Coping with Anxiety in Foreign Language Communication A Literature Review

Hongwei+Zhuang

【Abstract】As the number of international students is increasing in U.S. higher education sectors， the communicative incompetence seems to be a rising problem that hinders their adjustment both academically and culturally in the English-speaking countries. Researchers suggested that anxiety in listening and speaking caused this communicative incompetence. The possible explanation to this anxiety in listening and speaking can be traced to international students culture （Lim， 2009） and education （Bekleyen， 2009）. In order to ease the anxiety， Yang （2010） suggested a psychological strategy and Gilmore （2011） explored the development of communicative competence through the use of authentic instructional materials. This paper aimed at discussing the various research methods and studies that were conducted to explore the communicative competence， anxiety， causes of anxiety and solutions.

【Key words】Anxiety； communicative competence； incompetence； strategy； material； education； culture

Introduction

In recent years， some English- speaking countries saw an increasing number of international students on campuses. Among this population， the Asians especially the Chinese shared a large portion （Li， 2004； Woodrow， 2006）. According to the statistics from Institute of International Education （2011）， together， the top three sending countries– China， India and South Korea， took up 46% of the total international student population in U.S. higher education. However， many of the international students experienced adjustment problems academically and culturally. The unwillingness to communicate contributes a lot to the cause of these problems （Li， 2004）， which is not beneficial to their language development. MacIntyre and Doucette （2009） found willingness to communicate in a foreign language has a positive correlation with communicative competence and negative correlation with anxiety.

According to the Affective Filter Hypothesis put forward by Kreshen （1982）， learners with high motivation， self- confidence， and low anxiety level have more chance of becoming successful in SLA. Woodrows study （2006） supported this view by showing that anxiety predicts oral achievement. Though the correlation was not very strong， anxiety did adversely affect oral communication. Yang （2010） suggested a psychological strategy called intentional forgetting to control the emotions such as anxiety， fear or hopelessness. Results of the study indicated that those who could effectively suppress negative memories were better immune to anxiety arousal. Though there was no direct relationship between intentional forgetting and EFL listening comprehension， indirect influence was found. On the other hand， the study showed that intentional remembering positively affected EFL listening comprehension.

Some other researchers approached the problem from the aspect of instructional materials. Gilmores （2011） study indicated that the use of authentic materials better helped L2 learners develop communicative competence than traditional EFL textbooks. The rich input provided by authentic materials， such as documentaries， TV comedies， home-made video of native speakers， songs， novels and newspapers， allowed learners to notice and acquire linguistic， pragmatic， strategic and discourse features.

Literature Review

Listening and Speaking Incompetence

In order to seek better ways to help international students through the transitional periods of living in a foreign country， Li （2004） did a qualitative study on four Chinese female students from October 1999 to February 2000. These four were in a university preparation program trying to get in a Canadian university when the researcher first met them. All of them experienced two transitions： 1） from high school in China to high school in Canada， and 2） from high school in Canada to university in Canada. Results showed that in both of the transition periods， academic difficulty was both mentioned； and as to the cause of academic difficulty， language difficulty was both mentioned. The participants reported frustration when they could not understand lectures or classroom interactions. Also they could not and did not take part in classroom discussions. The reason for that might be traced to their incompetency in listening and speaking. The researcher found that all the participants did poorly on the language placement test in which most of the test items were on listening comprehension. The traditional education approach they received before studying abroad made them passive learners who only memorize rules and facts from textbooks and lectures instead of expressing their ideas. The researcher concluded at the end that ‘the transitional period of living in a foreign country is fraught with uncertainty， anxiety， frustration， and depression for international students （Li， 2004， p. 41）.

The research approach was narrative inquiry and the researcher got access to the participants by building a trusting relationship with them. Data collection was conducted through biweekly group meet and e-mail messages between the researcher and the participants. A research journal was also kept to record the feelings， thoughts， reactions and questions of the researcher， which helped her to explore deep into the participants situations and strengthen their relationships. The strength of this study was that the data analysis part was well- done. Analysis was conducted through reading the conversation transcripts， the e-mail messages and journal entries. In order to ensure reliability， the researcher also sent these accounts back to the participants to check accuracy and make necessary changes. Another remarkable point lies in the data collection process. Two months after starting the biweekly meet in data collection stage， the researcher decided to talk with the participants using their first language， which provided a more direct way for them to express feelings， ideas and thoughts. And in transcription step， the researcher translated their talks into English. As a former interpreter and translator， she was competent to stick to the original meaning of the interviewees. Therefore， the reliability of the transcription can be ensured.

Participants in this study were all females， which might lead to representation problems. But since the study was qualitative， and the researcher had no intention to generalize the results to a certain population， it was not considered an evident weakness.

Anxiety and Communicative Competence

Is it possible that negative feelings are the causes of language incompetence？ According to MacIntyre and Doucette （2009）， the willingness to communicate contributes to L2 fluency， which is often the ultimate goal of L2 learners. However， the fact that some language learners habitually choose to remain silent and avoid authentic communication aroused the interest of the researchers. Research on this topic showed willingness to communicate in the second language inside and outside the classroom all correlated positively with perceived communication competence and negatively with anxiety （MacIntyre et al.， 2009）.

Woodrow （2006） found that anxiety predicts oral performance. In his study， a project was conducted to conceptualize second language speaking anxiety， the relationship between anxiety and performance， and the major causes of anxiety. A second language speaking scale （SLSAS） was developed and validated through confirmatory factor analysis.

Two hundred seventy-five participants of advanced level were sampled in this study. They were English for academic purposes （EAP） students in their final months of English courses prior to enrolling in university courses in Australia. The research was done to meet the situation that an increasing number of international students went to study in Australia. Some international students attended intensive English courses to get themselves prepared for social and academic life.

In this research， the author aimed at a dual conceptualization of anxiety in and out of language classroom instead of the fact that most research conceptualized anxiety only in the classroom. Data were collected from three sources： Second Language Anxiety Speaking Scale， IELTS type oral assessment， and interview. The study used convenience sampling in the first two stages and moved to stratified sampling in the third stage. Results showed that there was a negative relationship between in- class and out- of- class anxiety and oral performance. But the correlation has not been very strong because there have been many other factors that influenced successful communication. Besides， while in-class and out- of- class anxiety are highly correlated， there was distinction between them. The interesting part of the study is that it also checked the variation of speaking anxiety between nationality groups. The result indicated that Japanese， Korean and Chinese participants tend to be more anxious than European and Vietnamese participants.

This study presented a comparatively holistic view of the source of anxiety， both in and out of classroom. The selection of participants for the interview was stratified sampling in which class grouping， ethnicity， gender and perception of anxiety were considered. In this case， greater precision was provided and the samples were more representative than random sampling. Besides， the interview was semi- structured， which provided the participants with a direction. The scale of SLSAS was tested for its validity in this study and can be applied in future studies for further testing.

Causes of Anxiety

If there is correlation between willingness to communicate， anxiety and language competence （MacIntyre et al.， 2009）， then what causes the correlation？ After seeking the source of anxiety， Li （2004） and Bekleyen （2009） mentioned the educational approaches and situations by which learners were made passive. Bekleyen （2009） also pointed out the problem of instructional materials. On the other hand， Woodrow （2006） brought forward the influence of cultural factors and Lim （2009） explored the cause of anxiety from a more ethnological view in a study conducted to seek relationship between anxiety and culture.

1. Education

Like Li （2004）， Bekleyen （2009） also mentioned the lack of training in listening skills as the cause of foreign language listening anxiety （FLLA）. When participants experienced FLLA， they had avoidance behavior and physical symptoms that inhibited communication motivation. In this study， 84 volunteers from the freshmen population majoring in English teaching in a Turkish university were sampled. Sampling method was convenience sampling. Participants gender rates were comparatively balanced. An ideal feature of the participants was that none of them had travel experience to an English- speaking country.

In Turkey， University Entrance Exam （UEE） is a must path to universities. The participants in the study all got comparatively high scores in the language part of the test. But there existed a weakness which justified listening anxiety among participants—the test did not have a listening part.

Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the data collection process. The quantitative methods included questionnaires and listening tests while qualitative method included open- ended interview. According to the interview， the University Entrance Exam contributed a lot to FLLA. Many participants did not give enough attention to listening skills mostly because it was not required in the test. The neglect in turn caused inadequate competence. And incompetence further caused anxiety. Some teaching candidates also mentioned that listening materials were not very satisfying. Teachers dont speak authentic English， audio products were not attractive to students or in poor sound quality.

The data collection method in this study was mixed. By quantitative design， the researcher measured anxiety level and checked the correlation between anxiety and competency， gender， and achievement. The qualitative design enabled him to gain further insights into the causes of anxiety. The participants reflected on their strategies in coping with anxiety， which is also an advantage of qualitative method. The limitation of this study was mentioned at the end of the paper. Firstly， the instruments were designed in English but launched in the students first language while interviews were in students first language and then translated into English. And the researcher didnt mention the quality of translation. Therefore， chances are something was lost in translation， which might affect validity. In addition， self- report data provided by participants might be biased and limit the validity.

2. Culture

Different from the studies with traditional approach to individual characteristics， Lim （2009） conducted a research in the purpose of examining the relationship between anxiety and culture. In this study， three questions were addressed： 1） The relationship between ‘collectivism vs. ‘individualism and foreign language anxiety； 2） the relationship between country of origin and foreign language anxiety； as well as 3） the variation among country of origin and perception of successful language learning factors. ‘Collectivism in the first question refers to the view of relating oneself with a group， while ‘individualism refers to an independent view of oneself.

The 224 participants were International Teaching Assistants from 32 countries attending workshop at an American university. Data was collected through convenient sampling and all the participants were volunteers. Cultural orientation was measured by adopting Triandis scale （Triandis， Chen & Chan， 1998）； attribution was measured by an instrument designed for this study； and the last variable—foreign language anxiety was measured through English Use Anxiety scale.

Results showed that there was no difference between collectivism/ individualism and foreign language anxiety but country of origin did affect foreign language anxiety with the Asians experienced higher levels of anxiety. However， since the researcher didnt describe the process of developing the second instrument， validity of the second result might be questioned. Also participants were asked to self- report the percentage for each item that indicated their success of communicating in English. Chances are halo effect might have affected the self- report. Other results indicated that all Asian countries were not the same in the degree of English use anxiety though. The cause of successful language acquisition varied according to the perception of the participants. Educational implication was also mentioned at the end of the article.

Solutions

While some researches were identifying the sources of anxiety， others were trying to find the solution to this problem. Yang （2006） explored a strategy to ease anxiety in listening from a psychological aspect and Gilmore （2011） suggested an efficient way of developing communicative competence—using authentic instructional materials.

1. Strategy

Yang （2006） discussed the correlation among anxiety， English as a Foreign Language （EFL） listening comprehension and intentional forgetting. The term intentional forgetting referred to a listening strategy in which ‘impaired memory arising from an instruction to forget the unwanted material. （Yang， 2006， p. 178） The purpose of the study was to check the relationship between 1）the efficiency of intentional forgetting and anxiety in EFL listening， 2） intentional forgetting and EFL listening comprehension as well as 3） the interrelationships among intentional forgetting， anxiety， and EFL listening comprehension.

There were two experiments described in this article， one with a between- subjects design and another with a within- subjects design. The between- subjects design was quasi- experimental. Participants were 150 freshmen age from 17 to 21 majoring in science or engineering. The researcher used EFL Listening Anxiety Scale （EFLLAS） designed for this study to group participants. In the within- subjects design， participants were 85 sophomores aged between 18 and 22 majoring in science and engineering. Same participants were tested twice under different interventions with a time gap of six weeks to reduce the order effects which caused by the within- subjects design.

The first experiment was conducted in a quasi- experimental design and data were analyzed statistically. To further confirm the result of the first experiment， the researcher conducted a second experiment in a different design. Educational implication was also indicated in this study. The researcher suggested the implementation of intentional forgetting as a language learning strategy to control the emotions such as anxiety， fear or hopelessness. The timing requirement of intentional forgetting was also suggested. Besides， the implementation of these strategies requires the engagement in some absorbing activities， therefore calls for the careful design of classroom activities and good instructional materials.

The limitation of the study was also discussed. Firstly， in the sampling procedure， participant population was not diverse： only students majoring in science and/or engineering from two universities were involved， which limited the representativeness of the results. Secondly， although intentional remembering was controlled in the study， other confounding variables such as working memory might affect the validity. Besides the study by nature was not true experimental because participants were assigned into two groups purposefully. Therefore it could not reflect causal relationships.

2. Material

Gilmore （2011） explored the effects of authentic material versus textbook input on the development of communicative competence. The researcher made a ten- month longitudinal investigation on 62 second- year students from four intact classes in a Japanese university. The design of the study was quasi- experimental in which two of the classes were randomly assigned to the control group， receiving textbook input， while the other two as experimental group， receiving authentic input. Both pretest and posttest were given to assess their overall communicative competence.

The result indicated that among the eight different post-tests， the experimental group outperformed the control group in five， suggesting the advantage of authentic materials over textbook materials.

As to the intervention， the same teacher was assigned to teach both groups to control variables， which contributed to the validity of the results. The reliability of the results were also satisfactory in that the tests used to measure communicative competence were adopted from worlds- proven instruments such as International English Language Testing System （IELTS）. However， the fairness of the assessment was questioned， firstly because it was not specifically designed for this course. Besides， the researcher mentioned that the construct of the study was criticized for setting educated native speakers as models and taking their communicative competence as the ultimate goal of foreign language learning. In doing so， it neglected the communicative competence and social identity developed by the foreign language learners in their own culture settings therefore didnt meet their true communicative needs in specific speech communities.

To conclude， communicative incompetence such as listening and speaking problems existed among those who pursue further education in English- speaking countries. This incompetence has a positive relationship with anxiety. Anxiety in listening and speaking has two main causes： culture and education. In order to ease the anxiety， learners had better to be prepared with psychological strategies and authentic instructional material in a second language.

References：

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[2]Gilmore，A.（2011）.“I prefer not text”： developing Japanese learners' communicative competence with authentic materials.Language Learning，61（3），786-819.

[3]Li，Y.（2004）.Learning to live and study in Canada：stories of four EFL learners from China.TESL Canada Journal，22（1），25-43.

[4]Lim，H.（2009）.Culture，attributions，and language anxiety.Applied Language Learning，19（1-2），29-52.

[5]MacIntyre，P.D.，Doucette，J.（2010）.Willingness to communicate and action control.System：An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics，38（2），161-171.

[6]Triandis，H.C.，Chen，X.P.，& Chan，D.K.-S.（1998）.Scenarios for the measurement of collectivism and individualism.Journal of Cross- Cultural Psychology.29，275-289.

[7]Woodrow，L.（2006）.Anxiety and speaking English as a second language.RELC Journal： A Journal of Language Teaching and Research，37（3），308-328.

[8]Yang，X.（2010）.Intentional forgetting，anxiety，and EFL listening comprehension among Chinese college students.Learning and Individual Differences，20（3），177-187.