How speaking anxiety affects students in the foreign language classroom

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How speaking anxiety affects students in the foreign language classroom

A comparison of English and Spanish learners in Swedish high schools

Julia Burström

English, bachelor's level 2019

Luleå University of Technology

Department of Arts, Communication and Education

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Abstract

The study investigated the phenomenon of speaking anxiety in two groups of English learners and two groups of Spanish learners, studying in four different courses: English 5, 6 and Spanish 3, 4. The participants answered a background questionnaire, followed up with a modified foreign language anxiety scale. The students who wanted to also, participated in an interview where they gave more in depth answers about their experience with the phenomenon. The findings showed that students experienced speaking anxiety in relation to their language learning, but at different levels such as low, medium and high-level anxiety groups. In addition to this, possible remedies for speaking anxiety suggested by the participants was also presented in the study.

Keywords: Speaking anxiety, foreign language anxiety, EFL, ELE

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1 Introduction

Foreign language anxiety is a topic that has been widely researched in different parts of the world (Ahmed, 2016; Anandari, 2015; Cebreros, 2003; Mak, 2011; Mejía, 2014; Öztürk &

Gürbüz, 2014). Many of the articles written on speaking anxiety are in relation to English as a foreign language, possibly because English is one of the biggest languages in the world. In Sweden, however, there are not many articles written about speaking anxiety, which makes sense considering the status English has in Sweden. Already from an early age, many Swedes are exposed to the English language through media amongst other things. This helps them to establish an early relationship with the language. Spanish, the other language of interest for the present study, plays a significant role around the world today as well. Spanish is high up on the ranking list of the biggest languages in the world, which means that there are a lot of speakers.

In addition, there are many cultural influences, such as music and television shows, that young people take part of which makes the language significant in their lives.

There are, however, many students who have problems with anxiety in relation to their foreign language learning and since there is pressure on students to be able to communicate in their foreign language class, this might create speaking anxiety or foreign language anxiety for the students. In this essay, the phenomenon of speaking anxiety is explored to see to what extent students in Swedish high schools are affected, in relation to their foreign languages. The languages chosen for this essay were Spanish and English. These languages were chosen since they are not only major languages around the world, but in Swedish high schools too. With the findings of the study, teachers could get a clearer picture of in what ways students in Swedish high schools are affected by foreign language anxiety. Furthermore, it could help them start discussions with their students how to create the best learning environment for them to be and learn in.

1.1 Aim

The aim of the study is to determine if students learning Spanish and English in Swedish high schools experience speaking anxiety, how it affects learners of English and Spanish in Swedish high schools and if it affects them differently in relation to their course level or the foreign language that they are studying. Therefore, the research questions are focused on:

1. To what extent do students in the Swedish high school context experience speaking anxiety in relation to their language education?

2. What are the main sources for the students’ speaking anxiety?

3. To what extent do levels of speaking anxiety differ between the Spanish students and the English students?

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2 Theoretical background

2.1 Foreign language anxiety

In order to understand research on foreign language anxiety, it is necessary to know the terminology that is commonly used. In a study made by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) anxiety is described as a possible hindrance for students learning a language. Furthermore, anxiety can be divided into different categories. Horwitz et al. (1986) started the study by looking at the general definition of anxiety, as stated by Spielberger (1983). Spielberger refers to the term anxiety as “an unpleasant emotional state or condition” and further explained that

“anxiety is also used to describe relatively stable individual differences in anxiety-proneness as a personality trait” (p.4). This can be viewed in relation to language learning where there could be differences between the students such as gender, age and language motivation (Mak, 2011).

Furthermore, there is anxiety in relation to language learning as well, and in this specific case foreign languages, hence the term “foreign language anxiety”. This term can in turn can be divided even further into different categories to help identify where the issue lies. The three categories that Horwitz et al. (1986) presented are: Communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. These categories are presented more in detail in the coming sections.

2.1.1 Communication apprehension

In their study, Arnaiz and Guillen (2012) describe communication apprehension as “the uncomfortable feeling an individual experiences when expressing himself/herself in front of others” (p.6). Horwitz et al. (1986, p.127) further explain communication apprehension as difficulty in speaking in groups or in public, which then shows the different situations that it could occur. Basic (2011) further highlights the importance of communication in language education and how teachers now often use the target language in the classroom, which then conflicts with students who feel uncomfortable speaking in their foreign language classes.

Sadighi and Dastpak (2017) explain that depending on where the study is conducted, results of studies on speaking anxiety could differ, because of the fact that it is conducted in that country.

They further explain that English in an Iranian context is considered a foreign language, and that it has a limited communicative use so students might not feel as comfortable speaking English as in countries where English is widely used (ibid., p. 114) such as Sweden. This could explain differences in the results, depending on the country, if English has a different status and use in a country. In the case of Tosun (2018), the students were enrolled in a communication course, which could have affected the results on their perceived speaking anxiety considering that the participants were in a course that focuses mostly on communication. Another aspect that could be included under the section of communication apprehension could be lack of vocabulary. In studies conducted on speaking anxiety, lack of vocabulary usually ranks high on the scale of what gives the participants speaking anxiety. Sadighi and Dastpak (2017) further mention how lack of vocabulary could affect students’ willingness to communicate: “Lack of vocabulary knowledge can lead to communication problems and this might bring about speaking anxiety. Failing to find suitable words can cause embarrassment” (p.114). It is thus

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3 possible to see a relation between lack of vocabulary, communication apprehension and speaking anxiety.

2.1.2 Test anxiety

Test anxiety is another aspect of foreign language anxiety. Arnaiz and Guillen (2013) describe the phenomenon as a sort of performance anxiety, related to fear of failure (p.7). In addition to this, Horwitz et al. (1986, p.128) further explain how test anxiety is troublesome for students in the foreign language classroom. Because pop quizzes and tests are common methods to measure the students’ knowledge, students who are affected by test anxiety are constantly exposed to the phenomenon that stresses them out. Tsiplakides and Keramida (2009) comment as well on how students experience test anxiety saying that students who are affected by test anxiety view language learning as a situation where they are being tested, rather than an opportunity to work on their language communication (p.39). This clashes with a common view of language learning (Kryeziu, 2015, p.407) as it is supposed to be more of a learning process where students are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them.

2.1.3 Fear of negative evaluation

Fear of negative evaluation is the last sub-category of foreign language anxiety that Horwitz et al. (1986) identified. They explain the term and phenomenon as “apprehension about others’

evaluation” (ibid., p.128). As the name implies it is where students compare themselves to their peers and are afraid of being negatively evaluated by either their peers or the teacher. This, in addition, makes students wary of making mistakes in their foreign language, as Tsiplakides and Keramida (2009) described in their study: they do not see mistakes as a natural part of their learning process but rather as a threat to their image (p. 39). In their result Tsiplakides and Keramida further confirmed that fear of negative evaluation by peers was apparent in the classroom, as students who had the possibility to do speaking exercises without their peers present did so more willingly. In Sadighi and Dastpak (2017), fear of making mistakes was the most common source for the students’ speaking anxiety and throughout other studies on speaking anxiety, such as Ahmed (2016) and Mak (2011), it appears to rank high on the list of items that could affect students’ perceived language anxiety as well.

2.2 Variables and affective variables

In language acquisition research there are two different kinds of variables that researchers look at: variables of interest in the study and affective variables. The variables of interest when conducting studies on speaking anxiety could be, for example, gender, to see if there are any differences between boys and girls and how they are affected by speaking anxiety in the classroom. Another variable of interest might be the age or course level at which students are, as this might affect their perceived speaking anxiety as well. These are common variables studied in regard to speaking anxiety. However, there is a need to acknowledge the role of affective variables in relation to these studies as well. Affective variables are more about students’ motivation and attitudes in relation to their learning, so foreign language anxiety itself could be considered an affective variable. Öztürk and Gürbüz (2014) acknowledged that research on affective variables and foreign language learning are generally focused on certain

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4 personality factors, which are self-esteem, risk-taking, extroversion, motivation and anxiety (p.1) and explained that these qualities might have a positive or negative effect on language learning. In their study, Öztürk and Gürbüz (2014) detected that students might be aware of correlations between affective variables, which were speaking anxiety and motivation. Mak (2011) brought up even more affective variables which were: “language aptitude; gender;

foreign language anxiety; language learning interest and motivation; class arrangements;

teacher characteristics; language learning strategies; test types; parental influence; comparison with peers and achievement.” (p.203). Mak (ibid.) did continue by saying that these affective variables could be specific to Chinese students of English, since the study was conducted in China with Chinese students. It could be meaningful to look at the list that Mak presents though, in order to get a more extensive understanding of the phenomenon speaking anxiety, hence some of the affective variables are discussed in the present essay.

2.3 Remedies for speaking anxiety

Previous research on foreign language anxiety most often look at how students are affected by speaking anxiety. In addition to this, research sometimes includes possible remedies for the phenomenon, as well, after finding out what specifically affects the students. Ahmed (2016) conducted a study with the working hypothesis that learning strategies and teaching strategies could possibly help to decrease speaking anxiety. His results show that preparing before class was one of the learning strategies that was used by students. Furthermore, telling students to communicate without worrying about making errors could be helpful (ibid., p.104). One teaching strategy to try to decrease speaking anxiety was working in groups. Ahmed (2016) explained that this was something that all participants had expressed an interest in.

Similarly to the study by Ahmed, Mejía (2014, p.8) looked at what coping mechanisms, as she called it, the students had and how this helped them in their language learning. She mentioned three different ones, which were: that students came up to the teacher for clarification of things they did not understand, preparing before class and a positive attitude. This highlights the fact that remedies for speaking anxiety could be found both through methods that the participants themselves practice feeling less anxious, but things that teachers could think about and change in the classroom to decrease anxiety levels for students as well. Jing and Junying (2016) gave some pedagogical implications in their study after looking at what it was that affected students’

speaking anxiety. They suggested that teaching English should be more student-centered and that there should be more interesting activities for students to learn English in class (ibid., p.183), so looking more at what could be done by the school rather than what students could do themselves. In contrast to this, Anandari (2015) investigated whether self-reflection could be a possible method for students to decrease speaking anxiety. This was proven through the study as something useful. The students had not worked with self-reflection before, but by using this method they were able to find three benefits with it to reduce their speaking anxiety and help their language learning. These three were: Identifying strengths and weaknesses, conducting problem solving and increasing confidence (ibid., p.13).

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2.4 Language education in the Swedish school system

2.4.1 The English and modern languages education

The language education in Swedish schools is divided into different parts. When students are 6-7 years old, they start studying in compulsory school. When they are in first grade, they study Swedish, and could also have the possibility of studying their first language, if they have another language than Swedish in their household. As early as in first grade students can start studying English (Kim, 2008, p.235). After this students continue studying English until they are in 9^th grade and when they are to apply for high school. As English is one of the mandatory subjects needed in order to apply for high school (Skolverket, 2019) the students need to have passed the subject in order to be accepted into high school. High school is divided into three different years which means that there are three different English courses that students can partake in.

Other than English, students have the possibility to start studying a “modern language” when they start 6^th grade as well, (Skolverket, 2018) when they are approximately 12-13 years old.

The most common choices that students have are: German, Spanish and French. If students have continued studying the language until 9^th grade they should have reached the A2 level in the Common European framework of reference for languages as commented in Skolverket (n.d, p.4), as seen in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Language learning in the Swedish school system in relation to CEFR levels

Swedish school system CEFR standard

Step 1 A-1 (high level)

Step 2 A-2

Step 3 A-2 (high level)

Step 4 B-1

Step 5 B-1 (high level)

Step 6 B-2

Step 7 B-2 (high level)

Students who have studied the modern language at compulsory school, continue with step 3 in high school and have the possibility to study until step 5. If they have not studied a modern language before, they start at step 1. Students who studied English before, however, start at step 5, as they have reached a higher level of English at compulsory school. The difference between the English courses at high school, is that English 5 is mandatory for all students, English 6 is just mandatory for those programs that are university preparatory and English 7 is optional for students who want to take the course, for which they will get qualification points.

2.4.2 Qualification points

In the Swedish school system, students can be given qualification points for certain courses that they take, which can be used if they want to continue to study after compulsory school. In compulsory school students apply for the high school program that they want to enter (Skolverket, 2019) by counting their 16 best grades from compulsory school into a certain sum

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6 that could be enough for that program. With modern languages they can get extra points when applying, which can help them to get into their preferred high school education. According to Francia and Riis (2013, p. 51), students can get up to 1.5 qualification points when studying modern languages. Then in high school there are qualification points as well, that students can get when studying. They receive these from, for example, modern languages, English 7 or more advanced mathematics courses. Similarly to applying for high school, these qualification points can be helpful when applying to university.

2.5 English in the Swedish context

In the Swedish school system, English is most often the second language that students learn and with that their first foreign language. This gives students time to get familiar with the language already from an early age. Skolverket (2018) further explains the importance of students learning English and what this entails, for example in relation to their ability to communicate.

Through teaching, pupils should be given the opportunity to develop all-round communicative skills.

These skills involve understanding spoken and written English, being able to formulate one’s thinking and interact with others in the spoken and written language, and the ability to adapt use of language to different situations, purposes and recipients. Communication skills also cover confidence in using the language and the ability to use different strategies to support communication and solve problems when language skills by themselves are not sufficient. (p. 34, italics added)

So not only is being able to communicate addressed, but that students should develop their confidence in using the language as well. In the curriculum it is further stated that students should develop different strategies for using the language. These skills, learners continue to develop through their language learning as they get older and study the language. So already from an early age, students in the Swedish school system become familiar with English as a foreign language. It is possible that English has this status considering how it is viewed here in Sweden. In both Skolverket (2018) and Kim (2008), it is claimed that English is a world language and that it will help students to socially interact with other people in the world and that it could be useful for future studies or work. In addition, it is highlighted how English is a part of everyday life here in Sweden. After the students have completed compulsory school, most students choose to continue their education at high school. Their English education advances and continue to build on the knowledge that they have developed at compulsory school.

In the course plans of English for high school (Skolverket, 2011a), the fact that English is a part of the daily life here in Sweden is still emphasized. One difference though, is that there is also focus in the course plan on “correctness” in their language learning, whereas in the compulsory one, it was not mentioned which suggests that there is more focus on developing the language rather than building it up as is done in grades 6-9. So as the students advance to higher grades, so do the criteria for what they should be able to achieve. This could affect the amount of pressure that students feel to do well in their studies, since the criteria for their courses are constantly advancing forward, becoming more difficult.

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2.6 Spanish in the Swedish context

Spanish, as well as English, is one of the biggest languages in the world. The influence from both language and culture has been noticeable internationally, partly because of popular culture.

In addition to that, in the European Union, there is a goal that Sweden has accepted, which is that citizens should have the possibility to learn two more languages in addition to the native language of the country (Francia & Riis, 2013, p.123). Hence students studying in Swedish schools have the possibility to study modern languages such as Spanish.

2.6.1 Why Spanish?

In Agnevall and Hettinger Olsson (2006, p.22), students were asked why they were interested in learning a modern language in compulsory school. The most common reasons were that students wanted to learn a new language, that it could be useful for traveling and that it was important for the future. In their study they also found more specifically that the students who chose to study Spanish did so partly because it is a language that is spoken in many countries, but because it was fun language as well, that was considered easy to learn (ibid., p.23). Agnevall and Hettinger Olsson (2006, p.31) further looked at attitudes regarding modern languages in a high school context. When the high school participants were asked why they had chosen Spanish, it was possible to connect back to the answers mentioned from students in compulsory school: “Because it is spoken in many countries” and “Because I like it”. Francia and Riis (2013, p.9) further explain that amongst the modern languages that students can choose between, Spanish has grown to be a popular choice for students partly due to the view of Spanish as a

“vacation language” (ibid., p.40). Another reason mentioned was sports, for example, an interest in football teams from Argentina or Spain, such as Real Madrid. There is a problem with that view of the language though, which is that students could choose the language because it seems easy. This means that students could meet difficulties in their language learning later on, since it is a language that requires effort and interest from the students as well (Francia &

Riis, 2013, p. 122). This could lead to students dropping out of their language classes or changing language due to the difficulties.

2.6.2 Differences between Spanish and English in the Swedish context

In Skolverket (2018) the criteria for modern languages are similarly worded as the criteria for English, with the difference that it is not specifically mentioned that one of the modern languages are part of everyday life. Students usually start studying modern languages later than English, which means that by the time that the students start high school their English level will naturally be different to that of their modern language. In Skolverket (2011b) the steps of the modern languages are divided into steps 1-7. Similarly to the English criteria, the criteria for Spanish also focus on several things in the language learning. For communication, there is both a section on communication and production, which explains what students should be able to achieve in their course. Differences between the criteria for English and Spanish could be partly explained due to the fact that children do not get as much implicit learning of Spanish as from

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8 English, considering that Spanish most often is the third or fourth language that students learn in school.

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3 Method and material

The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative approach was in the form of the foreign language anxiety scale by Horwitz et al. (1986) in order to collect the number of students that relate to the different items in the questionnaire. Qualitative research methods, such as a background questionnaire and interviews with a few students was used as well. These are methods that have commonly been used when conducting research on the topic of foreign language anxiety. There were no standardized versions of the foreign language anxiety scale in Swedish, nor of the background questionnaire. Because of that, there was a need to look at other researchers that had conducted the study in Sweden. Bergström (2017) used a translated version of the foreign language anxiety scale in his study, which in part has been used also in the present study. In the sections that follow, there is an explanation of what methods of data collection were used and how these were relevant for this study.

3.1 Participants

The study was conducted at a Swedish high school in northern Sweden. There were 79 students altogether from the different courses, ranging in age from 15-18. As seen in Table 2, there was altogether a number of 28 students in the English courses and 41 in the Spanish courses, with the addition of an exchange student in one of the Spanish courses.

Table 2. The number of students in the classes, participants that filled in the questionnaire and were interviewed

GROUP STUDENTS QUESTIONNAIRE INTERVIEWEES

ENGLISH 5 14 11 1

ENGLISH 6 14 14 8

SPANISH 3 29 23 1

SPANISH 4 22 19 2

TOTAL 79 67 12

As shown in Table 2, there was a lower number of students that participated in the actual study, therefore the number of participants were 67 students. The reason for the decrease in participants was mainly due to the fact that some students did not want to participate in the study, but there were further difficulties when analyzing certain questionnaires and therefore one of the questionnaires had to be omitted. Similarly, some participants did not fill in all the boxes correctly which meant that they could not be analyzed which is why there are numbers that do not match up in the results. As seen in Table 2, there were just a limited number of participants from each class who showed an interest in participating in interviews. The participants attended different programs, except for students in the two English courses who studied the same program. All the programs were university preparator, however. The participants had two language classes per week and these students were chosen because they studied at the language or languages that were of interest for the study, Spanish and English.

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3.2 Research instruments

3.2.1 Background questionnaire

The data collection began with a background questionnaire (see Appendix 1) to collect information about participants’ previous experience with the foreign language and gain knowledge about their attitudes towards their foreign language, as this could be a variable of interest for the study. Cohen, Manion and Morrison mention that by using two or more methods, called triangulation, it is possible to get a fuller explanation as the phenomenon is studied from more than one standpoint (2011, p.195). By using a background questionnaire, the foreign language anxiety scale and interviews it is thus possible to gain more information from the participants to get a more detailed picture of the phenomenon. Bergström (2017) mention as well, that the foreign language anxiety scale by Horwitz et al. (1986) lack a section where it would be possible to look at demographic variables, and therefore a background questionnaire was necessary to include in order to get more information about the participants.

In the background questionnaire, there were certain things that were of interest for this study such as the participants’ relationship with the language outside of class, since it could affect how comfortable the participants were using the language. There were other questions such as what age the participants were when they started learning the language and if they had studied in other countries than Sweden, to gain an understanding of how the participants’ relationship with the foreign language had been before, as it could affect the results. The variable of gender was included in the study but was difficult to consider since 53 of the participants identified themselves as female and 11 as male, whereas some students did not identify themselves as either, by not circling in one of the alternatives.

3.2.2 Modified foreign language anxiety scale

For the second questionnaire the foreign language anxiety scale by Horwitz et al. (1986) was used. The questionnaire originally consists of 33 items about foreign language anxiety, but for the present study only 20 of those were used (see Appendix 2). These were considered most relevant for the study since they treated the topic of speaking anxiety rather than just general foreign language anxiety. Because the participants were students in a Swedish high school, the questionnaire was translated into Swedish (see Appendix 3) to give the participants the best possible prerequisites to be able to answer the questionnaire. In the original questionnaire from Horwitz et al., participants answered through a “rating scale” which ranges from strongly disagreeing to strongly agreeing with an alternative in the middle for neither or. In this study, however, that alternative was omitted in order to get a clearer result for whether the participants agreed or not with the statement. Removing the alternative could have made it possible for the participants to actually take more time to think about each of the statements and relate these to their own experiences. By using the foreign language anxiety scale it was possible to further divide the answers into different categories when analyzing the results, which would imply what the participants experienced most language anxiety with. Both the background questionnaire and the foreign language anxiety scale were handed out in class and took around 15 minutes each for the participants to answer, with the exceptions of some students taking

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11 longer and less time. The researcher was present in the classroom, in case there were any questions about the questionnaires.

3.2.3 Interviews

For the second part of the data collection, interviews were used as a method to complement the questionnaires. After filling in the questionnaires, the participants were asked if they were willing to partake in an interview about the topic in question. The interview was similarly to the questionnaire conducted in Swedish in order for the participants to partake without any hindrances that could come from the language difference. It was recorded as well, in order to facilitate later transcription for analysis.

The interview was conducted in a semi-structured way, which means that questions were decided beforehand.There were 12 questions in the interview guide with occasional follow up questions to the replies given by the interviewee. By using this method of interviewing the interviewees were able to go more into detail with their answers and it gave the researcher a chance to ask follow-up questions. For that reason, this method was a good way of collecting data as a complement to questionnaires. Cohen et al. (2011) describe using interviews as a method of collecting data as a “flexible tool for data collection, enabling multi-sensory channels to be used: verbal, non-verbal, spoken and heard” (p. 409). This explains just why it is a good complement to questionnaires which is a good method for collecting a larger number of answers, but where the multi-sensory channels that Cohen et al. described are lost.

There were twelve people who expressed an interest in participating in an interview. There were interviewees from all the courses that participated in the questionnaires, which made it possible to get a more detailed picture of all the different courses and how students experienced them.

The interview with the participant started by giving them a short summary of what the study was about and what the aim of the study was. After that, the interviewees were informed what their participation meant, and that they at any point could have chosen not to participate in the study anymore. They were told that the questions chosen were asked to learn more about their opinions and attitudes, so there were no right or wrong answers. The interviews were conducted during class time, so the participants would not have to take from their spare time to take part in the interview. Before the interview the participants had been informed that the interview could take up to twenty minutes, but generally most interviews lasted under ten minutes. The interviews were recorded in order for the researcher to transcribe them for the study. The interviews were conducted in Swedish with students giving their answers in Swedish but were later translated by the researcher for the present study.

3.4 Ethical considerations

The first step that was taken in order to assure that the ethics of the study were followed, was contacting the principal of the school, as well as the teacher that was responsible for the courses which the participants were taking. After that the students were given a form of consent where they were informed of the regulations set by the Swedish Research Council for conducting research in an ethically correct way (Vetenskapsrådet, 2002). The Swedish Research Council presents four regulations that should be followed when conducting research: The regulation of

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12 information, which was fulfilled by informing the participants both in written and orally before they took part in the study what it would be about and what their participation would entail.

The second regulation is about consent, which the participants were informed about in the consent form that they were given. The participants were informed that their participation was voluntary and that they could at any point of the study decide to not partake in the study. Then the third regulation about confidentiality which was followed in accordance to what the Swedish Research Council presented. For this study the students could choose their own alias, if they did not wish to use their own name. This was made in order to ascertain that it would not be possible to identify the participants individually through the study. The last regulation about access was followed as well, by sharing with the participants that their data would only be used for what the consent form said. In the consent form it was stated what the study would be about, how it would be conducted and what their participation meant, in line with the regulations from the Swedish Research Council.

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4 Results and analysis

The following section treats the previously mentioned research questions in relation to the findings in the data collection. It is divided into subheadings focusing on: The students’

relationship with the language, sources for their speaking anxiety and a comparison between the languages and the course levels of the students.

4.1 The students’ relationship with the language

The following section presents the responses from the participants in their background questionnaires which are divided into general themes from how the students have answered the questions. In the background questionnaire (see Appendix 1) the participants were first asked what age they were when they started learning the language, since it could differ between students. After that they were asked if they use the language outside of school, and if they did, in what kind of situations they did. In addition, the students were asked if they had studied the language in another country and why they were interested in learning the language in question, where most students gave a short explanation as to why they were interested.

4.1.1 English

In their background questionnaire, most of the participants claimed to have studied English already from when they were young, with the youngest being that they had been learning English already from when they were born. Many of the other participants mentioned the age around 4-8 and gave a short explanation which said they had started learning English in preschool. Some participants had relatives so they had to learn English to speak with them, another participant explained that they learned through being on the internet and the language education in school. Answers from participants in English 5 and English 6 did not differ much, which shows that even though many could be from different schools around the area they still started learning the language around the same time. Yet, there were many different responses from participants in relation to the question regarding whether they used the language outside of school. The responses could be seen following these certain themes:

Table 3. Students’ answers about when they most commonly use English outside of the classroom.

When English 5 English 6

Friends 5 10

Family 1 2

Internet /Social media 7 9

TV-shows/movies 1 5

Traveling 2 3

As seen in Table 3, five participants from English 5 and ten from English 6 mentioned that they used English with friends, and this could be friends from Sweden but from other parts of the world as well, so in the latter case as a way for them to communicate with people who could not speak Swedish. Similar to this, two participants from English 6 and one from English 5 answered that they had family with which they communicated in English. Another common response, expressed by 16 participants from both courses, was that they used English on the internet or in social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. The media are all

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14 available in Swedish as well, but participants could have the settings in English or refer to the fact that there are many English posts on the different media. Six participants responded that they used English when watching television shows or movies in English. The last most common reply that five participants from both courses claimed, was that English was used when traveling abroad. Generally, it seemed as though most participants had not studied English abroad, with the exception of four participants in both courses who had studied English in either one or several foreign countries.

When participants were asked why they were interested in learning English, and why it was important to them, the most common reply was that it was a big language, a world language which they would benefit from knowing. Participants further explained that knowing English could be helpful when studying abroad, working abroad and for traveling. They also explained how English is a language that is just growing, and how it will become more important to know English in Sweden in order to get opportunities in the workplace as an example. The participants addressed the fact that by studying English they will be able to communicate with people from different parts of the world. Similarly to the previous questions, there did not seem to be many differences between the two English courses, in the responses from the participants. This could suggest that there is a general view of English and its use in a Swedish context.

4.1.2 Spanish

Most of the participants who were studying Spanish had been learning the language from when they were 12-13 years old, which some expressed were when they were in 7^th grade. Participants who did not specifically express in what grade they had started learning the language could have done so either in 6^th grade already or 7^th grade as well. There were a few exceptions, with participants who had started to learn the language already when they were eight and some at a later age than the ones previously mentioned. There were no noticeable differences between the two Spanish courses as to when students had started learning the language.

When looking at whether participants used the language outside of school, however, there were clear differences between the two courses. In Spanish 3, most participants claimed that they did not use the language outside of class, and some said that if they did use it, it was used seldomly.

There were a few participants who mentioned that they used it in situations, similarly to the findings in the English background questionnaire, when speaking with family members. It was further mentioned by three participants that the language was used when traveling abroad, presumably to a Spanish speaking country, for ordering food at restaurants or using the language for understanding people speaking Spanish.

In the Spanish 4 group there was a significant majority with 14 of the participants who did use the language outside of school. It did seem, though, that a majority of participants used it outside of school, not for the purpose of communication but rather reception. Participants who used the language outside of school used it when watching television series, while listening to music and watching movies. Similar to the findings from Spanish 3, there were four participants who claimed to use the language when traveling abroad to Spanish speaking countries. There were also two participants who used the language in order to speak with family and friends, but while using it with friends, one participant claimed to do so in a more playful way rather than speaking

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15 Spanish seriously. Another participant used Spanish when chatting with people. There was one exchange student in the group, who said that the language was used more extensively in her country, and that she used the language when speaking with Spanish speaking friends. With the exception of the exchange student who had studied Spanish at home, there was no other participant who had studied in another country in either of the two Spanish courses.

When looking at why participants were interested in Spanish there were clear differences between the courses, but between the participants in the two courses as well. Participants in the Spanish 3 course seemed to have different reasons for studying the language. Six participants highlighted, similarly to the English results, how Spanish was a good language to know, considering that it is a big language with many speakers. Other than that, five participants further mentioned how it was useful for traveling purposes and for working abroad. There were responses that were not as positive though, with eight participants mentioning that they did in fact not want to study the language, but that they did so because they had to and because it seemed the most interesting out of the choices that they had. One reason for studying the language that eight participants also mentioned, was that studying the language gave qualification points. In Spanish 4 there were no participants who mentioned that they studied the language for qualification points, which could suggest that further into their language education they find a different purpose for studying the language.

In Spanish 4, participants mentioned several different reasons as to why they were interested in learning the language. Similarly to Spanish 3, twelve participants highlighted the fact that Spanish is a world language and is therefore interesting to know. There seemed the be a genuine interest in languages within the group. Similarly to the findings in Spanish 3, was the fact that seven participants highlighted the importance of knowing the language for traveling, working in other countries or even working as a language teacher themselves. In this group, there were four participants who mentioned that they had found the language interesting before or had found it the most interesting out of the choices that they had available.

4.2 Students’ sources for speaking anxiety

The first research question concerned to what extent students in a Swedish high school context experienced speaking anxiety. This then had to be divided into the different courses in order to get a more comprehensive picture of whether the participants had any experiences with speaking anxiety. For some of the questions, not all participants’ answers could be included, either because they had not chosen an alternative for that question or had created somewhat of a middle alternative themselves by marking several alternatives. It was possible to see that there were some traces of speaking anxiety for some specific items depending on the class. There were difficulties with trying to decide if students could have speaking anxiety, however, considering that in some classes, participants just identified with a few items. Furthermore, there were just little differences between some of the groups in regard to their answer. For certain items, there was just a three-person difference or the group was divided more equally like 50/50. This is why the different groups had to be divided into different groups such as: low- level anxiety, medium-level anxiety and high-level anxiety groups and with the presentation of what items that students identified their speaking anxiety in relation to.

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16 In Bergström (2017) the different items from the foreign language anxiety scale were divided into three different parts: communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. Since the present study used a modified foreign language anxiety scale, the items did not correspond with the numbers from Bergström (2017) or Horwitz, et al. (1986) The numbers were therefore divided into the right categories but under different numbers for the category they fit in.

Table 4. The different categories of speaking anxiety from the foreign language anxiety scale with corresponding items

Communication apprehension

Test anxiety Fear of negative evaluation 1, 4, 6, 10, 11, 15, 16, 18 3, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17 2, 5, 9, 14, 19, 20

Dividing the different items into these categories makes it easier to see what items incite speaking anxiety for the participants, but also which items they feel more secure with, which then speaks for what they are comfortable with in the classroom.

4.2.1 English 5

In English 5, there were 11 participants who answered all questions. In the class it was possible to see that there were in fact students who experienced speaking anxiety, since they related with 11 out of the 20 items on speaking anxiety. In Appendix 5 it is possible to see which ones of the items the participants related to in more detail, but in Table 5 below those with the biggest differences are presented. These finding this would then suggest that students in English 5 could be considered a higher-level anxiety group.

Table 5. The main sources for students’ speaking anxiety in English 5 with the number of participants disagreeing and agreeing

Items from the modified foreign language anxiety scale Disagree Agree 2. I don’t worry about making mistakes in language class 9 2 6. I start to panic when I have to speak without preparation in language class 3 8 9. It embarrasses me to volunteer answers in my language class 3 8 16. I get nervous and confused when I am speaking in my language class 3 8 20. I get nervous when the language teacher asks questions which I haven’t

prepared in advance

2 9

According to the categorization in Table 4, the biggest source for speaking anxiety in English 5 seemed to be fear of negative evaluation, with items 2, 9, 16 and 20. Other than that students further claimed to experience communication apprehension through item 6 and 16. The fear of negative evaluation was evident as well, through the interview with one participant. When the participant was asked what made her nervous during speaking situations in the classroom, the participant said, “It is the fact that everyone is focusing on me, the ones listening to me and then I don’t want to say something wrong or mix up words”. The problem with communication apprehension was evident through items 6 and 16 as seen in Table 4 and could stem from the fact that the students who are in the English 5 group started studying at high school this autumn.

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17 Other than the items that showed that participants in the group experienced speaking anxiety, there were nine other items that participants answered which showed that they did not experience speaking anxiety. These items, however, could not be included properly considering that there was a little to no difference with participants who agreed or disagreed.

4.2.2 English 6

In English 6, there was a total of 14 participants. Out of the 20 items, the participants were just showing a higher level of anxiety on one of the items (see Table 6). Other than that one item, the participants showed a lower level of anxiety in their answers. There were a few items where the participants were divided into 7-7, as seen in Appendix 7. This would suggest that students in English 6 would be considered a lower-level anxiety group.

Table 6. The main sources for students’ speaking anxiety in English 6 with the number of participants disagreeing and agreeing

Item from the modified foreign language anxiety scale Disagree Agree 10. I would not be nervous speaking the foreign language with native speakers 9 5

This would then be categorized into communication apprehension. English 6 was the class that had the most interviewees, and with that they could answer what about speaking with native speakers that was different from speaking to one another in the class. One of the participants interviewed said: “I think I would become more nervous and think that: Ah I’m sure that I am going to say something wrong and then they will, well I don’t know, think that it sounds strange”. When asking other participants there were six more who mentioned that they would probably be nervous if they would have to speak with native speakers. The reasons for this seemed to be that since they would be native speakers, participants would compare their own knowledge with the native speakers and feel pressure to achieve a higher standard in line with the native speakers. However, two of the participants who said that they would become nervous, also said that it would probably become easier after a while as they get progressively more comfortable talking. There was one other participant in the same class, however, that was interviewed who said that speaking with native speakers would not be such a big deal because:

“If you are in a foreign country, you will never meet the people again, so it doesn’t matter if it gets a bit wrong, then it feels like it is more of that they understand everything that you say”.

Since most participants said in the questionnaire that they did not experience speaking anxiety in relation to English particularly much, the group was considered a low-anxiety group. These participants showed that their fear of negative evaluation was particularly low, which could suggest that they are comfortable in their group. This was also evident in the interviews with the participants where they were asked some questions about the classroom situation in specific.

When the participants were asked if they felt like students in the class compare themselves with one another, the participants claimed that it is something that people surely could do, but that is was not something that is obvious in the classroom.

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18 4.2.3 Spanish 3

In Spanish 3, there was a total of 23 participants. There were many items that participants were very evenly divided between with numbers such as 12-11. There were, however, traces of some speaking anxiety, with participants identifying with three out of the 20 items that show speaking anxiety (See Table 7). This mix of answers could suggest that there are participants in the class that experience a higher-level of speaking anxiety as well as some participants who experience a lower-level of it. This would then suggest that students in Spanish 3 are a medium-level anxiety group.

Table 7. The main sources for students’ speaking anxiety in Spanish 3 with the number of participants disagreeing and agreeing

Items from the modified foreign language anxiety scale Disagree Agree 1. I never feel quite sure of myself when I am speaking in my foreign language

class

9 14

11. I feel confident when I speak in foreign language class 13 9 20. I get nervous when the language teacher asks questions which I haven’t

prepared in advance

8 15

These three would then be categorized into fear of negative evaluation and communication apprehension. In item 11, even though there was a majority of participants that disagreed with the item, it was not a big difference. So it would arguably just be items 1 and 20 that would be considered sources for speaking anxiety. However, there was one participant that was interviewed, who explained how the atmosphere in the group was perceived. When being asked specifically if she felt secure with speaking in the classroom the participant said: “Certainly not, I feel a bit better with just the teacher kind of, but then it is the students that I worry for, that someone would judge, since there are people who are better than me”. In the interview the same participant was also asked about if there was anything in particular that made her feel nervous in the classroom. The participant gave an answer which strengthens item 20 about not being prepared by saying: “When I am not prepared” and then further explained “it is when it is sudden, then you get a rising pulse and then oh my god what was it that she asked, what am I supposed to answer”. These answers from the interview could help to get an understanding of students’ experiences but with a more detailed description.

4.2.4 Spanish 4

In Spanish 4, there was a total of 19 participants. There was a majority on seven of the 20 items that show speaking anxiety. There were just more significant differences in the numbers on two of the items though (see Table 8) and for other items the answers were more evenly divided.

This could then suggest that Spanish 4 is a lower-anxiety group with some students more on a medium or higher-level.

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19 Table 8. The main sources for students’ speaking anxiety in Spanish 4 with the number of participants disagreeing and agreeing

Items from the modified foreign language anxiety scale Disagree Agree 6. I start to panic when I have to speak without preparation in language class 5 11 10. I would not be nervous speaking the foreign language with native speakers 15 4

The two items seen in Table 8 would both be categorized into communication apprehension.

As previously mentioned, there were other items that showed that some participants were experiencing speaking anxiety, as seen in Appendix 5. These items, however, did not have a clear majority of participants agreeing and therefore it was divided between the participants in the class, which makes it difficult to analyze these items as sources for speaking anxiety for students in Spanish 4. In the group, two participants were interviewed. One participant that was interviewed did not express a particular high level of speaking anxiety in relation to the Spanish course. This participant showed a level of comfortableness with Spanish through the answers, by stating that there was not any particular anxiety linked to speaking the language. In addition to this, the participant used Spanish in her spare time as well, with activities such as watching Spanish shows and movies as well as chatting to other people in the language. The other interviewed participant, however, expressed that he did feel nervous in the group. This participant explained that he felt as though he knew Spanish theoretically but that it was different using it practically. He further explained that when having to speak he starts thinking a lot and therefore tangle the words together. The participant further expressed that he knew that it would be okay if he would fail but that when speaking in front of the classmates, he wanted what he said to be correct. This then could strengthen the category of fear of negative evaluation in the group.

4.3 Differences between Spanish and English learners

In the different groups there were bigger and smaller differences. The group that had the highest anxiety level was English 5 while the group that showed the lowest anxiety level was English 6. For the two different Spanish groups there were no considerable differences, since many of the items from the questionnaires showed that there was a fairly similar number of participants that agreed and disagreed. It was therefore possible to note that there were some items in the questionnaire, which participants experienced speaking anxiety in relation to. These were not counted in considering that there were not enough differences in the answers, between students who agreed and disagreed, as it is possible to see in the Appendixes for the different languages.

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20 Table 9. The differences between all groups and category of speaking anxiety in number of items from the foreign language anxiety scale

As seen in Table 9, the most common reason for speaking anxiety in all groups was communication apprehension, and after that fear of negative evaluation, while test anxiety was not brought up in the questionnaire as a major item for students’ experienced speaking anxiety.

In order to understand the differences between the groups, it is necessary to consider both of the questionnaires as well as the answers given by the participants in the interviews as well.

English 5 was, as mentioned, the highest-level anxiety group, in comparison to Spanish 3 which was considered a medium-level group. These two were compared considering that they were the lower levels of each language. One big difference between the two groups was that eight participants in Spanish 3 said that they did not want to study the language, that they had to or that it was the most interesting out of the options they had. This was a significant find considering that only by looking at the results from the foreign language anxiety scale, it was not possible to apprehend that students did not want to be in the group. This then could suggest that speaking anxiety was not a problem in the Spanish 3 group but rather the lack of interest from some of the students. In regard to the use of the languages outside of school, there was also differences. In the English 5 group, students used the language outside of school, both production but also reception. The students in Spanish 3 however, a majority of the students did not seem to use the language that extensively outside of the classroom. Even though the students in English 5 had a higher level of speaking anxiety, they seemed to have more interest in the language in comparison to Spanish 3 group that was considered a medium-level group but might have had a lower interest in the language judging by their answers.

In the English 6 group, there were the least amount of traces of speaking anxiety amongst all of the groups, with just one item of fear of negative evaluation that they related to. The group also had the highest number of participants in both the questionnaires and interviews. In addition, all the participants in the group expressed that they used the language outside of school, for different purposes. There was even one participant in the group that expressed that they felt more comfortable speaking or saying certain things in English rather than Swedish.

In the Spanish 4 group, there were some traces of speaking anxiety but the group was still considered to be a medium to low-anxiety level group. Contrasting to English 6, the participants

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21 had more items in relation to communication apprehension. Similarly to English 6, participants in the group said that they used Spanish during their free time for various things and seemed to have a general interest in the language. However, not all participants said that they used the language outside of the classroom. The findings from English 6 and Spanish 4 then showed to differ somewhat but not too much.

In conclusion, there were significant differences between the two English courses, and some differences between the two Spanish courses in relation to interest in learning the language.

When looking at English 5 and Spanish 3 there were differences between the experienced speaking anxiety between the two groups but also, as previously mentioned, between the interest in learning the language and how it was used outside of the classroom. These differences could have had an effect on the students’ perceived speaking anxiety considering that the groups with the least traces of speaking anxiety, were also the groups where they used or were in contact with the language the most, with the exception of English 5 where they also used the language a lot but still experienced speaking anxiety. Between English 6 and Spanish 4, there were not as many differences as between English 5 and Spanish 3. The main differences were that English 6 was a low-anxiety level group with just one item that they identified with, in comparison to Spanish 4 with two items and some others that were not possible to count in considering the small differences between students agreeing and disagreeing.

4.4 Possible remedies for speaking anxiety

In the foreign language anxiety scale there was no section on possible remedies for speaking anxiety, rather just items that showed that students would not have speaking anxiety. For the students who participated in an interview, however, one of the question was what they think could help with their perceived speaking anxiety. Participants who claimed that they did not experience speaking anxiety, were instead asked what it was that made them feel secure with the language. One thing that four of the participants from English 6 highlighted was the class and classroom situation. Three of the participants said that they liked to be in a class where they felt secure and familiar with the other students. Two of the participants said that they know that if they would do something wrong while talking, it would not matter that much.

One concrete thing, that a participant in English 6 mentioned helped with speaking anxiety in the class, was that the teacher gave the students alternatives when it came to speaking activities.

Sometimes students could present in pairs or film themselves at home if they wanted to, and then leave the classroom when the clip was presented if they felt more comfortable that way.

Another participant in the same class also highlighted how the teacher was working in order to help with speaking anxiety by saying:

Our teacher, she divides the work evenly between us, everyone should get the chance to speak in front of the class, everyone should get the chance to speak in front of her and to read and that, to work on that. And that is what she highlights a lot, that you are not here to show your skills but that you are here to make errors and learn by your mistakes and that is what I believe and think is very important that teachers convey the message of: that it is okay to make mistakes and it is okay to not be perfect when you come to school because then you refine your mistakes

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22 The quote gives an implication of how important the teacher’s role is in the classroom and can be seen as connecting back to the view on language learning as learning through “trial and error”. The same participant explained a coping strategy that he had. When doing speaking activities he said that it helped to think that it is not that serious, and when speaking with the class the participant considered it more of a chat where the rest of the students had to be quiet and listen.

For Spanish a total of three participants were interviewed, where one of the participants did not express a particular remedy for speaking anxiety. The other participants that participated in the interviews, did talk about what could help them to feel less nervous in the classroom however.

A participant from Spanish 3 started by saying that smaller groups could possibly help with the nervousness, considering that it gets quite “chatty” when there is a bigger group. In addition to this, the participant explained further that when people talk and laugh during the class it could feel like they were laughing at the participant, even if that was not the case. The same participant said that during Spanish classes it could also feel like the teacher was pointing students out by picking them from the class list and asking them for an answer. The participant came with the two solutions that the teacher could either pick students who were rising their hands more or if no one wanted to answer just try to make the situation feel more comfortable rather than making students feel pointed out.

Finally, there was a participant from Spanish 4 who shared possible remedies that could help students with their speaking anxiety. The first remedy that the participant mentioned was that the teacher adapts the level of the language to the level at which the students are, since they could be at different levels and with that increasing the level of difficulty gradually. The participant also explained that it could be helpful to have an exam in the beginning of every school year in order to see if the students is in the right language group for their knowledge level. In addition to the remedies already mentioned the participant also said that it could help with more Spanish classes in addition to, as previously mentioned, two language classes per week for students who have a bigger interest in learning the language. Furthermore, the participant wished for class activities similar to English where the participant worked not just with theory but with more practical activities.

How speaking anxiety affects students in the foreign language classroom