EXPLORATION OF EFL GRADUATE STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN IN-CLASS DISCUSSIONS, ACMC AND SCMC DISCUSSIONS By Jasmine Lee

Introduction Globalization Learning anxiety (Krashen, 1986) CMC –reduce learners’ anxiety

Purpose of the study to investigate if EFL graduate students feel anxiety in CMC and face-to-face discussions Causes of the anxiety

Literature Review (overview) Anxiety (1) definition: (2) Trait anxiety and state anxiety (3) Deblitative anxiety and facilitative anxiety (4) Foreign Language of anxiety CMC (1) definition (2) advantages of CMC (3) Some doubts about CMC (4) CMC anxiety

The definition of anxiety (Brown, 2007) 1. Spielberger: feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness and worry Scovel: feeling of uneasiness, frustration, self- doubt, apprehension or worry 2.Trait anxiety and state anxiety 3. Deblitative anxiety and facilitative anxiety

Foreign Language Anxiety Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope (1986) Liu (2006): the anxiety in Chinese EFL students at different proficiency levels. Lin (2005): the higher the students’ language anxiety, the more likely they were to receive low grades. Peng (2011) : investigated English learning motivation and test-anxiety for regular and vocational high school students.

CMC (Liu, 2006): synchronous or asynchronous Advantages of CMC (1) Beauvois (1995): learners’ positive attitude and motivation (2) Sevingil and Bayyurt’s (2010):learning facilitation (3) Gerbic (2005):increasing participation (4) (Liu, 2006), Tallon’s (2009) :anxiety reduction

Some doubts about CMC Abrams’ study (2003):no significantly difference in the quality Loewen and Erlam (2006) :not differ significantly from each other in performance of two types of feedback (SCMC / classroom)

CMC anxiety Meunier (1998): language and /or computer related Brown, Fuller and Vician (2004): individual’s level of fear or apprehension associated with actual or anticipated use of information technology to communicate with others Leen and Ramayah (2006): computer anxiety, oral and written communication apprehension

Research Questions Do the EFL graduate students experience foreign language anxiety in in-class discussions, ACMC discussions and SCMC discussions? (2) What are the factors that cause EFL graduate students’ anxiety in in-class discussions, ACMC discussions and SCMC discussions?

Methodology Participants: --- 8 students (1male and 7 females) --- at a private university in southern Taiwan --- in CMC course for Applied English majors The CMC course -- in-class discussions -- 2 ACMC discussions -- 2 SCMC discussions

Data Collection Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale surveys of in in-class discussions, ACMC discussions and SCMC discussions Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)survey -- a 5-point Likert scale, -- anxiety scale was 30 to 150; --the higher the number, the lower the level of foreign language anxiety Questionnaires

Results Research Question 1: Do the EFL graduate students experience foreign language anxiety in in-class discussions, ACMC discussions and SCMC discussions? A:  yes items Class discussions ACMC SCMC Mean scores 33 37 35 anxiety The highest high

Results Research Question2: What are the factors that cause EFL graduate students’ anxiety in in-class discussions, ACMC discussions and SCMC discussions? Answer: in in-class discussions: homework preparation “When I did not finish reading the assigned paper before class, I always felt uncomfortable and feared the teacher asking me questions.” in SCMC discussions: computer anxiety “While doing SCMC discussions, I always typed too slowly and could not keep up with the coming messages. I felt nervous about that.” in ACMC discussions: writing apprehension, computer anxiety and limited time. “I felt more anxiety when doing ACMC discussions because there was a time constraint and it took me more time to revise my writing.”

Discussion Reasons for high anxiety in the three discussions 1. teacher’s teaching style 2. students’ personalities - lack of self-confident - careful learners Reasons for high anxiety in SCMC 1. computer: slow typing 2. teacher presence 3. no experience with SCMC before

Conclusion Limitations: small sample size Implication: make the learning context less stressful future research: larger sample size, explored learners’ anxiety in detail, effective strategies for those anxiety-provoking causes