AFFECTIVE FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENT PARTICIPATION IN THE CLASSROOM SPEAKING ACTIVITIES: A CASE STUDY OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT TAY BAC UNIVERSITY

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationales The Department of English - Tay Bac University operates within the curriculum framework of the Ministry of Education and Training. However, the fact shows that there has not been a specific curriculum for English Departments, which makes it difficult for the teachers to design their own syllabus based on general objectives of the Ministry of Education and Training. After the course the students have to be able to communicate successfully in social situations such as talking about life or career. They have to take part in discussion, negotiation or explanation of social issues, agree or disagree with others’ opinions, .... They have to gain confidence in communicating successfully, using communicative strategies to express their ideas, and feelings appropriately and fluently. However, there is a fact that the students do not gain these objectives. In order to achieve these objectives, the teachers have to invest a lot of time, energy, passion, intelligence and creativity into designing suitable lessons as well as finding out how to teach speaking skill to help the students achieve the above objectives. Therefore, the teacher should begin analyzing students’ needs, and interests in learning English during the process of designing lesson activities. After several years of teaching speaking skills, we have found that the first year students are still quite passive in speaking English. They do not actively participate in speaking activities. Students’ participation in classroom activities has been the centre of various TEFL research. In general, it can be affected by a variety of factors coming from teachers’ side like teacher’s teaching methods, teachers’ characteristics, teachers’ knowledge; students’ side such as motivation, attitudes, personality, learning styles, age, gender differences; and others including classroom environment, types and contents of activities, etc. All the factors, even they are subjective or objective, are composed of social, cognitive and affective features. These features are equally important for learners to learn an L2. It can be seen from the fact of our teaching and learning that students’ learning is much affected by their feelings and emotion. When being asked if they like learning English or not one of the students who had poor participation in learning answered: “I don’t really like learning English. The reason why I’m here to study English is I have no other choice.” I was very surprised at what the student said. This also helped me understand why that student didn’t participate actively in the speaking activities. It can not be denied that the student’s feelings and attitudes toward learning English affect his learning process in general and his participation in learning activities in particular. Research on second/foreign language acquisition has identified a variety of factors hypothesized to account for some of the variance in the level of proficiency attained by individuals learning a second language. The factors considered may generally be classified into two basic categories: cognitive and affective variables. Cognitive variables are the relatively stable ability characteristics of learners that may affect the success with which an individual learns another language. These are factors such as aptitude, intelligence, and certain cognitive style characteristics. Affective variables, on the other hand, describe individual characteristics relating to factors such as attitude and motivation. In fact there are quite a lot of affective factors other than motivation and attitude, but in this study I limit the concept to four factors: attitude, motivation, anxiety, and personality. Although there have been many studies on affective factors conducted in various contexts, especially factors causing anxiety in second/foreign language learning, not a single one has ever been done on students in the mountainous areas. This study is an attempt to explore this issue in relation to speaking English. In conclusion, the study is of great value in terms of both theoretical and practical aspects. From the theoretical angle, it provides us with the knowledge about the factors and affective factors affecting students’ participation in speaking activities, and also the study can be an implication for teachers who want to enhance learners’ participation in their learning. 1.2. Aims of the study The study was carried out to find out some of the affective factors affecting the first year students’ participation in classroom speaking activities, and why these factors affect their participation in classroom activities. In order to find out a theoretical framework or the investigation in this thesis, the literature on the factors affecting second language learning, theoretical foundation of affective factors in second language learning, affective factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities, and learners’ participation and related issues is reviewed. 1.3. Research Questions To achieve the aims which are mentioned above, the following research questions were raised for exploration: What are the students’ motivation and attitudes towards speaking English? To what extent does anxiety affect their participation in speaking English? What is the relationship between their personality and their participation in speaking activities? 1.4. Scope of the study Learners’ participation in language learning can be affected by many factors which are closely related. Among these factors, affective factors seem to be a complex one that needs to be studied. However, the study only focuses on the first year students of English at Tay Bac University because at this level learners often have more difficulties than those of higher levels. Further more, the study only focuses on speaking activities because speaking skill is one of the most important and difficult skills, and need developing for their future job as teachers. 1.5. Method of the study In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the study uses a survey questionnaire as the sole research instrument for collecting data. There have been many studies on factors in second/foreign language learning which employed survey questionnaires as the major method. After the data is collected, analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn, and some suggestions will be made in the thesis. 1.6. Design of the study The study consists of four chapters: Chapter one includes the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method and the design of the study. Chapter two provides a theoretical background of factors and affective factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities such as anxiety, motivation, attitudes, personalities, teacher characteristics and classroom atmosphere; a theoretical foundation of affective factors and learner participation. This is viewed as the theoretical framework for the investigation in the next chapter. Chapter three presents the study. It includes the context of the study, the research questions, the research method, the participants and the findings of the study. Chapter four is the conclusion of the study, providing the summary of the findings and some implications for teachers of English as a foreign language. Some possible suggestions for further research are also discussed in this chapter. CHAPTER 2: RELATED LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Learner factors affecting second language learning It is believed that learners have different characteristics which lead to more or less successful language learning. For example, some teachers believe that extroverted learners are better at acquiring communicative skills than introverted learners. However, the identification and classification of different individual factors has proved to be problematic. Different researchers use different labels to describe different set of behavioural traits. So it is not easy to compare and evaluate the results of their investigations. Each factor is not a unitary construct but a complex of features which are manifest in a range of overlapping behaviours. It is, therefore, not surprising to find that a number of terms have been employed to describe the phenomena such as ‘affective, cognitive, and social factors’ (Tucker et al. 1976), ‘attitudinal and motivational characteristics’ (Gardner 1976), ‘language aptitude, motivation, learning strategies, cognitive and affective factors’ (Skehan, 1989), and “age, social-psychological factors, personality, cognitive style, learning strategies’ (Larsen-Freeman and Long, 1991). In an attempt to impose some order on this set of terms and concepts, Rod Ellis (1985) proposes to make an initial distinction between personal and general factors. According to him, personal factors are highly idiosyncratic features of each individual’s approach to learning a L2. They include ‘nesting patterns’ (the need for a secure and orderly home base before learning can effectively begin), ‘transition anxiety’ (the stress generated by moving to a foreign place), and the desire to maintain a personal language learning agenda. Schumanns (1977) found that such factors strongly influenced their SLA. The general factors are variables that are characteristic of all learners. They differ not in whether they are present in a particular individual’s learning, but in the extent to which they are present, or the manner in which they are realized. General factors can be further divided into those that are modifiable (likely to change during the course of SLA) such as motivation, and those that are not modifiable (do not change in strength or nature as SLA takes place) such as aptitude (Ellis, 1985). He also concludes that personal and general factors have social, cognitive and affective aspects. Social aspects are external to the learner and concern the relationship between the learner and native speakers of the L2 and also between the learner and other speakers of his own language. Cognitive and affective aspects are internal to the learner. Cognitive factors concern the nature of the problem-solving strategies used by the learner, while affective factors concern the emotional responses aroused by the attempts to learn an L2. Different personal and general factors involve all three aspects in different degrees. For example, aptitude is thought of as primarily cognitive in nature, but also involves affective and social aspects. Personality is primarily affective, but also has social and cognitive sides. Age is a factor that may involve all three aspects fairly equally. Also, learning style is composed of social, cognitive and affective features. It has been proved that learner factors play an important role in SLA. In this study, we would like to study affective factors only. 2.2. Theoretical foundation of Affective factors in second language learning 2.2.1. Humanistic perspective Humanistic education has been paid much attention to for ages, therefore, in language teaching humanism is a crucial factor. To the meaning of the term ‘humanistic’ as applied to language teaching, Gertrude Moskowitz (1978) has devoted more pages and more explicit attention than anyone else. One of her statements is that ‘through the ages man has been striving to become more human’. This is apparently consistent with the general definition of ‘ humane’. She says that what is called ‘humanistic’ education is related to a concern for personal development, self-acceptance and acceptance by others, in other words, making students ‘more human’. But what does it mean ‘to be more human’? For Moskowitz, there seem to be two major emphases. The first is on feelings. ‘Humanistic education ... takes into consideration that learning is affected by how students feel about themselves’ (p.12). ‘It is concerned with educating the whole person, the intellectual and the emotional dimensions’ (p.11). Her second emphasis is on bringing out the uniqueness of each individual. The glosses that other writers have provided for humanistic have been briefer. Medgyes (1986) cites Moskowitz, and says: In both the Humanistic – Psychological Approach and the Communicative Approach, learners are seen not so much as full-time linguistic objects at whom language teaching is aimed, but rather as human individuals whose personal dignity and integrity, and thee complexity of whose ideas, thoughts, needs and sentiments, should be respected .... Foreign language teachers must contribute to the self-actualizing process .... (1986, p.109). Richards and Rodger (1986), again citing Moskowitz, say that ‘In sum, humanistic techniques engage the whole person, including the emotions and feelings as well as linguistic knowledge and behavioral skills’ (p.11). Terrell (1982) describes ‘affective-humanistic activities’ as those that explore the students’ values, ideas, opinions, goals and feelings as well as their experiences’ (p.281). Roberts (1982) speaks of the “humanistic/ psychological” or “whole engagement’ approach, a term that, for him, covers ‘ a range of methods and techniques which on the surface may seem unconnected’, but which he says share at least two significant assumptions: That the affective aspects of language learning problems are as important as the cognitive aspects. And therefore the learners should be treated in some sense as a ‘whole person’. (p.101) That the answers to language learning problems are more likely to come from psychology than from linguistics. (ibid). Similarly, Bhanot (1983) says that ‘humanistic approaches draw their inspiration from psychology rather than from other disciplines such as linguistics’, and that ‘language learners are regarded as “whole persons” with emotional and intellectual needs’ (p.361). Brown (1980) derives his use of the term ‘humanism’ largely from references to the work of Carl Rogers: We can see in Rogers’ humanism quite a departure from the scientific analysis of Skinnerian psychology, and even from Ausubel’s rationalistic theory. Rogers is not as concerned about actual cognitive process of learning since, he feels, if the context of learning is properly created, then human beings will, in fact, learn everything they need to ... . That is, there will be no irresponsible dilettanism resulting in incomplete coverage of the subject matter. The teacher as facilitator must therefore provide the nurturing context for learning and not see his mission as one of rather programmatically feeding students qualities of knowledge which they subsequently devour. (1980, p.77). David Nunan (1991) in his discussion of a number of methods which advocate a diverse range of classroom techniques believes that ‘if learners can be encouraged to adopt the right attitudes, interests and motivation in the target language and culture, as well as in the learning environment in which they find themselves, then successful learning will occur, and that if these affective factors are not right, then no set of techniques is likely to succeed, regardless of how carefully they have been devised or how solidly they based on the latest theory and research’. (p. 234). Stevick (1990), who has taken up and extended the work of Curran, Gattegno and Lozanow, became interested in applying principles of humanistic psychology to language learning and teaching after he became dissatisfied with both audio-lingual habit theory and cognitive code learning. He came to the conclusion that success or failure in language teaching depends not so much on whether one adopts inductive or deductive techniques for teaching grammar, nor whether one engages in meaningful practice rather than in pattern drills, but in the extent to which one caters to the learner’s affective domain. 2.2.2. Towards a definition of affect Among various definitions provided by scholars in the field of second language acquisition we will turn our attention to the most relevant ones. Arnold (1999) defines affect in terms of “aspects of emotion, feeling, mood or attitude which condition behaviour”, whereas Dickinson (1987: 25) characterises it as being concerned with the learner’s attitude towards the target language and its users, and with his/her emotional responses. Stevick (1999: 44) propounds the following interpretation (1982): One’s ‘affect’ towards a particular thing or action or situation or experience is how that thing or that action or that situation or that experience fits in with one’s needs or purposes, and its resulting effect on one’s emotions … affect is a term that refers to the purposive and emotional sides of a person’s reactions to what is going on. (Stevick, 1999: 55) 2.2.3. The Affective Filter Hypothesis The Affective Filter hypothesis (Krashen, 1987) states how affective factors relate to the second language acquisition process. The concept of an affective filter was proposed by Dulay and Burt (1977). They have suggested that attitudinal factors may relate to second language acquisition in the following ways: ‘performers with optimal attitudes have lower affective filter. A low filter means that the performer is more open to the input, and that the input strikes deeper. Thus, having the right attitudes may do two things for second language acquirers: it will encourage them to try to get more input, to interact with speakers of the target language with confidence, and also to be more receptive to the input they get.’ The following figure represents the affective filter and how it relates to second language acquisition: Language Acquisition Device Filter Input - - - - Acquired competence Figure 1: Operation of the Affective Filter (Krashen, 1987: p.39) ‘The affective filter acts to prevent input from being used for language acquisition. Acquirers with optimal attitudes are hypothesized to have a low affective filter. Classrooms that encourage low filters are those that promote low anxiety among students, that keep students off the defensive’ (p.32). It can be seen from the Affective Filter Hypothesis that the effect of affect is outside the language acquisition device proper. It still maintains that input as the primary causative variable in second language acquisition, affective variables acting to impede or facilitate the delivery of input to the language acquisition device. To summarize, the Affective Filter hypothesis implies that our pedagogical goals should not only include supplying comprehensible input, but also creating a situation that promotes a low filter. The effective language teacher is someone who can provide input and help make it comprehensible in a low anxiety situation. 2.2.4. Affective goal of second language competence In the second language acquisition, the combinations of sounds, the formal distinction, the numerous syntactic rules and semantic relationships are not only new and in many respects unexpectedly different from the first language, but they often arouse an emotional response; they may appear puzzling, arbitrary, frustrating, confusing, sometimes amusing, and occasionally also attractive and pleasing. One affective objective of language teaching must be to overcome any sense of rejection of the language and its features on the part of the learner. Stern (1992) in his discussion of affective goal of second language competence believed that ‘the learners should be encouraged to cultivate not only an intellectual understanding of what is obligatory, but intuitive sense of right or wrong, in other words, or a feeling of being at home in the language. .... It is part of affective goal that the learner should engage in target language activities, and that he should do so with positive feelings; that is we should encourage the learner to use the language willingly and even with enjoyment.’ (p. 87). 2.3. Affective factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities Learners, in particul