Communication Apprehension of Chinese ESL Students

Barley Shuk-Yin Mak Language Centre

Hong Kong Baptist University

Cynthia White Dept. of Linguistics and SLT,

Massey University, New Zealand

Abstract

Anxiety research in language learning has been carried out largely with English-speaking foreign language learners of Indo-European languages, and, more recently, of Japanese. This article reports the findings of a study into the sources of one type of language learning anxiety, known as communication apprehension (CA), among Chinese ESL students in New Zealand secondary schools. The relative importance of a number of sources of CA (educational, social and cultural) is investigated by means of interviews and a ranking exercise. In addition, a questionnaire and classroom observation session explore the sources of CA in relation to certain in-class practices, such as questioning, voluntary speaking and pair work Results indicate that the language distance between Chinese and English contributed strongly to CA among Chinese ESL students. Within the classroom, an emphasis on voluntary speaking, insufficient preparation for speaking and fear of negative evaluation were important sources of CA. The article concludes with a number of suggestions for future avenues of research into CA and language learning anxiety.

Introduction

In recent years, the number of Chinese-speaking ESL students in New Zealand secondary schools has increased dramatically. This has led to a concern on the part of teachers that among these students, there is a sizable proportion who have limited proficiency in English and who are not accustomed to the norms of a New Zealand classroom (Syme 1995). The predominant participant structures of the classroom require students to take part in class discussions, to debate, to speak voluntarily and to contribute to

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lessons through the asking and answering of questions. In these contexts, skills in exploratory learning are emphasised and students are expected to develop exploratory learning skills through such means as interaction with peers. These approaches are alien to many Chinese students who are used to teacher-centred classrooms with a transmission model of learning (Kirkpatrick & Prescott 1995). Sources of anxiety about speaking among Chinese students who face the challenge of learning in a second language in ways which are unfamiliar to them are the subject of this article.

Anxiety, that is a state of being uneasy or apprehensive about what might happen, has been reported to be common in foreign language classrooms (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope 1986; Samimy & Tabuse 1992; Young 1992). Among foreign language students, speaking in class is frequently cited as anxiety-producing (e.g. Aida 1994; Price 1991). Such performance anxiety is situation-specific and has been termed "communication apprehension” (CA) by Horwitz et al. (1986). CA in language learning is characterised by a reluctance to talk or shyness in communicating and is “a distinct complex of self-perception, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours . . . arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” (Horwitz et al. 1986:128). Second language learners have the dual task not only of learning the second language but of performing in it.

Research findings concerning students’ anxiety in relation to speaking in a second language are scarce (Young 1990), particularly in relation to Chinese- speaking students. While the learning and communicative styles of the Chinese have been discussed in detail in fields such as psychology, education and applied linguistics (Anderson 1993; Burnaby & Sun 1989; Chung 1988; Erbaugh 1990; Jones 1979; Martini, Behnke & King 1992; Melton 1990; Young 1994), the effect of an unfamiliar language and learning environment on Chinese learners remains unexplored Sato (1990) in a study of ethnic styles in classroom discourse concluded that Chinese students are more reluctant to speak than their European counterparts and do not want to make mistakes in front of the class. Young (1994) b o served that Chinese students think that it is rude when others are permitted to call out their answers at will. Erbaugh (1990) reported that Chinese students in general regard process-oriented teaching, which uses such techniques as role-play and brainstorming, as a waste of time and so do not want to spend time on speaking tasks. Linked with this is the influence of Chinese teaching methods such as memorisation which do not prepare students well for speaking-based tasks which require students to create exchanges appropriate to the context instead of according to a model

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(Anderson 1993). Such open-endedness presents a number of difficulties for students used to more defined classroom tasks.

The causes and extent of CA among different ethnic groups such as Chinese and Japanese have been recognised as a potentially rich area of research (e.g. Chung 1988; Young 1987; Young 1994). This study addresses the issue of CA among Chinese ESL students in New Zealand for whom interaction in English is an integral part of classroom norms and of the secondary school curriculum. The ESL context places more language requirements on them than the EFL context in which most learnt English previously. In addition, learning is based on the assumption that talking and verbal display of knowledge are important in developing cognitive skills. The requirement to communicate in unfamiliar ways in an unfamiliar language poses extra pressures on these students and could be expected to raise anxiety levels. In addition, it is widely held that teachers tend to form positive impressions of students who will contribute in class, and at various levels of the education system marks are awarded for in-class participation The research reported here seeks to investigate sources of CA for Chinese ESL students in such a setting, their relative importance, and how the degree of CA they experience relates to certain in-class practices.

The research questions which are the focus of this study are: 1. What is the relative importance of identified sources of CA (educational,

social and cultural) for Chinese learners of English? 2. What are the sources of CA in relation to certain in-class practices?

The Study

The setting for the study was a girls’ high school in New Zealand Sixty- five Chinese ESL students attended the school and from these six, aged from 15 to 17 years of age, were invited to participate in the study, two from each senior form (Form 5 - Form 7). The students were chosen from the senior part of the school because they had been in New Zealand for a longer period of time than many other Chinese students and it was hoped that they would have gained some perspective on their experiences. All had been in New Zealand for from three to five years, except for a student from Taiwan who had arrived the previous year. Another reason for selecting these students was that they

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had acquired quite high levels of English proficiency after their time of study in New Zealand It was emphasised that participation in the study was voluntary and formed no part of the tuition or assessment programme; all six agreed to take part in the study. Ethical procedures were followed to gain consent from the school and subjects.

The subjects from the study were ethnically Chinese but from different parts of the Chinese-speaking world They had different motivations for coming to New Zealand The two girls from Taiwan reported that they were sent to New Zealand principally to learn better English. The one student in the sample from Hong Kong migrated to New Zealand because of political uncertainty in her own country as well as to meet parental expectations (related to acquiring a good command of English to help in the family business). The three students from the People’s Republic of China reported their parents came to New Zealand for a better life. All spoke Chinese at home apart from the student from Hong Kong who spoke Chinese and English. None of the subjects had attended international schools before coming to New Zealand

Interviews, questionnaires and discussion have been commonly used in anxiety research (for example, Aida 1994; Horwitz et al 1986; Price 1991; Samimy and Tabuse 1992; Young 1990) and form part of the data collection procedures in this study. A new data-gathering technique was devised in the form of a ranking exercise which was considered to be particularly suitable for the subjects in terms of their age and experience. A classroom observation session was also set up as a relatively unobtrusive means of gathering data on CA. Twelve Chinese ESL adult students from the same school were chosen as subjects for a pilot study because they formed an intact group with the same ethnic background as the subjects in the main study. The results presented in this paper relate to the findings from the six subjects in the main study.

Throughout the data gathering procedures more technical terms such as CA or social sources of CA were avoided when working with the students. All data gathering procedures took place in English at the request of students; Chinese was used to check on understanding of items in the questionnaire and ranking exercise and occasionally during discussions. The four data collection techniques of interview, questionnaire, ranking exercise and classroom session are now discussed in turn1.’.

’ A copy of the questionnaire and ranking exercise can be obtained by contacting B. Mak.

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Interview

An initial interview was used to gauge how readily students would identify with and respond to questions about CA and to gather information on their experiences of CA. In preparation for the interview, information about sources of CA (educational, cultural and social) was gathered in two ways - from the literature and from the researcher’s own views about the likely sources of CA. This formed the basis of the discussion with subjects. A group interview was chosen since it was felt that it would provide a non-threatening environment in which students could meet one another, exchange experiences and be informed about the study; they were told that the researcher was interested in their experiences in New Zealand classrooms and how they felt about participating in their classes. The interview was thus quite general in nature and lasted for forty minutes. It was emphasised that subjects could use Chinese and/or English in the interview: the language chosen by each student was English.

The interview was tape-recorded to free the researcher to participate naturally in the discussion and to allow the content to be reviewed in detail. Further sources of CA mentioned in the discussion were identified and used to supplement the pool of materials on sources of CA which were then used to construct the following ranking exercise.

The aim of the ranking exercise was to get students to identify the relative influence of different sources of CA from their point of view. Items in the ranking exercise were divided into three groups each consisting of eight items. Educational sources of CA such as classroom practices and the target language were in Group A, social sources of CA such as self-esteem formed Group B, and cultural sources of CA such as attitudes towards speaking formed group C. While these three groups of items were presented to the students as discrete tasks, several items such as attitudes towards voluntary speaking could be classified as belonging to more than one category and were repeated in order to cross-check the reliability of the results.

Statements in the first group were presented to the students and they were asked to rank (from l-8) each group according to their order of importance. The students had to put (1) next to the statement that they thought was most important in generating CA and (8) for the least important one. They also completed the ranking exercise for group two, then group three in a similar way.

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In Part II, each subject was asked to rank the three groups (educational, social and cultural sources of CA) which were mentioned in Part I according to their overall importance as sources of CA. The subjects were asked to complete the ranking exercise at home so that they had sufficient time to work on the task

For the purposes of comparison with previous studies, a 25-item questionnaire was developed based on items from the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) of Horwitz et al (1986) and from the questionnaire used by Young (1990). Each item focused on certain in-class speaking activities, such as role-play or pair work, and was used to gauge the degree of anxiety students felt while performing the tasks. They were asked to respond to a statement about each task which was closest to how they felt: “very relaxed”, “moderately relaxed”, “neither relaxed nor anxious”, “moderately anxious” and “very anxious”. Subjects were told that there were no right or wrong answers and that they should choose the closest answer to their experience. They were asked to complete the questionnaire at home so they would have as much time as they needed.

In order to observe the degree of CA generated by different classroom speaking activities, the researcher observed a science lesson carried out with the six students which required them to participate in a number of speaking activities. The teacher who took the class was a senior member of staff, experienced and highly-regarded in the school. On the basis of the questionnaire results, three activities were chosen for the classroom session, one of which was reported as “moderately relaxed” (pair work), another as “neither relaxed nor anxious" (reading aloud from seat) and a third as “moderately anxious” (answering unprepared questions). Pair work and reading aloud had been rated in a similar way in the findings of Horwitz et al (1986), Young (1990) and Aida (1994), however the effect of speaking activities which do not permit preparation in advance had not been explored in previous work. Before the classroom session the researcher worked with the teacher to design a lesson on the topic of genetics which would incorporate the above tasks. In the session the researcher carried out classroom observation to assess the degree of CA experienced by the students and followed this by informal discussions with the subjects.

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Results

The data collected through the ranking exercise was analysed as described by Youngman (1983) in which points were allocated to each rank so that the addition of the scores produces some indication of the overall order. One point was allocated to the most important reason for anxiety when speaking English, two for the second most important, and so on, giving as many as eight points to the least important reason. The means and standard deviations for each item were calculated In interpreting the results, the smaller the mean, the greater the weight attached to that reason. The subjects’ responses relating to educational sources of CA are summarised in Table 1:

Table 1: Educational Sources of CA Means and Standard Deviations of Ranking

Sources of CA MeanRanking SD. of -n

Differences in education systems Different teaching .qles Voluntary speaking Comprehension of English Language distance between Chinese

and English Insufficient preparation time given

before speaking Different emphasis on speaking Different speaking practice

opportunities

3.67 2.42 4.00 2.37 4.00 2.76 5.67 2.58

3.17

5.00

6.17 1.94

4.33 2.50

1.94

1.41

The two most important educational sources of CA ranked by the subjects were the language distance between Chinese and English and the differences in education systems in New Zealand and the subjects’ home countries. An emphasis on voluntary speaking and different teaching styles were also reported as causes of CA.

Table 2: Social Sources of CA Means and Standard Deviations of Ranking

Sources of CA S.D. of Ranking

Lack of confidence Social pressure Wony about progress Attitudes in making mistakes Different accents Feeling different and uneasy among native English speakers Low self-esteem Attitudes towards public speaking

3.00 2.45 5.00 3.10 5.50 2.51 3.67 1.63 4.00 2.76

4.67 2.16 4.67 1.86 5.50 1.87

Lack of confidence was ranked as the most important social source of CA and this was closely followed by the subjects’ attitudes about making mistakes and the fear that their accents were different to those of others (Table 2). In terms of cultural sources of CA, the subjects again ranked voluntary speaking and different teaching styles as the two most important sources of CA (Table 3). Thus different teaching styles emerged twice in the results as both educational and social sources of CA.

Table 3: Cultural Sources of CA Means and Standard Deviations of Ranking

Sources of CA Mean Ranking S.D. of Ranking

Voluntary speaking 2.17 1.17 Deliberate care given to speech 3.00 1.41 Different teaching style 2.50 1.64 Parental expectations 5.50 1.87 Priority given to education 5.83 0.75 Attitudes towards wait time 6.33 2.25 Differences in culture 5.67 2.07 Attitudes towards speaking 5.00 2.76

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In the final part of the ranking exercise subjects ranked the educational reasons given in Group A as more important in inducing CA than cultural or social influences. This indicated that their main concerns arise from the educational environment. It is important to acknowledge that although the kinds of questions in Group A tended to focus on educational context, some questions in the three groups are interrelated and intersect (for example, the subjects’ attitudes towards voluntary speaking can be affected by their cultural, educational or social background).

The twenty-five items relating to speaking activities were transformed into fourteen categories according to the characteristics of the activities or the demands they place on the learner. Thus answering voluntarily and discussing voluntarily were grouped as voluntary speaking. This analysis extends the work of Young (1990) h w o cited activities without grouping them on the basis of common characteristics and demands on the learner. The mean response for each category was then calculated and the results appear in Table 4. The categories of activities which produced the highest levels of CA involved voluntary speaking, being singled out with no preparation time, role play and teacher-assessment of speaking. Two common factors in these four categories were fear of negative evaluation and being expected to speak in front of the class without preparation.

The classroom session allowed the researcher to observe the participation and reaction of subjects in class in relation to three speaking activities: pair work, reading aloud from their seats and being called upon to answer questions in front of the class. The subject for the class on “dominant and recessive alleles” was chosen because it represents one of the topics of mainstream science classes which all of the students would have encounter at some stage. A number of general observations were made by the researcher which were explored and confirmed in a discussion with students at the end of the class. Firstly, subjects engaged with the pair task, exchanged information freely with one another, and did not appear to find the activity threatening.

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Table 4: Categories of Speaking Activities by Anxiety Level

Category of Activity Mean

Voluntaxy speaking Singled out, no preparation Role play Being assessed by teacher while speaking

Discussion 3.83 Insufficient wait time 3.83 Mistakes corrected while speaking 3.67 Mistakes not corrected while speaking 3.33 Asking questions in class 3.28 Singled out with preparation 3.22

Reading in class 2.75 Repeating after teacher 2.59 Sufficient wait time 2.18 Pair/group work 2.09

4.50 4.23 4.00 4.00

This was in spite of the fact that they found the worksheet on “dominant and recessive alleles” a little difficult. Subjects clearly found the reading aloud task more stressful than the pair work; they looked relieved when their turn was over and many were uncomfortable when they encountered difficult words. The teacher asked each subject some questions on what she had just read and also directed questions to others. All subjects appeared to find this activity more threatening than the other two. On two occasions, the subjects resisted speaking in front of the class when asked to explain information in a diagram. In fact, as the teacher observed, in such a situation, students commonly carry out the explanation using drawings on the blackboard However, the Chinese students did not take up this option. Throughout the session as a whole, no subjects volunteered to speak or answer. After the session students confirmed that the activity they felt least comfortable with was answering unprepared questions.

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Discussion

Based on the results from the ranking exercise, language differences between Chinese and English were the main sources of CA for the Chinese ESL students in this study. This is not surprising because Chinese and English belong to two different language families (Sino-Tibetan and Indo-European) and do not have common features in terms of language structure and use. Further differences, this time between the education systems in New Zealand and the subjects’ home countries, were also reported as contributing factors to CA. More specifically different teaching methods and in-class practices were identified as important in the ranking exercise and questionnaire, and of these voluntary speaking was a particularly prominent source of CA. Voluntary speaking refers to situations where there is an expectation that students should participate and should themselves nominate to speak in a discussion or to ask or answer questions. Subjects found it unpleasant and difficult to speak readily in class as reflected in the following remarks about voluntary speaking made in the group interview:

“I don’t like to speak in class speaking. I think I learn better time in order to learn? "

because I enjoy listening to others’ this way. Why should we talk all the

The student highlighted that it is important for her to listen in the learning process and linked this to her reluctance to talk. This result differs from the findings of Horwitz et al (1986), Young (1990) and Aida (1994) in studies carried out with American high school and university foreign language students. For such students speaking in public as opposed to voluntary speaking was cited as the main source of anxiety. The dissimilarity could be seen to be related to the particular situation of Chinese students. The American educational system is reputed to have a strong emphasis on self-expression. By contrast, for Chinese students, the emphasis is on listening, memorization and paying close attention to teacher instructions. These conflicting results point to the fact that findings based on American foreign language students in relation to CA cannot be automatically expected to apply to Chinese ESL students.

Fear of negative evaluation was found to be a strong source of CA in the group interview, the ranking exercise and the questionnaire. This fear was often related in the subjects’ minds to a more general lack of confidence as in the following extract from the group interview:

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“My colour is different and that makes me stand out in the class. Some Kiwis laugh when I speak so I prefer to be silent. My classmates often correct my mistakes when I am speaking in front of the class and that lets me down.”

The comment also reveals that differences in ethnicity and accent make the student feel more self-conscious about her performance in front of others. Horwitz et al. (1986) have argued that language learning poses a threat to students’ self-esteem because it deprives them of their normal means of communication.

Conclusion

Although validating evidence for the theory of Horwitz et al (1986) in relation to foreign language anxiety is accumulating (Aida 1994; MacIntyre and Gardner 1991a 1991b; Steinberg and Horwitz 1986; Young 1990), language distance is an important element missing from this framework. Previous research on second language anxiety has tended to focus on students for whom the language distance between the mother tongue and the target language is not great. Generally, such research has been carried out within the Indo-European language family. More recent research (for example, Aida 1994; Samimy and Tabuse 1992) together with the findings of this study suggest that the learning of a non-cognate language gives rise to anxiety on the part of the student. Thus language distance then is an important element in any study of language learning anxiety or CA.

The qualitative approach to investigating CA in this study has provided insights into how aspects of the cultural, social and educational backgrounds of the Chinese ESL students affect the degree of CA they experience. This approach also investigated how the students attempted to cope with CA, but a consideration of these issues is beyond the scope of this article. However, the study has a number of limitations which should be borne in mind in any interpretation of the results. One limitation is the small sample size. It would be useful to use the questionnaire and ranking exercise with larger groups to assess the generalisability of the findings presented here particularly in relation to language distance, voluntary speaking and preparation time. Another is that for two of the instruments, the ranking exercise and the questionnaire, the responses of subjects were constrained they were asked to choose from a number of options instead of being asked to give their own ideas freely. To a

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certain extent, this could affect and limit their expression of ideas. However it proved a useful way of encouraging students to respond, and then on the basis of their responses to clarify and elaborate on their ideas in discussion. A further limitation of the study was that it was not possible to observe a classroom session which contained native speakers with the Chinese ESL learners a distinct minority as is usually the case. This would have provided a more authentic context in which to observe the relationship between particular speaking activities and CA. However, it was simply not possible in the context of this study.

Further studies of CA in second or foreign language learning should take into account the potential role of language distance, particularly when the mother tongue and the target language are non-cognate languages as is the case with Chinese and English. Furthermore, CA should be examined with different ethnic groups and in relation to a variety of in-class practices. In addition, an investigation of the degree of anxiety experienced by ESL learners outside the classroom and in less formal settings may lead to a fuller understanding of this complex construct and broaden the base of CA research.

In conclusion, a number of factors have been found to give rise to CA among Chinese ESL students. These include the language distance between Chinese and English, unfamiliar classroom practices such as voluntary speaking, and fear of negative evaluation. Research is required into ways of raising the shills of teachers to understand, interpret and accommodate the behaviour of Chinese ESL learners in both mainstream and language support classes.

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