Vol.

5 March 2013 International Peer Reviewed Journal

Print ISSN 2243-8327 · Online ISSN 2244-0429
International Peer Reviewed Journal
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7718/iamure.v5i1.622
This Journal is produced by IAMURE Multidisciplinary Research,
an ISO 9001:2008 certified by the AJA Registrars Inc.

Apprehension in Language Learning

Anxiety as Significant Correlate
of Oral Performance in English
of College Freshmen
ELDEN D. ORBETA
ORCID No. 0000-0002-4470-1250
ELDENDORTEGA@gmail.com
University of Mindanao
Davao City, Philippines

ARIEL E. SAN JOSE

ORCID No. 0000-0002-3117-7728
arielsanjose74@gmail.com
University of Mindanao
Davao City, Philippines

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted to understand the language learning anxieties and how
these affect students’ speaking performance. It also attempted to give clarifications
on the conflicting researches on the relationship between language anxiety and oral
performance. Data was collected among 150 college freshmen enrolled in a semestral
six-unit English course at the University of Mindanao, Panabo Campus. Using the
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scales (FLCAS) by Howritz, Howritz, and
Cope (1986) and standardized telephone conversation activity test to determine the
language anxiety and oral performance of respondents respectively, the researchers
found that language anxiety specifically apprehension had an effect on oral performance
in pronunciation, grammar, comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary while tension
impinged grammar. However, results generally revealed no significant relationship
between language learning anxiety and oral performance. It is noteworthy to point
out that tension, nervousness, and worry do not affect respondents’ oral performance.
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The researchers attributed this result to the respondents’ awareness of their weaknesses
in the spoken English, to the length of time they were exposed in learning the English
language and to the type of learning environment the respondents had.

KEYWORDS

Education, language learning anxiety, oral performance, College Freshmen

students, descriptive-correlational design, University of Mindanao, Davao City,
Philippines

INTRODUCTION

Speaking is an important skill to be developed to attain effective communication

in either mother tongue language or second language learning. However, in academic
context, increasing students’ ability in speaking remains crucial among language
instructors (Boonkit, 2010). It is a common scenario in the classroom that students
get nervous whenever speaking infront of their classmates. Students are afraid that
they could not respond appropriately or correctly in front of their classmates. Their
peers would laugh at them if their speaking performance was poor (Chan and Wu,
2004). On the other hand, though Filipinos are known as prominent in speaking the
English language compared to other Asian countries, it was quite alarming that just
recently Filipinos have failed to keep the status. Dramatic decrease of competence in
the English language oral skills was reported. There was a big drop in the number of
Filipinos who could not read, write, speak and think in English.
It is therefore timely that this study is conducted to understand the language
learning anxieties and how these affect students’ speaking performance. The
researcher understood that literature on language anxiety in learning foreign language
had conflicting results. This study attempts to give clarifications on the consistency of
the relationship between language anxiety and oral performance.
This study was conducted among 150 freshmen college students of the University
of Mindanao – Panabo Campus. These respondents were chosen because it is at this
stage that spoken English is rigidly used. Morever, San Jose (2011) found that college
freshmen have comparatively poor speaking proficiency.

FRAMEWORK

This study was anchored on Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety developed

by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986). The theory averred that anxiety is a

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multifaceted factor. This anxiety can be both a  cause  and a  consequence  of poor
language performance. This anxiety is one of the most accepted interference to
hinder learning and performance in psychology and education. This research is
also founded at Bresnihan and Stoops (1996) who postulated that one of the most
difficult challenges in teaching a foreign or second language is finding ways to help
students improve their oral fluency. This is true in countries where students generally
share a common mother tongue and have little or no exposure to English outside the
classroom.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

This study aimed to determine the significance of the relationship between

language learning anxiety and oral performance in English among College freshmen
students of University of Mindanao Panabo Campus.

METHODOLOGY

The study was conducted at the University of Mindanao – Panabo Campus. The
respondents were 150 college freshmen enrolled in a six-unit English course. This
six-unit English course is uniquely for the University of Mindanao students; hence,
all Basic English courses (English 101, 102, 201 and 202) are taken for one semester
in every day basis or 108 hours. Moreover, using the Slovin Formula, the researcher
chose the respondents randomly from the 240 freshmen enrolees. The researcher
chose the respondents in the assumption that these new students were in their
transition or adjustment period. This means that these students were apprehensive,
uneasy, worried, and nervous to the new environment. Lee (N.D.) concluded in his
study that most of the English Foreign Language (EFL) freshmen Asian students have
some trepidation towards test and communication anxiety while in learning English
they were not confident enough to speak freely. In other study among freshmen
Iranian EFL learners, Yamat and Bidabadi (2012) found that the participants felt
anxious and nervous while learning the language skills in English.
Additionally, this study employed the descriptive-correlational survey method.
This method finds new truths which may have different forms such as increased
quality of knowledge, a new generalization or a new law, and an increased insight into
factors which are operating the discovery of a causal relationship (Calmorin, 1995).
Moreover, descriptive method was appropriate, for it deals with the descriptions of
language learning anxiety among college freshmen.

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The researchers used two sets of questionnaire in gathering data. The Foreign
Language Classroom Anxiety Scales (FLCAS) of Howritz, Howritz and Cope (1986)
which determined and measured the language anxiety of the respondents. This
questionnaire comprised 33 items and with tension, apprehension, nervousness and
worry as indicators.
The second set of questionnaire was the standardized simulated telephone
conversation activity test. This test determined the respondents’ oral performance
using pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension as indicators.
Some parts of the test were modified to suit the students’ level of understanding.
In scoring the students’ oral performance, the researcher used the standard rating
instrument on language proficiency in speaking and understanding English developed
by Dr. David P. Harris.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Significance of the Relationship between Language Learning Anxiety and Oral

Performance of the Respondents

Shown in Table 1 is the significance of the relationship between language learning

anxiety and oral performance. The data exemplify that the overall computed r-value
of language learning anxiety versus oral performance is 0.133 with the probability
value of 0.105. This result shows no significant relationship between the two variables
among the freshmen students. This finding contradicted the earlier Processing
Efficiency theory of Eysenck and Calvo (1992) which postulated that worry and
other task-irrelevant cognitive activities associated with anxiety always impair the
quality of performance. The result also negated the findings of MacIntyre and
Gardner (1994 & 2001) which assumed that anxiety causes cognitive interference
in performing specific and Woodrow’s (2006) which indicated that second language
speaking anxiety is a significant predictor of oral achievement.
The data also showed the computed r-value of language learning anxiety and
grammar at 0.165 with the p-value of 0.044. This result reveals a significant correlation
between language learning anxiety and the grammar among the respondents. This
implies that learners have a remarkable high level of language learning anxiety; and
their grammar construction is the most affected. This result validated MacIntyre and
Gardner (1994 & 2001) who stressed the significant correlations between a specific
measure of language anxiety and performance on a grammar and vocabulary learning
task among second language learners.

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On the other hand, results revealed there is a correlation between apprehension

and the oral performance of the participants  such as pronunciation, grammar,
comprehension, fluency and the vocabulary. This is indicated by the computed r-value
of 0.256 with the p-value of 0.002. This implies that if the student has a notable
level of apprehension, his/her oral performance will be much distressed. Stephenson
(2006) established that students literally suffer in silence from facets of language
anxiety, such as communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation. He
found that students admitted that they had memory failures and mental blocks when
trying to speak in English not necessarily to lack of knowledge, but to a habitual
lapse of linguistic faculties associated with apprehensiveness. Moreover, this result
confirmed Na (2007) that communicative apprehension has been regarded as one
of the most important affective factors that influence second language acquisition;
Toth (2008) found that communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation,
and test anxiety are all important elements which constitute the construct of foreign
language anxiety; SubaGi (2010) averred that the main sources of students’ anxiety
in oral practice are personal apprehensions, teachers’ manner, teaching procedures,
and previous experience. Additionally, Horwitz (2010) noted that there is a tendency
of language classrooms to promote communicative apprehensions and of these is
negative evaluation (Ferdous, 2012) which makes learners get discouraged, lose faith
in their abilities, escape from participating in classroom activities, and even give up
the effort to learn a language well. Considering all these findings, the researcher
believed that apprehension affects freshmens’ oral performance because of the
nature of the environment in the classroom. For one, the University of Mindanao
implemented an open admission policy. This means that everyone was admitted for
enrolment without the rigorous placement test; thus, making the entire classrooms
heterogenous. As a result, anxiety, uneasiness, worry, and concerns among students
were high. Moreover, college freshmen were apprehensive of their ability to speak
because they had comparatively poor speaking proficiency (San Jose, 2011). They
feared that their classmates might laughed at them because of their inappropriate
diction, wrong grammar, or (San Jose, 2012) mispronunciation of words which was
the most common embarrassing incidents.
Lastly, the table showed the computed correlation value of tension and grammar
obtained is 0.161 with the p-value of 0.049. This shows that there is a significant
relationship between language learning anxiety and oral performance. This further
indicates that learners’ high level of tension affects their grammar production. This
affirmed the concept of MacIntyre and Gardner (1994 & 2001) that there is a significant
correlation between a specific measure of language anxiety and performance on a
vocabulary and grammar learning task among second language learners. Moreover,

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Kitano (2001) found that as the anxiety level is higher learners perceived himself less
competent in speaking the language. Interestingly, tension and grammar abililty is
not only limited to undergraduate learners. Cajkler and Hislam (2010) affirmed that
although postgraduate learners had a significant amount of grammatical knowledge,
they felt considerable anxiety about their level of understanding when they entered
training

Table 1. Significance of the relationship between language learning anxiety

and oral performance of the respondents

Independent Dependent Variable

Variable (Oral Performance)
(Language Learn- Compre-
ing Anxiety) Pronunciation Grammar Fluency Vocabulary Overall
hension
Tension:
r-value 0.106 0.161 0.159 0.122 0.108 0.143
p-value 0.199 0.049* 0.053 0.137 0.189 0.080

Apprehension:
r-value 0.224 0.261 0.218 0.243 0.226 0.256
p-value 0.006* 0.007* 0.007* 0.003* 0.005* 0.002*

Nervousness:
r-value 0.002 0.063 0.015 0.018 0.044 0.001
p-value 0.980 0.444 0.860 0.824 0.593 0.988

Worry:
r-value 0.032 0.045 0.053 0.005 0.007 0.025
p-value 0.698 0.584 0.520 0.950 0.929 0.761

Overall:
r-value 0.111 0.165 0.139 0.107 0.088 0.133
p-value 0.175 0.044* 0.091 0.194 0.282 0.105
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

CONCLUSIONS

This research found that language anxiety specifically apprehension affected

pronunciation, grammar, comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary while tension
influenced grammar. However, results generally revealed no significant relationship
between language learning anxiety and oral performance. It is noteworthy to point

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out that tension, nervousness and worry of the respondents do not affect their oral
performance. The researchers attributed that this result to the respondents’ awareness
of their weaknesses in the spoken English, to the length of time they were exposed
in learning the English language and to the type of learning environment the
respondents had.

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