Confidence and Anxiety in Foreign Language Learning

Graduation Thesis

Presented to

the Faculty of the Department of

English Language and Literature

Notre Dame Seishin University

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirement for the Degree

Bachelor of Arts

by

Tomoko Kino

2013

Contents

Abstract 1

Chapter One: Introduction1.1 Introduction 21.2 What is confidence? 2

1.2.1 The definition of confidence 31.2.2 Factors affecting confidence 41.2.3 Affective Filter 4

1.3 What is anxiety? 61.3.1 The definition of anxiety 61.3.2 Types of anxiety 8

1.4 Topic of the thesis 111.5 Summary 11

Chapter Two: The Study2.1 Introduction 132.2 The Questionnaire 13

2.2.1 Introduction 132.2.2 Method 13

a) Subjects 13b) The questionnaire 14

c) Procedure 142.3 Results 15

a) Learners’ confidence 15b) Learners’ studying background 19

2.4 Summary 20

Chapter Three: Discussion3.1 Introduction 213.2 Summary of the questionnaire results 213.3 Discussion of the results 22

3.3.1 Overview 22

3.3.2 The relationship between students’ English level andconfidence 22

3.3.3 Self evaluation of four skills 223.3.4 Activities which students have confidence 223.3.5 Activities which students have anxiety 233.3.6 Factors which affects students confidence and anxiety 24

3.4 Answering research questions 263.5 Implications 273.6 Limitations 293.7 Further research 303.8 Conclusion 30

References 32Appendices 35

Abstract

Today, we have lots of opportunities to use English, and study English. During their

learning process, some learners may have language learning anxiety while others have

confidence. If we can find out what affect their confidence and anxiety concretely, we may be

able to study English effectively. In this thesis, we will look at what kind of activities learners

can do with/without confidence, and what affect their confidence and anxiety.

The questionnaire was taken by 58 students who were studying English in Notre

Dame Seishin University. The questionnaire asked what kind of activities students did in

English with/without confidence. Some students who had high confidence and low confidence

were chosen and asked their studying background in order to find the factors which affect

their confidence and anxiety.

From the questionnaire data, it was found that students could join activities with

confidence when they communicate with their friends in English. In addition, what they

experienced in class many times made them gain confidence. On the other hand, the situations

which used the technical terms made them lose confidence. In addition, students who had

confidence answered they had chances to use English outside of school, and that experience

made them gain confidence. Other student answered that the evaluation from others was also

related to confidence. On the other hand, students who had low confidence answered that

trauma and pressures affect them negatively.

1

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Introduction

As globalization progresses, our chances to meet foreign people has been increasing.

Many people go abroad for traveling, studying and business. English is a common language

now in the world; therefore, we have lots of opportunity to use English in order to

communicate with foreigners. In Japan, most students usually start to learn English when they

go to junior high school, and until they graduate from high school. However, the government

decided that students should start to learn English from fifth grade of elementary school. If

students have high confidence, they can learn English with high motivation and improve their

English skill more effectively. Therefore, confidence is important for learners to develop their

language learning. However, when they study English, some students have really high

confidence for their learning, and they are not afraid of making mistakes. On the other hand,

some people have really low confidence, and they hesitate to use English in front of others.

Some students may avoid learning English. Why do some students have low confidence while

other students have high confidence? What affects their confidence? How should they learn

English in order to gain confidence? This thesis will try to answer those questions. In the next

section, we will look at the definition of motivation and anxiety. Then, we would like to have

a look at the cause of developing and losing learners’ confidence.

1.2 What is confidence?

In this section, we will look at what confidence is. Confidence is associated with

various things such as our environment, relationships with others, psychology and our

background. Therefore, it is not easy to define its meaning. Nevertheless, we will look at the

definition of confidence and the factors affecting confidence in order to find out what

confidence is clearly.

2

1.2.1 The definition of confidence

In this section, we will look at some definitions of confidence. Confidence is a belief

in oneself, one’s power, abilities and judgment - in other words, self-confidence, self-

assurance and self-reliance. Here are four definitions/concepts of confidence.

1. Self-confidence is closely related to self-esteem, both share a common emphasis on the

individual’s perception of his or her abilities as a person (Dörnyei, 2005, p.211).

2. Carver et al. defined it as an individual’s overall evaluation or appraisal of themselves,

whether they approval or disapproval of themselves, like or dislike themselves (Higgins,

1996, p.1073).

3. Corsini (1994) viewed it as the way one feels about oneself or the ‘sense of personal

worthy and competence that people associate with their self concept’ (p.289).

4. Commings and Dunham defined it as the degree to which an individual believes

him/herself to be capable, significant, and worth (pierce & Gardner, 2004).

Therefore, in the case of foreign language learning, we can say that learner who has

confidence is convinced of their own language skill.

According to English consultant psychiatrist, Persaud, true self-confidence comes

from an attitude that you will try as hard as you can to help yourself.

1.2.2 Factors affecting confidence

3

Confidence is important for learners to improve their language skill because

confidence affects how we deal with a task, how we perform and how we communicate with

others and so on. If we have confidence, it will lead us to have high motivation, and help us to

study more. It will exert a great influence to help us accomplish our dreams or goals.

However, we cannot get confidence easily because confidence is made by the accumulation of

lots of life experiences; for example, where we lived, what we experienced, how our parents

disciplined us, who we are related to and our life environment.

Confidence is related to family characteristics. For example, the family which

displays contradictory discipline, strict discipline and disapproval of their children will lead

children to lose their confidence. On the other hand, the family which approves of their

children and their friends who join various kinds of activities together, and have regular but

not strict routines will lead children to gain their confidence.

Confidence is also related to self-esteem and lots of things; such as relationships to

social networks, activities, and what we hear from others. Positive self-esteem is related to

factors of mental health, mattering to others, body image and physical health. On the other

hand, negative self-esteem is related to depression, health problems, and antisocial behavior.

Adolescents tend to have low self-esteem, and they easily lose their confidence. Usually their

self-esteem becomes better year by year, but girls will not tend to gain their confidence until

early adulthood.

1.2.3 Affective Filter

Above, we looked at some general ideas about confidence. Now, we will look at how

confidence is related to our learning process. Krashen (1988) mentioned the affective filter

hypothesis. Usually a language input is connected to language output through the language

acquisition device. The Language acquisition device is hypothetical brain mechanism which

Chomsky advocated. Humans have an innate facility to which helps them acquire language,

4

therefore human can acquire language. This organ is language acquisition device. The

psychological obstacle which restricts language input during this process is the affective filter.

In other words, a learners’ emotional state affects their language acquisition. The Affective

filter prevents a language input from reaching part of the brain responsible for language

acquisition. If the affective filter is high, the amount of language input which will be sent to

language acquisition device will decrease, and then a language output will also decrease. It

occurs because learners choose what they want to receive unconsciously. It means even if

learners trying to comprehend language, the affective filter disturbs language production

unconsciously. Even if they can get input, language acquisition device does not work, so

language information will not be accumulated.

　　　　 　filter

input ---------- acquired competence

(Krashen, 1988)

According to Krashen, three factors affect the affective filter; motivation, anxiety and

confidence. When learners have high confidence, high motivation and low anxiety, their

affective filter is low. A low filter means the learners are more open to input, so they can

input deeper. Therefore, it is important for learners’ to gain confidence and get rid of their

anxiety in order to input language information more smoothly.

1.3 What is anxiety?

We looked at confidence in 1.2. In this section, we will look at the definition of

anxiety to find out what anxiety is, and we will have a look at some types of anxiety. Anxiety

Language Acquisition Device

5

gives fears to learners, so it affects the learners’ studying, especially communication. Learners

who have high anxiety tend to avoid expressing personal messages. For example, students

who have high anxiety about their writing skills tend to write short compositions because

anxiety-producing condition tend to less concrete message because of their fears, so they tend

to avoid expressing personal message. If they can overcome their anxiety, they will be able to

gain confidence, and they can learn more effectively. There are a lot of types of anxiety, but

we will focus on six types; trait anxiety, state anxiety, situation-specific anxiety,

communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation because many

students who have anxiety suffer those anxieties in their learning process. But first let us look

at various definitions of anxiety.

1.3.1 The definition of anxiety

In this section, we will look at the definition of anxiety. When we do something, it’s

not uncommon to have anxiety. Therefore, when students learn a foreign language, it’s not

strange that they have anxiety to some extent. However, there are many kinds of anxiety. We

will take a look at the definition of anxiety from varied points of view in order to know what

anxiety is clearly, especially foreign language anxiety. Here are four definitions. Some

researchers use the word “FLA”, to mean Foreign Language Anxiety.

1. Clément (1980) defined foreign language anxiety as a complex construct that deals with

learners’ psychology in terms of their feelings, self-esteem, and self-confidence.

2. MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) defined FLA as the feeling of tension and apprehension

specifically associated with second or foreign language contexts, including speaking, listening

and learning, or the worry and negative emotional reaction arousal when learning or using a

second or foreign language (MacIntyre, 1999).

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3. Zhang (2001) defined anxiety as the psychological tension that the learner goes through in

performing a learning task.

4. Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) defined FLA is “a phenomenon related to, but

distinguishable from, other specific anxieties.” (p.129)

In addition, Young (1992) explained foreign language anxiety as a complicated

psychological phenomenon peculiar to language learning. From these definitions and ideas,

we can say that anxiety, especially foreign language anxiety is one peculiar of type anxiety.

Anxiety itself is made up of subjective feelings such as worry, apprehension and fear which

are related to the autonomic nervous system. Foreign language anxiety occurs during learners’

learning process. For example, learners who have foreign language anxiety feel stressful in

classrooms, and it affects their performance. This negative feelings and worrying prevents

learners from performing successfully. Some of them are suffering from tension, evaluation

and making mistakes.

However, we cannot say indiscriminately that anxiety always causes bad or negative

effects. Sometimes learners who have anxiety can perform better than learners who have

confidence. Chastain (1975) and Kleinmann (1977) found a positive relationship between

language anxiety and second language learning achievement. However, Horwitz, Horwitz,

and Cope (1986) found that foreign language anxiety was caused by learners’ negative

reactions to foreign language learning. Those results make us confused, and Scovel (1978)

explained there were still others which revealed neither positive nor negative relationships.

However, if learners can lessen their anxiety and raise their confidence, they will be able to

enjoy learning more.

1.3.2 Types of anxiety

7

In this section, we will have a look at six types of anxiety. First, anxiety is composed

of three types of anxiety; trait anxiety, state anxiety and situation-specific anxiety. In addition,

situation- specific anxiety has three sub-types of anxiety such as communication

apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. First of all, we will look at trait

anxiety, state anxiety and situation-specific anxiety.

Trait Anxiety

Trait anxiety is characteristics which make people feel anxiety permanently, and is a

kind of personal characteristic. People who have trait anxiety have the possibility to feel

anxiety in wide range of situations. For example, they worry about little things, they are so

irresolute that they cannot make decision or they tend to avoid trouble. This type of anxiety is

varied, and it changes depends on how they condition themselves, and how they manage their

stress and worries. People who have high levels of trait anxiety feel worry and stress easily.

This anxiety is may related to their upbringing.

State anxiety

This anxiety shows present anxiety state, so a person with state anxiety has fear of an

actual experience itself. According to Spielberger (1983), state anxiety is an apprehension

experienced at a particular moment in time as a response to a definite situation. For example,

state anxiety person fears public speaking. This type of anxiety exhibits temporary symptoms,

so it easily changes from situation to situation and time to time, and intensity varies.

MacIntyre (1999) and Dörnyei (2005) said this is emotive reaction to the present circumstance

and is more of “moment-to-moment” experience. This anxiety influences on behavior such as

sweat, contraction and tension of muscle feeling, thirsty and rapid heartbeat.

Situation-specific anxiety

8

This anxiety is permanent character trait which make person feel anxiety in specific

situation. According to Ellis (1994), situation-specific anxiety is related to apprehension

unique to specific situations and events. Therefore, it changes from situation to situation.

Situation-specific anxiety is similar to state anxiety in that both are stable and peculiar. The

difference between situation-specific anxiety and state anxiety is, for example, in the case of

public speech, state anxiety person fears the action of public speech itself. On the other hand,

people with situation-specific anxiety become nervous or feel anxiety when public speaking.

Foreign language learning itself is considered as situation-specific anxiety.

Three sub-types

The other three sub-types of anxiety which derive from situation-specific anxiety.

Communication apprehension

This is a type of anxiety characterized by fear or anxiety about communicating with

people. For example, it is difficult for a learner to speak in dyads or groups (oral

communication anxiety) in English, or it is difficult to listen or learn utterances. Even if they

have advanced ideas or thoughts, this anxiety occurs because they do not have an advanced

communication skill. This type of anxiety is derived from personal knowledge that they are

not good at understand others, or not good at make themselves understood to others. Learners

who have communication apprehension will keep quite in their English class.

Test anxiety

This is a type of performance anxiety which occurs from a fear of failure. Learners

who have test-anxiety in a foreign language class fear failing tests. Horwitz, Horwitz and

Cope (1991) mentioned that test-anxious students often put unrealistic demands on

themselves and feel that anything less than a perfect test performance means a failure for

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them. This type of anxiety has the possibility to spread in language classrooms because

students are put in evaluative environments; their class performances are always evaluated by

their teachers. In addition, students who have test-anxiety tend to care about criticism from

parents and teachers so they tend to choose the tasks which they can certainly succeed in.

Some children feel test anxiety because of too many expectations or demands from their

parents. When children cannot live up to their parents’ expectations, some parents will show

negative reactions to children, and it will make children to fear failure. On the other hand,

students who do not have test-anxiety are not afraid of criticism and failing. Therefore, they

can deal with harder tasks.

Fear of negative evaluation

Students who fear negative evaluation tend to worry about evaluation from others,

and they tend to avoid evaluative situations. They tend to expect other people to evaluate

them negatively. Learners who have a fear of negative evaluation worry about evaluation and

reactions not only from their teachers, but also from other students. For example, when a

student who has fear of negative evaluation performs in foreign language class, he believes

that his teacher and other students will evaluate his performance negatively, and he cares their

reaction too much. It will affect his performance and he may not perform well. This type of

anxiety is similar to test-anxiety, but it is not limited to test-taking situations, it may occur in

many social, evaluative situations. For example, job interviews and speaking in foreign

language class.

1.4 Topic of the thesis

Introduction

We have looked at what confidence and anxiety are. It is important for learners to

lose anxiety and gain confidence, but it is not easy to do that. Confidence is formed by past

10

accumulation such as what we learnt, what we experienced, and relationships with others,

psychology and our background. Anxiety is caused by their learning experiences during their

learning process. However, we do not know what exactly affects learners’ confidence and

anxiety. Of course it may depend on the person, but if we research it, we may find some

common points. In addition, if we know what kinds of activities learners usually do

with/without confidence now, it will be helpful to find out the way of how they should learn

English from now on.

Based on the above, the experiment was designed to look for answers to these

research questions.

1. What kinds of activities can learners do with confidence in English?

2. What happen when learners learn a foreign language?

3. How does confidence influence a learner’s attitude to learning a foreign language?

4. Does the studying environment affect the learner’s confidence and anxiety?

1.5 Summary

Confidence is formed by various factors, and it affects a learner’s learning style. It is

important for learners to lose anxiety and gain their confidence to improve their language

skill, but it is not easy. Actually learners get anxiety which we saw in Chapter One during

their learning process.

In Chapter Two, we will look at the experiment that asked about learners’ confidence.

In Chapter Three, we will discuss the results of this experiment which will show about the

detail factors which affect learners’ confidence.

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Chapter Two: The Study

2.1 Introduction

In Chapter One we looked at the definition of confidence and anxiety. Confidence

helps learners to improve their language skill. It is believed that confidence is important for

learners to learn language. However, some learners have high confidence, while some learners

have low confidence in their language skills. If we know why some people lose confidence in

their language skills, it can be useful to improve their language studying.

In this chapter we will look at the results of the questionnaire about students’

confidence.

2.2 The questionnaire

2.2.1 Introduction

The aim of this research was to find out what actions students do with confidence or

without confidence, and find out what mainly develop/lose learners’ confidence. Moreover,

we will look what happen to learners when they study foreign languages.

2.2.2 Method

a) Subjects

58 female students at Notre Dame Seishin University who majored in English took part

in the study. Their grades were from second year to fourth year. Then, after that six students

who had high/low confidence were chosen; three had high confidence and another three had

low confidence. They were asked more specific questions about their learning experiences,

learning style and their thinking about studying.

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b) The questionnaire

The questionnaire consisted of 50 questions. Questions one to three were about

students’ English level. Students were asked to write their score of TOEIC or EIKEN, and

other qualifications which showed their English levels. Questions four to seven about their

confidence for four skills: reading, listening, writing and speaking. Then more 43 questions

which were about their confidence in specific situations were asked. Those questions also

imply four skills; question eight to 16 about the reading skill, questions 17 to 25 about the

writing skill, questions 26 to 39 about the speaking skill and questions 40 to 50 about the

listening skill. There are two reasons why these questions were chosen. One is to find out

what kind of actions students have or do not have confidence. Another reason is to find out

which students have high confidence or low confidence in order to find out the factors which

affect learner’s confidence. Then, some students who had high/low confidence were asked

their personal experiences about their learning individually.

c) Procedure

Firstly, questionnaire was made in both Japanese and English versions. Students got

Japanese one. The contents were divided into three sections, and second to fourth year

students got this questionnaire. Then, the data was collected and chart was made. Secondly, on

the questionnaire, students were asked to circle their level of confidence from scale one to

five. The figure was put in order for students to circle their confidence level. This graph

means that their confidence is high that it goes to the right, and their confidence is low that it

goes to the left.

low high

Then, the data were collected, and some students who had really high confidence and

13

low confidence were found. After that, they were asked individually about what happened

when they have learned English.

2.3 Results

a) Learners’ confidence

The purpose of thesis was to find out what mainly affects a learner’s confidence. In

this Chapter, we will look at the data of the questionnaire in several tables. These will be

discussed in Chapter Three.

58 students at Notre Dame Seishin University took part in the questionnaire. All of

them are female. 21 students were second year students, 16 students were third year students

and 21 students were fourth year students. The date in the table 1 shows students’ TOEIC

level. 35 people had TOEIC score.

Table 1: Students’ TOEIC level

Group A

(860~990)

Group B

(730~855)

Group C

(470~725)

Group D

(220~465)

Group E

(10~215)

6% 14% 71% 9% 0%

It is said that average score of university students is the first half of 500 (Group C).

Therefore, most students are around average score. However, according to this table, 20 % of

students got higher score than average.

Table 2: What students think their English level composed to others in the same school

Much lower than

Little lower than

Average Little better than average

Much better than average

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average average4. Reading 15.5% 13.8% 44.8% 25.9% 0.0%5. Listening 12.1% 19.0% 37.9% 22.4% 8.6%6. Writing 6.9% 19.0% 56.9% 13.8% 3.4%7. Speaking 22.8% 33.3% 31.6% 12.3% 0.0%

The data in Table 2 shows what students think their level of English composed to

others in the same school. In reading, listening and writing section, many students thought

their skill was average. However, in speaking section, most students answered their skill was

much lower/little lower than average. It shows many students do not speak with confidence.

Table 3: How confident students are in doing these things in English

1.

(I don’t have

any

confidence)

2.

(I don’t have

so much

confidence)

3.

(I do

moderately)

4.

(I have a

little

confidenc

e)

5.

(I have

much

confidence

)

8. read easy books 0.0% 7.1% 23.2% 48.2% 21.4%

9. read an English

newspaper26.3% 38.6% 26.3% 8.8% 0.0%

10. read class textbooks 1.8% 10.5% 38.6% 43.9% 5.3%

11. read a business letter 21.1% 50.9% 24.6% 3.5% 0.0%

12. read a casual e-mail

from my friend0.0% 1.8% 29.8% 43.9% 24.6%

13. read the warranty on

music player33.9% 33.9% 23.2% 8.9% 0.0%

14. read a TOEIC passage 12.7% 27.3% 38.2% 18.2% 3.6%

15. read a guidebook about

the U.S.A5.5% 20.0% 43.6% 27.3% 3.6%

15

16. read a syllabus about

my OC class3.6% 7.1% 44.6% 33.9% 10.7%

17. write a diary 0.0% 18.2% 34.5% 32.7% 14.5%

18. write a business letter 43.6% 36.4% 20.0% 0.0% 0.0%

19. write a short essay in

my composition class0.0% 12.7% 21.8% 43.6% 21.8%

20. write a casual mail to

my friend0.0% 9.1% 30.9% 38.2% 21.8%

21. write an essay about

the Japanese economic

situation

67.3% 21.8% 9.1% 1.8% 0.0%

22. write my resume 45.5% 40.0% 7.3% 5.5% 1.8%

23. write an essay about a

book which I read29.1% 32.7% 25.5% 9.1% 3.6%

24. write my opinion about

nuclear power

generation

67.3% 25.5% 3.6% 3.6% 0.0%

25. write an essay about

what you did yesterday0.0% 1.8% 25.0% 46.4% 26.8%

26. chat with my friends 0.0% 7.3% 30.9% 43.6% 18.2%

27. talk about my plan for

today0.0% 0.0% 37.5% 44.6% 17.9%

28. talk about politics 50.9% 36.4% 12.7% 0.0% 0.0%

29. teach Japanese history 47.3% 32.7% 18.2% 1.8% 0.0%

30. discuss the problem

about global warming41.8% 41.8% 12.7% 3.6% 0.0%

31. have a job interview 41.8% 29.1% 20.0% 7.3% 1.8%

32. talk about my dream 8.9% 17.9% 39.3% 23.2% 10.7%

33. ask the way to a

destination1.8% 12.7% 43.6% 32.7% 9.1%

34. express my opinion in

class7.3% 30.9% 34.5% 18.2% 9.1%

35. make a presentation in

class16.4% 36.4% 25.5% 14.5% 7.3%

36. order food in cafe 3.6% 14.3% 33.9% 39.3% 8.9%

37. discuss today’s news 17.9% 42.9% 28.6% 8.9% 1.8%

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38. guide foreigners in my

hometown9.1% 25.5% 36.4% 27.3% 1.8%

39. give a speech at a

conference31.0% 27.6% 22.4% 13.8% 5.2%

40. understand a TOEIC

listening passage12.1% 20.7% 34.5% 24.1% 8.6%

41. understand most

western songs17.5% 38.6% 19.3% 22.8% 1.8%

42. understand TV news in

English26.3% 38.6% 26.3% 8.8% 0.0%

43. understand what my

teacher say in class1.7% 8.6% 34.5% 44.8% 10.3%

44. understand western

movies with subtitles1.8% 12.5% 28.6% 37.5% 19.6%

45. understand NHK

English TV program10.5% 33.3% 21.1% 28.1% 7.0%

46. understand what my

friends say in OC class0.0% 0.0% 20.7% 58.6% 20.7%

47. understand what’s on

the CD in OC class0.0% 8.8% 40.4% 35.1% 15.8%

48. understand western

movies without

subtitles

38.6% 42.1% 14.0% 5.3% 0.0%

49. understand Obama’s

speech55.4% 26.8% 16.1% 1.8% 0.0%

50. understand foreign

actor’s interview

without subtitles on TV

34.5% 43.1% 19.0% 3.4% 0.0%

Most student answered that they had confidence what they experienced in the class such as

reading easy books, reading class books, writing a short essay in my composition class,

writing an essay about what I did yesterday, chatting with my friends, talking about my plan

for today, understanding what teachers says in class, understanding western movies with

subtitles and understanding what my friends say in OC class. They also had high confidence

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when they communicated with their friends such as reading a casual e-mail from friend and

writing casual mail to my friend. Many students took TOEIC tests, and there were no great

differences in numbers about TOEIC listening skills; 33% of students had low confidence,

34% of them were moderate and 33% of them had high confidence. However, in reading

section, just 22% of them had confidence.

On the other hand, most students did not have confidence when they used English in

business situation such as reading English newspaper, reading a business letter, writing my

resume and taking about politics and having a job interview. They also did not have

confidence to understand natural English which was used in daily life such as reading the

warranty on music player, understanding most western songs, understanding TV news in

English, understanding western movies without subtitles, understanding Obama’s speech and

understanding foreign actor’s interview without subtitles. Over 80% students answered that

they did not have confidence when they needed specific knowledge such as writing an essay

about the Japanese economic situation, writing my opinion about nuclear power generation,

teaching Japanese history and discussion today’s news and discussing the problem about

global warming.

Moreover, even what they experienced in the class, they did not have confidence in some

activities such as writing an essay about a book which I read and make a presentation in

class.

b) Learners’ studying background

Based on Table 1, some students who had high confidence and low confidence were

chosen, and asked about their background of learning English. In Japan, we usually start to

learn English when we are junior high school students, but according to the research, the time

when start to learn English was inconsistent. In addition, even students who studied English

harder than other subject, had low confidence, and even students who studied other subjects

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such as mathematics harder than English, had high confidence in English. Therefore, there

was no relationship among time, the amount of studying and confidence. However, students

who had high confidence had been to English conversation classes individually, and students

who had low confidence went to cram school. Students who had high confidence answered

that they had chances to use English not only in conversation classes, so they mainly

experienced output-style studying. On the other hand, the students who had low confidence

answered that they mainly experienced input-style studying.

When their learning experiences were asked, students who had high confidence said

that they gained confidence through the evaluation from others, support from their teachers

and studying environment; output-style studying. On the other hand, students who had low

confidence answered they lost their confidence through their trauma, pressure and studying

environment; input-studying.

Their further studying was also asked, and all of them answered that they wanted to

study English more, or they wanted to use English for their job/dream despite their confidence

levels.

2.4 Summary

In this chapter we looked at the results of the questionnaire. We can know how

students thought about their English skill and what kind of activities they did with/without

confidence. Moreover, we saw the learning style and learning background of people who had

high confidence and low confidence in their English skill. We will discuss the results in

Chapter Three and clarify what the results mean.

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Chapter Three: Discussion

3.1 Introduction

In Chapter One, we discussed confidence and anxiety. We saw the definition of each,

and some types of anxiety. Chapter Two, we looked at the overall data and found out what

kind of activities students do with/without confidence. Moreover, we focused on some

students who had high confidence and low confidence, and looked at their learning

experiences in order to find out what factors affect students’ confidence and anxiety. Now, we

will discuss the results from experiment.

3.2 Summary of the questionnaire results

In this chapter we will look at questionnaire results. The data were collected from 58

students from second year to fourth year in Notre Dame Seishin University. This

questionnaire was designed to find out the factors which affect students’ confidence and

anxiety. Therefore, students were asked questions about which activities they could do with

confidence and without confidence. As a result, they had confidence with what they

experienced repeatedly in class and communication with their friends. However, they did not

have confidence with English which was used in business and what they needed specific

knowledge.

We found out some students who had high confidence and low confidence by

analyzing students’ answers. After that, they were asked about their learning experiences,

learning style and how they felt about foreign language learning. According to their answers,

their confidence and anxiety when learning a foreign language was related to their studying

environment and what they experienced in language class.

20

3.3 Discussion of the results

3.3.1 Overview

We looked at the results of the questionnaire in Chapter Two. In this section, we will

look more detail about students’ confidence.

3.3.2 The relationship between students’ English level and confidence

In Table 1, students were asked their TOEIC score to know their English level.

Usually, average score for university students is the first half of 500 (Group C). Therefore,

most students were around the average score, but according to this table, 20 % of students got

higher score than average. However, some of them did not have so much confidence but they

got high score. On the other hand, some students who had average scores had high

confidence. Therefore, we cannot see the relationship between the level of English and

confidence.

3.3.3 Self evaluation of four skills

In Table 2, students were asked what they think their English level compared to

others in the same school. In reading, listening and writing section, many students thought

their skill was average. However, in the speaking section, over 50% students answered their

skill was much lower/little lower than average. It is thought that students spend time for

reading, listening and writing in class, but time for speaking was fewer. Therefore, they were

confident of reading, listening and writing skill which they spent a lot of time in class to

acquire, but they were not confident of their speaking skill which they did not have so much

chance to practice.

3.3.4 Activities which students have confidence

According to Table 3, most students had confidence in what they experienced in the

21

class many times such as reading easy books, reading class books, writing a short essay in my

composition class, writing an essay about what I did yesterday, chatting with my friends,

talking about my plan for today, understanding what teachers says in class, understanding

western movies with subtitles and understanding what my friends say in OC class. Many

students did those activities in the class or they are still doing those activities, therefore

activities which were repeated many times will make students raise their confidence. They

also had high confidence when they communicated with their friends such as reading a casual

e-mail from friend and writing casual mail to my friend. It seems that they do not hesitate or

do not have worrying to use English when they communicate with their friends.

3.3.5 Activities which students have anxiety

According to Table 3, most students did not have confidence when they used English

in business situation such as reading English newspaper, reading a business letter, writing my

resume, taking about politics and having a job interview. It may because business English has

lots of technical term, and university students do not have chances to use it. Those factors will

lose students’ confidence. They also did not have confidence to understand natural English

which was used in daily life such as reading the warranty on music player, understanding

most western songs, understanding TV news in English, understanding western movies

without subtitles, understanding Obama’s speech and understanding foreign actor’s interview

without subtitles. It may also be because English which is used in daily life has lots of

difficult words which university students do not know, and it might have made them lost their

confidence. Over 80% of the students answered that they did not have confidence when they

needed specific knowledge such as writing an essay about the Japanese economic situation,

writing my opinion about nuclear power generation, teaching Japanese history and

discussion today’s news and discussing the problem about global warming. Some students

22

will not be able to write or discuss those activities even Japanese. They may need some

technical term to do that, and it may affect their confidence. Moreover, they even did not have

confidence in some actions such as writing an essay about a book which I read and make a

presentation in class which they experienced in the class. This data showed students were not

confident when they express their opinions to others in class or in ceremonial situations, and

they also did not have confidence to do productive activities.

3.3.6 Factors which affects students confidence and anxiety

After the data about students’ confidence were collected, some students who had high

confidence and low confidence were found. Then, they were asked their learning experiences

individually. According to their answers, there were some differences between students who

had high confidence and low confidence.

Firstly, most of the students went to cram school. Students who had high confidence

also went to English conversation school. Students who had low confidence mainly focused

on English for entrance examinations, but students who had confidence focused on both

entrance examinations and daily conversations. They were also asked whether they studied

English harder than other subjects or not, but there was no relationship between confidence

and the amount of time of studying.

Secondly, students who had low confidence answered they wanted to use English in

the future, but they did not have clear purposes. On the other hand, students who had

confidence answered they also wanted to use English in the future, and they had clear

purposes. One of them answered she wanted to use it in her business, and other two students

answered they wanted to use English for their private goals such as volunteering in other

countries.

Thirdly, they were asked about input and productive studying. Students who had

confidence answered they mostly experienced productive studying while students who had

23

low confidence answered they experienced receptive studying. One student who had low

confidence studied abroad when she was a junior high school student, and she said she did

productive studying when she was abroad. However, her learning style changed to receptive

after she went back to Japan.

Fourthly, students were asked how they behaved when they succeeded or failed in

English. When they succeeded, in the case of the students who had confidence said it led to

motivate them to study English, so they studied English harder and could be positive to use

English. They also felt they could get confidence. On the other hand, students who had low

confidence said they were glad when they succeeded, and were just satisfied with results.

They did not care about their success any more. When they failed, some of them answered

they were mortified by their failure, and they studied hard. However, some students

answered they accept the results, and did not do anything. There were no differences

between students who had high confidence and low confidence.

Lastly, they were asked what affected their confidence. Students who had confidence

answered productive learning and a positive evaluation from others made them confident. One

of them said a teacher and other students asked her to teach English. At that time she felt that

others relied on her, so she could have confidence. Other two students answered they usually

had chance to use English, so it made them confidence in their English skill. One of them

answered when she used English, she could make understood herself even junior high school

level of English. Therefore, she thought she could communicate with foreigners by using what

she learnt in class.

On the other hand, students who had low confidence answered that their trauma and

pressure from others made them feel anxiety, and lose their confidence. As already mentioned

above, one student studied abroad when she was junior high school, but that experience made

her lose her confidence. She studied English only one year in a Japanese junior high school

24

and went abroad, so at that time she thought what she learnt in Japan was no use. In school,

she could not keep up with even beginner class, and she had difficulty to communicate with

other students. Some teachers gave her advice, but some teachers looked like disgust when

she asked questions after classes. She said even if someone praised her, she thought her

English skill was not enough. Other students said that she always felt pressure from her

mother. Another said she always felt pressure when she used English in class.

3.4 Answering the research questions

In this chapter, we looked at the result of the questionnaire. The research questions

were;

1. What kinds of activities can learners do with confidence in English?

Students were confident of what they experienced in class many times. In addition,

they were confidence when they communicated with their friends. However, students could

not do activities with confidence what they did not do so much in class. Their experiences will

make them gain confidence. In addition, when they needed specific knowledge, or the

situation which technical words were used, they lost their confidence.

2. What happens when learners learn a foreign language?

Many students ran up against a wall during their learning process. Some students

could not get along with their English teachers, and felt that studying English was not

interesting. Many students said that they could not catch up with the class, or had low scores

on tests, and those things demotivated them. On the other hand, some students had

opportunities to use English not for exams, but for communication such as in games, talking

with foreigners, staying abroad. Those things make them feel enjoyable, and they got

confidence when they could communicate with foreigners.

25

3. How does confidence affect the learner’s attitude to learning a foreign

language?

When students gain confidence, they will be more positive. Students who were asked

questions answered confidence motivated them to study English. Confidence also made them

feel that what they learnt was right, and they should continue to study.

4. Does the studying environment affect a learner’s confidence and anxiety?

The studying environment, especially teachers, and what they did in class affects

them. If teacher can support and praise them, and the class is enjoyable for students, it will

lead students to gain confidence. On the other hand, pressure from others, trauma and one

sided learning style will lead students to lose their confidence. The class which is not only for

examination, but also for communication will be needed. It is important to make students feel

enjoyable to learn English. Therefore, it is important to use not just textbooks, but also some

materials such as games, computers, songs, and time to use English as output.

3.5 Implications

We looked at the results of the questionnaire in Chapter Two and discussed it in this

chapter. We saw the results of the data showing the students’ confidence. Confidence is

important for learners to improve their foreign language skill. It motivates them to learn, and

it will lead good elements to achieve their goals. On the other hand, some learners have

anxiety during their learning process. If learners can lose anxiety, it will lead them to gain

confidence, and too much anxiety is not good for learners. As we saw in Chapter One, there

are many types of anxiety, and it works on various situations.

According to Table 3, we can see that students usually had confidence when they did

activities which they experienced in class many times. On the other hand, students did not

have confidence when they did activities which needed specific knowledge, what they did not

26

do so many times in class, or activities which were too difficult for them. Today, students are

required to study English, but it focuses on entrance examinations. Therefore, students

learning style in the class is mainly cramming knowledge into their head from textbooks.

Therefore, students were confident of most activities which is helpful for examinations. Of

course this way is useful and important to master the fundamental of English, but teachers

should give students opportunities to learn English which is used in daily life. In addition,

teachers make students feel enjoyable to study English. It is because when the questionnaire

was conducted by students who had high confidence and high anxiety, most of them answered

that teachers and what they learnt in class affected them greatly. Teachers who supported them

and helped impressed them. In addition, when teachers did activities which were not for

entrance examinations such as games, communication with native speakers, free talking and

learning English by computer made them enjoyable. It is important for teachers to not only

focus on the entrance examinations, but also make students experience some activities using

English. If students can learn English for both examination and daily communication, what

students learn in class will be helpful even after they graduate university. It is also important

for teacher to evaluate properly and support them. Students will have some difficulties during

their learning process. Some students try to avoid learn foreign languages. However, if

teachers can support students enthusiastically, and praised their efforts, it will motivate

students and help them to gain confidence. Students also need to make efforts; they need to

study English not only for examination. Even if we live in Japan, we have chances to

communicate with foreigners. We have lots of way to learn English not only from textbook in

classroom; some learners may join international community, or some may go to conversation

class. They can experience two-way learning by those activities, and they can learn daily

conversation. If they can feel enjoyment to learn English itself, their motivation will change,

and they may be able to raise their confidence.

27

3.6 Limitations

There are some limitations with this experiment that we have to aware of.

Firstly, this experiment was conducted by second to fourth year university students.

If students were also chosen from other grades such as first year of university students, high

school students or junior high school students, we could have find more general idea of

confidence and anxiety.

Secondly, only females were asked. As we saw in Chapter One, there are differences

between males and females about their feelings of confidence. If the experiment had been

conducted with both males and females, we could find some differences in their learning

style, feelings of studying foreign language or factors which affect their confidence.

Thirdly, this questionnaire was given only in Notre Dame Seishin University.

Because teachers, parents, what students learnt in school and the students’ experiences affect

students’ confidence and anxiety, the questionnaire should have been conducted more widely.

Lastly, the number of the students who were asked their learning style in order to find

out factors affecting their learning was too few. The experiment asked only 58 people. By

analyzing the data, we found some students who had low confidence, but there were only

three students who had high confidence. If questionnaire had been given to more people, we

could have found more students who had high confidence. Then, we could see more general

idea about factors affecting students’ confidence and anxiety.

3.7 Further research

There are a few things which we can research in the future. Firstly, the questionnaire

was taken in only one university and one department. If there is a chance to ask the same

questions, the questionnaire could have been given in other schools, not only in university but

28

also high school or junior high school, and both female and male. Then, we may find more

general idea, or any new findings.

Secondly, questionnaire could have been given to other types of people who have

confidence and anxiety. There are some people who had anxiety in the past, but have high

confidence now, or people who had confidence in the past but have anxiety now. There should

be something which affects them. If we can know the factors, it will be helpful for people who

have high anxiety to overcome it and gain confidence.

3.8 Conclusion

We need to understand the relationship between confidence, anxiety and foreign

language learning. When learners have confidence, they can have motivation, and study

effectively. However, when learners have anxiety, it is hard for them to keep high motivation,

and they lose confidence. Therefore, learners need to gain confidence and lose anxiety.

Learners experience lots of thing during their foreign language learning, and it will affect their

confidence and anxiety. Even if learners have difficulties, teachers should co-operate patiently

and praise them. When learners overcome difficulties and are evaluated their effort properly, it

will lead them to gain confidence. Moreover, if learners can communicate with others by

using what they learnt in class, it will motivate them. In addition, students should learn

English not only from textbooks, or not only for examination. If they can enjoy learning

English itself, it will helpful for them study English and lose foreign language learning

anxiety. Therefore, they should experience both input and output studying equally. When

learners can feel that studying and using English is interesting for them, this is important step

for them to raise confidence and improve their English skill.

29

References

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Clément, R. 1980. Ethnicity, Contact, and Communicative Competence in a Second

Language. In H. Giles, W. P. Robinson, & P. M. Smith , eds. Language: Social

Psychological Perspectives. Oxford, United Kingdom: Pergamon Press. pp. 147-154.

Corsini, R. 1994. Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2(3). John Wiley & Sons.

Dörnyei, Z. 2005. The Psychology of the Language Learner: Individual differences in Second

Language Acquisition. Routledge.

Ellis, R. 1994. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford University Press.

Higgins, E. 1996. The “Self-Digest‟: Self- Knowledge Serving Self-Regularity Functions.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, pp.1-46.

Horwitz, E. Dolly J. Young. 1991. Language Anxiety: From Theory and Research to

Classroom Implications. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Horwitz, Elaine, Michael Horwitz, and Joann Cope. 1986. Foreign Language Classroom

Anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2). pp. 125-132

Kleinmann, H. H. 1977. Avoidance Behavior in Adult Second Language Acquisition., 27(1).

pp. 93-107. Language Learning: A Journal of Research in Language Studies.

Krashen , S. and T. D. Terrell. 1988. The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the

Classroom. Prentice Hall International (UK).

MacIntyre, P. D. 1999. Language Anxiety: A Review of the Research for Language Teachers.

In D. J. Young (Ed.), Aatmosphere. Boston: McGraw- Hill. pp. 24-45

MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. 1994. The Subtle Effects of Language Anxiety on

Cognitive Processing in the Second Language Learning, Language Learning: A Journal

of Research in Language Studies.44(2), pp. 283-305.

Pierce, J. & Gardner, D. 2004. Self-Esteem Within the Work and Organizational Context: A

Review of the Organization-Based Self- Esteem literature. Journal of Management,

30(5). pp. 591-622.

Scovel, T. 1978. The Effect of Affect on Foreign Language Learning: A review of the

Anxiety Research. Language Learning, 28(1). pp. 129-142.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1978.tb00309.x

Spielberger, C. D. 1983. Manual for the State Trait Anxiety Inventory. CA: Consulting

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ウィキペディア、『self-confidence』 Retrieved August 7, from

31

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-confidence

外国語学習における学習者の情意要因に関する考察、Retrieved August 11, from

http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/nichigen/0-kyouiku/research/kotoba/14/tadokoro14.pdf#searh

=' 情意フィルター仮説 %20 自信 '

32

Appendix A. The questionnaire. English version

Student number

Name

Please write down your English level.

1. TOEIC: points

2. EIKEN:

3. Others:

What do you think your level of English is composed to others in the same school?

Choose one and write ●.

Worse than average　　Average　　　Better than average

　4. Reading

5. Listening

　6. Writing

　7. Speaking

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

How confident are you in doing these things in English? Please choose one and write

●. The following figures means that your confidence is high that it goes to the right

and your confidence is low that it goes to the left.

e.g.) I’m confident about my ability in English

to write a diary.　　　　　　 low high

I’m confident about my ability in English to……

　8. read easy books

9. read an English newspaper

10. read class textbooks

11. read a business letter　　　　　

12. read a casual e-mail from my friend

13. read the warranty on music player

14. read a TOEIC passage

15. read a guidebook about the U.S.A

16. read a syllabus about my OC class

17. write a diary

18. write a business letter

19. write a short essay in my composition

class

20. write a casual mail to my friend

21. write an essay about the Japanese economic

situation

22. write my resume

23. write an essay about a book which I read

24. write my opinion about nuclear

power generation

25. write an essay about what you did

yesterday

26. chat with my friends

27. talk about my plan for today

28. talk about politics

29. teach Japanese history

30. discuss the problem about global warming

31. have a job interview

32. talk about my dream

33. ask the way to a destination

34

34. express my opinion in class

35. make a presentation in class

36. order food in cafe

37. discuss today’s news

38. guide foreigners in my hometown

39. give a speech at a conference

40. understand a TOEIC listening passage

41. understand most western songs

42. understand TV news in English

43. understand what my teacher says

in class

44. understand western movies with subtitles

45. understand NHK English TV program

46. understand what my friends say in OC

class

47. understand what’s on the CD in OC class

48. understand western movies without

subtitles

49. understand Obama’s speech

50. understand foreign actor’s interview

without subtitles on TV

35

Appendix B. Japanese version

学籍番号　　　　　　　　　　名前

あなたの現在の英語の能力を教えてください。

1. TOEIC のスコア:　　　　　　点

2. 英語検定:　 　　　　　　　　級取得

3. その他　英語の資格:

以下のスキルにおいて、あなたの英語力のレベルは、学内の他の生徒と比べてどのくらいだと

思いますか。一つだけ選んで●を書いてください。

36

　平均より下　　 　　平均　　　　　　平均より上

　4. Reading 　 　　

5. Listening 　

6. Writing

　7. Speaking

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

英語で次の行動を行う場合の、あなたの自信の高さ・低さを教えてください。

下のグラフは、右にいくほど自信が高く、左にいくほど自信が低いことを表しています。

例)　　日記を書く　　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　　　 　低　　　　　　　　　　 　　　 高

　8. 簡単な本を読む

9. 英字新聞を読む　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

10. 授業で使う教科書を読む

11. ビジネスレターを読む　　　　　　　　　　

12. 友達からのメールを読む

13. ミュージックプレーヤーの保証書を読む

14. TOEIC の Reading セクションの長文を読む

15. アメリカ旅行のガイドブックを読む

16. OC のクラスに関するシラバスを読む

17. 日記を書く

18. ビジネスレターを書く

19. 英作文のクラスで短い作文を書く

20. 友達にメールを送る

21. 日本の経済状況についての作文を書く

22. 履歴書を書く

23. 読書感想文を書く

37

24. 原子力発電についてのあなたの考えを書く

25. 昨日したことについて書く

26. 友達とおしゃべりをする

27. 今日の予定について話す

28. 政治について話す

29. 日本の歴史を教える

30. 地球温暖化について話し合う

31. 面接をする

32. 将来の夢について話す

33. 目的地への行き方を尋ねる

34. 授業中に自分の意見を述べる

35. プレゼンテーションをする

36. カフェで注文をする

37. 今日のニュースについて話し合う

38. あなたの地元を案内する

39. スピーチをする

40. TOEIC の Listening セクションを理解する

41. 洋楽の大部分を理解する

42. 英語のニュースを理解する

43. 先生が授業中に言っていることを理解する

44. 字幕付きの洋画を理解する

45. NHK の英語の番組を理解する

46. OC で友達が言っていることを理解する

47. OC で CD が言っていることを理解する

48. 字幕無しの洋画を理解する

49. オバマ大統領の演説を理解する

50. 字幕無しで外国人俳優のインタビューを理解する

38

39