Confidence and Anxiety in Foreign Language Learning
Graduation Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of
English Language and Literature
Notre Dame Seishin University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts
by
Tomoko Kino
2013
Contents
Abstract
1
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1 Introduction
1.2 What is confidence?
1.2.1 The definition of confidence
2
2
3
1.2.2 Factors affecting confidence
1.2.3 Affective Filter
1.3 What is anxiety?
1.3.1 The definition of anxiety
1.3.2 Types of anxiety
1.4 Topic of the thesis
1.5 Summary
Chapter Two: The Study
2.1 Introduction
4
4
6
6
8
11
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13
2.2 The Questionnaire
2.2.1 Introduction
2.2.2 Method
a) Subjects
13
13
13
13
b) The questionnaire
14
c) Procedure
14
15
15
19
20
2.3 Results
a) Learners’ confidence
b) Learners’ studying background
2.4 Summary
Chapter Three: Discussion
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Summary of the questionnaire results
3.3 Discussion of the results
3.3.1 Overview
21
21
22
22
3.3.2 The relationship between students’ English level and
confidence
3.3.3 Self evaluation of four skills
3.3.4 Activities which students have confidence
3.3.5 Activities which students have anxiety
3.3.6 Factors which affects students confidence and anxiety
3.4 Answering research questions
3.5 Implications
3.6 Limitations
3.7 Further research
3.8 Conclusion
References
Appendices
22
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24
26
27
29
30
30
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Abstract
Today, we have lots of opportunities to use English, and study English. During their
learning process, some learners may have language learning anxiety while others have
confidence. If we can find out what affect their confidence and anxiety concretely, we may be
able to study English effectively. In this thesis, we will look at what kind of activities learners
can do with/without confidence, and what affect their confidence and anxiety.
The questionnaire was taken by 58 students who were studying English in Notre
Dame Seishin University. The questionnaire asked what kind of activities students did in
English with/without confidence. Some students who had high confidence and low confidence
were chosen and asked their studying background in order to find the factors which affect
their confidence and anxiety.
From the questionnaire data, it was found that students could join activities with
confidence when they communicate with their friends in English. In addition, what they
experienced in class many times made them gain confidence. On the other hand, the situations
which used the technical terms made them lose confidence. In addition, students who had
confidence answered they had chances to use English outside of school, and that experience
made them gain confidence. Other student answered that the evaluation from others was also
related to confidence. On the other hand, students who had low confidence answered that
trauma and pressures affect them negatively.
1
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1 Introduction
As globalization progresses, our chances to meet foreign people has been increasing.
Many people go abroad for traveling, studying and business. English is a common language
now in the world; therefore, we have lots of opportunity to use English in order to
communicate with foreigners. In Japan, most students usually start to learn English when they
go to junior high school, and until they graduate from high school. However, the government
decided that students should start to learn English from fifth grade of elementary school. If
students have high confidence, they can learn English with high motivation and improve their
English skill more effectively. Therefore, confidence is important for learners to develop their
language learning. However, when they study English, some students have really high
confidence for their learning, and they are not afraid of making mistakes. On the other hand,
some people have really low confidence, and they hesitate to use English in front of others.
Some students may avoid learning English. Why do some students have low confidence while
other students have high confidence? What affects their confidence? How should they learn
English in order to gain confidence? This thesis will try to answer those questions. In the next
section, we will look at the definition of motivation and anxiety. Then, we would like to have
a look at the cause of developing and losing learners’ confidence.
1.2 What is confidence?
In this section, we will look at what confidence is. Confidence is associated with
various things such as our environment, relationships with others, psychology and our
background. Therefore, it is not easy to define its meaning. Nevertheless, we will look at the
definition of confidence and the factors affecting confidence in order to find out what
confidence is clearly.
2
1.2.1 The definition of confidence
In this section, we will look at some definitions of confidence. Confidence is a belief
in oneself, one’s power, abilities and judgment - in other words, self-confidence,
self-assurance and self-reliance. Here are four definitions/concepts of confidence.
1. Self-confidence is closely related to self-esteem, both share a common emphasis on the
individual’s perception of his or her abilities as a person (Dörnyei, 2005, p.211).
2. Carver et al. defined it as an individual’s overall evaluation or appraisal of themselves,
whether they approval or disapproval of themselves, like or dislike themselves (Higgins, 1996,
p.1073).
3. Corsini (1994) viewed it as the way one feels about oneself or the ‘sense of personal
worthy and competence that people associate with their self concept’ (p.289).
4. Commings and Dunham defined it as the degree to which an individual believes
him/herself to be capable, significant, and worth (pierce & Gardner, 2004).
Therefore, in the case of foreign language learning, we can say that learner who has
confidence is convinced of their own language skill.
According to English consultant psychiatrist, Persaud, true self-confidence comes
from an attitude that you will try as hard as you can to help yourself.
3
1.2.2 Factors affecting confidence
Confidence is important for learners to improve their language skill because
confidence affects how we deal with a task, how we perform and how we communicate with
others and so on. If we have confidence, it will lead us to have high motivation, and help us to
study more. It will exert a great influence to help us accomplish our dreams or goals. However,
we cannot get confidence easily because confidence is made by the accumulation of lots of
life experiences; for example, where we lived, what we experienced, how our parents
disciplined us, who we are related to and our life environment.
Confidence is related to family characteristics. For example, the family which
displays contradictory discipline, strict discipline and disapproval of their children will lead
children to lose their confidence. On the other hand, the family which approves of their
children and their friends who join various kinds of activities together, and have regular but
not strict routines will lead children to gain their confidence.
Confidence is also related to self-esteem and lots of things; such as relationships to
social networks, activities, and what we hear from others. Positive self-esteem is related to
factors of mental health, mattering to others, body image and physical health. On the other
hand, negative self-esteem is related to depression, health problems, and antisocial behavior.
Adolescents tend to have low self-esteem, and they easily lose their confidence. Usually their
self-esteem becomes better year by year, but girls will not tend to gain their confidence until
early adulthood.
1.2.3 Affective Filter
Above, we looked at some general ideas about confidence. Now, we will look at how
confidence is related to our learning process. Krashen (1988) mentioned the affective filter
hypothesis. Usually a language input is connected to language output through the language
4
acquisition device. The Language acquisition device is hypothetical brain mechanism which
Chomsky advocated. Humans have an innate facility to which helps them acquire language,
therefore human can acquire language.
This organ is language acquisition device. The
psychological obstacle which restricts language input during this process is the affective filter.
In other words, a learners’ emotional state affects their language acquisition. The Affective
filter prevents a language input from reaching part of the brain responsible for language
acquisition. If the affective filter is high, the amount of language input which will be sent to
language acquisition device will decrease, and then a language output will also decrease. It
occurs because learners choose what they want to receive unconsciously. It means even if
learners trying to comprehend language, the affective filter disturbs language production
unconsciously. Even if they can get input, language acquisition device does not work, so
language information will not be accumulated.
filter
input
---------- Language
acquired competence
Acquisition
Device
(Krashen, 1988)
According to Krashen, three factors affect the affective filter; motivation, anxiety and
confidence. When learners have high confidence, high motivation and low anxiety, their
affective filter is low. A low filter means the learners are more open to input, so they can
input deeper. Therefore, it is important for learners’ to gain confidence and get rid of their
anxiety in order to input language information more smoothly.
5
1.3 What is anxiety?
We looked at confidence in 1.2. In this section, we will look at the definition of
anxiety to find out what anxiety is, and we will have a look at some types of anxiety. Anxiety
gives fears to learners, so it affects the learners’ studying, especially communication. Learners
who have high anxiety tend to avoid expressing personal messages. For example, students
who have high anxiety about their writing skills tend to write short compositions because
anxiety-producing condition tend to less concrete message because of their fears, so they tend
to avoid expressing personal message. If they can overcome their anxiety, they will be able to
gain confidence, and they can learn more effectively. There are a lot of types of anxiety, but
we will focus on six types; trait anxiety, state anxiety, situation-specific anxiety,
communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation because many
students who have anxiety suffer those anxieties in their learning process. But first let us look
at various definitions of anxiety.
1.3.1 The definition of anxiety
In this section, we will look at the definition of anxiety. When we do something, it’s
not uncommon to have anxiety. Therefore, when students learn a foreign language, it’s not
strange that they have anxiety to some extent. However, there are many kinds of anxiety. We
will take a look at the definition of anxiety from varied points of view in order to know what
anxiety is clearly, especially foreign language anxiety. Here are four definitions. Some
researchers use the word “FLA”, to mean Foreign Language Anxiety.
1. Clément (1980) defined foreign language anxiety as a complex construct that deals with
learners’ psychology in terms of their feelings, self-esteem, and self-confidence.
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2. MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) defined FLA as the feeling of tension and apprehension
specifically associated with second or foreign language contexts, including speaking, listening
and learning, or the worry and negative emotional reaction arousal when learning or using a
second or foreign language (MacIntyre, 1999).
3. Zhang (2001) defined anxiety as the psychological tension that the learner goes through in
performing a learning task.
4. Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) defined FLA is “a phenomenon related to, but
distinguishable from, other specific anxieties.” (p.129)
In addition, Young (1992) explained foreign language anxiety as a complicated
psychological phenomenon peculiar to language learning. From these definitions and ideas,
we can say that anxiety, especially foreign language anxiety is one peculiar of type anxiety.
Anxiety itself is made up of subjective feelings such as worry, apprehension and fear which
are related to the autonomic nervous system. Foreign language anxiety occurs during learners’
learning process. For example, learners who have foreign language anxiety feel stressful in
classrooms, and it affects their performance. This negative feelings and worrying prevents
learners from performing successfully. Some of them are suffering from tension, evaluation
and making mistakes.
However, we cannot say indiscriminately that anxiety always causes bad or negative
effects. Sometimes learners who have anxiety can perform better than learners who have
confidence. Chastain (1975) and Kleinmann (1977) found a positive relationship between
language anxiety and second language learning achievement. However, Horwitz, Horwitz,
and Cope (1986) found that foreign language anxiety was caused by learners’ negative
reactions to foreign language learning. Those results make us confused, and Scovel (1978)
7
explained there were still others which revealed neither positive nor negative relationships.
However, if learners can lessen their anxiety and raise their confidence, they will be able to
enjoy learning more.
1.3.2 Types of anxiety
In this section, we will have a look at six types of anxiety. First, anxiety is composed
of three types of anxiety; trait anxiety, state anxiety and situation-specific anxiety. In addition,
situation- specific anxiety has three sub-types of anxiety such as communication apprehension,
test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. First of all, we will look at trait anxiety, state
anxiety and situation-specific anxiety.
Trait Anxiety
Trait anxiety is characteristics which make people feel anxiety permanently, and is a
kind of personal characteristic. People who have trait anxiety have the possibility to feel
anxiety in wide range of situations. For example, they worry about little things, they are so
irresolute that they cannot make decision or they tend to avoid trouble. This type of anxiety is
varied, and it changes depends on how they condition themselves, and how they manage their
stress and worries. People who have high levels of trait anxiety feel worry and stress easily.
This anxiety is may related to their upbringing.
State anxiety
This anxiety shows present anxiety state, so a person with state anxiety has fear of an
actual experience itself. According to Spielberger (1983), state anxiety is an apprehension
experienced at a particular moment in time as a response to a definite situation. For example,
state anxiety person fears public speaking. This type of anxiety exhibits temporary symptoms,
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so it easily changes from situation to situation and time to time, and intensity varies.
MacIntyre (1999) and Dörnyei (2005) said this is emotive reaction to the present circumstance
and is more of “moment-to-moment” experience. This anxiety influences on behavior such as
sweat, contraction and tension of muscle feeling, thirsty and rapid heartbeat.
Situation-specific anxiety
This anxiety is permanent character trait which make person feel anxiety in specific
situation. According to Ellis (1994), situation-specific anxiety is related to apprehension
unique to specific situations and events. Therefore, it changes from situation to situation.
Situation-specific anxiety is similar to state anxiety in that both are stable and peculiar. The
difference between situation-specific anxiety and state anxiety is, for example, in the case of
public speech, state anxiety person fears the action of public speech itself. On the other hand,
people with situation-specific anxiety become nervous or feel anxiety when public speaking.
Foreign language learning itself is considered as situation-specific anxiety.
Three sub-types
The other three sub-types of anxiety which derive from situation-specific anxiety.
Communication apprehension
This is a type of anxiety characterized by fear or anxiety about communicating with
people. For example, it is difficult for a learner to speak in dyads or groups (oral
communication anxiety) in English, or it is difficult to listen or learn utterances. Even if they
have advanced ideas or thoughts, this anxiety occurs because they do not have an advanced
communication skill. This type of anxiety is derived from personal knowledge that they are
not good at understand others, or not good at make themselves understood to others. Learners
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who have communication apprehension will keep quite in their English class.
Test anxiety
This is a type of performance anxiety which occurs from a fear of failure. Learners
who have test-anxiety in a foreign language class fear failing tests. Horwitz, Horwitz and
Cope (1991) mentioned that test-anxious students often put unrealistic demands on
themselves and feel that anything less than a perfect test performance means a failure for them.
This type of anxiety has the possibility to spread in language classrooms because students are
put in evaluative environments; their class performances are always evaluated by their
teachers. In addition, students who have test-anxiety tend to care about criticism from parents
and teachers so they tend to choose the tasks which they can certainly succeed in. Some
children feel test anxiety because of too many expectations or demands from their parents.
When children cannot live up to their parents’ expectations, some parents will show negative
reactions to children, and it will make children to fear failure. On the other hand, students who
do not have test-anxiety are not afraid of criticism and failing. Therefore, they can deal with
harder tasks.
Fear of negative evaluation
Students who fear negative evaluation tend to worry about evaluation from others,
and they tend to avoid evaluative situations. They tend to expect other people to evaluate
them negatively. Learners who have a fear of negative evaluation worry about evaluation and
reactions not only from their teachers, but also from other students. For example, when a
student who has fear of negative evaluation performs in foreign language class, he believes
that his teacher and other students will evaluate his performance negatively, and he cares their
reaction too much. It will affect his performance and he may not perform well. This type of
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anxiety is similar to test-anxiety, but it is not limited to test-taking situations, it may occur in
many social, evaluative situations. For example, job interviews and speaking in foreign
language class.
1.4 Topic of the thesis
Introduction
We have looked at what confidence and anxiety are. It is important for learners to
lose anxiety and gain confidence, but it is not easy to do that. Confidence is formed by past
accumulation such as what we learnt, what we experienced, and relationships with others,
psychology and our background. Anxiety is caused by their learning experiences during their
learning process. However, we do not know what exactly affects learners’ confidence and
anxiety. Of course it may depend on the person, but if we research it, we may find some
common points. In addition, if we know what kinds of activities learners usually do
with/without confidence now, it will be helpful to find out the way of how they should learn
English from now on.
Based on the above, the experiment was designed to look for answers to these
research questions.
1. What kinds of activities can learners do with confidence in English?
2. What happen when learners learn a foreign language?
3. How does confidence influence a learner’s attitude to learning a foreign language?
4. Does the studying environment affect the learner’s confidence and anxiety?
1.5 Summary
Confidence is formed by various factors, and it affects a learner’s learning style. It is
important for learners to lose anxiety and gain their confidence to improve their language skill,
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but it is not easy. Actually learners get anxiety which we saw in Chapter One during their
learning process.
In Chapter Two, we will look at the experiment that asked about learners’ confidence.
In Chapter Three, we will discuss the results of this experiment which will show about the
detail factors which affect learners’ confidence.
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Chapter Two: The Study
2.1 Introduction
In Chapter One we looked at the definition of confidence and anxiety. Confidence
helps learners to improve their language skill. It is believed that confidence is important for
learners to learn language. However, some learners have high confidence, while some learners
have low confidence in their language skills. If we know why some people lose confidence in
their language skills, it can be useful to improve their language studying.
In this chapter we will look at the results of the questionnaire about students’
confidence.
2.2 The questionnaire
2.2.1 Introduction
The aim of this research was to find out what actions students do with confidence or
without confidence, and find out what mainly develop/lose learners’ confidence. Moreover,
we will look what happen to learners when they study foreign languages.
2.2.2 Method
a) Subjects
58 female students at Notre Dame Seishin University who majored in English took part
in the study. Their grades were from second year to fourth year. Then, after that six students
who had high/low confidence were chosen; three had high confidence and another three had
low confidence. They were asked more specific questions about their learning experiences,
learning style and their thinking about studying.
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b) The questionnaire
The questionnaire consisted of 50 questions. Questions one to three were about
students’ English level. Students were asked to write their score of TOEIC or EIKEN, and
other qualifications which showed their English levels. Questions four to seven about their
confidence for four skills: reading, listening, writing and speaking. Then more 43 questions
which were about their confidence in specific situations were asked. Those questions also
imply four skills; question eight to 16 about the reading skill, questions 17 to 25 about the
writing skill, questions 26 to 39 about the speaking skill and questions 40 to 50 about the
listening skill. There are two reasons why these questions were chosen. One is to find out
what kind of actions students have or do not have confidence. Another reason is to find out
which students have high confidence or low confidence in order to find out the factors which
affect learner’s confidence. Then, some students who had high/low confidence were asked
their personal experiences about their learning individually.
c) Procedure
Firstly, questionnaire was made in both Japanese and English versions. Students got
Japanese one. The contents were divided into three sections, and second to fourth year
students got this questionnaire. Then, the data was collected and chart was made. Secondly, on
the questionnaire, students were asked to circle their level of confidence from scale one to
five. The figure was put in order for students to circle their confidence level. This graph
means that their confidence is high that it goes to the right, and their confidence is low that it
goes to the left.
low
high
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Then, the data were collected, and some students who had really high confidence and
low confidence were found. After that, they were asked individually about what happened
when they have learned English.
2.3 Results
a) Learners’ confidence
The purpose of thesis was to find out what mainly affects a learner’s confidence. In
this Chapter, we will look at the data of the questionnaire in several tables. These will be
discussed in Chapter Three.
58 students at Notre Dame Seishin University took part in the questionnaire. All of
them are female. 21 students were second year students, 16 students were third year students
and 21 students were fourth year students. The date in the table 1 shows students’ TOEIC
level. 35 people had TOEIC score.
Table 1: Students’ TOEIC level
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
(860~990)
(730~855)
(470~725)
(220~465)
(10~215)
6%
14%
71%
9%
0%
It is said that average score of university students is the first half of 500 (Group C).
Therefore, most students are around average score. However, according to this table, 20 % of
students got higher score than average.
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Table 2: What students think their English level composed to others in the same school
Much lower
than
average
Little lower
than
average
Average
Little better
than average
Much better
than average
4. Reading
15.5%
13.8%
44.8%
25.9%
0.0%
5. Listening
12.1%
19.0%
37.9%
22.4%
8.6%
6. Writing
6.9%
19.0%
56.9%
13.8%
3.4%
7. Speaking
22.8%
33.3%
31.6%
12.3%
0.0%
The data in Table 2 shows what students think their level of English composed to
others in the same school. In reading, listening and writing section, many students thought
their skill was average. However, in speaking section, most students answered their skill was
much lower/little lower than average. It shows many students do not speak with confidence.
Table 3: How confident students are in doing these things in English
8. read easy books
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
(I don’t have
(I don’t have
(I do
(I have a
(I have
any
so much
moderately)
little
much
confidence)
confidence)
confidenc
confidence
e)
)
0.0%
7.1%
23.2%
48.2%
21.4%
26.3%
38.6%
26.3%
8.8%
0.0%
10. read class textbooks
1.8%
10.5%
38.6%
43.9%
5.3%
11. read a business letter
21.1%
50.9%
24.6%
3.5%
0.0%
0.0%
1.8%
29.8%
43.9%
24.6%
33.9%
33.9%
23.2%
8.9%
0.0%
12.7%
27.3%
38.2%
18.2%
3.6%
5.5%
20.0%
43.6%
27.3%
3.6%
9. read an English
newspaper
12. read a casual e-mail
from my friend
13. read the warranty on
music player
14. read a TOEIC passage
15. read a guidebook about
the U.S.A
16
16. read a syllabus about
3.6%
7.1%
44.6%
33.9%
10.7%
17. write a diary
0.0%
18.2%
34.5%
32.7%
14.5%
18. write a business letter
43.6%
36.4%
20.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
12.7%
21.8%
43.6%
21.8%
0.0%
9.1%
30.9%
38.2%
21.8%
67.3%
21.8%
9.1%
1.8%
0.0%
45.5%
40.0%
7.3%
5.5%
1.8%
29.1%
32.7%
25.5%
9.1%
3.6%
67.3%
25.5%
3.6%
3.6%
0.0%
0.0%
1.8%
25.0%
46.4%
26.8%
0.0%
7.3%
30.9%
43.6%
18.2%
0.0%
0.0%
37.5%
44.6%
17.9%
28. talk about politics
50.9%
36.4%
12.7%
0.0%
0.0%
29. teach Japanese history
47.3%
32.7%
18.2%
1.8%
0.0%
41.8%
41.8%
12.7%
3.6%
0.0%
31. have a job interview
41.8%
29.1%
20.0%
7.3%
1.8%
32. talk about my dream
8.9%
17.9%
39.3%
23.2%
10.7%
1.8%
12.7%
43.6%
32.7%
9.1%
7.3%
30.9%
34.5%
18.2%
9.1%
16.4%
36.4%
25.5%
14.5%
7.3%
36. order food in cafe
3.6%
14.3%
33.9%
39.3%
8.9%
37. discuss today’s news
17.9%
42.9%
28.6%
8.9%
1.8%
my OC class
19. write a short essay in
my composition class
20. write a casual mail to
my friend
21. write an essay about the
Japanese economic
situation
22. write my resume
23. write an essay about a
book which I read
24. write my opinion about
nuclear power
generation
25. write an essay about
what you did yesterday
26. chat with my friends
27. talk about my plan for
today
30. discuss the problem
about global warming
33. ask the way to a
destination
34. express my opinion in
class
35. make a presentation in
class
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38. guide foreigners in my
hometown
39. give a speech at a
conference
40. understand a TOEIC
listening passage
41. understand most
western songs
42. understand TV news in
English
43. understand what my
teacher say in class
44. understand western
movies with subtitles
45. understand NHK
English TV program
46. understand what my
friends say in OC class
47. understand what’s on
the CD in OC class
9.1%
25.5%
36.4%
27.3%
1.8%
31.0%
27.6%
22.4%
13.8%
5.2%
12.1%
20.7%
34.5%
24.1%
8.6%
17.5%
38.6%
19.3%
22.8%
1.8%
26.3%
38.6%
26.3%
8.8%
0.0%
1.7%
8.6%
34.5%
44.8%
10.3%
1.8%
12.5%
28.6%
37.5%
19.6%
10.5%
33.3%
21.1%
28.1%
7.0%
0.0%
0.0%
20.7%
58.6%
20.7%
0.0%
8.8%
40.4%
35.1%
15.8%
38.6%
42.1%
14.0%
5.3%
0.0%
55.4%
26.8%
16.1%
1.8%
0.0%
34.5%
43.1%
19.0%
3.4%
0.0%
48. understand western
movies without
subtitles
49. understand Obama’s
speech
50. understand foreign
actor’s interview
without subtitles on TV
Most student answered that they had confidence what they experienced in the class such as
reading easy books, reading class books, writing a short essay in my composition class,
writing an essay about what I did yesterday, chatting with my friends, talking about my plan
for today, understanding what teachers says in class, understanding western movies with
subtitles and understanding what my friends say in OC class. They also had high confidence
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when they communicated with their friends such as reading a casual e-mail from friend and
writing casual mail to my friend. Many students took TOEIC tests, and there were no great
differences in numbers about TOEIC listening skills; 33% of students had low confidence,
34% of them were moderate and 33% of them had high confidence. However, in reading
section, just 22% of them had confidence.
On the other hand, most students did not have confidence when they used English in
business situation such as reading English newspaper, reading a business letter, writing my
resume and taking about politics and having a job interview. They also did not have
confidence to understand natural English which was used in daily life such as reading the
warranty on music player, understanding most western songs, understanding TV news in
English, understanding western movies without subtitles, understanding Obama’s speech and
understanding foreign actor’s interview without subtitles. Over 80% students answered that
they did not have confidence when they needed specific knowledge such as writing an essay
about the Japanese economic situation, writing my opinion about nuclear power generation,
teaching Japanese history and discussion today’s news and discussing the problem about
global warming.
Moreover, even what they experienced in the class, they did not have confidence in some
activities such as writing an essay about a book which I read and make a presentation in
class.
b) Learners’ studying background
Based on Table 1, some students who had high confidence and low confidence were
chosen, and asked about their background of learning English. In Japan, we usually start to
learn English when we are junior high school students, but according to the research, the time
when start to learn English was inconsistent. In addition, even students who studied English
harder than other subject, had low confidence, and even students who studied other subjects
19
such as mathematics harder than English, had high confidence in English. Therefore, there
was no relationship among time, the amount of studying and confidence. However, students
who had high confidence had been to English conversation classes individually, and students
who had low confidence went to cram school. Students who had high confidence answered
that they had chances to use English not only in conversation classes, so they mainly
experienced output-style studying. On the other hand, the students who had low confidence
answered that they mainly experienced input-style studying.
When their learning experiences were asked, students who had high confidence said
that they gained confidence through the evaluation from others, support from their teachers
and studying environment; output-style studying. On the other hand, students who had low
confidence answered they lost their confidence through their trauma, pressure and studying
environment; input-studying.
Their further studying was also asked, and all of them answered that they wanted to
study English more, or they wanted to use English for their job/dream despite their confidence
levels.
2.4 Summary
In this chapter we looked at the results of the questionnaire. We can know how
students thought about their English skill and what kind of activities they did with/without
confidence. Moreover, we saw the learning style and learning background of people who had
high confidence and low confidence in their English skill. We will discuss the results in
Chapter Three and clarify what the results mean.
20
Chapter Three: Discussion
3.1 Introduction
In Chapter One, we discussed confidence and anxiety. We saw the definition of each,
and some types of anxiety. Chapter Two, we looked at the overall data and found out what
kind of activities students do with/without confidence. Moreover, we focused on some
students who had high confidence and low confidence, and looked at their learning
experiences in order to find out what factors affect students’ confidence and anxiety. Now, we
will discuss the results from experiment.
3.2 Summary of the questionnaire results
In this chapter we will look at questionnaire results. The data were collected from 58
students from second year to fourth year in Notre Dame Seishin University. This
questionnaire was designed to find out the factors which affect students’ confidence and
anxiety. Therefore, students were asked questions about which activities they could do with
confidence and without confidence. As a result, they had confidence with what they
experienced repeatedly in class and communication with their friends.
However, they did
not have confidence with English which was used in business and what they needed specific
knowledge.
We found out some students who had high confidence and low confidence by
analyzing students’ answers. After that, they were asked about their learning experiences,
learning style and how they felt about foreign language learning. According to their answers,
their confidence and anxiety when learning a foreign language was related to their studying
environment and what they experienced in language class.
21
3.3 Discussion of the results
3.3.1 Overview
We looked at the results of the questionnaire in Chapter Two. In this section, we will
look more detail about students’ confidence.
3.3.2 The relationship between students’ English level and confidence
In Table 1, students were asked their TOEIC score to know their English level.
Usually, average score for university students is the first half of 500 (Group C). Therefore,
most students were around the average score, but according to this table, 20 % of students got
higher score than average. However, some of them did not have so much confidence but they
got high score. On the other hand, some students who had average scores had high confidence.
Therefore, we cannot see the relationship between the level of English and confidence.
3.3.3 Self evaluation of four skills
In Table 2, students were asked what they think their English level compared to
others in the same school.
In reading, listening and writing section, many students thought
their skill was average. However, in the speaking section, over 50% students answered their
skill was much lower/little lower than average. It is thought that students spend time for
reading, listening and writing in class, but time for speaking was fewer. Therefore, they were
confident of reading, listening and writing skill which they spent a lot of time in class to
acquire, but they were not confident of their speaking skill which they did not have so much
chance to practice.
3.3.4 Activities which students have confidence
According to Table 3, most students had confidence in what they experienced in the
22
class many times such as reading easy books, reading class books, writing a short essay in my
composition class, writing an essay about what I did yesterday, chatting with my friends,
talking about my plan for today, understanding what teachers says in class, understanding
western movies with subtitles and understanding what my friends say in OC class. Many
students did those activities in the class or they are still doing those activities, therefore
activities which were repeated many times will make students raise their confidence. They
also had high confidence when they communicated with their friends such as reading a casual
e-mail from friend and writing casual mail to my friend. It seems that they do not hesitate or
do not have worrying to use English when they communicate with their friends.
3.3.5 Activities which students have anxiety
According to Table 3, most students did not have confidence when they used English
in business situation such as reading English newspaper, reading a business letter, writing my
resume, taking about politics and having a job interview. It may because business English has
lots of technical term, and university students do not have chances to use it. Those factors will
lose students’ confidence. They also did not have confidence to understand natural English
which was used in daily life such as reading the warranty on music player, understanding
most western songs, understanding TV news in English, understanding western movies
without subtitles, understanding Obama’s speech and understanding foreign actor’s interview
without subtitles. It may also be because English which is used in daily life has lots of
difficult words which university students do not know, and it might have made them lost their
confidence. Over 80% of the students answered that they did not have confidence when they
needed specific knowledge such as writing an essay about the Japanese economic situation,
writing my opinion about nuclear power generation, teaching Japanese history and
discussion today’s news and discussing the problem about global warming. Some students
23
will not be able to write or discuss those activities even Japanese. They may need some
technical term to do that, and it may affect their confidence. Moreover, they even did not have
confidence in some actions such as writing an essay about a book which I read and make a
presentation in class which they experienced in the class. This data showed students were not
confident when they express their opinions to others in class or in ceremonial situations, and
they also did not have confidence to do productive activities.
3.3.6 Factors which affects students confidence and anxiety
After the data about students’ confidence were collected, some students who had high
confidence and low confidence were found. Then, they were asked their learning experiences
individually. According to their answers, there were some differences between students who
had high confidence and low confidence.
Firstly, most of the students went to cram school. Students who had high confidence
also went to English conversation school. Students who had low confidence mainly focused
on English for entrance examinations, but students who had confidence focused on both
entrance examinations and daily conversations. They were also asked whether they studied
English harder than other subjects or not, but there was no relationship between confidence
and the amount of time of studying.
Secondly, students who had low confidence answered they wanted to use English in
the future, but they did not have clear purposes. On the other hand, students who had
confidence answered they also wanted to use English in the future, and they had clear
purposes. One of them answered she wanted to use it in her business, and other two students
answered they wanted to use English for their private goals such as volunteering in other
countries.
Thirdly, they were asked about input and productive studying. Students who had
24
confidence answered they mostly experienced productive studying while students who had
low confidence answered they experienced receptive studying. One student who had low
confidence studied abroad when she was a junior high school student, and she said she did
productive studying when she was abroad. However, her learning style changed to receptive
after she went back to Japan.
Fourthly, students were asked how they behaved when they succeeded or failed in
English. When they succeeded, in the case of the students who had confidence said it led to
motivate them to study English, so they studied English harder and could be positive to use
English. They also felt they could get confidence. On the other hand, students who had low
confidence said they were glad when they succeeded, and were just satisfied with results.
They did not care about their success any more. When they failed, some of them answered
they were mortified by their failure, and they studied hard. However, some students
answered they accept the results, and did not do anything. There were no differences
between students who had high confidence and low confidence.
Lastly, they were asked what affected their confidence. Students who had confidence
answered productive learning and a positive evaluation from others made them confident. One
of them said a teacher and other students asked her to teach English. At that time she felt that
others relied on her, so she could have confidence. Other two students answered they usually
had chance to use English, so it made them confidence in their English skill. One of them
answered when she used English, she could make understood herself even junior high school
level of English. Therefore, she thought she could communicate with foreigners by using what
she learnt in class.
On the other hand, students who had low confidence answered that their trauma and
pressure from others made them feel anxiety, and lose their confidence. As already mentioned
above, one student studied abroad when she was junior high school, but that experience made
25
her lose her confidence. She studied English only one year in a Japanese junior high school
and went abroad, so at that time she thought what she learnt in Japan was no use. In school,
she could not keep up with even beginner class, and she had difficulty to communicate with
other students. Some teachers gave her advice, but some teachers looked like disgust when
she asked questions after classes. She said even if someone praised her, she thought her
English skill was not enough. Other students said that she always felt pressure from her
mother. Another said she always felt pressure when she used English in class.
3.4 Answering the research questions
In this chapter, we looked at the result of the questionnaire. The research questions
were;
1. What kinds of activities can learners do with confidence in English?
Students were confident of what they experienced in class many times. In addition,
they were confidence when they communicated with their friends. However, students could
not do activities with confidence what they did not do so much in class. Their experiences will
make them gain confidence. In addition, when they needed specific knowledge, or the
situation which technical words were used, they lost their confidence.
2. What happens when learners learn a foreign language?
Many students ran up against a wall during their learning process. Some students
could not get along with their English teachers, and felt that studying English was not
interesting. Many students said that they could not catch up with the class, or had low scores
on tests, and those things demotivated them. On the other hand, some students had
opportunities to use English not for exams, but for communication such as in games, talking
with foreigners, staying abroad. Those things make them feel enjoyable, and they got
26
confidence when they could communicate with foreigners.
3. How does confidence affect the learner’s attitude to learning a foreign
language?
When students gain confidence, they will be more positive. Students who were asked
questions answered confidence motivated them to study English. Confidence also made them
feel that what they learnt was right, and they should continue to study.
4. Does the studying environment affect a learner’s confidence and anxiety?
The studying environment, especially teachers, and what they did in class affects
them. If teacher can support and praise them, and the class is enjoyable for students, it will
lead students to gain confidence. On the other hand, pressure from others, trauma and one
sided learning style will lead students to lose their confidence. The class which is not only for
examination, but also for communication will be needed. It is important to make students feel
enjoyable to learn English. Therefore, it is important to use not just textbooks, but also some
materials such as games, computers, songs, and time to use English as output.
3.5 Implications
We looked at the results of the questionnaire in Chapter Two and discussed it in this
chapter. We saw the results of the data showing the students’ confidence. Confidence is
important for learners to improve their foreign language skill. It motivates them to learn, and
it will lead good elements to achieve their goals. On the other hand, some learners have
anxiety during their learning process. If learners can lose anxiety, it will lead them to gain
confidence, and too much anxiety is not good for learners. As we saw in Chapter One, there
are many types of anxiety, and it works on various situations.
27
According to Table 3, we can see that students usually had confidence when they did
activities which they experienced in class many times. On the other hand, students did not
have confidence when they did activities which needed specific knowledge, what they did not
do so many times in class, or activities which were too difficult for them. Today, students are
required to study English, but it focuses on entrance examinations. Therefore, students
learning style in the class is mainly cramming knowledge into their head from textbooks.
Therefore, students were confident of most activities which is helpful for examinations. Of
course this way is useful and important to master the fundamental of English, but teachers
should give students opportunities to learn English which is used in daily life. In addition,
teachers make students feel enjoyable to study English. It is because when the questionnaire
was conducted by students who had high confidence and high anxiety, most of them answered
that teachers and what they learnt in class affected them greatly. Teachers who supported them
and helped impressed them. In addition, when teachers did activities which were not for
entrance examinations such as games, communication with native speakers, free talking and
learning English by computer made them enjoyable. It is important for teachers to not only
focus on the entrance examinations, but also make students experience some activities using
English. If students can learn English for both examination and daily communication, what
students learn in class will be helpful even after they graduate university. It is also important
for teacher to evaluate properly and support them. Students will have some difficulties during
their learning process. Some students try to avoid learn foreign languages. However, if
teachers can support students enthusiastically, and praised their efforts, it will motivate
students and help them to gain confidence. Students also need to make efforts; they need to
study English not only for examination. Even if we live in Japan, we have chances to
communicate with foreigners. We have lots of way to learn English not only from textbook in
classroom; some learners may join international community, or some may go to conversation
28
class. They can experience two-way learning by those activities, and they can learn daily
conversation. If they can feel enjoyment to learn English itself, their motivation will change,
and they may be able to raise their confidence.
3.6 Limitations
There are some limitations with this experiment that we have to aware of.
Firstly, this experiment was conducted by second to fourth year university students.
If students were also chosen from other grades such as first year of university students, high
school students or junior high school students, we could have find more general idea of
confidence and anxiety.
Secondly, only females were asked. As we saw in Chapter One, there are differences
between males and females about their feelings of confidence. If the experiment had been
conducted with both males and females, we could find some differences in their learning style,
feelings of studying foreign language or factors which affect their confidence.
Thirdly, this questionnaire was given only in Notre Dame Seishin University.
Because teachers, parents, what students learnt in school and the students’ experiences affect
students’ confidence and anxiety, the questionnaire should have been conducted more widely.
Lastly, the number of the students who were asked their learning style in order to find
out factors affecting their learning was too few. The experiment asked only 58 people. By
analyzing the data, we found some students who had low confidence, but there were only
three students who had high confidence. If questionnaire had been given to more people, we
could have found more students who had high confidence. Then, we could see more general
idea about factors affecting students’ confidence and anxiety.
29
3.7 Further research
There are a few things which we can research in the future. Firstly, the questionnaire
was taken in only one university and one department. If there is a chance to ask the same
questions, the questionnaire could have been given in other schools, not only in university but
also high school or junior high school, and both female and male. Then, we may find more
general idea, or any new findings.
Secondly, questionnaire could have been given to other types of people who have
confidence and anxiety. There are some people who had anxiety in the past, but have high
confidence now, or people who had confidence in the past but have anxiety now. There should
be something which affects them. If we can know the factors, it will be helpful for people who
have high anxiety to overcome it and gain confidence.
3.8 Conclusion
We need to understand the relationship between confidence, anxiety and foreign
language learning. When learners have confidence, they can have motivation, and study
effectively. However, when learners have anxiety, it is hard for them to keep high motivation,
and they lose confidence. Therefore, learners need to gain confidence and lose anxiety.
Learners experience lots of thing during their foreign language learning, and it will affect their
confidence and anxiety. Even if learners have difficulties, teachers should co-operate patiently
and praise them. When learners overcome difficulties and are evaluated their effort properly, it
will lead them to gain confidence. Moreover, if learners can communicate with others by
using what they learnt in class, it will motivate them. In addition, students should learn
English not only from textbooks, or not only for examination. If they can enjoy learning
English itself, it will helpful for them study English and lose foreign language learning
anxiety. Therefore, they should experience both input and output studying equally. When
30
learners can feel that studying and using English is interesting for them, this is important step
for them to raise confidence and improve their English skill.
31
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ウィキペディア、『self-confidence』 Retrieved August 7, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-confidence
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='情意フィルター仮説%20自信'
34
Appendix A. The questionnaire. English version
Student number
Name
Please write down your English level.
1. TOEIC:
points
2. EIKEN:
3. Others:
What do you think your level of English is composed to others in the same school?
Choose one and write ●.
Worse than average
Average
Better than average
4. Reading
5. Listening
6. Writing
7. Speaking
How confident are you in doing these things in English? Please choose one and write ●. The
following figures means that your confidence is high that it goes to the right and your
confidence is low that it goes to the left.
e.g.) I’m confident about my ability in English
to write a diary.
low
35
high
I’m confident about my ability in English to……
8. read easy books
9. read an English newspaper
10. read class textbooks
11. read a business letter
12. read a casual e-mail from my friend
13. read the warranty on music player
14. read a TOEIC passage
15. read a guidebook about the U.S.A
16. read a syllabus about my OC class
17. write a diary
18. write a business letter
19. write a short essay in my composition
class
20. write a casual mail to my friend
21. write an essay about
the Japanese economic
situation
22. write my resume
23. write an essay about a book which I read
24. write my opinion about nuclear
power generation
25. write an essay about what you did
yesterday
36
26. chat with my friends
27. talk about my plan for today
28. talk about politics
29. teach Japanese history
30. discuss the problem about global warming
31. have a job interview
32. talk about my dream
33. ask the way to a destination
34. express my opinion in class
35. make a presentation in class
36. order food in cafe
37. discuss today’s news
38. guide foreigners in my hometown
39. give a speech at a conference
40. understand a TOEIC listening passage
41. understand most western songs
42. understand TV news in English
43. understand what my teacher says
in class
44. understand western movies with subtitles
45. understand NHK English TV program
46. understand what my friends say in OC
class
47. understand what’s on the CD in OC class
37
48. understand western movies without
subtitles
49. understand Obama’s speech
50. understand foreign actor’s interview
without subtitles on TV
38
Appendix B. Japanese version
学籍番号
名前
あなたの現在の英語の能力を教えてください。
1. TOEIC のスコア:
点
2. 英語検定:
級取得
3. その他
英語の資格:
以下のスキルにおいて、あなたの英語力のレベルは、学内の他の生徒と比べてどのくらいだと思
いますか。一つだけ選んで●を書いてください。
平均より下
平均
平均より上
4. Reading
5. Listening
6. Writing
7. Speaking
英語で次の行動を行う場合の、あなたの自信の高さ・低さを教えてください。
下のグラフは、右にいくほど自信が高く、左にいくほど自信が低いことを表しています。
例)
日記を書く
低
8. 簡単な本を読む
9. 英字新聞を読む
10. 授業で使う教科書を読む
39
高
11. ビジネスレターを読む
12. 友達からのメールを読む
13. ミュージックプレーヤーの保証書を読む
14. TOEIC の Reading セクションの長文を読む
15. アメリカ旅行のガイドブックを読む
16. OC のクラスに関するシラバスを読む
17. 日記を書く
18. ビジネスレターを書く
19. 英作文のクラスで短い作文を書く
20. 友達にメールを送る
21. 日本の経済状況についての作文を書く
22. 履歴書を書く
23. 読書感想文を書く
24. 原子力発電についてのあなたの考えを書く
25. 昨日したことについて書く
26. 友達とおしゃべりをする
27. 今日の予定について話す
28. 政治について話す
29. 日本の歴史を教える
30. 地球温暖化について話し合う
31. 面接をする
32. 将来の夢について話す
33. 目的地への行き方を尋ねる
34. 授業中に自分の意見を述べる
35. プレゼンテーションをする
40
36. カフェで注文をする
37. 今日のニュースについて話し合う
38. あなたの地元を案内する
39. スピーチをする
40. TOEIC の Listening セクションを理解する
41. 洋楽の大部分を理解する
42. 英語のニュースを理解する
43. 先生が授業中に言っていることを理解する
44. 字幕付きの洋画を理解する
45. NHK の英語の番組を理解する
46. OC で友達が言っていることを理解する
47. OC で CD が言っていることを理解する
48. 字幕無しの洋画を理解する
49. オバマ大統領の演説を理解する
50. 字幕無しで外国人俳優のインタビューを理解する
41