Overview
Speaking anxiety is a common issue faced by many
individuals, especially those who are learning a new language or interpreting.
This module aims to provide tips and strategies to overcome speaking anxiety in
interpreting.
Learners should make some contributions to decrease their speaking anxiety. they should know that anxiety has an effective role in impacting their speaking performance, and realize how to deal with and decrease their nervousness about speaking. The followings are some suggestions given by some researchers that may assist students cope with their anxieties.
Practice and preparation
There are two strategies that can help students get over their speaking fears: preparation and practice. "Preparation and practice are the keys to feeling confident about giving a speech or presentation," according to Kanar (2011, 293). Furthermore, students in Liu's study (2007,132) believe that practice and preparation will help them become more confident. In order to improve their speaking abilities, students should adequately prepare themselves and continue practicing the foreign language outside of the classroom.
Eliminating fear of making mistakes
Eliminating fear of making mistakes is another way to students should adopt to decrease their speaking anxiety. Learners should know that making mistakes is a part of learning languages. Consequently, they have to take the risk of making mistakes.
Positive self-talk
Positive self-talk is a helpful way for learners
to decrease their speaking anxiety. positive self-talk is a kind of “self-encouragement” that assist learners
get rid of negative ideas.
Recent research in the field of linguistics EFL
has showed that there are three types of anxiety: trait, situation-specific,
and state anxiety. trait anxiety can be described as a more permanent
predisposition to be anxious, whereas state and situation-specific anxiety are
experienced in relate to some particular event or situation ,trait anxiety is a
general personality trait that can be found in a variety of situations. It
refers to a more persistent feeling of anxiety, in which a learner is likely to
be highly apprehensive in a variety of objectively non-threatening situations.,
trait anxiety refers to an individual's proclivity to become anxious in any
circumstance
State anxiety is concerned with the given
emotional state. is a distinct emotional case marked by fear and anticipation
in response to actual or imagined threats, which may manifest cognitively,
behaviorally, or physiologically. It can have a negative impact on FL learning
and success because it may obstruct their learning, social, and emotional
growth. In addition, it is regarded as a hindrance to and disruption of an
individual's emotional balance. When a person receives bad news about a close
friend, for example, he becomes extremely anxious, putting his emotional
balance in jeopardy. State anxiety is an emotional feeling that can seriously
impair an individual's ability to respond positively to any situation or
environment. Furthermore, it can also impair a person's ability to engage in
adaptive behavior aimed at ending and overcoming this feeling, such as
encountering a great deal of difficult.
Situation specific anxiety can be thought of as
trait anxiety measures that are restricted to a specific context., it is linked
to the general guidance of anxiety and specific circumstances, or to a learning
context, which can result in a learner's inability to speak or read passages in
a second language, FL anxiety is a specific to language learning and that it
affects students' ability to interpret knowledge in the classroom.
Anxiety is classified into two types
“debilitative” and “facilitative” “harmful” and “helpful” anxiety. Facilitating
anxiety, whereby stress can be a pleasant stimulant that can keep a person
going and provide him with motivation, anxiety does not always inhibit
performance, but in some cases can actually enhance it. In Bailey's study of
competitiveness and anxiety in learning a second language, one of the keys to
success was facilitative anxiety, which was mainly associated to
competitiveness Facilitative anxiety motivates the learner to
"combat" the new knowledge and encourages them to put in more effort
to mitigate anxiety's negative effects. Debilitatve anxiety, on the other hand,
motivates the learner to "flee" the new information and it
emotionally.
stimulates the individual to adopt avoidance behavior. In other word, debilitating anxiety is whereby stress has a negative impact on one's ability to notice various issues.
Foreign Language Anxiety
Anxiety has been shown to be associated with
various types of learning, but once it is associated with learning a second or
foreign language, it is referred to as "second or foreign language
anxiety. A foreign language (FL) framework is one in which the target language
is not the native language of the society (for example, learning English in
Japan). Students in FL contexts face significant challenges in developing
speaking skills because they have few opportunities to use the target language
outside of the classroom.
Language anxiety is one of the most important
factors influencing foreign language learning. Anxiety in relation to second or
foreign language learning is characterized as a specific negative reaction that
occurs in certain foreign or second language learning contexts while learners
are required to perform in the target language. Many students have expressed
nervousness and fear in academic contexts, they tend to have difficulty
concentrating, sweat, experience heart palpitations, and become forgetful
during this period of anxiety. These psycho-physiological side effects impede
learning process.
when speaking to the teacher and speaking alone
in the classroom, but they were least anxious when working in pairs and even
less anxious when speaking. He came to the conclusion that students who were
more proficient were less worried. Some researchers believe that programs
lacking a "well-articulated framework" or curricula that does not
overly "repeat information and skill development" may contribute to
FLA. Furthermore, educational systems that do not require students to begin
learning a FL at a young age may be responsible for the development of higher
levels of FLA later in life.
Factors Contributing to Foreign
Language Anxiety
Many scientists have attempted to uncover the
different causes of anxiety. Horwitz et al developed the Foreign Language
Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) in 1986 to determine and capture the scope and
severity of students' anxiety, as well as to examine its effects on learning in
diachronic situations. Thus, while there are various types or sources of
foreign language anxiety, communication apprehension, fear of negative
evaluation, and test anxiety were the primary causes of anxiety, according to Horwitz
et al.
Communication apprehensionis a form of anxiety
that occurs in interpersonal communicative settings and is related to shyness,
which is characterized by a fear of and anxiety about interacting with others.
The learners' negative self-perceptions triggered by their inability to
understand others and make themselves understood seem to exacerbate commination
apprehension. Concerning the fear of being judged negatively, Fear of negative
assessment differs from test anxiety in that it is a tension that can arise in
any social, evaluative situation, such as a job interview or speaking in front
of an audience. Students are more concerned with how their errors are rectified
than with whether or not they should be corrected in class. In other words, learners
are anxious about how their language competence will be seen by other teachers
or classmates since they do not believe that making mistakes is a natural part
of learning a new language. Test anxiety, also known as apprehension about
academic assessment, is a type of performance anxiety that stems from a fear of
failing to perform due to unreasonable expectations that students place on
themselves. Many students feel more pressure when asked to perform in a
foreign/second language because they are faced with the task of recalling and
coordinating several grammar points at the same time in a short amount of time.
As a consequence, even though they know the correct answer, they can write it
down incorrectly or simply freeze up due to nervousness.
Foreign Language
Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)
In order to explore foreign language learning
anxiety, several studies used questionnaires, interviews, and diaries, all of
which are geared toward learners and teachers (Young, 1991). The FLCAS is a
widely used tool for assessing students' English language anxiety. Horwitz
(1986) coined the term FLCAS to refer to the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety
Scale, which was established at the University of Texas at Austin's Foreign
Language Center to assess the scope and intensity of foreign language anxiety
in
75 university students enrolled in four basic
Spanish classrooms. Seventy-five (75) students from the University of Texas, 39
of whom were males and 36 of whom were females, ranging in age from eighteen to
twenty-seven, took part in the study. They were given a questionnaire with
thirty-three (33) items relating to communication apprehension, test anxiety,
and fear of negative evaluation. Many students, according to Horwitz et al.
(1986), have foreign language anxiety, especially when speaking in class.
Individual reactions can vary greatly; therefore, the data may not reflect the
precise implications of other anxieties on FL successes. (Horwitz, 1991: 22 As
cited in Khaloufi Sellam). FL courses are avoided by certain worried students.
Moderately anxious people may put off finishing their assignments, avoid
speaking in class, and hide in the back row.
Furthermore, worry has a negative impact on
pupils' communicative strategies in language classes. The more concerned the pupils
are, the more challenging or personal TL messages are avoided. Furthermore,
students with crippling anxiety in Florida classrooms can be detected, and they
share a number of traits.
Effects
of Foreign Language Anxiety on Learners
As previously stated, several studies have shown
that anxiety has a significant impact on language learning; anxiety has been
divided into two aspects that may contribute to increasing or preventing the
language acquisition process, according to Scovel (1978). Anxiety can be either
facilitating or debilitating.
Anxiety has been linked to worse motivation,
performance, and grades among students, according to other studies. Because of
the high level of anxiety they are exposed to, learners with a high level of
anxiety may become less motivated. Furthermore, when motivated students feel
nervous, their performance in language sessions suffers. According to MacIntyre
and Gardner (1991), anxiety has been shown to have a deleterious impact on
second language performance. Moreover, because passing a specific degree is
vital, learners are more focused on grades. Different psychological factors,
such as a lack of self- confidence, low self-esteem, and anxiety, might have an
impact on grades. Hortwitz and colleagues explored the impact of anxiety on
grades and discovered that anxiety can be detrimental to academic performance.
The first thought that comes to mind when we
hear the word anxiety is that it is a bad thing to have while learning a
foreign language or other subject since anxiety affects learners' performance
and cannot have a beneficial impact on language acquisition. Many academics,
however, have been looking into the positive impact of anxiety on FLL, as
Scovel (1978) discovered that some researchers believed that language anxiety
was useful
or enabling in some ways. Thus, Anxiety,
according to Scovel (1978), is not only a negative component; it may also be
beneficial, with favorable impacts on motivation, grades, competitiveness,
achievement, and other factors. Positive anxiety aids students in raising their
performance levels. We cannot give it our all if there is no risk of failure
and our success is guaranteed. Herein, Anxiety can help us perform better
because it keeps us poised, vigilant, and just slightly unbalanced to the point
that we cannot completely rest. Furthermore, those students who feel higher
levels of anxiety achieved the best scores (Horwitz et al, 2001).
Speaking Anxiety
Speaking is one of the most significant parts of
language learning and it is undeniable that many learners prefer to use a
written foreign language rather than use it orally, because many of them feel
afraid and manifest serious holdbacks. One of the most significant emotional
factors that affects foreign language development is speaking anxiety. Students
who have a high level of language anxiety typically perform poorly in oral
presentations. When people have language anxiety, they become frightened and
uncomfortable at first, which causes them to pause and stumble during their
speech. the output stage created in speaking may be the highest indication of
worry, and that foreign language anxiety is primarily related to the oral
components of the language. They also claims that foreign language students
generally struggle with spontaneous oral communication. Therefore, they
stressed the importance of the teacher-student interaction in the rise and fall
of anxiety levels among students.
The relationship between anxiety of speaking a
foreign language and gender, as well as the learners' willingness to study and
when they first began studying English. According to the data, females are more
worried than males, and those who started learning English in preschool had
less anxiety than those who started later.
The relationship between second language anxiety
and speaking performance, as well as the major sources of anxiety. Speaking
anxiety in a second language was found to have a significant detrimental impact
on oral performance, with native speakers being the main source of anxiety.
-Causes
of Speaking Anxiety
Several experiments were performed to discover
the causes for EFL learners' speaking anxiety in classrooms. Fear of a negative
assessment, fear of the audience, low self-esteem, instructors' beliefs about
language learning, and teachers' correction of errors, according to them,
trigger speaking anxiety.
Personal reasons, classroom instructor conduct, learners' perspectives, and testing and teaching procedures are the four categories of causes of speaking anxiety. English learners are nervous when speaking because they are concerned about what their teacher and classmates will think when they hear their voice, and they see the audience as overseers of what they say and do. As a result, the audience may find their flaws and will view them negatively, labeling them as students with limited English skills. The fact that students are required to talk to an audience is the primary cause of anxiety when speaking; however, some types of audiences cause anxiety in the speakers' spirits. People with low self-esteem are concerned about what others think of them. Even though they may have hidden abilities, learners with low self- esteem believe they are unable to perform as expected when speaking English. Furthermore, a teacher's focus in the classroom has an impact on students' learning and contributes to their anxiety. some instructors believe they have the most influence in class and that students are not permitted to work in pairs in order to maintain control over them; these ideas may cause learners anxiety since they remain passive and unable to demonstrate their abilities. Besides that, believes that a harsh approach to correcting student errors causes anxiety in students. In other words, teachers who correct every error that their students make when speaking English unconsciously cause anxiety in their students because they believe they are not qualified to speak the language because the speeches they produce are riddled with errors.
Test Anxiety
Students have always been anxious when learning
a foreign language, especially while taking an exam. Every year, a large number
of brilliant students who are capable of studying drop out or leave their
schools. Anxiety associated to the fear of receiving unsatisfactory test
results is known as test anxiety .Students who are in an evaluative situation
are more prone to have significant levels of test anxiety, numerous elements
that influence this and cause learners to get disengaged from their studies.
Test anxiety is one of these variables, many people experience tension and
anxiety before taking a test. Excessive anxiousness is usually the first sign
of anxiety, followed by negative thoughts. Those excessive negative thoughts
might have a negative impact on test-takers' behavior and thinking during the
exam; test anxiety is one fairly common trait that examinees exhibit and it is
also perceived as a crucial element for them. test-anxious students are easily
distracted during an exam, have trouble understanding relatively basic
instructions, and have trouble organizing or retaining essential material
during the test. . Anxiety is prevalent not only among individuals who are not
prepared for an exam or test, but also among the majority of those who are
adequately prepared.
throughout exam taking, most students sense
anxiety. They typically claim to counselors and professors that they know the
answers of the questions but they forget them due of extreme anxiousness.
if stress is considered from a cognitive standpoint as a call to action triggered by assessments of situational qualities and personal dispositions, anxiety can be seen as self-preoccupation with the incapacity to respond effectively to the call. In evaluative settings, the test-anxious individual experiences self-preoccupying concern, insecurity, and self-doubt. Internal distractors divert attention away from the task at hand, resulting in poor performance. One of the most common causes of test anxiety, according to, is the fear of receiving a poor grade. Another major aspect that causes anxiety is students' emotional difficulties. High anxiety in students can sometimes be linked to an uncomfortable family environment, and instructors can sometimes inadvertently and indirectly cause anxiety in students.
English Speaking Test Anxiety
Speaking is considered one of the most difficult
abilities to master since it requires a lot of practice. Language acquisition
is an integrated skill-based endeavor that includes reading, writing, speaking,
and listening. It may not be as easy to embrace as other abilities because
communication necessitates interpersonal interactions and so anxiety. Anxiety
during an exam or test is defined as a mixture of physiological, cognitive, and
emotional responses to stress during the evaluation .It is common for students
to feel this way when they are being evaluated, taking a test, or being
compelled to deliver an oral presentation in front of others. Oral assessments
might induce more anxiety than written ones, greater anxiety about oral
compared with written assessment was associated with a richer conception of the
oral task as requiring deeper understanding and the need to explain to
others oral or spoken tests are more
prevalent when several grammatical principles must be recalled and coordinated
at the same time, he goes on to say that the same issue will arise when
offering test or syntax. When the test is over, the students recall the correct
answer and anxiety will be eliminated totally. Thus, anxiety was a product of deeper
and more transformative learning. Several studies on speaking test anxiety have
been conducted; a summary of some of these studies is offered here.
Conclusion
One of the emotional factors that has a
detrimental impact on students' impressions of foreign language acquisition is
foreign language anxiety. As a result, most students are concerned about
speaking a foreign language. There is a considerable link between speaking
anxiety and speaking performance, according to previous studies. However, they
did not explain the reasons why EFL students experience speaking anxiety during
exam situation. Furthermore, numerous research used diaries, interviews, and
questionnaires based on FLCAS created by Horwitz et al (1986) to reveal the
various reasons of anxiety and foreign language anxiety-particularly speaking
anxiety in the classroom- while there have been a few studies conducted to
study the factors that cause EFL students ‘speaking test anxiety in general and
Algeria in particular. Moreover, in the same studies, students were given
closed-ended questions rather than open-ended ones, which would assist the
researcher in gaining more actual evidence on how students respond to speaking
anxiety in exams, how their anxiety affects their speaking performance, how they
are dealing with it, and suggest solutions to overcome this regarded issue.
Similarly, some researchers did not use a large sample of participants in their
studies, which can affect the data's generalizability. This study began with
these research gaps. Furthermore, the necessity to investigate teachers' and
students' perspectives of factors affecting Algerian EFL undergraduate
learners' speaking in a test-taking environment shaped the current study. This
research is significant for both students and teachers because a better
understanding of speaking test anxiety will help them overcome the problem and
enhance their awareness of the barriers facing Algerian EFL undergraduate
students' speaking skill development. To address this aim, the current study asks
the following questions:
Objectives
Understand the causes and effects of speaking anxiety in
interpreting
Learn
sub-skills to improve speaking confidence
Identify different types of speaking in interpreting
Explore
methods and teaching aids to overcome speaking anxiety
Develop
strategies to apply connectivism principles in teaching speaking skills
Understand
the roles of teachers and students in overcoming speaking anxiety
Learn
how to evaluate and provide feedback on speaking skills
Sub-skills
Pronunciation
Vocabulary
Grammar
Fluency
Listening comprehension
Cultural awareness
Types of Speaking
Simultaneous interpreting
Consecutive interpreting
Sight translation
Liaison interpreting
Methods and Teaching Aids
Role-playing
Group discussions
Presentations
Video recordings
Peer feedback
Self-assessment tools
Strategies
Positive self-talk
Deep breathing exercises
Visualization techniques
Progressive muscle relaxation
Breaking down tasks into smaller steps
Practicing in low-stress situations
Applying Connectivism
Principles
Encouraging collaboration and peer learning
Using technology to facilitate learning and communication
Promoting lifelong learning and continuous improvement
Emphasizing
the importance of networking and building relationships
Teacher and Students Roles
Teachers should create a supportive and encouraging learning
environment
Teachers
should provide clear instructions and feedback
Students
should take responsibility for their own learning and practice regularly
Students
should seek feedback and support from teachers and peers
Evaluation and Feedback
Teachers should use a variety of assessment methods, such as oral
exams, presentations, and self-assessment tools
Feedback
should be specific, constructive, and timely
Students
should reflect on their own performance and set goals for improvement
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