Listening Anxiety in EFL Students at Indonesia University

Chapter I

Introduction

1.1. Background of the study

Before proposing this research, preliminary research was conducted by the researcher towards varsity students of EFL in Indonesia University of Education. Respondents of this research were English Education students who are in their senior year, three respondents from each of two classes were chosen randomly, therefore six senior varsity students of English Education major participated in the preliminary research. From the preliminary research, it was found that five students among six who became respondents of the preliminary research have listening anxiety issue.

According to C. D. Spielberge (1983 cited Horwitz, E., Horwitz, B., & Cope, J. 1986) Anxiety is the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system. Joiner (1986 cited Al-Sawalha 2016) defined listening anxiety as “a negative listening self-concept.”

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The researcher believes that this is a case that needs a great deal of attention because varsity students who are majoring in English Education and in their senior year are supposed to master English fluently to some extent that listening anxiety cannot be in their way.

1.2. Statement of Problems

This research is conducted to answer questions :

1. To what extent do EFL students of Indonesia University of Education experience listening anxiety?
2. What is the cause of listening anxiety issue among EFL students of Indonesia University of Education?
3. How does listening anxiety affect the language proficiency of the EFL students?

1.3. Purpose of Research

Having the background of the research stated above, this research aims to:

1. Investigate to what extent does EFL students of the Indonesia University of Education experiencing listening anxiety.
2. Investigate the reason of why does listening anxiety issue among EFL students of Indonesia University of Education thrives.
3. Investigate how does listening anxiety affects the language proficiency of the EFL students.

1.4. Scope of the Research

The research will focus on investigating the reason behind listening anxiety issue that senior English Education students of Indonesia University of Education are having, how it affects their language proficiency, and to what extent does the students experience listening anxiety.

1.5. Significance of the Research

The result of this research is expected to give contributions for those who have a role in the related field.

The significances of this research are:

1. Theoretically, the result of this research is expected to add a certain deal of information concerning listening anxiety on senior-level English Education varsity students, how it affects their language proficiency, and to what extent do the students experience it.
2. Practically, the result of this research is expected to be of aid to future researchers who are intending to further study listening anxiety on senior-level English Education varsity students, how it affects their language proficiency, and to what extent do the students experience it.

1.6. Clarification of Key Terms

In this research, there are terms that need to be clarified to avoid misunderstanding concerning the terms used. The terms which need to be clarified are:

1. Listening skill

According to Richard (1985, p.51 cited Al-Sawalha 2016) listening is defined as “the process of understanding speech in a second or foreign language”. Listening in this research is considered as an element in the study of language that is needed to be mastered by the students in order to fully master the language.

2. Listening anxiety

Joiner (1986 cited Al-Sawalha 2016) defined listening anxiety as “a negative listening self-concept.” Listening anxiety in this research is considered as a hindrance that caused students to develop themselves slowly in the mastery of listening skill.

3. Students/University Students

According to Cambridge Dictionary, a student is a person who is learning at a college or university. In this research, varsity students are considered as people who are enrolling a higher education level in a higher education institution and majoring in English Education study.

Chapter II

Literature Review

2.1 Listening & Teaching Listening

2.1.2. Listening Skill

According to Richard (1985, p.51 cited Al-Sawalha 2016) listening is defined as “the process of understanding speech in a second or foreign language”. According to Howatt and Dakin (1974 as cited in Islam, 2012), listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying.

2.1.2. Listening Comprehension

Listening comprehension is the different processes of understanding the spoken language (Ahmadi, 2016). understanding the spoken language include knowing speech sounds, comprehending the meaning of individual words, and understanding the syntax of sentences (Nadig, 2013 as cited in Pourhosein Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016 as cited in Ahmadi, 2016). According to Nadig (2013), Listening comprehension encompasses the multiple processes involved in understanding and making sense of spoken language. These include recognizing speech sounds, understanding the meaning of individual words, and/or understanding the syntax of sentences in which they are presented. Listening comprehension can also involve the prosody with which utterances are spoken (which can, e.g., change intended meaning from a statement to a question), and making relevant inferences based on context, real-world knowledge, and speaker-specific attributes (e.g., to what information the speaker has access and about what he/she is likely to be talking).

2.1.3. Teaching Listening

In accordance to Morley & Lawrence (1972), there are six criteria that havve been made in order to guide making of lessons, these aspects are able to carry out simple or sophisticated listening tasks, but not clouding the possibility for the criteria to be used in any other skill area, these are the criteria:

1. Lessons should be set with a definite goals and sub-goals.
2. Lessons require students’ overt participation by demanding students to give immediate written responses.
3. Lessons should be well-structured in order to make students aware of what, where, and how they should perform the lesson.
4. All of the lessons should guide students toward disciplined listening-self-discipllined concentration on the task.
5. Lessons should put more stress to conscious memory work with special attention to lengthen memory span and immediate recall.
6. Lessons should focus on teaching the students instead of testing the students’ ability.

2.2. Anxiety & Listening Anxiety

2.2.1. Anxiety

Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure. People with anxiety disorders usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may avoid certain situations out of worry. They may also have physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, dizziness or a rapid heartbeat According to C. D. Spielberge (1983 cited Horwitz, E., Horwitz, B., & Cope, J. 1986) Anxiety is the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system.

2.2.2. Listening Anxiety

Joiner (1986 cited Al-Sawalha 2016) defined listening anxiety as “a negative listening self-concept.” “Listening comprehension anxiety can undermine speech production because, in order to interact verbally, the listener must first understand what is being said” Vogely (1998: 68, Capan & Karaca 2012).

Al-Sawalha (2016) have conducted the research on listening anxiety towards undergraduate Jordanian EFL students at Jerash University, in his research he was focused on finding out the extent of the students experiencing listening anxiety, the way listening anxiety affecting their listening process in their major, and the students’ perceived methods in reducing their listening anxiety. There are some recommendations for the educators to: First, introduce more learner-centered activities in order to boost students’ confidence by allowing them to decide what to learn and serve the purpose of a teacher as a facilitator, Second, teachers should focus on teaching listening as skill rather than for the sake of meeting examination requirements, and Third, teachers should be more confident to experimenting on using new methods of teaching.

Chapter III

Methodology

This chapter presents research design, research subject, data collection, data analysis, and organization of the paper.

3.1. Research Design

This research will be using mixed method design, specifically explanatory sequential design. The research will be conducted by collecting the quantitative data and qualitative data separately, with the latter form of data collection help explaining the result of the former form of data collection (Cresswel, 2012).

The research will be conducted by first collecting quantitative data by using a questionnaire of FLLAS (Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale) (Kim, 2000cited in Kim, 2005). The scale consists of 33 items scored on a five-point Likert scale, the less the score means the lower listening anxiety that one has, the higher the score means the higher listening anxiety that one has. This questionnaire will be given to the research subjects, which will be chosen randomly, via an online form. After the quantitative data have been acquired from the subjects, the data will be processed to determine which aspects that need to be followed up on the next data collecting session. Once the quantitative data have been collected, and aspects to follow up on the qualitative data collection have been determined, then the qualitative data collection will begin by doing a one-on-one interview with each subject.

3.2. Data Resources

Participants of this research will be chosen from the same group as the participants of previous preliminary research. The participants will be chosen from senior students of English Education major of Indonesia University of Education.

3.3. Data Collection

In order to obtain the necessary data, the researcher will use a questionnaire and interview.

a. Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a form used in survey design that participants in a study complete and return to the researcher (Cresswel, 2012). This research will use FLLAS (Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale) (Kim, 2000 as cited in Kim, 2005). The scale consists of 33 items scored on a five-point Likert scale.

b. Interview

According to Cresswel (2012), An interview survey is a form on which the researcher records answers supplied by the participant in the study. It was further stated by Creswell (2012), that the researcher asks a question from an interview guide, listens for answers or observes behavior, and records responses on the survey. The interview will be conducted after the questionnaire results have been processed by the researcher.

3.4. Data Analysis

In this research, the data from FLLAS (Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale) (Kim, 2000) questionnaire that will be given to the subjects at the first phase of data collection will be analysed by using descriptive statistics method. According to Cresswel (2012), Descriptive Statistics is a method that indicate general tendencies in the data (mean, mode, median), the spread of scores (variance, standard deviation, and range), or a comparison of how one score relates to all others (z scores, percentile rank).

After the data have been obtained from the first phase of data collecting, and processed to find out the aspects that needs highlight and follow up, interview will be conducted to the subjects of the research. The result of interview will be analysed using descriptive analysis method.

References:

1. Capan, Seyit Ahmet, and Mehmet Karaca. “A Comparative Study of Listening Anxiety and Reading Anxiety.” Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 70 (2013): 1360-373. Web.
2. Creswell, John W. Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2012. Print.
3. Horwitz, E. K., Horwiz, M. B., Cope J. “Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety.” The Modern Language Journal 70 ii (1986). Web.
4. Islam, M. N. “An Analysis on How to Improve Tertiary EFL Students’ Listening Skill of English”. Journal of Studies in Education 2.2 (2012). Web.
5. Kim, J. “The Reliability and Validity of a Foregn Language Listening” Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics 5.2 pp. 213-235 (2005): 213.
6. Marsh, Joanne, and Gill Evans. “Generating Research Income: Library Involvement in Academic Research.” Library and Information Research 36.113 (2012): 48-61. 2013. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
7. Morley, H. Joan, and Mary S. Lawrence. “The Use Of Films In Teaching English As A Second Language.” Language Learning 22.1. Web.
8. Nadig, A. (2013). Listening Comprehension. Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Literacy-Listening Comprehension. 1743-1744. Web.
9. “Student.” Def. 1. dictionary.cambridge.org. Cambridge Dictionary, 14 January 2019 Accessed. Web.
10. Vogely, A. J. (1998). Listening Comprehension anxiety: Students’ reported sources and solutions. Foreign Language Annals, 31(1), 67-80.