Native and Non-Native Teachers’ Beliefs of Language Anxiety

Esma ŞENEL
Beykent University
• What is the problem here?
• When I assign a speaking or writing task, my students’ reaction is
positive.
• My students’ effort put in productive skills is enough.
• My students’ are highly motivated to speak and write.
• The degree of satisfaction during my speaking and writing classes is
high.
Literature Review
• Anxiety is defined as an uncomfortable emotional state in which one
perceives danger, feels powerless, and experiences tension in the face
an expected danger (Blau, 1955).
• Language anxiety is a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs,
feelings and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising
from the uniqueness of the language learning process (Horwitz,
Horwitz, & Cope, 1986).
• Gardner and MacIntyre (1993) describe the concept as the
apprehension experienced when a specific situation requires the use
of a second language in which the individual is not fully proficient.
• In terms of four skills, speaking skill is influenced most by anxiety
(Young, 1991 ; Wilson, 2006). Speaking anxiety is considered as fear
over spoken language when speaking in front of others (Young, 1991 ;
Akkaya, 2012 ; Arslan, 2012).
• Writing anxiety, on the other hand, has a negative impact on learners’
performance (Cheng, 1999; Kurt & Atay, 2007).
• Therefore, this comparative study investigated the native and non-
native teachers’ beliefs associated with factors affecting language
anxiety and giving suggested solutions to this complicated notion.
THE STUDY
• This research is built on qualitative research method to investigate if
there is a difference between native and non-native teachers’
perceptions of language anxiety.
• 21 EFL instructors working at a foundation university participated in
this research. 12 of the participants were non-native teachers and 9 of
them were native teachers. From non-native group, 5 of the
participants were female and 7 of the participants were male. In the
native group, 4 participants were female and 5 participants were male.

• Data was collected through online open-ended questionnaire and semi-

structured interviews. The qualitative data was analyzed with content
analysis method to obtain the results.
DATA ANALYSIS
• In this research, theme and codes were achieved via content analysis.
Steps suggested by Kvale and Brinkmann (2009) followed.
• As a result of content analysis, the findings of the study are presented
under four basic themes. These are as follows:
1. Beliefs of productive skills,
2. Problems encountered when teaching productive skills,
3. Reasons of these problems,
4. Suggestions for these problems.
Participants’ beliefs of productive skills

Native Teachers Non-Native Teachers

Trying to translate everything (7) Unwillingness (9)
Having troubles (3) Inadequate self-confidence (6)
Being weak at expressing opinions (5) Being weak at producing something (2)
Speaking develops better than writing (2) Producing incorrect forms (10)
Frustration (6) Not paying attention to feedbacks (7)
Ignore feedbacks (4) Inadequate vocabulary development (3)
Reluctance (6) Reading habits (2)
Making mistakes (4)  Feeling uncomfortable (3)

Table 1 presents the findings regarding the beliefs of participants related to speaking and writing skills. As
we can understand from the table, the most cited belief is trying to translate everything in the natives group
(n=7) and producing incorrect forms in the non-natives group (n=10). These results indicate that native and
non-native teachers have similar perceptions related to productive skills.
Problems encountered when teaching productive
skills
Native Teachers Non-Native Teachers
Feeling shy (4) L1 inference (3)
Lack of content knowledge (2) Trying to use complicated chunks (4)
Anxiety (7) Lack of motivation (8)
Lack of motivation (8) Lack of self-confidence (5)
Indifference (2) Worried about mistakes (7)
Feeling bored (5) Anxiety (9)
Fear of making mistakes (6) Not willing to participate (5)
 

Table 2 presents the findings regarding the problems encountered when teaching productive skills. As it is
seen from the table, the most cited problem is lack of motivation in the natives group (n=8) and anxiety in
the non-natives group (n=9). When other problems are compared, it is seen that both groups have similar
ideas related to problems occurred during teaching productive skills.
Reasons of these problems
Native Teachers
Tend to rush (2)
Feeling shy (3)
Fear of negative evaluation (6)
Fear of negative judgement (7)
Fear of failure (5)
Not revising (5)
Negative attitudes (4)
 
Non-Native Teachers
Prejudice (5)
Age (2)
Lack of preparation (7)
Fear of making mistakes (10)
Unwillingness (5)
Lack of self-confidence (8)
Lack of vocabulary knowledge (4)
Feeling stressed (6)

Table 3 presents the findings regarding the reasons of problems encountered while teaching productive skills.
As shown in the table, the most frequently mentioned reason is fear of negative judgement in the natives
group (n=7) and fear of making mistakes in the non-natives group (n=10).From the data in the table, it is
apparent that there are slight differences between native and non-native teachers related to causes of
problems.
 Suggestions for these problems
Native Teachers Non-Native Teachers
More games and fun activities (5) Creating a peaceful environment
(11)
Building up a rapport with learners (8)
Encouraging to take risks (4)
Paying more attention to learners’
interests (5) Giving constructive feedback (7)
Exposure to language outside the class Drilling (2)
(6)
Preparing more effective lessons (6)
Use humor (2)
Practice more (9)
Not focusing on mistakes (7)
Encouraging to read more (4)
Practicing self-talk (2)
Using technology (2)
Promoting pair/group work (3)
 

Table 4 provides an overview of the findings related to solutions to overcome language anxiety. The most common
solution is building up a rapport with learners in the natives group (n=8) and creating a peaceful environment in
the non-natives group (n=11). From the table above we can see that there are slight differences between native
and non-native teachers’ beliefs in terms of language anxiety in productive skills. It is pointed out that that giving
constructive feedback and not focusing on mistakes will help overcome language anxiety to a great extent.
Conclusion
• The results of the study revealed that there is not a a significant difference
between native and non-native teachers’ beliefs in terms of language
anxiety in productive skills.
• It is indicated that lack of motivation and anxiety are the most common
problems encountered when teaching speaking and writing skills.
• When asked about reasons of those problems, the most mentioned
problems were fear of negative judgement and fear of making mistakes.
• It was suggested that building up a rapport with learners and creating a
peaceful environment could help overcome language anxiety.
• As with most studies, the present research is not without its limitations. When
interpreting the results, it should be kept in mind that the data was collected
from only one university, thus the generalizability of the findings is limited to
this context.