The Influence of Personal and Interpersonal Factors on Language Anxiety among University Students
Siti Faridah Kamaruddin1*, Imelia Laura Daneil1, Nur Nadia Qausar Juhari1, Tang Howe Eng2, Jacqueline Susan Rijeng3
1 Academy of Language Studies , Universiti Teknologi MARA, Mukah, Malaysia
2 Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics , Universiti Teknologi MARA, Mukah, Malaysia
3 Academy of Language Studies , Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kota Samarahan, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: faridah8543@uitm.edu.my
Accepted: 15 August 2020 | Published: 31 August 2020
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Abstract: Language anxiety is an impediment for majority of ESL students, particularly Malaysian university students to master language skills at sufficient requirement to be in line with the direction of Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4). The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between personal and interpersonal factors and specific language skills in the context of Malaysian higher education institutions. In this study, personal (i.e. self-esteem, tolerance of ambiguity, risk taking, competitiveness) and interpersonal factors (i.e. social anxiety and existential anxiety) were the independent variable whereas specific language skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing were the dependent variable. A total of 125 non-English major students from a local education institution in Malaysia participated in this mixed method study. This study adopted a purposive sampling procedure of data collection using Factors of Language Anxiety Questionnaire (FLAQ) administered at the selected faculty. Data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation. For the qualitative part of this study, the highly anxious participants were selected to participate in email interview based on their high score on FLAQ, and the collected qualitative data from semi-structured interview is used to perform triangulation with the quantitative data. It was revealed that the personal and interpersonal factors have impacted differently on each of the specific language skills. This study concluded with several implications for teaching, higher education and future research. Consequently, it is recommended that language educators can act to reduce language anxiety stemming from learners’ personal and interpersonal factors depending on learners’ needs and cultural background to improve their mastery in the four language skills.
Keywords: Language Anxiety, Panicgogy, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Personal and Interpersonal Factors, English as Second Language (ESL)
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1. Introduction
Language anxiety is still relevant to be discussed up to this point of time, despite most of the higher learning institution is gearing up their learners to be at par with Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4). Regardless of the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and disruptive cultivates, graduates who can perform tasks that machines cannot are becoming valuable.
According to a survey conducted ManpowerGroup of 2000 employers, the critical soft skills listed are problem-solving, collaboration, customer service and communication (Chamorro- Premuzic and Frankiewicz, 2019). Based on these demands from the employers, language learning plays an important role to cater these critical soft skills highly sought by employers
but at the same time, it will always be hampered by the affective side of learners especially when dealing with their fear, confusion and insecurities while they are expected to perform these ‘people skills’ effectively.
Language anxiety has also now been worsened by the pandemic of COVID-19 which has also sent learners into an even greater anxiousness due to panicgogy (Baker, 2020). Panicgogy is a term coined by Sean Michael Morris, a senior instructor in the Learning, Design, and Technology (LDT) program at the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Education and Human Development. Educators are suddenly forced to go online and experiencing that kind of panic about how to maintain their teaching in this environment that they do not understand.
As a result, the anxiety once experienced by language learners in a face-to-face classroom is now heightened as they are adapting their language learning in an online environment.
Thus, the demand of future workforce and inconsistency of learning pattern brought by the advancement of technology has driven these past studies on determining sources of language anxiety among learners. Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) have posited the three components model of language anxiety which can be assumed as the factors that influenced learners’ anxiousness which are communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety. On the other hand, Young (1991) suggested the potential sources of language anxiety that includes personal and interpersonal anxieties, learners’ beliefs about language learning, educator’s beliefs about language teaching, educator and learners’
interactions, classroom procedures and language testing. Apart from that, Oxford (1999) has also listed these factors which are responsible for triggering language anxiety among learners such as learners’ belief, educator and learners’ interaction, classroom procedures and test anxiety. Kamaruddin and Abdullah (2015) has simplified these three earlier works on identifying the contributing factors of language anxiety into two main constructs which are personal and interpersonal aspects. Under the notion of personal aspects, it is further divided into five sub-constructs namely self-esteem, tolerance of ambiguity, risk taking, competitiveness and students’ belief. Furthermore, five other sub-constructs which constitute the notion of interpersonal aspects are test anxiety, social anxiety, existential anxiety, classroom procedures and educator and learners’ interaction.
While there are many other factors that could contribute to language anxiety, this study aims to address the issue of language anxiety by investigating the contributing factors under the notion of personal and interpersonal aspects. For personal aspects, the sub-constructs chosen for further analysis in this study are self-esteem, tolerance of ambiguity, risk taking and competitiveness. On the same note, social anxiety and existential anxiety are chosen as the sub-constructs for interpersonal aspects.
Specifically, the study interests to determine the influence of the personal and interpersonal aspects on specific language skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. It is interesting to see how the personal and interpersonal factors will influence learners’
behaviour when they are assigned with specific skills task in language classroom. This study hopes to provide reference for future research with regards to the factors of language anxiety which are contributed from the learners’ personal and interpersonal aspects. The study attempted to answer the following research questions:
1) Which specific language skills will be influenced by self-esteem factor?
2) Which specific language skills will be influenced by tolerance of ambiguity factor?
3) Which specific language skills will be influenced by risk taking factor?
4) Which specific language skills will be influenced by competitiveness factor?
5) Which specific language skills will be influenced by social anxiety factor?
6) Which specific language skills will be influenced by existential anxiety factor?
2. Literature Review Part One: Personal Factors
Factor 1: Self-Esteem
Oxford (1999) reviewed self-esteem as a self-judgment of worth or value, based on feelings of efficacy, a sense of interacting effectively with one’s own environment. Efficacy implies that some degree of control exists within oneself. Unsuccessful language students often have lower self-esteem than successful language students (Price, 1991). Whether this affects their overall self-esteem or only their situational self-esteem partly depends on how important language learning is to the individuals involved. Self-esteem is vulnerable when the student perceives himself or herself as very competent in the native language and totally inadequate or limited in the target language (Price, 1991). However, Horwitz et al. (1986) noted that foreign language learning can cause a threat to self-esteem by depriving students of their normal means of communication, their freedom to make errors, and their ability to behave like normal people. Among highly anxious language students, those with high self-esteem might handle their anxiety better than those with low self-esteem resulting in better performance. Like anxiety, self-esteem can be a trait (an inherent personality characteristic) or a state (related to a particular situation). A person can feel good about himself or herself globally or generally, yet at the same time experience low self-esteem in a particular situation or environment (Scarcella and Oxford, 1992). Self-esteem is also closely related with speaking skills as Qaddomi (2013) stated that students are anxious when they have to speak with native speakers, and it is not due to the educational level variable.
Factor 2: Tolerance of Ambiguity
Tolerance of ambiguity is the acceptance of confusing situations. Second language learning has a great deal of ambiguity about meanings, referents and pronunciation, and this can often raise language anxiety. Therefore, a degree of ambiguity-tolerance is essential for language students. Chapelle and Roberts (1986) in Oxford (1999) explained that students who are able to tolerate moderate levels of confusion are likely to persist longer in language learning than students who are highly frightened by the ambiguities inherent in learning a new language.
In the review of literature compiled by Conway (2007), another indicator that a second language student has a low tolerance of ambiguity is when he or she has trouble distinguishing between the target language’s sounds and structure. In a study made by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986), they reported that a male student is only able to hear a loud buzzing sound when the target language is spoken by his instructor. In the same study, students who experience foreign language learning anxiety, claim to understand little to none of the instructor’s output. Thus, not being able to comprehend the target language is a major cause of anxiety.
Factor 3: Risk Taking
Students who are highly anxious about the frequent ambiguities of language learning often suffer reduced risk-taking ability. In the extended review on this sub-construct by Oxford (1999), it is more useful for language learning to take moderate but intelligent risks, such as guessing meanings based on background knowledge and speaking up despite the possibility of making occasional mistakes, rather than taking no risks at all or taking extreme,
uninformed risks (Oxford, 1990; Brown, 1994). Language students who fear ambiguity or whose self-esteem is low, frequently ‘freeze up’ allowing their inhibitions to take over completely (Beebe, 1983). Decreases in risk-taking frequently occur when student feel extremely discomfort in the language classroom (Ely, 1986). Students who avoid risks are impeded by actual or anticipated criticism from others or by self-criticism that they themselves supply. When they do not have enough practice, their language development becomes seriously stunted.
Factor 4: Competitiveness
Bailey (1983) in Oxford (1999) asserted that competitiveness can lead to language anxiety using diary studies among language students. This happens when language students compare themselves to others or to an idealized self-image, which they can rarely attain. Scarcella and Oxford (1992) in Oxford (1999) agreed that competitiveness can relate to language anxiety but suggested that this link does not occur in all students. Some students, particularly those in competitive cultures, thrive on competition. The emotional import of competitiveness for a given individual depends on the learning style preferences of the student, the precise nature of the competition, and the demands and rewards of the environment.
Part Two: Interpersonal Factors
Factor 5: Social Anxiety
According to Leary (1983) in Oxford (1999), social anxiety can include speech anxiety, shyness, stage fright, embarrassment, social-evaluative anxiety and communication apprehension. Social anxiety occurs along with the prospect or actual presence of interpersonal evaluation. People who are highly concerned about others’ evaluations of them and Oxford (1999) assumed these to be people with shaky self-esteem and/or strong external locus of control (the student’s belief that his or her own performance is controlled by external factors)tend to act in ways that minimize the likelihood of negative assessments. These people are more likely to avoid or withdraw from social situations in which others might view them negatively. Aida (1994) in Oxford (1999) stated that when they relate to others, they often fail to take the initiative or participate only minimally in conversations. In the language classroom, this is observable in behaviours such as keeping silent, responding only when necessary, being passive and avoiding class entirely. People who suffer from communication apprehension are more reluctant to converse or interact with others; therefore, they tend to avoid communication or withdraw from it as soon as possible.
Factor 6: Existential Anxiety
Identification with a language group or target culture implies that the student is an insider, a member of the ‘club’ of French, Spanish, German, Chinese or for the context of this study, English speakers. Young (1992) in Oxford (1999) suggested that anxiety is lower or in other words, the affective filter is reduced if a student feels such identification, and anxiety is higher if the student does not identify with the language group. Inconsistently, for other students, anxiety can arise because of over-identification with the language group and the concurrent feeling of loss of personal identity. According to Oxford (1999), this idea is similar to Guiora’s (1972) theory of language ego and Clarke’s (1976) theory of clash of consciousness.
Anxiety about losing one’s own identity can be part of culture shock. Adler (1987) in Oxford (1999) defined culture shock as ‘a form of anxiety that results from the loss of commonly perceived and understood signs and symbols of social intercourse’. Culture shock can involve
some or all of symptoms such as emotional regression, physical illness, panic, anger, hopelessness, self-pity, lack of confidence, indecision, sadness, alienation, a sense of deception a perception of ‘reduced personality’, and glorification of one’s own native culture.
However, if handled effectively, Adler (1987) in Oxford (1999) suggested that culture shock can become a cross-cultural learning opportunity involving increased cultural awareness, increased self-awareness and reintegration of personality. In addition, some researchers have claimed that students may suffer language anxiety due to cultural inhibitions. Oxford (1992) in Cutrone (2009) equalized this to the concept known as culture shock. Consequently, Ellis (1994) in Cutrone (2009) explained that students may fear the experience of losing their identities in the target culture.
Causal Factors of Specific Skills Anxiety in Malaysian Context
In the local research scene, most of the factors identified for language anxiety are discussed in relation to specific skills of English language. Tahsildar and Yusoff (2014) described causes of listening anxiety among 83 Malaysian university learners such as lack of background knowledge (i.e. new vocabulary and new information in the listening text), lack of repetition when listening to the English text, unfamiliar English pronunciation, speech rate and low level of self-confidence.
In the context of speaking anxiety, Mohamad and Ab Wahid (2008), Muhammad Sabri (2010) and Miskam and Saidalvi (2019) have listed similar causes of speaking anxiety which are panic or shy, rarely speak in English, afraid of audience, poor in English Language (i.e.
grammar, pronunciation), speaking with people who are fluent in English, lack of self- confidence and afraid of perceptions of others, despite the differences of their respondents in terms of the background, proficiency level and speaking anxiety level.
Rajab, Wan Zakaria, Abdul Rahman, Hosni and Hassani (2012) identified linguistic factor, cultural and the curricular content as some of the contributing factors of reading anxiety. In addition, Abdul Razak, Yassin and Moqbel (2019) suggested that learning environment can also influence the moderate level of reading anxiety among Yemeni learners in Malaysia of different level such as Bachelor, Master and PhD due to medium of instruction and reading materials in Malaysian universities are available in English language.
Studies of writing anxiety reveal consistent conclusions regarding relationships between level of writing anxiety and its causal factors. Mat Daud, Mat Daud and Abu Kassim (2005) have shown that the subjects in their study suffered writing anxiety as a result of their lack of writing skills. On a similar note in determining the causal factor of writing anxiety, Abd Rahim and Mohd Hayas (2014) discussed specifically on students’ choice to do writing task while Abd Rahim, Jaganathan and Tengku Mahadi (2016) narrowed down their discussion on students’ readiness to write. Both writing aspects such as writing preference and writing readiness are affected closely by the three dimensions of writing anxiety as proposed by Cheng (2004) which constitutes of cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and avoidance anxiety.
In another context of technical field such as engineering, Lau and Rahmat (2014) stated that highest level of writing anxiety is experienced in the dimension of somatic anxiety.
3. Methodology
The study employed a mixed method study that examines the responses of a total of 125 respondents of university students. A purposive sampling from three different faculties of non-English major (i.e. Science and Physical Health, Music, and Architecture, Planning and
Surveying) is employed for the sampling technique. A self-developed questionnaire called Factors of Language Anxiety Questionnaire (FLAQ) are administered to collect the data from the respondents. In order to ensure the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach’s Alpha test was conducted. The Cronbach coefficient alpha referring to the internal reliability of the FLAQ section was 0.891 (α = 0.891), signifying that the internal consistency is satisfactorily reliable.
Qualitative data was collected to triangulate with the main method used in this study which is the self-administered FLAQ. Eight non-English major students who acquired high score on their level of anxiety from the use of FLAQ were selected for this research. Two participants were males (Mr. K and Mr. S) and six were females (Miss N, Miss K, Miss F, Miss R, Miss H and Miss L). Email based interviews were used to collect data from the participants. The qualitative data collected through email interviews were examined to explain and validate the pattern of statistical findings emerge from the findings of the study.
4. Result and Discussion
RQ1: Which specific skills will be influenced by self-esteem factor?
Items 1, 2, 3, and 4 from the questionnaire were categorized as the self-esteem factor. Table 1 shows the results from the questionnaire of self-esteem factor for the university students.
Table 1: Self-esteem factor among university students
Items Mean Std.
Deviation Qu1 I get upset when I am not sure whether I understand what I am
hearing in English. 3.42 1.03
Qu2 I get nervous when I have to speak up in my English language
class. 3.23 1.02
Qu3 I get upset when I am not sure whether I understand what I am
reading in English. 3.43 .970
Qu4 My mind often goes blank when I start working on an English
composition. 2.85 .916
Total 3.23 .735
The statement “I get upset when I am not sure whether I understand what I am reading in English.” obtained the highest mean, 3.43 (SD = .970) followed by statement “I get upset when I am not sure whether I understand what I am hearing in English.” With a mean of, 3.42 (SD = 1.03). The results from the questionnaire indicated that the university students felt greater anxiety with regards of self-esteem related to reading skill (Item 3) and listening skill (Item 1) as compared to writing skill (item 4).
The quantitative findings are further supported by the interview data whereby Miss K, Miss F and Miss L clearly stated that lack of confidence is the main reason for them to feel anxious in the language classroom. However, only Miss L stated specifically in relation to language skills that she has low self-esteem when she had to speak in English.
Participants Responses
Miss K Because my English not so good and I have not enough confident with my English.
Miss F Level of my confidence is low.
Miss L In my opinion, the reasons that I feel anxious or nervous while learning English in the class are due to my lack of confidence.
I lack self-confidence to speak in English even though I used to represent my primary school for public speaking or story telling competition.
(Saya kurang keyakinan diri utk bercakap inggeris walaupun masa sekolah rendah dulu saya selalu menjadi wakil sekolah utk pertandingan public speaking mahupun story telling.)
This occurrence can be explained based on cognitive challenges in the form of fear of failing the test especially when students are assessed on reading and listening, fear of making mistakes and the shame to fail in front of their classmates (Kayaoglu and Saglamel, 2013). In addition, the students in this study displayed that they are highly anxious due to their low self-esteem when accomplishing reading tasks such as reading aloud in front of their lecturers and classmates. Huang (2012) stated that reading anxiety comes from the lack of background knowledge on reading materials and psychological factors such as anxiety, fear, depraved reading habit and low interest in English. As for the low self-esteem experienced by Miss L while she performed speaking tasks, this finding is sync with the previous finding by Maryansyah and Wadison (2017) as their learners possessed self-esteem in the type of task self-esteem as compared to having global self-esteem and situational self-esteem. Based on the qualitative response given by Miss L, this has shown that she has low self-esteem when she is evaluated in a particular situation such as speaking assessment despite that she has previous experience participating in public speaking and storytelling competition when she was in primary school.
RQ2: Which specific skills will be influenced by tolerance of ambiguity factor?
Items 5, 6, 7, and 8 from the questionnaire represented the tolerance of ambiguity factor.
Table 2 shows the results from the questionnaire of tolerance of ambiguity factor for the university students.
Table 2: Tolerance of ambiguity factor for university students
Items Mean Std.
Deviation Qu5 I am satisfied with the level of listening comprehension in
English that I have achieved so far. 2.99 .996
Qu6 I feel confident when I speak in English. 2.90 .841
Qu7 I am satisfied with the level of reading ability in English that
I have achieved so far. 2.82 .892
Qu8 While writing in English, I am not nervous at all. 2.85 .871
Total 2.89 .634
The highest mean is recorded for item “I am satisfied with the level of listening comprehension in English that I have achieved so far” with 2.99 (SD = .996) followed by the item “I feel confident when I speak in English” with 2.90 (SD = .841). The interview
response by Mr. K supported these findings as he is afraid of being laughed at due to his topsy-turvy word arrangement as he presents or speaks English. He is still confused of the word arrangement in English; thus, he is nervous to express himself in English due to this reason. This finding indicated that a language student with little to no English learning background are prone to feel anxious when they did not know what to expect in a language classroom especially when the students are dealing specifically with listening and speaking skills. In the same repertoire, Idri (2011) mentioned that the feeling of anxiety in an English classroom occurs when her participants facing it for the first time due to ‘the noticeable newness’.
RQ3: Which specific skills will be influenced by risk taking factor?
Items 9, 10, 11, and 12 from the questionnaire denote the risk-taking factor. Table xx shows the outcome of the research participants’ responses.
Table 3: Risk taking factor for university students
Items Mean Std.
Deviation Qu9 I usually find it difficult to understand English related
materials that I listen to. 2.79 .836
Qu10 I start to panic when I have to speak without preparation in
English language class. 3.20 1.04
Qu11 I often have difficulty comprehending English materials
that I read. 2.88 .799
Qu12 I usually seek every possible chance to write English
compositions outside of class. 3.06 .864
Total 2.98 .558
Under this construct, only Item 12 needs to be recoded due to the use of positive tone in the sentence. The university students illustrated the highest mean, 3.06 (SD = .864) from the item
“I usually seek every possible chance to write English compositions outside of class.” The lowest mean was scored for the item “I usually find it difficult to understand English related materials that I listen to.” with 2.79 (SD = .836). In the email interview, Mr. S and Miss L described further on this sub-construct.
Participants Responses
Mr. S I did not practice English much in my daily lives.
(saya kurang mepraktikkan english dalam kehidupan seharian.)
Miss L I dare not try although my lecturer always encourages me to speak in English.
(tak berani nak mencuba walaupun pensyarah selalu menggalakkan untuk bercakap dalam bahasa inggeris.)
Maybe I did not practice much to speak with other people in English.
(Mungkin juga saya kurang praktis utk bercakap dgn orang lain dalam bahasa inggeris.)
Based on this finding, it indicates that the students in this study are too afraid to take risk when they are required to speak in English due to their fear of negative evaluation (Aydin, 2008), and this has been confirmed by the qualitative response. However, students in this study are willing to take risk in listening activities and they do not mind for negative
evaluation on their listening tasks. The students felt that they have to take greater risk when they are speaking in English and Lynch (1996) pointed out that anxious students feel deep self-consciousness when asked to risk revealing themselves by speaking a foreign language in presence of others. This is the reason why most of the students did not dare to take risk in speaking. There is also a threat that speaking a foreign language semblance from the world view of the students. Moreover, many students are frustrated as their inability to communicate effectively in second language. They assumed that their capability as limited and unable to display their true self to their speaking partners.
RQ4: Which specific skills will be influenced by competitiveness factor?
Items 13, 14, 15 and 16 from the questionnaire tap into competitiveness factor.
Competitiveness in this case is gauged via examining how worried they are with regards to engaging in the various skills.
Table 4: Competiti veness factor for university students
Items Mean Std.
Deviation Qu13 I am worried that other students in class comprehend better
what they listen to in English than I do. 3.22 .998 Qu14 I am worried that other students in class speak better
English than I do. 3.22 1.08
Qu15 I am worried that other students in class understand better
what they read in English than I do. 3.22 1.04
Qu16 I am worried that my English compositions are a lot worse
than others. 3.49 1.04
Total 3.29 .904
The university students show the highest mean, 3.49 (SD = 1.04) being worried about their English compositions to be a lot worse than those of other classmates. The lowest anxiety, 3.22 (SD = 1.08) reported was on their apprehension of their classmates being able to speak better than them. However, none of the interview participants echoed this factor as the cause of their anxiety in the language classroom.
The result indicated that they are highly anxious when producing a writing text while they reveal that they are not competitive when they are performing speaking task together. It shows that the students want to produce the best writing product as compared to their other classmates. This competitive situation in a writing classroom is contributed majorly by summative assessment frenzy moulded by their experience with major school examinations when they were in Primary Six, Form Three, Form Five, Form Six and this continues on to their tertiary education too as they were expected to become more accountable by writing more and better tests (McVarish and Solloway, 2002)
However, when it comes to speaking task, they acknowledge that they are at the same level of lower requirement of speaking ability and hence they are willing to help one another especially during classroom presentation or a speaking assessment which involve group discussion. This finding is similar to Kadir, Atmowardoyo and Salija (2018) as they stated that competitiveness can either reduce or increase anxiety as they were looking at the role of peer groups which can contribute to language anxiety. In a group discussion, positive competitiveness can be shown when students of different ability and hence different opinion, give aspiration to one another to discuss which leads to active participation and attempt to
present better perspective in order to produce the best result from their discussion. It is also notable to tap into negative competitiveness such as the rejection of opinion especially from those who are less proficient in English and dominance by certain students in group discussion especially those who are well-versed in English.
RQ5: Which specific skills will be influenced by social anxiety factor?
Items 17, 18, 19, and 20 from the questionnaire reflect on the social anxiety factor.
Specifically, items within this construct reflect on the participants’ reaction when having to interact with and amongst people.
Table 5: Social anxiety factor for university students
Items Mean Std.
Deviation Qu17 I feel nervous when participating in an English listening
activity with other students. 3.14 .922
Qu18 I feel nervous speaking in front of the entire class.
3.25 .877
Qu19 I do not mind reading to myself, but I feel very
uncomfortable when I have to read English aloud. 2.85 .959 Qu20 I am afraid that the other students would think my English
composition was terrible if they read it. 3.32 .930
Total 3.14 .669
Table xx shows that “I am afraid that the other students would think my English composition was terrible if they read it.” was rated as the highest mean of 3.32 (SD = .930). “I feel nervous speaking in front of the entire class.” was the next highest mean of 3.25 (SD = .877).
These findings showed that the students were conscious of what their classmates think of their writing and speaking skills. The responses from the interviews supported the results from the questionnaire by explaining why the students are highly concerned about others’
evaluations of them.
Participants Responses
Miss N when i have to present in front of the class
Mr. K From my opinion because fear of being laughed at due to wrong pronunciation and upside down word arrangement
(Pada pendapat saya kerana takut diketawa kerana salah sebutan dan penyusunan ayat yang tunggang terbalik.)
Miss L afraid other people might not understand
For social anxiety factor, the quantitative finding revealed that participants in this study are concerned of how their lecturers or classmates would think of their writing performance. In contrast, the qualitative finding by these three participants does not resonate the similar finding to the quantitative finding as they stated that they are more afraid to speak in front of people such as their lecturers or classmates. Montgomery and Spalding (2003) reported that students experience anxiety in social situation in which interaction with others, especially when interacting with high profile individuals. For example, talking to administrative people for services (e.g. administration), talking before an audience (i.e. especially when tested), talking to a respected or attractive person (e.g. professor), a reaction of incomprehension of the other person, group conversation, talking in front of a group of adults, talking in front of unknown people, when others fail to understand due to accent, talking in front of colleagues
of the same age and obligation to speak to the second language. Hashemi (2011) mentioned that social context can cause language anxiety due to social status of the speaker and the interlocutor, a sense of power relations between them and even gender.
RQ6: Which specific skills will be influenced by existential anxiety factor?
Items 21, 22, 23, and 24 from the questionnaire are reflecting on the existential anxiety sub- construct, focusing on the research participant’s view of how much an individual must know or would have acquired knowledge relating to English history and culture in order to be able to be proficient in the language.
Table 6: Existential anxiety factor for university students
Items Mean Std.
Deviation Qu21 You have to know so much about English history and
culture in order to understand spoken English. 2.98 1.09 Qu22 You have to know so much about English history and
culture in order to speak in English. 2.87 1.05
Qu23 You have to know so much about English history and
culture in order to read English. 2.90 1.04
Qu24 You have to know so much about English history and
culture in order to write in English. 2.96 1.03
Total 2.93 .992
The university students display their highest anxiety, 2.98 (SD = 1.09) with the idea of the student should learn about the English history and culture first before they could understand what they are listening in English. The next highest anxiety, 2.96 (SD = 1.03) was that students are afraid that they have to learn English history and culture prior writing. In the interview, the factor of existential anxiety was not brought up by any of the participants. The finding above indicated that students are affected by existential anxiety when they are doing their listening and writing task while they are not concerned so much on the behaviour or culture of the native speakers when they are ought to speak English. Students in this study are affected by existential anxiety when performing listening and writing task and this is similar to the finding produced by Torres (2011). This situation can be explained with a self-efficacy model by Bandura (1977) as self-efficacy involves the self-assessment of one’s level of competence regarding successfully completing a particular task. The level of self-efficacy such as people’s judgement of their capabilities to organise and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances, may impact his or her success or failure to achieve a certain outcome. Hence in the context of this study, it can be said that the students felt that they less capable to perform when it comes to listening and writing skills.
Besides, the term of ‘losing face’ (Tseng, 2012) emphasised that language anxiety is a concern of how they are perceived based on their listening or writing ability in front of their lecturers or classmates especially when the students are confined with the conservative culture and thus, mindset (Al-Saraj, 2009) of accepting comments and feedback by their lecturers or classmates. Furthermore, existential anxiety has a greater impact when the students are undergoing cultural adjustment, either in an English-speaking countries (Huang, 2009) or regulating themselves in the university where English is the medium of instruction like most of the language policy implemented in Malaysian higher education institution.
Therefore, Yang (2012) speculated that the higher the degree of acculturation, the lower the level of language anxiety. In other words, students must spend a great amount of time on
English listening comprehension and writing practice so that anxiety stemming from listening and writing skills can be elucidated.
On the other hand, due to the students’ formal English learning for 11 years from primary level (6 years) and secondary level (5 years), students in this study are less anxious with existential anxiety when they have to speak in English because these students inherit the language from their family institutional or community background, it boosts their confidence thus lowering anxiety (Tallon, 2011). Unlike respondents in Kojima’s (2007) study, the students of Chinese and Spanish backgrounds are mainly impacted by cultural differences apart from other factors such as psychological, pedagogical, and linguistic. On the same note, respondents from Baba’s (1994) study with Japanese background also experienced existential anxiety when speaking task takes place especially with native speakers because some of them got irritated at their low proficiency of English and their inadequate English pronunciation, some become anxious about making grammatical mistakes and others had a fear of speaking the language and therefore simply tried to avoid occasions for communicating with native speakers due to their belief that correct English must be spoken.
5. Conclusion
This study explored the quantitative and qualitative findings of Malaysian English learners with language anxiety. It specifically investigated the influence of personal and interpersonal factors with language anxiety in relation to specific language skills. For listening skills, students are highly anxious due to tolerance of ambiguity and existential anxiety while displaying lower anxiety in terms of risk taking and competitiveness. For speaking skills, students are highly anxious because they are unwilling to take risk while they are less affected by existential anxiety. For reading skills, they are highly anxious due to low self- esteem, but they are willing to tolerate with ambiguity and social anxiety. For writing skills, students in this study are highly anxious due to the competitive nature in producing the best writing text but they are less anxious when it comes to their self-esteem while writing.
The current study has several implications for teaching, higher education and research. As for the educators, knowing the source or nature of language anxiety stemming from the learners’
personal and interpersonal factors would require reflection and action on teaching practices or behaviour that could possibly contribute to anxiety. This study would also assist higher education in preparing learner for future workforce. In a negative stance, language anxiety serves as a critical job filter, channelling the tertiary students especially its fresh graduates away from potential employees, high paying positions and high demand careers in the respective fields. However, if the university students can divert the negative stigma surrounding language anxiety into the positive direction such as having a high self-esteem, tolerating ambiguity, willing to take risk, having positive competitiveness, ignoring how others would perceive their language ability and embracing the openness from a language group or target culture, language anxiety can actually nurture their strength in personal and interpersonal qualities which can pragmatically boost their employability and contribute valuable intellectual competence and job potential to the economic growth of a country.
Hence in order to achieve this aspiration, universities need to incorporate the element of personal and interpersonal factor in the language curriculum with the purpose to eliminate any trace of language anxiety which can stem from this factor.
In the continuation of research interest, all four specific language skills are deemed critical, hence knowing which skills that could be impacted by personal and interpersonal factors would inform the educators the best way to help students lower their anxiety in language
learning. Therefore, as the future research recommendation, this current study is only focusing on learners’ perception on the state of their personal and interpersonal factors which can contribute to the manifestation of their language anxiety. Hence, it will be valuable if the table is turned to allow educators to share their perception and experiences based on their classroom observation in the light of their learners’ personal and interpersonal factor. It is an interesting qualitative exploration in knowing the challenges and recommendation towards harnessing learners with personal and interpersonal attributes in retrospect of language learning. There is also a future need to compare the personal and interpersonal factor from demographic aspects of the language learners such as gender, age and language proficiency.
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