4), ‘neither agree nor

disagree (3), ‘disagree (2) and ‘strongly disagree’ (1) with a possible score

achievement included between 33 and 165. The higher the score is, the higher

the level of anxiety will be. The Likert scale, designed by Likert in 1932, is the

most widely used type of rating scale in the field of research (Cohen, Manion and

Morrison 2000) whose advantage is to provide a scale opinion to obtain

quantitative data, rather than just giving a dichotomous response (yes/no)

(McLeod 2008). However, one disadvantage may be that participants may

respond in certain ways in order to put themselves in a positive light. One

26
possible solution to reduce this effect would be to ensure anonymity to the

questionnaire respondents, thereby reducing social pressure (McLeod 2008).

2.4 Variables as sources of Foreign Language Anxiety

This section will introduce three potential causes of performance anxiety

according to Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986): 1) communication apprehension,

2) test anxiety, and 3) fear of negative evaluation. In addition to these three

variables, this section will also consider some further variables identified by

Young (1991) as causes of foreign language anxiety. These include: 1) personal

and interpersonal anxieties, 2) learner beliefs about language learning, 3)

instructor beliefs about language teaching, 4) instructor-learner interactions, and

5) classroom procedure and environment.

2.4.1 Communication anxiety

Communication anxiety has been defined as a debilitating two-dimensional

construct related to real or anticipated communicative situations within the

classroom and outside the classroom environment (McCroskey 1984; Foss,

Armeda and Reitzel 1988; Woodrow 2006) and is viewed as a possible predictor

of students’ oral achievements (Cheng, Horwitz and Schallert 1999; Woodrow

2006).

As a consequence, the debilitating inability to express clearly and without

difficulties leads communication apprehensive people to display avoiding

27
behaviour for any social or learning purposes (Aida 1994; Tudor 1996).

Furthermore, communication anxiety also involves the difficulty for students to

speak in groups (oral communication anxiety), in front of the class (stage fright)

or listen to a spoken message (receiver anxiety) (Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope

1986).

A study research revealed that the level of communication anxiety “may vary

among second language students” (Cheng, Horwitz and Schallert 1999: 421).

Indeed, according to the type of situation and to the learner’s characteristics,

communication apprehension may lead to reticence, unwillingness to

communicate and shyness. Contrastingly, a study on 150 college freshmen from

the University of Mindanao (Philippines) conducted by Orbeta and San Jose

(2013) revealed no apparent relationship between language learning anxiety and

oral performance.

In relation to foreign language learning, communication apprehension seems to

be a recurrent factor among foreign language students, which consequently

prevents them being more exposed to the target language (Lucas 1984; Horwitz

and Young 1986). In particular, students would anticipate their difficulty in

understanding others or being understood by others, leading them to keep silent

in the classroom and thereby establishing a vicious cycle causing apprehensive

people to remain apprehensive in communication situations (Daly 1991). A sense

of frustration may be perceived as a possible consequence and, in some cases,

this would also lead talkative people to become silent in the foreign language

classroom (Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope 1986).

28
In support of the above considerations, it has also been shown that if people are

apprehensive in communicating in their first language, the fear to speak English

as a foreign language would be likely to be intensified (Lucas 1984).

2.4.2 Test anxiety

Research has demonstrated and confirmed that a high level of cognitive test

anxiety leads to the decline of students’ quality in exam performance (Cassady

2004). According to Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986:127), test anxiety is the

“type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure”. Similarly, Sarason

(1984) defines test anxiety as the tendency to perceive a feeling of alarm about

inadequate performance in situations with an evaluation. The fear of not

performing well may be raised from the inability to process and produce

information properly with a wrong interpretation of content, especially for

foreign language performances, where evaluation is a constant element

(Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope 1986; Cassady 2004). A study conducted by Naveh-

Benjamin, McKeachie and Lin (1987) demonstrated that all students with a high

level of test anxiety produced lower quality performance than those non-anxious

students in evaluative situations. It has also been hypothesised that test anxiety

may take place due to a significant increase in tests in schools. Wren and Benson

(2004:227) stated that: “The testing of school-aged children in the United States

has continued to increase over the past 25 years”. Another possible cause of test

anxiety among students may be their past negative experiences as claimed by

Sarason (1984) and McKeachie (1985). As a consequence, students will develop

29
negative and unrealistic thoughts and demands during evaluative situations that

will inevitably influence their approach to future examinations.

Among all the skills that could be tested, speaking has been identified as the one

most likely to prove anxiety-provoking, thereby affecting students’ performance,

although foreign language anxiety research demonstrated that other language

skills, such as writing, may also be affected by evaluative situations. (Bloom

1980; Burgoon and Hale 1983b; Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope 1986; Daly, Vangelisti

and Witte 1988; Bannister 1992; Cheng, Horwitz and Schallert 1999).

In addition, students with test anxiety are likely to have difficulty in

concentrating in classroom tasks since their attention is focused on their fear of

failing the tasks (Aida 1994).

2.4.3 Fear of negative evaluation

Similarly to test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation has been recognised as the

fear of others. However, differently from test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation

may also be considered in a broader meaning, not only related to tests in class,

but also to any social situation which may lead to a negative evaluation from

others (Watson and Friend 1969; Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope 1986; Wilson 2006).

Moreover, the constant requirement for students to face language evaluation

may be a source for them to receive negative evaluation from their teachers or

even peers (Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope 1986).

30
Some manifestations of students’ fear of negative evaluation may be noticed by

teachers. For example, a student’s habit of passively sitting at the back of the

classroom, showing unwillingness to participate in classroom activities and thus

affecting their learning (Aida 1994). Moreover, students who are highly

concerned about others’ evaluation tend to avoid any possible situation that may

lead to any form of evaluation (Gregersen and Horwitz 2002).

Nevertheless, according to Aydin (2008) and Shabani (2012), few and insufficient

studies have been conducted to investigate the sources of foreign language

students’ fear of negative evaluation. Aydin’s study (2008) conducted on Turkish

students, revealed that there is a strong correlation between foreign language

learning and students’ fear of negative evaluation.

2.5 Speaking anxiety in the L2 classroom

In this section more focus will be given to speaking in relation to foreign

language anxiety, with a review of the existing literature.

Many researchers have claimed that foreign language students may perceive

speaking as a traumatic experience being the most frightening aspect of the

foreign language learning process (Beebe 1983; Lucas 1984; Horwitz, Horwitz

and Cope, 1986; Liu 1989; MacIntyre and Gardner 1989; Campbell and Ortiz

1991; Price 1991; Phillips 1992; Aida 1994). A research study conducted by

MacIntyre & Gardner (1991) among 39 students of French, attempted to record

what type of experience students felt in the foreign language class. The results

31
interestingly reported that 87% of the students stated that speaking was one of

the predominant causes of foreign language classroom anxiety. Furthermore,

although some students showed a major interest in improving their oral

proficiency in the target language this may be overwhelmed by their level of

anxiety about performing in the target language (Phillips 1991). Consequently,

students’ reaction to some foreign language tasks would produce avoiding

behaviour that may exclude them from speaking and participating in the L2

speaking classroom activities and, more generally, interacting with foreign

people from a different language and cultural background. It could be argued

that it should be the teacher’s responsibility to promote a non-anxious

evaluative environment.

It has been shown that Japanese culture, for example, seems to be the culture in

which speaking anxiety is more common due to a society in which emotions and

worries cannot be externalised because this is perceived as a sign of weakness

(Lucas 1984). As a matter of fact, Japanese students are more anxious and

frightened during English speaking classes (Lucas 1984).

2.5.1 Sources of speaking anxiety in the L2 classroom

There may be several possible sources of speaking anxiety in the L2 classroom. In

this section some of the considerable sources of foreign language speaking

anxiety will be considered.

32
2.5.1.1 Competitiveness

Competitiveness is considered to be a primary source of foreign language

speaking anxiety, due to a common tendency of students to compare their

language abilities with those of native speakers or even their peers (Bailey 1983;

Price 1991). A diary study conducted by Bailey (1983) and later reported by

Oxford (1999) on 11 students demonstrates that competitiveness may be a cause

of anxiety as students have the tendency to compare themselves to others or to

an idealised self-image they may have. A fellow study was conducted by Price

(1991) who demonstrated that learners compare themselves to others, students

believing their language abilities to be weaker compared to their peers in the

class who, as a response, might disdain them. Little research has been conducted

to investigate whether competitiveness among students themselves may be an

influencing factor in determining foreign language achievement.

2.5.1.2 Classroom environment

There are several aspects related to classroom environment and procedures as

possible causes of students’ foreign language anxiety.

According to Fraser (1998), the teacher’s management of the classroom, for

example, may be considered as a central factor for students and their learning

achievements. In fact, as stated by Huang, Eslami and Hu (2010) and

Wongvanakit (2013) students learn more if surrounded by a supportive and well-

organised classroom environment, with the support of both the teacher and

33
peers, who “spend considerable time together learning the language and

encounter similar language-learning challenges” Huang, Eslami and Hu

(2010:33).

The teacher’s learning expectations may be a further anxiety-provoking factor.

As Horwitz (2008) recommends, teachers could reduce learners’ anxiety by

making them aware of their discomfort, and by expecting reasonable and

achievable expectations in the foreign language learning class. Further aspects

related to classroom environment might be a new possible situation for

students, such as moving to a new school, or concern about physical appearance,

especially those students who are undergoing the puberty phase or who reach

puberty earlier or later than peers (Ormrod 2008).

In relation to specific classroom activities and tasks that may be perceived as a

cause of students’ apprehension and anxiety and which may create a negative

classroom environment, writing on the board standing in front of peers or

speaking in front of the class may be sources of anxiety and nervousness for

students (Young 1991; Palacios 1998).

2.5.1.3 Low self- esteem

As is the case with competitiveness, a low perception of self-esteem is also likely

to induce anxiety in foreign language learners. Coopersmith (1967), Brown

(1994) and Arnold (1999) support the idea that low self-esteem may be identified

by some warning signals, such as excessive fear, shyness, and inability to make

34
decisions, failure expectation and unwillingness to express opinions. Low self-

esteem is defined as “an attitude of approval or disapproval, and indicates the

extent to which an individual believes himself to be capable, significant,

successful, and worthy” (Coopersmith 1994:137). What is interesting is the fact

that low-self-esteem has not been considered to be an independent variable, but

it is more likely to be associated with other personality variables such as shyness

(Kazumata 1989). A study by Kazumata (1989) among 9th grade female students

demonstrated that shyness is likely to affect self-esteem in students. However,

the reliability of such results may not be appropriate to this study since it

focused only on female students, whereas the students involved in this research

are of mixed gender.

Low self-esteem may be interpreted as a possible main cause of students’ failure

at school and, more particularly, in foreign language achievements (Arnold

1999). A study by Gurney (1987) confirmed that students with low self-esteem

are incapacitated to reach their learning potential. Hembree (1988) claims that

those students who start the foreign language classroom with low self-esteem

are more likely to experience anxiety than those students who have high self-

esteem. Krashen (1981) states that:

[…] the more I think about self-esteem, the more impressed I am with its

impact. This I what causes anxiety in a lot of people […]

More precisely, he claims that the degree of anxiety that foreign language

students may experience is related to their degree of self-esteem.

35
As a result, students’ self-esteem may be negatively affected by a loss of efficacy

to express themselves with clarity and confidence, and the loss of social prestige,

having the belief they are not yet successful foreign language learners (Tudor

1996). Additionally, even though low self-esteem is not recognised as a mental

problem, it may lead to some forms of this, such as anxiety and depression.

Moreover, these factors may reinforce each other, creating a vicious cycle

(Figure 2.4):

Figure 2.4 - The vicious cycle of low self-esteem and mental problems. Source: Mind 2013

2.5.1.4 Shyness

Shyness and low self-esteem are personality traits that may have a negative

influence on students’ oral performances (Kazumata 1989).

More in detail, shyness is defined as a “state of discomfort or inhabitation in

interpersonal situations that interferes with pursuing one’s interpersonal or

36
professional goals” (Crozier 2000:2). It tends to be characterised by a sense of

fear and worry in presence of other people, and thus an interpersonal

comparison (Cheek & Melchoir 1990). Furthermore, shyness is likely to become

problematic when it leads to specific behavioural reactions, e.g. reluctance,

avoidance of social interaction, discomfort and a negative social approach (Honig

1987; Butt et al 2011).

In relation to language learning, shyness and low self-esteem are considered to

be potential causes of foreign language anxiety. In addition to this, shyness has

been claimed to have some genetic factors (Kagan et al 1991; Kagan et al 1999),

however it is arguable that shyness may also depend on environmental factors,

social anxiety, stage fright and embarrassment that may influence students’

second language proficiency (Buss 1980). A study by Bashosh et al. (2013) among

60 undergraduate EFL students, showed a relationship between shyness, foreign

language classroom anxiety and further factors such as gender and willingness to

communicate, which have beneficial implications for the teacher’s instructions

and syllabus design.

As a consequence of these sources, as suggested by Ellis (1994), if students

cannot express themselves and achieve a satisfactory level of performance in

front of their peers, they may lose their face in the target language classroom

and therefore it may become a problem for them to express their ideas in front

of others.

37
2.5.1.5 Language errors

What students perceive their own learning abilities, if erroneously or

unrealistically interpreted, this may be a cause of or a contributing factor to

foreign language speaking anxiety (Young 1991; Tallon 2008). “Second or foreign

language students may hold strong beliefs about the nature of the language

under study, its difficulty, the process of its acquisition, the success of certain

learning strategies, the existence of aptitude, their own expectations about

achievement and teaching methodologies” (Bernat & Gvozdenko, 2005).

Moreover, William and Burden (1997:98) claimed that “learners’ perceptions and

interpretations ... have been found to have the greatest influence on

achievement”.

A study conducted by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) showed that students

perceived different beliefs about the correctness of their language output. The

results of the study revealed that 15% of participants reported being afraid of

language teacher correction for every mistake in addition to their fear of not

understanding the language input and the feeling of incompetence compared to

peers. However, in disagreement with such results, 65% of the participants

stated that they were “not worried about making mistakes in the language class”

(1986:130). This contrasting result may lead to the deduction that students are

not anxious about making mistakes due to the teacher’s instructions or positive

predisposition regarding perception of the students’ abilities.

Furthermore, teacher overcorrection of mistakes has been shown to have a

negative influence on students’ language proficiency, leading them to experience

anxiety, especially in speaking tasks (Young 1991). Nonetheless, according to

38
Brown (2001) and Hedge (2002), some error correction is necessary, although

“the issue for the students, then, is not necessarily error correction but the

manner of error correction-when, how often, and, most importantly, how errors

are corrected” (Young 1991:429).

2.5.1.6 Instructor beliefs about language teaching and Instructor-learner

interaction

Teachers’ beliefs are believed to positively or negatively influenced by students’

language proficiency (Baiyinna, 2011; Nhapulo 2013). According to William and

Burden (1997:48-49) teachers’ instructions and pedagogies in the classroom may

be influenced by their beliefs and “influence their actions in the classroom”. For

this reason, it is highly important for teachers to identify their teaching beliefs to

best achieve students’ participation and willingness to study the foreign

language (Williams and Burden 1997).

There are several factors associated with teachers’ foreign language teaching

pedagogies. For example, the teacher’s cultural background that may differ from

that of the students and thus influence the students’ motivation and willingness

to study the foreign language (Brislin & Tomoko 1994; Nhapulo 2013).

A further factor to consider about the teacher’s beliefs in foreign language

teaching, which could also be extended to a broader concept of teaching, is how

they perceive their position in relation to their students. This consideration is

also related to the type of interaction there might be between teachers and

students (Ohata 2005). Some teachers, indeed, perceive themselves as an

39
authority figure and corrector, who does most of the talking in the class, rather

than being a facilitator. Moreover, teachers often have the tendency to

intimidate students to elicit them to study more, but as a result, it often happens

that students feel frightened by teachers’ authority and thus anxious in relation

to the subject taught (Young 1991). As a consequence, teachers’ pedagogical

beliefs often do not reflect students’ needs (Ohata 2005). Additionally, Palacios

(1998) identified some features of teachers whose attitude seems to be the

cause of students’ anxiety: absence of teachers’ support, favouritism, unfriendly

personalities, and expectations teachers may have of students’. More

specifically, Young (1991) states that especially in speaking situations such

features are more likely to make students feel anxious.

Instructor-learner interaction, in fact, is a further cause of language anxiety

(Young 1991, Fergina 2010). Some studies revealed that teachers should avoid

demotivating students or focusing only on their errors (Young 1992). As

previously anticipated in the section on error correction (see section 2.1.5.5), in

order to avoid or reduce students’ level of anxiety, teachers should be careful

about “the manner of error correction” (Young 1991). Additionally, the relation

between the teacher and the students may be compromised if the the teacher’s

instruction method and the students’ learning styles are not likely to be

compatible, thus becoming a source of anxiety for students (Oxford 1999).

40
2.5.1.7 Gender

From previous studies the hypothesis has been proposed that gender may be

considered as a contributing source of anxiety in the foreign language classroom

(Spielberger 1983; Campbell & Shaw 1994 in Campbell 1999; Krohne et al. 2000).

In a study analysing state anxiety based on certain variables, Spielberger

(1983:19) reported that “females are more emotionally stable than males in their

reactions to highly stressful or relaxing circumstances”. A medical study by

Krohne et al. (2000) which compared students according to certain differences,

such as culture and gender, reported that a consistent disparity is identified

between men and women in their cognitive response to aversive situations. In

fact, men were more likely than women to display avoidance behaviour, whereas

women were more cautious in such situations than men. In relation to speaking

anxiety, Campbell (1999) reported that anxiety in women students raised by 1%,

whereas anxiety in men reached nearly 13%. Contrastingly, Aida’s research

(1994) showed no consistent gender differences regarding gender and anxiety,

and concluded that these appeared to be independent variables.

As a result, gender-related classroom anxiety research has produced mixed and

confusing results (Matsuda and Gobel 2004).

2.6 Attitude of Italian students toward speaking English as a foreign language

Although a consistent amount of research has been conducted into foreign

language learning aspects, such as anxiety, this has largely focussed on Western

countries such as Spain, England, France and Germany, whereas there seems to
41
be a lack of research in non-Western countries such as Japan and the Arabic-

speaking countries (Aida 1994). Despite this consideration, it should be noted

that little or no research has been conducted so far into the effect of speaking

anxiety in the L2 classroom among Italian students 1.

However, a general study into English as a foreign language in Italian schools was

conducted by Pulcini (1997). In her research, she interestingly showed how the

study of the English language had spread in Italy over the years and how Italians

are considered to be poor in learning a foreign language, but there is a gap in the

research regarding how anxiety affects Italian students in the foreign language

classroom.

Indeed, despite the increasing study of English in Italian school curricula, there is

no evidence whether students feel anxious during foreign language classes,

especially when speaking in the target language. If this does occur, it is unclear to

what extent and which factors may contribute to their feelings of anxiety in the

foreign language classroom. This research is an attempt to find the answers to

these questions and make a small but useful contribution to the research in the

field of anxiety and foreign language learning.

1 This is valid only for research papers, whereas several Master’s studies have been conducted.

42
 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The aim of this chapter is to provide a rationale of the methodology adopted for

this dissertation. The explanation of the main steps reached is provided as

follows: planning stage (see section 3.1), sampling (see section 3.2), pilot study

(see section 3.3), questionnaires (see section 3.4) and interviews (see section

3.5). Some limitations of this research have also been taken into consideration at

the end of this chapter (see section 3.6).

A mixed method approach was adopted for this research study, in which both

quantitative and qualitative methods were used for the data collection. For the

quantitative data collection, questionnaires were first given to participants (for

more details see section 3.4).

In terms of interviews, semi-structured interviews were later conducted to a

selected and restricted number of two students per class (one male and one

female), for a total number of six participants (for more details see section 3.5).

Interviews were chosen to support and compare the results from the

questionnaires and the open question.

43
3.1 Planning the research

Some aspects of the methodology of this dissertation, for instance the method or

methods adopted and the sampling, were first considered at the beginning of

May 2015. Since anxiety was the main topic of this research, I started thinking of

possible participants who might be involved in this project. I firstly planned to

conduct a piece of active research, which is the collection of data directly in an

institution or school (Burns 1999; Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2000). The study

would have comprised the participation of two groups of young and adult

students from two different Italian schools, in order to investigate and discover

how the factor of age may have contributed to students’ anxiety in speaking

performance. However, even if I could have found two potential schools who

would have allowed me to conduct my data collection, due to the limited

availability of time I could have spent in Italy, it was necessary to reconsider the

participants and the institutions to be involved. The choice opted for was cluster

sampling, that is the selection of specific schools where the students could be

tested, thus making random sampling easier (Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2000;

Dӧrnyei 2007). In addition, Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000) suggest that

cluster sampling is more likely to be used for small group research. As a result of

this, I reduced the school choice to just one of the two schools, choosing the

young adults students from the Italian middle school “Istituto Comprensivo di

Manzano” 2.

2 The Istituto Comprensivo di Manzano, situated in the centre of town, is the main middle school

in which every year a hundred students enrol.

44
By previous arrangement, the meeting with the students and teachers occurred

on Thursday 30th May 2015 following which it was agreed to conduct the

research among three classes of students of different age and level of English.

The possibility to analyse students from three different classes, age and level

enabled the prediction of some possible variables on which to base my data

collection and subsequent analysis, such as age, gender, students’ characteristics

and class environment.

3.1.1 Research ethics

Social research involves people’s social lives and, consequently, it also involves

some ethical considerations (Dӧrnyei 2007). Miles and Huberman (1994:288)

state that “any qualitative researcher who is not asleep ponders moral and

ethical questions”. This means that any researcher worthy of that title should be

aware of the important moral and ethical aspects of research. However, it should

be specified that these concerns are more extended to qualitative research, since

it involves more people’s privacy (Punch 2005).

Indeed, research methods are considered to be an “intrusion” into participants’

lives and institutions themselves (Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2000; Dӧrnyei

2007).

As explained by Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000) ethical issues may concern

some sensitive aspect such as the amount of shared information with

45
participants, data collection methods, ownership of the data and sensitive

information.

In relation to this research, in order to justify the use of both questionnaires and

interviews with future participants, it was necessary to obtain an active consent

form to obtain the co-operation and participation of the students and the school

itself. As illustrated by Dӧrnyei (2007), an active consent form refers to the

process of giving someone permission to conduct a research study by signing a

consent form.

A cover letter first introduced the aims and the intentions of this research,

whereas a school letter was later prepared to obtain permission to enter the

school and involve students for the data collection (Appendix 1). Similarly, a

parental consent form (Appendix 2) was prepared to seek their permission to

involve their children in this research since all the participants were under the

age of consent to voluntarily make the decision to participate. Parents were also

informed that students had the right to withdraw from completing the

questionnaire at any time or not complete any parts of it they considered

inappropriate. It was also guaranteed that the participants’ personal information,

such as their names, would remain anonymous.

3.2 Sampling

Research quality may depend on several factors, such as the choice of topic or

the approach and methodology adopted, as well as the choice of sampling

46
strategy to use and the choice of the population involved (Morrison 1993; Cohan,

Manion and Morrison 2000).

3.2.1 The students

Students of the first, second, and third year from the Italian middle school

“Istituto Comprensivo di Manzano” were chosen as samples for this research.

The students were mixed genders and aged between 10 and 14 3. The first year

included students aged between 11 and 12, the second year students between

12 and 13, whereas the third year comprised students between 13 and 14.

Classroom organisation, in terms of the number of students per class, was

previously organised by the school. Table 3.1 shows the class distribution more

clearly, indicating for each class the year attended, the number of females and

males and the total number of students.

Females Males TOT STUDENTS

Year 1A 10 8 14

Year 2A 10 8 14

Year 3A 8 10 18

Table 3.1 - The class organisation of the students involved into this project.

3 As required by Italian law and the Ministry of Education, students’ age should differ according to the

scholastic year attended. With regards to Italian middle schools, the education system is based on an 11-13
age frame.

47
The students also differed in terms of language ability, level of English and in

some cases ethnicity. However, these factors cannot be considered as students’

details are not permitted to be provided due issues of confidentiality.

The choice of this specific group of students as samples for this dissertation was

based on three factors. Firstly, as previously justified, due to the very short

availability of time to conduct both the questionnaires and the interviews, these

could not be extended to two different school as originally planned, but I chose

to limit my research to this specific number of students from the middle school.

The second reason is pedagogical, since I have always found it interesting and

fascinating how subjects, in this case English, along with the class environment,

such as class atmosphere and teacher, may influence either positively or

negatively adolescent students’ proficiency and motivation (also considering the

delicate period of adolescence). The third and final reason is the lack of literature

research on young adults’ foreign language learning anxiety. This is supported by

MacIntyre & Gardner (1991), who state that “foreign language anxiety is more

relevant to language learning among adults”. In fact, research on young students’

foreign language anxiety is not common, especially in the Italian context. Young

(1994), for example, conducted several studies on language anxiety which date

from 1945 to 1994, but just one addressed young students. Research into young

learners’ foreign language anxiety since 1994 has also been also lacking (Chan

and Wu 2004; Batista 2006; Haekyung 2006; Cheng 2007) and this research study

may contribute to this still uncovered field.

48
3.2.2 The sampling strategies

Since both questionnaires and interviews were chosen for this dissertation

research, different types of sampling strategies were used. For the

questionnaires stratified sampling was adopted, which consists of the division of

participants into homogenous groups, or ‘strata’ with similar characteristics

(Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2000¸ Dӧrnyei 2007).

For the interviews probability sampling was considered to be appropriate as by

this method all participants have the same probability of becoming a sample for

the interviews (Rasinger 2011), so that in each class two students of both

genders were randomly chosen before conducting the interviews.

Furthermore, as suggested by Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000), various

elements were evaluated for the sampling stage. The sample size was the first of

such elements and it generally depends on the purpose of the research, its style

and the characteristics of the participants involved in the data collection (Cohen,

Manion and Morrison 2000). However, it should be noted that since all the

participants were from the same context and population, the data analysis may

be identify very similar elements in common with each other, a phenomenon

called sampling error (Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2000).

3.3 Pilot study

A pilot study is commonly defined as a “small scale version or trial in preparation

for a major study” (Polit, Beck and Hungler 2001:467) that can be used to pre-

49
test or try out a research instrument (Baker 1994), even if a pilot study does not

guarantee the success of the study, it could increase the likelihood of this

eventuality.

A pilot study of the questionnaires was conducted with three volunteers from

the MA in English Language Teaching (MAELT) course two days before meeting

the Italian participants, to verify the clarity of instructions and questions in order

to ensure efficient data collection (Simon 2011). It was also useful to eliminate

any ambiguities or difficulties that participants may have encountered in terms

of language or terminology and to obtain feedback about the attractiveness,

layout and structure of the questionnaires as well as how long was needed to

complete it.

From the pilot study it emerged that the questionnaires had a good and

attractive layout and structure. However, some aspects of the instructions

needed to be reconsidered to improve their comprehensibility, while the

evaluation scale rating needed to be rearranged making 5 the highest rate and 1

the lowest. A further aspect which appeared from the pilot study was the choice

of some terminology, such as ‘apprehensive’, that may not have been clear

enough or may have been too difficult for the participants to understand. As a

result, by conducting the pilot study before meeting the participants, this

enabled me to reconsider, adjust and improve the quality of the questionnaires,

their structure, the nature of the questions used, and the level of the language,

all of which reassured me of the increased possibility of obtaining valid data.

50
3.4 Quantitative research: Questionnaires

Similarly to scientific research, in qualitative research people can show any

variation over time and across social contexts (Feuer, Shavelson and Towne

2002; Dӧrnyei 2007). Quantitative research presents some characteristic features

that makes it useful in research studies. One of the most interesting features is

that being a number-based system, questionnaires can provide precise data

(Dӧrnyei 2007). The rationale for having chosen questionnaires as a first research

method can be found in their strength of being systematic, rigorous, focused,

precise, and controlled (Wilson and McLean 1994, Cohen, Manion and Morrison

2000; Dӧrnyei 2007). Furthermore, the preparation process was relatively quick.

However, a downside of using questionnaires is that by providing generalised

statements, this inevitably represents an average of what participants believe,

without taking into consideration any possible differentiations among them. This

gap may be bridged by implementing follow-up interviews (Dӧrnyei 2007).

3.4.1 Structure and features of the questionnaires

The questionnaires were designed both in English and Italian, but only the Italian

version was given to participants to avoid any misunderstanding of the questions

(Appendix 3a and 3b). The questionnaires were adapted from the Foreign

Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) model devised by Horwitz, Horwitz

and Cope (1986) in a study on 225 students from the University of Texas which

aimed to establish students who were more anxious during foreign language

class (Appendix 4). A second model by Nascente (2001) was also consulted,
51
however, it was less influential than the FLCAS model since it seemed to be more

general and not specific enough for the topic investigated in this dissertation.

The structure of the questionnaires is composed of two sections. The former

poses an open question with the aim of introducing the participants to the topic

and asking them to give an honest personal comment. In addition, the open

question was used to compare what participants answered and what they

indicated in the rating scale questions. The latter consists of 27 rating questions,

commonly used in research and which have the characteristics of providing for

each given question a rate of responses that the participants have to choose.

Furthermore, the questions were structured in relation to the relevant literature

and mainly focused on foreign language anxiety in oral performance since people

are likely to be anxious when required to perform their foreign language skills,

especially when speaking (Ay 2010). While for reading and writing skills there is

always the possibility of reformulating the language input or output, for listening

and speaking there is just one chance to process the input and output, which

may cause a high level of anxiety, generally termed communication anxiety

(MacIntyre & Gardner 1991; Young 1991; Ay 2010).

A further aspect to consider was the sequencing of the questions. In order to

conduct a relevant investigation into foreign language speaking anxiety and to

respond to the dissertation research questions (See section 2.2), the questions

were designed according to specific topics as follows:

• communication apprehension,

• test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation,

52
 • competitiveness

• classroom environment

• language errors

• and the interaction between the teacher and the students.

In terms of the order of appearance of the questions, a mixed order was

provided, although a more common ordering would see a fixed sequence of

questions (Cohen, Manion and Morison 2000).

Finally, I considered the possibility of maximising the students’ motivation to

take part in this project by offering a small incentive. According to Hoinville and

Jowell (1978), the incentive should be modest and as a matter of fact I chose

ballpoint pens with the Nottingham Trent University (NTU) logo on them, these

being cheap and most appropriate to the task.

3.5 Qualitative research: Interviews

Differently from the straightforward method of quantitative research, qualitative

research “is difficult to define clearly” (Denzin and Lincoln 2005a:6). This is due

to the subjective nature of opinions, experiences and perceptions that

participants may express (Dӧrnyei 2007). Inevitably, qualitative data have an

interpretative nature which means the researcher’s interpretation of data will be

the ultimate product and is essentially the main “measurement device” in the

study (Miles and Huberman 1994:7).

53
A first rationale for choosing interviews as a research method for this

dissertation is that interviews (in a broader concept) can be found in people’s

communication routines, for example radio interviews or interviews on television

(Miller and Crabtree 1999; Dӧrnyei 2007). Secondly, it is a fundamental fact that

interviews enable researchers to conduct more in-depth investigation and

understanding, differently from questionnaires which do not offer any further

clarification (Dӧrnyei 2007). The third reason concerns the willingness to move

forward from the idea that participants may simply be considered as

manipulable individuals and the data generated as something external or not

related to them. On the contrary, I wanted to make them as involved as possible,

giving them the opportunity to discuss their interpretation of their feelings

towards language learning anxiety during English classes (Kvale 1996; Cohen,

Manion and Morrison 2000).

While planning the interview questions, multiple factors that could be difficult to

manage were taken into consideration, for example the social distance of the

participants or the ability to manage the interview. Negative management of the

situation, in fact, would negatively interfere with the success of the interviews

(Dӧrnyei 2007). A further aspect considered is the participant’s possible feeling

of comfort or discomfort of being interviewed that might bring different

responses thus changing the results of the data analysis (Dӧrnyei 2007).

According to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000) it is the responsibility of the

interviewer to establish an appropriate atmosphere to make the participant/s

feel at ease and not feel they are under examination. When dealing with children

and teenagers, for example, conducting interviews may be more problematic

54
since they may feel frightened by being interviewed, thereby limiting the

reliability of the data (Lewis 1992).

3.5.1 Structure and features of the interview questions

For this research study standardised open-ended interviews were chosen with

pre-planned word order and question structures and the same order of

appearance.

As with the questionnaires, the interview questions were also prepared

according to specific themes. Furthermore, since the students’ mother tongue

was Italian, it was considered more appropriate to conduct the interviews in

Italian (Appendix 5a) in order to avoid misunderstanding or difficulties for the

interviewees and thus benefit the data collection. An English version of the

interview questions was also prepared (Appendix 5b).

In terms of structure and level of difficulty of the questions, simple and clear

structures were prepared in order to facilitate the students’ interpretation, thus

enabling them to respond freely and give further information about their

personal experience in relation to the question (Cohen, Manion and Morrison

2000). This was also considered because since all the students were under the

age of consent they could not be kept in the interview room without another

person (a teacher) being present. Any such presence of another person or

teacher might influence the students’ responses and thus affect the data

collection.

55
Ethical aspects of the interviews are available in section 3.1.1.

3.6 Limitations of this research

Some limitations should be recognised and considered for this dissertation.

A first limitation was the size of the samples who participated in the

questionnaires and interviews. Due to limited time, the questionnaires and the

interviews were conducted within just one school day. Another day was not

available since the closure of the school was imminent 4. In the light of this, only

46 students had the possibility to participate in this project. Larger sampling and

the possibility of attending some in-class activity during the foreign language

lessons would have enabled a wider analysis of whether and to what extent

anxiety may affect Italian students during their foreign language classes.

However, an effective and efficient system was found with the “Istituto

Comprensivo di Manzano”, the students and their parents, enabling me to

conduct the research in the only day available 5.

One minor concern was the possible cost and expenses required (Cohan, Manion

and Morrison 2000). However, the only extra monetary costs involved in this

study were the flight ticket to Italy and the printing of all the questionnaires.

4 In Italy each region independently decides on which day to close schools for the summer,

Christmas and Easter holidays.

5 The meeting was organised for Thursday 30th of April 2015 from 8.00 am to 1.00 pm.

56
 CHAPTER 4

DATA ANALYSIS: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter the data results and discussion will be presented. The

interpretation of the data gathered is accompanied by graphs6 and tables as

illustrative tools for the discussion of the results, with a critical support of the

literature reviewed (See Chapter 2). Similarly to the literature review, the

interpretation of the data was conducted according to the central topics of

foreign language anxiety.

The main aim is to interpret the findings obtained from the questionnaires, the

open question and the interviews, which, together with the support of the

literature previously reviewed, would answer the research questions designed

for this dissertation (Chapter 1, section 1.2). Moreover, in each paragraph a

triangulation of the findings of the different data will be attempted to discover

whether Italian students may be anxious during their foreign language classes

and to what extent their speaking skills may be affected.

4.1 Variables as sources of Foreign Language Anxiety

This section will analyse the data obtained according to a broader consideration

of foreign language anxiety as indicated by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986).

6 Please note that the percentages in all the graphs used throughout this chapter have been

adjusted according to a round-off upwards in order to obtain clearer and more manageable data
for interpretation.

57
4.1.1 Communication anxiety (CA)

The following section will be divided into three paragraphs that will consider

three potential situations students may face during the English lesson:

• whether the students may feel anxious or relaxed when speaking in

English during the lesson (statements 1 and 15);

• whether they feel at ease or not when failing to understand the input in

the target language (statements 5 andn23);

• and if students would avoid the English lesson due to anxiety (statement

14).

In the first paragraph two statements were given: the former (statement 1), aims

to identify whether students feel relaxed at the idea of speaking during the

English lesson, whereas the latter (statement 15), investigates if students feel

nervous and apprehensive when speaking during the English lesson.

The results illustrated in Table 4.1 show that 92% of students seem to feel

relaxed before speaking in English during the lesson.

58
Table 4.1 – Percentage of students feeling relaxed or apprehensive when speaking in

English during the lesson.

As a balanced result that confirms the calmness of students, as 85% of them

disagree with the statement about feeling apprehensive before speaking during

the lesson in the target language. On the other hand, only 4% declared they felt

anxious, whereas 2% strongly disagree with the statement about feeling at ease.

A discrete 17% of the students reported they felt “neutral” towards the

statements proposed.

From a first interpretation, it is possible to deduce that the current students

seem to be an exception to what had been claimed in the literature. Indeed,

communication anxiety seems not to be as incisive and recurrent a variable as

was claimed by Woodorow (2006), but an affective factor only perceived by a

small number of students. However, these results were likely to change if

combined with the results of the open question and the interviews.

59
This tendency seems to be confirmed in the interviews with the students, who

responded that they felt completely relaxed before and during the English

lesson, stating that:

“The idea of speaking in English during the lesson does not frighten me, thanks to

my strong self-confidence”.

However, from the open questions it emerged that a relevant number of

students from the three classes involved (nearly half of the class) do feel anxious

when speaking English in class. The main cause seems to be the students’ fear of

making language mistakes, the teacher’s correction and their peers’ judgments

(See sections 4.2.4 and 4.1.2).

From this data analysis it follows that the majority of students do not feel

anxious when speaking in the target language, although in the literature it was

claimed that communication anxiety seems to be a recurrent variable among

foreign language students and a predictor of their oral achievements (Woodrow

2006), leading students to an avoiding behaviour (Aida 1994; Tudor 1996).

However, fewer than 10% of the students responded that they felt anxious and it

is important not to underestimate those students who actually feel anxious and

apprehensive when speaking in the target language.

The second paragraph concerns students’ affective reaction when not

understanding what the teacher is saying in the target language. As indicated by

Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986), any possible reaction originated from such

situation is known as receiver anxiety, the difficulty to understand an input in the

60
target language, which was defined as one of the characteristics of

communication apprehension.

For this section two very similar statements were proposed (statement 5 and

23). The aim was to investigate whether students get nervous if they do not

understand what the English teacher is saying in the target language.

Figure 4.2 – Percentage of students feeling relaxed or anxious when not understanding

the target language input.

As shown in Figure 4.2, 50% of the students disagree or strongly disagree with

the statements of feeling nervous if they do not understand the teacher speaking

in the target language, indicating that half of them feel relaxed while the teacher

is speaking in the target language. These findings strongly contrast with the study

by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986), who declared that more than 50% of the

students involved in their research seemed to be frightened and anxious when

61
not understanding the message in the target language, this being a limitative

factor for communication achievement.

These contrasting data results are also supported by the findings obtained from

the open question. In fact, a student from the first year reported:

“I do not feel anxious during the English lesson. I am very relaxed because I can

understand everything and I like the subject of English. For these reasons, I can

speak good English without fear or anxiety”.

Similarly, a student from the third year stated:

“I do not feel anxious when I have to speak in English because I can easily

understand the language”.

As further support it emerged from the interviews that 4 out of 6 students feel

relaxed during the English lesson and when they have to speak in class in the

target language or volunteer answers to questions.

On the other hand, 28 % of the students neither agree nor disagree with the

statements, whereas 23% of the students strongly agree or agree that they feel

nervous if they do not understand the teacher’s input in the target language.

These findings would suggest that a moderate number of students seem to feel

anxious if they do not understand the input in the target language, thus

confirming that foreign language anxiety seems to be a predictor of their

communicative achievement as suggested by Woodrow (2006). Moreover, this

was also confirmed by the experience reported by a second year student who

stated that she was not anxious during the foreign language class, but her level

62
of fear and anxiety increased if she could not understand what the teacher was

saying in the target language and this also affected her speaking performance.

The third and final paragraph investigated the willingness of students to skip the

class due to their level of anxiety felt before the lesson. Statement 14 asked if

students would prefer to skip the lesson due to their level of anxiety.

Figure 4.3 shows that a significant 74% of students declared they strongly

disagreed (53%) or disagreed (21%) with the notion of preferring to avoid the

English lesson due to the high level of anxiety felt beforehand. By contrast, 13%

of students stated they would skip the lesson and only 6% strongly agreed. This

would concur with Aida (1994), who claimed that students’ withdrawal from

communication situations leads to restricted exposure to the target language.

Figure 4.3 – Percentage of students who would prefer to skip the English lesson due to

anxiety.

63
Additionally, from the responses to the open question, there is an interesting

case of a first year student who reported that sometimes he/she was so worried

to answer or take part in spoken class activities that he/she would prefer to

avoid the activity or even skip the lesson.

Interestingly, some suggestions for teachers to reduce and control students’

communication apprehension were proposed by students. More than one

student interviewed suggested that to reduce their anxiety, the teacher should

speak slowly. More particularly, one of them stated that:

“The teacher should talk slowly to help me understand what she is saying in

English and not make me feel anxious because I do not understand”. As a

consequence, this would ensure students’ self-confidence to understand the

input in the target language, thereby improving their language skills.

4.1.2 Test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation

In this section two different situations related to test anxiety were analysed: the

former (statement 13), investigated whether the students felt anxious although

they may be prepared for the foreign language test, whereas the latter

(statement 26) considered the possibility of taking a test without being prepared

for it. Table 4.4 shows the percentage of students who responded to statements

13 and 26. With regards to statement 13, more than half the students (57%)

seem to strongly disagree or disagree with the possibility of feeling anxious

about an English test although they might be prepared for it.

64
Table 4.4 – Pivot chart of students feeling relaxed or anxious in evaluative situations.

On the other hand, 21% of the students remained of a neutral opinion, whereas

22% of them declared they agree or strongly agree with the statement,

indicating that anxiety is a recurrent variable during foreign language tests,

thereby enhancing the possibility those students will be frightened of possible

failure or inadequate performance (Sarason 1984). In confirmation of this, from

the interviews a third year student reported feeling less worried and anxious if

tested on something she was prepared for, such as homework. As a consequence

she reported that:

“If the teacher asks me something for which I may not have prepared the answer,

I feel anxious and frightened of the idea of failing”.

65
With regards to statement 26, 38% of the students reported not getting nervous

if they were unable to respond to a teacher’s question, whereas it should not be

underestimated that 34% of them confirmed feeling nervous. This suggests that

nearly half of the students (38%) may not have had a previous negative

evaluative experience in the target language, as contrastingly claimed by

scholars. Birjandi and Alemi (2010:47) state that students may experience test

anxiety due to their “worrying about past performance in exams”, which may

negatively influence or affect students’ performances (Sarason 1984; McKeachie

1985).

The high number of students who seem to be anxious if not prepared for the

English test, highlights a considerable level of fear of negative evaluation.

Additionally, the interviews revealed that the teacher often tests students,

confirming that the constant need for evaluation of students’ progress may be

anxiety-provoking (Gregersen and Horwitz 2002). These results seem to be in

agreement with Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) and Cassady (2004) who

explain how test anxiety may lead to a lower quality of students’ performance,

whereas non-anxious students achieve better performance. Another aspect that

teachers may consider is the modality though which they test students. Some of

the students interviewed revealed that there is a big difference for them

between being tested from their seat or standing next to the teacher’s desk in

front of the others. The majority of them would prefer to be tested from their

seat, thus reducing their apprehension. However, one of them appeared not to

feel anxious if tested from his seat or next to the teacher’s desk.

66
4.2 Speaking anxiety in the L2 classroom

This section will analyse the data obtained with the main focus on speaking as

one of the more frightening and affected aspects of the foreign language

learning process (MacIntyre & Gardner 1989; Campbell and Ortiz 1991; Price

1991, Aida 1994).

4.2.1 Competitiveness

It was previously mentioned in the literature review (section 2.2.1.2) that

competitiveness is the common tendency of students to compare their foreign

language abilities to that of others, such as teachers, peers or foreign language

native speakers (Bailey 1983; Price 1991). According to this definition the

following statements were given to students: “I would not get nervous if I had to

speak English with an English native speaker” (statement 11) and “I would feel at

ease if I had to speak with an English native speaker” (statement 25), for which

students generated interesting but controversial results. Indeed, Figure 4.5

shows that 56% of the students would not be anxious to speak with an English

native speaker, whereas 30% of them confirmed they would possibly feel

anxious. Contrastingly, only 28% of the students would feel relaxed if speaking to

an English native speaker and 35% of them would disagree (26%) or strongly

disagree (19%) that they feel relaxed.

67
Figure 4.5 – Pivot chart of students feeling relaxed or anxious if speaking to an English

native speaker.

The apparent anxiety of students in speaking with a foreign language native

speaker is also supported by the results obtained from the interviews (none of

the students mentioned this possible situation in the responses to the open

question). It emerged that four out of six students reported that speaking with a

foreign language native speaker “would make me feel not at ease, compared to

speaking in English with the teacher” and “the possibility of speaking with an

English native speaker would increase my anxiety, also because I would be scared

not to understand”.

On the other hand, two of them reported they would feel totally relaxed if

speaking to an English native speaker. This finding may be justified and

supported by the fact that both these two students have strong self-confidence

(See section 4.2.2) and that they both attend extra English courses. This also

68
suggests that students do make comparisons between their language abilities

and that of others, although such interpretation would partly disagree with that

claimed in the literature. Arnold (1999:66), for example, stated that among

further aspects that may reflect language anxiety there is an “excessive

competitiveness”. However, this would only be the case of those students who

may feel anxious about speaking to the teacher, who may have a negative

influence on them, rather than when speaking with an English native speaker.

4.2.2 Shyness and low self-esteem

In this section shyness and low self-esteem were grouped together since it has

been claimed they are interrelated. In fact, low self-esteem is considered to be

related to other variables of personality, such as shyness (Kazumata 1989).

The interpretation of this data analysis confirms the relation between shyness

and foreign language anxiety, differently from what was revealed in the study of

Bashosh et al. (2013) which, on the contrary, showed no relationship between

them.

As shown in Table 4.6, 51% of the students disagree with the statement that they

might feel nervous when speaking in English with the risk of forgetting what they

have to say.

69
Table 4.6 – Percentage of students who may feel anxious or relaxed when speaking

English in class.

As a consequence, this would not lead students to enhance their low self-esteem

and thus increase their level of anxiety while speaking in the target language

(Krashen 1981; Hembree 1988). Moreover, the findings suggest that the students

do not seem to be introvert, since they do not appear shy, which is in contrast to

Brown, Robson and Rosensky 2001 and Zehng 2008, who claimed that shy

people with low self-esteem appeared to be more introvert and thus more

anxious than people who are not shy.

Additionally, during the interviews, three students form the first, second and

third years reported feeling intimidated if asked to speak, whether during the

English lesson or other subjects. One of them specified that although she would

be influenced to speak both during the English class and other subject lessons,

she reported that she would be more anxious to speak during the lessons of

70
other subjects. Consequently, as indicated by Kagan et al (1999), it is possible to

deduce that shyness may be a peculiar characteristic of students’ personality,

which may also have genetic roots.

4.2.3 Classroom environment

In this section some of the variables that are considered to be related to foreign

language speaking anxiety and the classroom environment are considered

(Ormrod 2008).

From the analysis of the data collected, it resulted that students are more

concerned about speaking in front of their peers. Figure 4.7 shows that 32% of

the students strongly agree or agree with feeling frightened when speaking in

front of their peers, whereas from Table 8, 54% of students disagree or strongly

disagree with the possibility that peers would laugh at them while they are

speaking.

71
 24. I am frightened of the idea that my classmates would laugh of me
when I speak English
45% 43%

40%
35%
30%
25%
20% 17%
15% 15%
15%
11%
10%
5%
0%
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree-Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree
Table 4.7 – Percentage of students who may be influenced by the peers’ judgment while

speaking in the target language.

These results clearly contrast with the idea that speaking in front of peers or the

judgment of peers would be a source of anxiety in the foreign language

classroom. This also implies that students have respect for each other and that

the teacher might have very good classroom management skills which, as

suggested by Horwitz (2008), would see the promotion of a supportive

environment in which students can be supported by both the teacher and the

peers “not only in the form of friendship but also in ways that facilitate learning”

(Horwitz 2008:33).

72
4.2.4 Language errors, error correction and the interaction between students

and the teacher

According to Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986), students have different beliefs

and interpretations about the correctness of their output in the target language

which may include different aspects, such as concern about the correctness of

their utterance and the fear of making mistakes. However, some relevant

differences were considered as a point of reflection for the interpretation of the

results.

Table 4.8 shows the results obtained from the following statements: “I am

apprehensive to make mistakes while speaking English in class” (statement 3)

and “I am not apprehensive when I speak in English even if I notice I make some

errors” (statement 19). Results show that 36% of the students reported feeling

apprehensive of making any mistakes when speaking in English (statement 3),

whereas an equal number (32%) seem to both agree or disagree with the

statement. On the other hand 30% of the students confirmed they agree or

neither agree or disagree about not feeling apprehensive (statement 19),

whereas 33% were in disagreement with the statement, giving a total percentage

of 63% who do not feel apprehensive while speaking in the target language.

73
Table 4.8 – Percentage of tudents feeling relaxed or anxious in doing language errors.

These figures concur with the findings in Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope’s study

(1986:130) which showed that 65% of the participants who were involved in

their study seemed “not worry about making mistakes in the language class”.

From the interviews it emerged that one of the students was completely relaxed

about making mistakes while speaking English since he was not concerned about

the teacher’s correction in the sense that he finds error correction positive and

beneficial for improvement (for error correction see the final paragraph of this

section). From the open question none of the students indicated they felt

apprehensive about making mistakes while speaking in the foreign language

classroom.

Nevertheless, 65% (more than half of the students) confirmed they were

apprehensive about making mistakes. Also the results from the interviews and
74
the open question seem to support what was discovered from the

questionnaires. Indeed, two of the students interviewed confirmed feeling

anxious about making mistakes, especially when speaking, whereas five of the

total number of students reported feeling anxious about errors that were

identified as grammar, pronunciation or spelling mistakes. This concurs with

Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) who concluded that students were concerned

about language mistakes and their interpretation of language correctness. As a

consequence, students’ perceptions and interpretation of correctness may have

an influence on their achievement and a wrong interpretation may lead to

influencing their outcome in the target language (Williams and Burden 1997).

As indicated above, together with error mistakes, some of the students seemed

concerned about the teacher’s error correction. Surprisingly, most of them

interpreted the teacher’s correction as a positive aspect that is necessary and

beneficial for their language improvement and achievements (Brown, Robson

and Rosenkjar 2001; Hedge 2002), which concurs with Thompson (2005:16), who

states “when students accept and respond to feedback, they embrace their

learning more and remember the language better”.

Even if not directly reported by students, the teacher seemed not to overcorrect

them, thus avoiding a negative impact on students’ proficiency, as indicated by

Young (1991). In fact, most of the students reported not feeling apprehensive

when corrected by the teacher, who is seen as a very positive figure and highly

respected by the students. One of the interviewed students said that:

“I feel at ease if the teacher corrects me, since she is very capable and friendly”.

75
This shows that the concern for students is not the correction itself, but “…the

manner of error correction-when, how often, and, most importantly, how errors

are corrected” (Young 1991:429). For example, some of the students interviewed

confirmed that it would be better for them to be corrected after their utterance.

One in particular states that

“If the teacher corrects me at the end of what I have said, it would be positive to

improve”.

According to the students, this would avoid them forgetting what they have to

say and would avoid them feeling embarrassed if corrected in front of their

peers.

4.2.5 Gender

Since participation in the questionnaires and interviews was extended to mixed

gender classes, I considered it interesting for the findings of this dissertation to

evaluate if and to what extent gender differentiation in terms of foreign

language anxiety may exist. In fact, when analysing the various questionnaire

statements, I recorded the data according to the gender of each participant

(Appendix 6). In this way it was easier to estimate any possible gender

differentiation among the students. Furthermore, I identified how many males

and females gave a response to the questionnaire statements analysed so far in

this chapter. More precisely, I divided the statements which indicated that

students feel relaxed during the English lesson and those which indicated their

76
feeling of anxiety and apprehension (See Table 4.1 and Table 4.2). However, it

should be noted that the number of statements indicating students’ possible

anxiety (9) or calmness (3) is not balanced and thus the statements with negative

connotation may have more statistical significance than those with positive

connotation.

For each group of statements two summative bar charts were devised in Figure

4.9 to establish whether males or females are more or less anxious in the foreign

language classroom.

The statements with negative connotation are listed in Table 4.1 below. The

statements were used in the questionnaire given to the students and seek to

identify what would generate a sense of apprehension and anxiety during the

English lesson.

Questionnaire statements analysed which would indicate a sense of

apprehension and anxiety during the foreign laanguage class

03. I am apprehensive to make mistakes while speaking English in class.

05. I get nervous if I do not understand what the English teacher is saying in the
target language.

09. Sometimes I am nervous when I speak English in class and I forget what I have
to say.

11. I would not get nervous if I had to speak English with an English native speaker.

13. Even if I am well prepared for the English lesson, I feel anxious and nervous
when I have to speak.

14. Sometimes I feel so anxious that I would prefer to skip the English lesson.

23. If the teacher speeaks in English and I do not undrstand what he/she is saying, I
get nervous.

77
 24. I am frightened of the idea that my classmates would laugh of me when I speak
English.

26. I get nervous when the teacher asks me a question for which I have not
previously prepared the answer.
Table 4.1 – Statements included in Figure 4.9.

The data obtained from the responses to the above statements are grouped

together in Figure 4.9 (below). The findings interestingly show a difference of 9%

between males’ and females’ responses to the above statements. In fact, males

seemed to outnumber females with 58% of responses, whereas females

obtained 49%. More particularly, 40% of males preferred to indicate strongly

disagree rather than just disagree, chosen by 18% of them. On the other hand, a

balanced score was obtained by females who scored 25% for disagree and 24%

for strongly disagree.

Figure 4.9 - Percenntage of male and female students feeling anxious during the English

lesson.

78
However, a considerable number of males (24%) and a higher number of females (29%)

opted to agree or strongly agree with the statements, confirming their feeling of anxiety

during the foreign language classroom. This last result strongly disagrees with findings

by Speilberger (1983), Campbell and Shaw (1994, in Campbell 1999); Krohne et

al. (2000) who deduced that females generally react better than males in

stressful situations. Indeed, in this case males are more likely to be relaxed and

at ease during the English lesson and under hypothetical conditions of anxiety.

Females, on the contrary, seem to be more apprehensive than males.

Contrastingly, only two of the interviewed students (one male and one female),

reported feeling anxious and apprehensive during the English lesson, whereas

more consistent results were obtained from the responses to the open question.

In fact, 11 females and 8 males reported feeling anxious during the English

lesson, due to making possible mistakes, the teacher’s negative reaction and a

general feeling of anxiety, confirming the contrasting deduction that males are

more likely to be relaxed and at ease than females.

A further confirmation of such a deduction comes from the results down in

Figure 4.10. In Table 4.2 statements 1, 19, and 25 are included, indicating

possible situations in which students may feel relaxed and at ease during the

foreign language class.

79
 Statements 1, 19, and 25 indicating a feeling of relax and tranquillity of

students during the foreign language class

03. I am apprehensive to make mistakes while speaking English in class

19. I am not apprehensive when I speak English, even if I notice to make some

errors

25. I would feel at ease if I had to speak with an English native speaker

Table 4.2 – Statements included in Figure 4.10.

Figure 4.10 – Pivot chart of male and female students feeling relaxed during the English

lesson.

Once again, the number of males seems to outweigh the number of females in

choosing those statements which confirm their feeling of being relaxed and calm
80
during the English lesson. Although the percentage of agreement between males

and females could be interpreted with a small difference (51% for males and 45%

for females), in this case males also seem to outnumber females, contrasting to

findings by Speilberger (1983), Campbell and Shaw (1994, in Campbell 1999), and

Krohne et al. (2001) who proposed that females are generally more relaxed in

stressful environments and situations. In addition, 35% of females disagreed

(25%) or strongly disagreed (10%) with the statements, matching with the

findings previously outlined. However, 24% of males disagreed or strongly

disagreed with the statements of feeling relaxed during the foreign language

class. As a result, although females seem to outnumber males in feeling anxious

and apprehensive during the foreign language class, a relevant number of males

seem to agree with females.

As for the statements in Figure 4.10, the findings from the interviews and the

responses of the open question also seem to support these findings. Indeed, two

males out of three confirm feeling relaxed and not anxious during the English

lesson, thanks to their strong sef-confidence but also dependent on how the

teacher is seen in the class. On the other hand, only one of the males reported

feeling anxious, claiming that:

“I am more anxious and apprehensive in the English and French lessons, than in

other subjects”.

This indicates that foreign language classes, whether English or French, are more

likely to influence students and their proficiency. However, the interviews with

the females seem to contradict what they said in the questionnaires. In fact, two

81
of the three girls interviewed responded that they felt at ease during the English

lesson. This seems to be justified by their self-confidence and appreciation for

the subject that may positively influence their foreign language proficiency, even

if they admit feeling anxious during some in-class tasks, such as reading aloud or

responding to the teacher’s questions, but this motivates them to improve their

abilities (facilitating anxiety) (Scovel 1978; Tanveer 2007).

4.3 Pedagogical implications for EFL teaching

From the data analysis, it is possible to identify some interesting pedagogical

implications that might affect EFL teachers.

A first implication would involve the general feeling of anxiety and apprehension

that students may experience. For the majority of the students from the “Istituto

Comprensivo di Manzano” involved in the gathering of the data for this

dissertation, anxiety does not appear to be an affecting factor. However, some of

the total number of students still perceive and struggle with the “feeling of

tension and apprehension” experienced during the foreign language classroom

(MacIntyre 1994). In order to control and if possible reduce students’

apprehension, the teacher could assist them from both academic and personal

perspectives, without forgetting to maintain a professional distance from the

students, thereby allowing objective help. Moreover, the teacher could help the

most anxious students by providing some learning strategies that may also be

extended to the rest of the class. This would reduce the possibility of making the

anxious students embarrassed and inadequate, compared to their peers. It is

82
interesting to note that not much research has been conducted into potential

learning strategies which may be used to reduce students’ level of anxiety in the

foreign language classroom.

A second pedagogical implication concerns the level of shyness, competitiveness

and low self-esteem identified among some of the students. Although the

majority of them reported not being concerned about such factors, some of

them were concerned about their peers’ judgments and their personal self-

perception. It would be helpful for these students to undergo self-assessment of

their abilities in order to identify their potentials and strengths. This would also

make them reconsider their capabilities and through the direct instruction of the

teacher, self-esteem would be increased (Covington 1989; Andres 2002).

Teachers may also help to increase self-esteem by creating specific opportunities

for those students to first explore their potentials and strengths. In addition,

competitiveness may be controlled and reduced by organising some after school

meetings in which to focus on students’ strengths and aspects to improve and

which would guarantee a neutral environment for students.

A third implication concerns error correction. It emerged from the analysis that

some of the students seemed concerned about their mistakes but most of all

about the modality of error correction (Young 1991). Error correction has been

widely accepted by students as a beneficial and useful factor that can enhance

and boost their learning and outcomes. More than one student who was

concerned about error correction, suggested that the teacher should correct

them after they speak or at the end of the lesson. A further pedagogical

83
intervention may be taking note of the error made by the students while

speaking and proposing similar errors in sentences written on the board. This

would draw the attention of each student to thinking about a possible solution

(problem solving) and would not concentrate the attention on one specific

student, thus enhancing the foreign language capabilities of all the students.

A fourth and final implication identified concerns gender differentiation. Among

all the topics analysed in the literature review (Chapter 2) and previously in this

chapter, gender differentiation seems to provide the most interesting results. In

fact, males appeared to be more relaxed than females, contrasting with findings

claimed by previous researchers. In such a classroom situation, the teacher could

reduce this differentiation and the possible rivalries by creating in-class activities

in which boys and girls collaborate together in order to enable the less anxious

students to help the most anxious students, thereby meeting the learning needs

of each student.

84
 CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

This section will summarise the data interpretation analysis completed in relation

to the attempt to respond to the research questions:

1) Do Italian students feel anxious during English speaking classes? If yes, to what

extent?

2) What factors may or may not contribute to make Italian students feel anxious

during English speaking classes?

In order to fully respond to both research questions, the data analysis was

completed according to specific topics which were also proposed in the literature

chapter (Chapter 2), and organised as follows:

• communication anxiety,

• test anxiety, together with fear of negative evaluation

• competitiveness,

• shyness and low self-esteem,

• classroom environment,

• language errors, error correction, and the relation between the students

and the teacher,

• gender was incorporated for data analysis.

85
The findings obtained for each topic proved interesting for different reasons.

What made some of them characteristic and interesting was the general

disagreement with the literature review, as most of the students reported not

feeling anxious in relation to the English subject. Questionnaires, interviews and

open question data analysis related to communication anxiety (CA), for example,

revealed some interesting aspects, such as the feeling of being relaxed expressed

by the majority of students when speaking during the English lessons (92%), the

calmness of half of the students involved who did not feel apprehensive if they

did not understand everything the teacher may say in the target language (50%),

and the unwillingness to skip the English lesson due to a high level of anxiety

which the students may feel (74%).

In terms of test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation, the results seem to be

divided between those students who feel relaxed, in contrast with the literature

(57%,) and those who seem to feel anxious and apprehensive (22%), in

agreement with the literature and the belief that anxiety is a recurrent variable

in evaluative situations. In addition, the attitude of 38% of the students seems to

be in contrast with the literature, since they reported not feeling anxious if they

did not know a response to a question, indicating that they had not had any

significant negative past experience in English tests or evaluative tasks.

More related to foreign language speaking anxiety, the findings showed that

most of the students (56%) would not negatively compare their abilities with an

English native speaker, although a consistent percentage of students (35%)

claimed they felt anxious if comparing themselves with the language abilities of

86
an English native speaker. In addition, some of the students interviewed

reported feeling more relaxed to speak with the teacher, rather than an English

native speaker, indicating that the teacher is regarded positively by the students.

The shyness and low self-esteem section revealed that the students were

extrovert and thus willing to participate in class activities which would make

them interact with each other. However, some of the students interviewed

claimed to feel intimidated if asked to speak not only during the foreign language

class, but also in most of the other school subjects. This interestingly shows how

learners’ characteristics may sometimes interfere in their language learning, in

which shyness in particular seems to a peculiarity of their personality.

The classroom environment was revealed as a topic which most of the students

seemed to be unaware of. In fact, 54% of them disagreed with the possibility

that they would feel anxious if asked to speak in front of their peers, or feeling

embarrassed to receive possible peers’ comments, whereas only 32% of the

students, agreed with such a possibility. These findings suggest that a good

classroom environment was promoted with a good relationship among the

students.

Interestingly, language errors and teacher’s error correction caused greater

concern for some students, even if the majority of them (65%) claimed they did

not feel anxious or apprehensive of making language errors or being corrected

by the teacher. Nevertheless, some of the students interviewed reported that

making language mistakes and being corrected was a concern for them which

87
sometimes limited their oral performance, even if it emerged that the teacher

seemed not to overcorrect students.

Finally, consideration was given to the extent to which the gender factor may

influence Italian foreign language students. From the questionnaire analysis and

the open question responses, it resulted that, in contrast with the literature,

females were more anxious and apprehensive than males, whereas the literature

revealed the opposite statement. On the other hand, contradicting results

emerged from the interviews. In fact, a male and a female equally reported

feeling anxious during the foreign language class.

In conclusion, following the data analysis chapter, some EFL teaching

implications were considered. Although the majority of students claimed not to

feel anxious in relation to the foreign language subject, the teacher should also

pay attention to those students who feel anxious and apprehensive during the

foreign language sessions. Moreover, some suggestions were proposed to

teachers in order to manage students with low self-esteem and shyness,

proposing some possible self-evaluation to enhance students’ belief in their

capabilities.

The modality of teachers’ error correction is also an important aspect for

teachers to consider, since it has been demonstrated that it may influence

students’ oral performance.

Gender is the last implication considered as a possible anxiety-provoking factor,

as females resulted to be more anxious than males in relation to foreign

language learning.
88
As a suggestion for some possible further studies, a more in depth study related

to the possibility for Italian students to feel anxious during foreign language

classes would be recommended. More precisely, since little research has been

done into this topic, it would be interesting to conduct research among more

students in different schools, in order to investigate if students feel anxious

during their foreign language class and if this depended more on the teachers’

pedagogies or on the students’ characteristics. A comparative study may also be

conducted in order to investigate if the age factor may be a predictor of

students’ foreign language learning and performance. Furthermore, a study may

be conducted to see whether reading, listening and writing skills may also be

affected by students’ perception of anxiety.

89
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March, Bangkok, Thailand.

WOODROW L. 2006. Anxiety and Speaking English as a Second Language. RELC

Journal, 37, 308-328.

WREN D. G. and BENSON J. 2004. Measuring test anxiety in children: Scale

development and internal construct validation. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping,
17(3), 227-240.

YOUNG J. D. 1991. Creating a Low-Anxiety Classroom Environment: What Does

the Language Anxiety Research Suggest?. Modern Language Journal. 75(4), 426
– 437.

YOUNG J. D. 1992. Language Anxiety from the Foreign Language Specialist’s

Perspective: Interviews with Krashen, Omaggio Hadley, Terrell, and Rardin.
Foreign Language Annuals, 25(2), 157-171.
101
ZHENG Y. 2008. Anxiety and Second/Foreign Language Learning Revisited.
Canadian Journal for New Scholars I Education. Vol. 1(1), pp. 1-12.

References Internet websites

Consequences of low self-esteem. Available at:

http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-
problems/self-esteem/consequences-of-low-self-esteem/#.Ve-BcZUVh8Q. [08
July 2015].

Teacher’s Guide. Information about Mental Illness and the Brain (Page 1 of 3).
Available at: http://supplements.bscs.org/supplements/nih5/mental/guide/info-
mental-a.htm. [05 July 2015].

102
APPENDIX 1

School letter of consent

Elena Salvatori

MA in English Language Teaching

Nottingham Trent University

Dear Sirs,

I am conducting a research study as part of my MA degree in English Language Teaching at Nottingham Trent University. I
would be grateful if you could give your permission for me to visit your school and observe a class of pre-intermediate
level of English students, in order to collect data for my research.

The provisional title of my study is “A comparative study on the effects of anxiety in second language speaking
performance, considering two different age groups of Italian students”.

The aim of my research is to investigate to what extent anxiety affects students’ second language speaking performance,
and to improve teachers’ pedagogies in the classroom.

The research methods I am using are two types of questionnaire, followed by interviews with some of the students.

My data will only be used for academic research purposes. The identity of the participants will be protected and their
names will not appear in the study.

I would be happy to share my findings with the school if you wish.

Would you please indicate that you give permission by signing the letter of consent below and returning it to me by
email. Could you also please advise as to whether I should request permission from the parents of the students involved,
and if so, how I should go about doing this.

If you have any questions regarding this study, or would like additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me
at elena.salvatori@live.it, or, if you prefer, my provisional supervisor Dr. Amy Wang at amy.wang@ntu.ac.uk.

Thank you in advance for your collaboration.

Regards,

Elena Salvatori

Letter of Consent

I understand the purpose of your research, and give you my permission to collect data in the “Istituto Comprensico di
MManzano”. I understand that any infrmatio provided by staff ann/or students may be used in the study, but that their
names will not appear anfd that every effort will be made to protect their identity.

*In addition to obtaining my consent, you should contact the parents directly to obtain their permission for their children
to participate in your research.

Name of the school:

(I am happy for the name of the school to appear in the dissertation)

Signature:

Date:

103
APPENDIX 2

Parent consent form

Elena Salvatori

MA in English Language Teaching

Nottingham Trent University

Dear Parents,

I would like to invite your child to participate in a study I am conducting as part of my MA degree in English Language
Teaching at Nottingham Trent University.

The title of my study is “A comparative study on the effects of anxiety in second language speaking performances,
considering two different age groups of Italian students”.

The aim of my research is to investigate to what extent anxiety affects students’ second language speaking performance,
and to improve teachers’ pedagogies in the classroom.

The research methods I am using are two different types of questionnaire, followed by interviews with some of the
students.

My data will only be used for academic research purposes. The identity and personal details of your child will be
protected and will not appear in the study.

Would you please indicate your agreement to let your child participate by signing the letter of consent below and
returning it to the teacher.

If you have any questions regarding this study, or would like additional information to assist you in reaching a decision
about the participation of your child, please do not hesitate to contact me at elena.salvatori@live.it, or my provisional
supervisor, Dr. Amy Wang at amy.wang@ntu.ac.uk.

Thank you in advance for your collaboration.

Regards,

Elena Salvatori

Letter of Consent

I agree to let my child taking part in the research study described above. I understand that the research will be presented
as part of an MA dissertation.
I understand that any information my child provides may be used in the study, but that his/her name will not appear and
that every effort will be made to protect his/her identity.
I understand that his/her participation is voluntary, and that he/she can choose not to participate or to withdraw at any
time. If he/she decides to withdraw, I agree to inform the teacher personally.

Signature of Parent:

Date:

104
APPENDIX 3a

Questionnaire in Italian

School of Arts and Humanities

MA English Language Teaching
2014/2015

Elena Salvatori

M/F
Età:
Sezione:
Data:

105
QUESTIONARIO: QUANDO L’ANSIA PRENDE IL
SOPRAVVENTO NEL PARLARE INGLESE A LEZIONE

 PRIMA DI INIZIARE

Ti senti ansioso/a quando devi parlare durante le attuali lezioni di Inglese? Dai
una breve risposta (20-50 parole).

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

106
Le seguenti frasi descrivono possibili situazioni e stati d’animo che potresti

provare durante la lezione quando parli in Inglese. Per ogni affermazione

cerchia il tuo grado di preferenza, riferendoti alla scala di valori riportata qui

sotto. Cerca di essere il più onesto/a possibile nel rispondere al questionario,

dal momento che influirà sui risultati finali di questa ricerca.

5 = molto d’accordo

4 = d’accordo

3 = parzialmente d’accordo / parzialmente disaccordo

2 = disaccordo

1 = molto disaccordo

1. L’idea di dover parlare in Inglese durante la lezione 5 4 3 2 1

mi fa sentire tranquillo/a .

2. Non mi sento a mio agio quando parlo durante la lezione 5 4 3 2 1

di Inglese.

3. Sono in uno stato di apprensione se faccio degli errori 5 4 3 2 1

mentre parlo in Inglese in classe.

4. Quando vengo chiamato/a per parlare in Inglese mi agito, 5 4 3 2 1

inizio a tremare e il mio battito cardiaco aumenta.

5. Mi agito se non capisco quello che l’insegnate sta dicendo 5 4 3 2 1

in Inglese.

6. La Mi innervosisco se non capisco quello che l’insegnante 5 4 3 2 1

sta dicendo in Inglese

6. Sono molto agitato/a quando in classe devo parlare in Inglese 5 4 3 2 1

senza essere preparato/a.
107
7. La possibilità di sbagliare mentre parlo in Inglese mi rende 5 4 3 2 1
nervoso/a.

8. A volte mi capita di sentirmi nervoso/a e dimenticare quello 5 4 3 2 1

che devo dire quando parlo in Inglese in classe.

9. A volte sono ansioso/a a parlare in Inglese in classe 5 4 3 2 1

che dimentico quello che devo dire.

10. Non mi sentirei nervoso/a se dovessi parlare in Inglese con 5 4 3 2 1

persone provenienti da una nazione anglofona.

11. Non diventerei nervoso/a se dovessi parlare con un 5 4 3 2 1

anglofono.

12. Anche se sono ben preparato/a per la lezione di Inglese, 5 4 3 2 1

mi sento ansioso/a e agitato/a nel dover parlare.

13. A volte sono così ansioso/a che preferirei non dover 5 4 3 2 1

affrontare la lezione di Inglese.

14. A volte sono così ansioso che preferirei saltare 5 4 3 2 1

la lezione di inglese.

15. Mi sento a mio agio quando parlo in Inglese durante 5 4 3 2 1

la lezione.

16. Sono spaventato/a all’idea di essere corretto/a ad ogni 5 4 3 2 1

errore che faccio quando parlo in Inglese.

17. Più cerco di non fare errori mentre parlo in Inglese 5 4 3 2 1

108
 a lezione e più mi agito.

18. Non sono apprensivo/a quando parlo in Inglese, anche 5 4 3 2 1

se mi accorgo di fare alcuni errori.

19. Mi sento a mio agio quando devo parlare in Inglese di fronte 5 4 3 2 1

ai miei compagni di classe.

20. Mi sento più nervoso/a a parlare durante la lezione di 5 4 3 2 1

Inglese, rispetto alle altre materie.

21. Mi sento ansioso/a quando devo parlare in Inglese in classe. 5 4 3 2 1

22. Mi agito se l’insegnate parla in Inglese e non riesco a capire 5 4 3 2 1

quello che sta dicendo.

23. Se l’insegnante parla in Inglese e non capisco 5 4 3 2 1

quello che sta dicendo, divento ansioso/a.

24. Sono spaventato/a all’idea che i miei compagni di classe 5 4 3 2 1

possano ridere di me quando parlo Inglese.

25. Mi sentirei a mio agio a dover parlare con un anglofono. 5 4 3 2 1

26. Mi agito se l’insegnante mi chiede qualcosa in Inglese per 5 4 3 2 1

la quale non sono preparato/a.

27. Mi sento più rilassato/a per le lezioni che mi piacciono di più. 5 4 3 2 1

GRAZIE PER LA COLLABORAZIONE!

(Materiale adattato secondo l’originale in Horwitz, Horwitz e Cope, 1986:129-130)

109
APPENDIX 3b

Questionnaire in English

School of Arts and Humanities

MA English Language Teaching

Elena Salvatori

Age:
Gender:
Class:
Date:

110
 ENGLISH ANXIETY IN SPEAKING PERFORMANCES QUESTIONNAIRE

 BEFORE YOU START

Do you feel anxious when speaking in English classes? Give a brief answer (20
to 50 words)

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

111
The following questions describes statements about foreign language anxiety

when speaking in English. For each statements, indicate your level of

agreement or disagreement by the scale below. Please, try to be as honest as

possible when answering the statements since this may influence the findings

of this research.

1 = strongly agree ()

2 = agree ( )
3 = neither agree ( ) / neither disagree()
4 = disagree ()
5 = strongly disagree ()

1. At the idea of speaking during the English lesson, 5 4 3 2 1

I feel relaxed and at ease

2. When I speak during the English lesson, I do not 5 4 3 2 1

feel relaxed.

3. I am apprehensive to make mistakes while speaking English in 5 4 3 2 1

class.

4. I tremble when I know that I am going to be called on 5 4 3 2 1

in English class and my heart starts pounding.

5. I get nervous if I do not understand what the English teacher 5 4 3 2 1

is saying in the target language.

6. I often believe that my peers are better than me in speaking 5 4 3 2 1

English

112
7. I feel very nervous when I am asked to speak and I am not 5 4 3 2 1
prepared

8. The possibility to make language mistakes when I speak in 5 4 3 2 1

English makes me nervous

9. Sometimes I am nervous when I speak in English class and I forge 5 4 3 2 1

what I have to say.

10. It makes me feel anxious to volunteer answers in my English 5 4 3 2 1

Classes.

11. I would not be nervous to speak in English with an English 5 4 3 2 1

native speaker.

12. I get apprehensive when I am corrected while I am speaking 5 4 3 2 1

in English.

13. Even if I am well prepared for my English class, I feel 5 4 3 2 1

anxious about speaking during the lesson.

14. I feel relaxed and at ease although I may be not enough 5 4 3 2 1

prepared for the English test.

15. Speaking during the English lesson makes me feel apprehensive. 5 4 3 2 1

16. I feel comfortable when I speak during English classes. 5 4 3 2 1

17.I am afraid that my English teacher is ready to correct every 5 4 3 2 1

mistake I make while I speak English.

113
18. The more I try not to make mistakes while I speak in English, 5 4 3 2 1
the more I get anxious.

19. I am not apprehensive in speaking English, even if I make 5 4 3 2 1

some language errors.

20. I feel very at ease about speaking English in front of the 5 4 3 2 1

peers.

21. I feel more anxious to speak during the English classes, 5 4 3 2 1

than I do in other classes.

22. I get nervous when I am speaking in English class. 5 4 3 2 1

23. If the teacher speaks in English and I do not understand 5 4 3 2 1

what he/she is saying, I get nervous.

24. I am afraid that my classmates will laugh at me 5 4 3 2 1

when I speak English.

25. I would feel at ease if I had to speak with an English native 5 4 3 2 1

speaker.

26. I get nervous when the teacher asks me questions I have not 5 4 3 2 1
prepared in advance.

27. I am relaxed when I speak in class thought by the teachers I 5 4 3 2 1

like more.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COLLABORATION!

(Adapted from Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, 1986:129-130)
114
APPENDIX 4

Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope’s FLCAS Scale

Source: HORWITZ E. K., HORWITZ, M. B. and

COPE J. 1986. Foreign Language Classroom
Anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2),
pp. 125-132.

115
APPENDIX 5a

Interview questions in Italian

INTERVISTE INDIVIDUALI

1. Perché ti senti ansioso/a quando devi parlare in Inglese durante la

lezione?

2. Quali aspetti del parlare in Inglese ti fanno sentire più ansioso/a? Perché?

3. Ti sentiresti ansioso/a a dover parlare Inglese in un contesto diverso, al di

fuori del contesto scolastico?

4. Ti senti ansioso/a solo quando devi parlare in Inglese, o succede anche

quando parli in Italiano?

5. Cosa potrebbe fare l’insegnante per farti sentire più a tuo agio quando
parli in Inglese?

116
APPENDIX 5b

Interview questions in English

INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS QUESTIONS

1. Why do you feel anxious about speaking English during your English
lesson?

2. Which aspect(s) of speaking in English make(s) you feel anxious? Why?

3. Would you feel anxious, if you spoke English in a different context from
the class?

4. Do you feel anxious just when you speak in a foreign language, or does it
happen also in your first language?

5. What should the teacher do to make you more at ease when speaking
English?

117
APPENDIX 6

Chart used for data analysis

Legend: SA = Strongly Agree

A= Agree

NAD = Neither Agree/Disagree

D= Disagree

SD = Strongly Disagree

SA A N D SD
01. Before the English lesson

M F M F M F M F M F
x x x x
begins, I feel relaxed

x x x x
x x x
x x
x
x

3 6 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
9 6 0 0 0

SA A N D SD
02. I am not at ease when I

M F M F M F M F M F
speak during the English

x x x x x x x
x x x x
x x
x x
lesson

0 0 0 1 1 2 4 1 2 4
0 1 3 5 6

SA A N D SD
03. I am apprehensive to

speaking English in class

M F M F M F M F M F
make mistakes while

x x x x x x
x x x x x
x x
x
x

0 2 2 1 0 3 5 2 0 0
2 3 3 7 0

118
 06. Very often I think 05. I get nervous if I do not 04. When I am asked to
that my classmates are understand what the English speak English in class, I start
better than me in teacher is saying in the target trembling and my heart beat
speaking English language is higher

1
X
0

M
M
M

4
0
1

SA
SA
SA

x
x
x
F
F

3
0
x
F

x
x

2
0

M
M
x

1
M

2
2

A
A
2
A

x
x

F
F

0
2
x

1
F

x
x
x
x
x
x

2
4
x

M
M
M

2
N

5
7

N
N
x
F

x
x
x
x
x
x

F
F
1

3
3
3
X
X
X

0
1
M

M
M
7
D

1
2

D
D
x
x
x
x
F

F
F

1
1

X
X

2
x
x

x
x
x
x

2
M

M
M

3
4
3

SD
SD
SD

1
x
x
x

F
F

2
x
F

119
 08. The possibility to make 07. I am very nervous when I
09. Sometimes I am nervous
mistakes while I am speaking have to speak English in class
when I speak English in class and
English makes me nervous and I am not well prepared
I forget what I have to say

x
x
x
x

2
2

M
M

1
M
3
2

1
SA
SA

SA
F

0
x
F
F

1
0

x
x

2
M
x
x
x

1
2

M
M

3
A
3
4

A
A

x
F

1
x
x
x
x

F
F

2
2

1
0

2
X
X
M
M

3
N
4
2

N
N

x
x
x
x
x

F
F

3
2

x
F

1
x

1
x
x
x
x
x
x

M
3
3

M
M

6
D
5
5

D
D

x
x
x
x
F

5
X
x
x
x
x

F
F

2
2
0

1
0

M
M
M

0
2

2
SD
SD

SD
x
x

F
F

0
2

x
F

120
 12. If I am corrected while I am 11. I would not get nervous if I 10. During the lesson, I get
speaking in the English lesson, I had to speak English with an anxious when I have to
get nervous English native speaker voluntarily answer in English

x
x

0
2
M

M
M

1
4
0

SA
SA
SA

x
x
x

F
F

1
2
F

1
0
x

M
M
M

2
2

A
A
1
A

x
x
x

F
F

1
2
F

0
1

M
M
x

1
M

0
1

N
N
3
N

F
F

0
0
F

2
X
X

3
X
X
X
2
X
X

M
M
x
x

2
M

6
2

D
D
4
D

x
x
x
F
F

3
0
x
x
F

x
x
x
x
x

3
2
x
x
x

M
M
M

6
6
7

SD
SD
SD

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

F
F
F

3
4
4

121
 13. Even if I am well prepared
15. Before the English lesson for the English lesson, I feel
begins, I feel nervous and not at 14. Sometimes I feel so anxious that I anxious and nervous when I
ease would prefer to skip the English lesson have to speak

0
1
0

M
M
M

0
1
0

SA
SA
SA

F
F

0
0
F

1
x

0
M
M

M
4

0
1
A

A
A
x
x
x
F

0
x
x

2
M

0
0

M
M
2
N

0
1

N
N
F

F
F

0
1
x

1
M

x
x
x
x

3
1

M
M
4
D

5
2

D
D
x
x
x
F

x
x
x

F
F

2
1
x
x
x

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
M

4
4

M
M
5
SD

10
10

SD
SD

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

F
F
x
x

6
6
F

122

18. The more I tried not to make
mistakes when I speak in
English, the more I get nervous
17. I am afraid of the idea
to be corrected for every
mistake I do when I speak 16. I feel at ease when I speak
in English English in class
x

x
x

0
2
M

M
M
4

0
2
SA

SA
SA
x
x
x
F

F
F

0
0
x

0
1
x
x
x

M
M
M

0
2
3

A
A
A

F
F

0
1
F

x
x
x

3
0
x
x
x

M
M
3
M

7
3

N
N
6
N

x
x
x
x
x
x
x

F
F

4
3
x
x
x
F

x
x
x
x
x
x
x

3
4

M
M
0
M

5
6

D
D
2
D

x
x
x
x

F
F

2
2
x
x
F

1
0
0

M
M
M

3
2
0

SD
SD
SD
F

x
x
x
x
0

F
F

2
2

123
 21. I feel more nervous when I
have to speak during the English 20. I feel at ease when I have to 19. I am not apprehensive when I
lesson, compared to the other speak English in front of my speak English, even if I notice to
subjects classmates make some errors

x
x
x
x

2
1
1

M
M
M

2
3
1

SA
SA
SA

x
x

F
F
F

0
2
0

x
x
x
x
x
x
x

2
2
3

M
M
M

3
3
4

A
A
A

x
x
x

F
F
F

1
1
1

x
x
x

0
3
0

M
M
M

0
4
3

N
N
N

x
x
x
x

F
F
F

0
1
3

x
x
x
x
x

1
1
3

M
M
M

4
3
6

D
D
D

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

F
F
F

3
2
3

x
x

2
0
0

M
M
M

6
2
1

SD
SD
SD

x
x
x
x
x
x
x

F
F
F

4
2
1

124
 23. If the teacher speaks in
24. I am frightened of the idea English and I do not understand
that my classmates would laugh what he/she is saying, I get 22. I feel anxious when I have to
of me when I speak English nervous speak English in class

x
x
x

1
2
0

M
M
M

3
2
0

SA
SA
SA

x
x
F
F
F

2
0
0

x
x
x

1
1
1

M
M
M

2
3
4

A
A
A

x
x
x
x
x
x

F
F
F

1
2
3

x
x
x

1
0
2

M
M
M

4
3
4

N
N
N

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

F
F
F

3
3
2

x
x
x
x

1
2
1

M
M
M

1
3
2

D
D
D

x
x

F
F
F

0
1
1

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

3
2
3

M
M
M

5
4
5

SD
SD
SD

x
x
x
x
x
x

F
F
F

2
2
2

125
 27. I am more relaxed to talk 26. I get nervous when the teacher 25. I would feel at ease if I
during lessons of teachers I like asks me a question for which I have had to speak with an
the most not previously prepared the answer English native speaker

x
x
x

3
x

M
1
0

M
M

5
1
3

SA
SA
SA

x
x
F

2
x
x
x

F
F

0
3

x
x
x

1
1
1

M
M
M

1
A

1
3

A
A
F

x
x

F
F

0
2
x

1
M

x
x
x
x

1
3

M
M
2
N

4
5

N
N
x
F

x
x
x
x
x

F
F

3
2
x
x

2
M

x
x
x

1
2

M
M
4

2
3
D

D
D
x
x
F

x
x

F
F

1
1
x
x
x

x
3

1
0
M

M
M
5

2
3
SD

SD
SD

x
x
x
x
x
x

F
F
F

1
3
2

126
APPENDIX 7

Interview transcript

Legend: I = Interviewer

S = Student

I: Ok, first of all thank you…

S: Yes…

I: …to be here. I am going to ask you nearly 10, if possible 11 questions always
about the same topic.

S: Ok!

I: This is going to be in a very relaxed way, do not worry this will not be an
examination. So, the first question is: during the English lesson, when you
know that you have to speak or participate, do you feel nervous, excited?

S: Yes, I do feel quite nervous and excited.

I: Ok. More precisely, do you feel excited or nervous..?

S: Nervous…

I: Nervous, in a more negative meaning than positive?

S: Yes!

I: Ok… ehm … why? What could be the cause?

S: It is because maybe when talking I am frightened to make language errors, to

not use the grammar rules correctly…

I: Ok, I see. So we can say that it is more the grammar than other things that
scares you more…

S: Yes, or maybe not to formulate the sentence correctly.

I: Oh, do not worry. It happens also to me even if I live there! Ok, when you have
to speak during the English lesson, which is the situation it scares you? For

127
 example, when you have to answer a questions, when you have to read aloud,
ehm, when you voluntarily reply.

S: Er… when I voluntary answer

I: When you voluntary answer, ok! Could you please tell me why? Which is the
difference between being examined, for example, and voluntary answer?

S: Mm… when I am examined… for example, our teacher test us on the

homework she gave, so that I already prepare myself at home for the test. On
the other hand, when you voluntary answer you cannot always know what
she can asks you later.

I: Ok, so unexpected questions make you feel more nervous…

S: Yes!

S: Rather than for examination for which you may be more prepared.

S: I feel better if I know to be prepared for the test.

I: Ok, great. This is very interesting!

Do you feel anxious only when you have to speak during the English lesson or
also during subjects in which you speak Italian? I am not interested in which
subject, but think only about the language issue.

S: Ah, ok! Ehm, no, definitely during the English lesson!

I: More during the English lesson…

S: Yes!

I: That is ok. Maybe also because English is not you mother tongue and this may
make you feel nervous.

S: Yes, exactly!

I: Ok, great!

When you are corrected, if you are corrected, do you feel nervous or do you
find it good?

S: No, no, I like it because in this way i learn which type or errors I make.

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I: Very good!

Speaking in front of your peers, does it influence you somehow? Or it is ok?

S: Well, it influences me. It makes me feel not at ease.

I: Mm… I have a further question about this: when you speak it would be
different to speak from you seat or in front of everybody next to the teacher’s
desk?

S: Yes, yes! If I speak from my seat I feel definitely less nervous. On the other
hand if I speak next to the teacher’s desk I feel very nervous, because I can see
everybody’s face and I feel intimidated.

I: Ah, ok!

Which aspect of the English lesson makes you feel more nervous? When
speaking about grammar, for example, or when to answer a questions?

S: Er…. Mm…I think when grammar is concerned.

I: The grammar, that is ok.

S: Yes! More for the grammar!

I: Ok, perfect! Which aspect, on the other hand, does it make you feel more
relaxed?

S: Er, maybe if we read a text and I have to answer some questions about it.

I: Ok, you mean with something that can be prepared…

S: Yes! But also if I am asked some questions without preparing them. I can
easily answer the questions by looking at the text!

I: Ok, going back to the previous question, when you feel more nervous, what do
you think the teacher should do to make you to make you feel less nervous?

S: well, she could promote a situation in which I may not feel nervous…

I: With the word ‘situation’ you mean not to ask to answer a question in front of
your peers?

S: Yes, exactly! Yes!

129
I: Ok, so it would not matter the type or difficulty of the question…

S: Exactly!

I: Very good. Would you feel at ease if you had to speak with an English native
speaker or it would be even more stressful for you?

I: It would be absolutely be more stressful for me! I would be more frightened to

make language errors.

I: Ok! Anyway, don’t you think that speaking with an English native speaker
would be easier than speaking with your teacher?

S: Yes, maybe at the beginning I would feel nervous but If the conversation is
good I may even enjoy it!

I: Ok, last question! Let’s concentrate on your body: what happens to your body
when you are anxious while speaking in English? Do you start trembling…

S: Yes!

I: … you sweat…

S: my hands start sweating, yes! And my heart fastens the beat!

I: Very good! And you tremble…? I feel like a doctor right now!

S: Yes I tremble!

I: Does it happen to you not to feel these effects when speaking in English?

S: Never!

I: Never? Even when you speak Italian?

S: Yes!

I: So, speaking in general makes you feel nervous?

S: Yes, since I am very shy person, I always feel intimidated to speak even in
Italian.

I: Very good. We’ve done! I have all the data I need from you.

(At this point I stopped the record but after that I thanked the student for her
availability and participation).

130