English Language Anxiety Essay

side as solely know is the international intercourse manner of oratory which plays a great role in many grave aspects of a society. In Malaysia, slope as a turn phraseology after Malay lecture, is not only used in price of education system, moreover is extensively used in inter-cultural communication and professions such(prenominal) as law, medicine, engineering and of course business. In this era of increasing globalization, Malaysia pull up stakes direct to face with tighter and rigid competition from other unusual countries. In accordance to that, Malayan students go forth have to get themselves ready for the coming(prenominal) circumstances especially those involving the usage of slope.Malaysian students have been learning incline continuously for at least 11 years starting from immemorial school till atomic number 42ary school ahead enrolling themselves into a third- direct education. position has been a compulsory subject for students in Malaysia in whic h they need to widen in all the major(ip) examinations in Malaysia such as UPSR, PMR and SPM.In higher education, side of meat is used more expressively as integral main and core subjects such as medical, law, algebra and business use English as the principal dustup. Whether it is a local university or a one-on-one one, English has become the main source of commandment other than get a subject in the curriculum. To exemplify, universities which use English as the strong suit of words such as International Islamic Universities Malaysia (IIUM), which has been an English-medium university since it was first naturalized in 1983, require its students to pass a standard level of English before enrolling into the university. The students turn outament be tested again during their orientation calendar week on English phraseology by undergoing an English Placement hear ( EPT). Students who gain level 6 and below will be displace in English classes till they have reached the sta ndard of exemption. These English classes be necessary as all the subjects taught be in English. These efforts show the enormousness of English in education.After graduation, students who are proficient in English will have a better future as they will be easily employed by multinational companies. One of the business organizations specifications in Malaysia is to have soft skills especially the ability to glide by in good English. Furthermore, job interviews nowadays are as well as conducted in English. Here it is clear that, in put to have better chances in future, one must have full confidence in victimisation English talking to.Nonetheless, English is not the first language for close to Malaysian students. Most Malaysian students use their own mother language, for type Malay language, Mandarin and Tamil when communicating with family and friends. This will cause their English language skills to rot if it is continuously being practiced which will later on carry on to perplexity in the process of learning English.After a minimum of 11 years of training English in both the primary and fleckary schools, students in the spunk for Foundation Studies ( CFS), IIUM still have difficulties in victimization the language effectively. For example, a study by Mohd Hilmi salt away Hamzah ( 2007) in CFS, in Semester 1, 2006/2007, more than 40% of the students taking first level English obtained grade D in their papers, while only 5% of them obtained an A. This shows that the students have not yet mastered the language before entering the university. The writer added that despite of having English Intensive Class programme and extra classes by individual English lecturers, the level of English progression remains dissatisfactory. With the increasing usage of English globally, it is really necessary to grow out the factors which may hinder English language learning. One of the factors which has not been paid attention to is language learning misgivin g.Anxiety is a major factor that expunges second/foreign language learning ( Mohammad Javad Riasati, 2011). He also states that levels of anxiety differ from one individual to another but is ceaselessly present. Most of todays education and economy uses English as the language of commandment. For that reason, it is really important to find out the factors which affect anxiety and ways to subordinate it to increase the performance of an English language learner. distinguish equal to(p) students have different proficiency levels in English language skills videlicet drill, writing, listening and disquisition. With that reason, different students will also encounter different levels of anxiety for all those skills. One student may feel more intent in speaking while the other in writing. As all of these four skills are needed to be mastered in order to be proficient in English, even by losing confidence in only one of it superpower cause difficulties in carrying out tasks in both education and job.This study will help both the educators and learners of English language in CFS, IIUM. The teachers will get information about the factors do anxiety among students. They will also be given information on the rank of students anxiety in possessing the 4 language skills namely writing, listening, reading and speaking so that the teachers will consider about which one of these 4 language skills should be given more attention to. Last but not least, the findings of this study will help both the students and teachers to design a suitable strategy on ways to discredit anxiety in order to increase the performance of mastering English language.This study specifically addresses the following 3 look for questions1) Which language skill namely writing, listening, speaking and reading creates the highest anxiety level among students in CFS, IIUM?2) What are the factors that are apparent to cause anxiety?3) What are the ways used by the students to drop anxiety?The objec tives of this study are as follows1) To hear specific language skill in which students in CFS, IIUM feel most anxious.2) To identify the factors which are more probable to cause anxiety.3) To identify the ways students use to reduce anxiety.According to Hansen (1977), anxiety is an experience of general uneasiness, a sense of foreboding, a feeling of tension (p. 91). Anxiety is a type of psychological phenomena and ranges from miscellany of open views of behavioral attribution.Due to anxietys impact on the students performance in learning English as a second language, it has been continuously studied by many researchers. Learning a second language will cause awareness among the learners that they are using a language which they have not yet mastered to communicate (Toth, 2011). This phenomenon will pass on to many upcoming conundrums the learners have to face in using English as they have not completely accepted a second language as a part of their lives. This is according to Co hen and Norst ( 1989) language and self/identity are so closely bound, if indeed they are not one and the same thing, that a perceived attack on one is an attack on the other (p. 76). This will roundhow lead students of English learners to feel less enjoyable during their class.Few studies conducted about the factors that affect anxiety are communication apprehension ( McCroskey, 1970), fear of negative military rank ( Watson & Friend, 1969) and test anxiety ( Sarason, 1978). Communication apprehension for example is the bother in understanding teachers instructions, negative evaluation for example is the fear of correction and last but not least, example of test anxiety is the fear of failing in the class. According to Young ( n.d.), language anxiety is caused by (a) personal and interpersonal Anxiety, (b) learner beliefs about language learning, (c) instructor beliefs about language teaching, (d) instructor-learner interactions, (e) classroom procedures and (f) language te sting ( Mohammad Javad Riasati, 2011, p.908).The 4 language skills namely writing, speaking, reading and writing plays vital role in helping students to attain proficiency in English Language. A study of anxiety in learning English as a foreign language by Wilson (2006) and Mohd Hilmi Bin Hamzah (2007) have included the findings on language skills. Wilson (2006) states that anxiety might exert a deleterious influence on language achievement and equally intuitively, that poor language achievement might get even more anxiety (p. 25). In Wilsons (2006) research, although a four-skills approach is used (taking in listening, speaking, writing and reading) the oral skill was emphasized. This shows that most students are afraid of speaking English as a second language during class.In his study, Young (1991) interviewed Krashen who stated that teachers often expect fresh students to perform beyond their expectations which increases the level of anxiety among students. This will further di ssuade the students to use English in their lives. A students who believes that one must never say anything in English until it can be said right on will probably avoid speaking most of the time ( Khairi Izwan Abdullah and Nurul Lina Bt. Abdul Rahman, n.d.). An arouse of language anxiety from different language skills such as writing, listening, reading, speaking and grammar have further been studied by Brantmeier (2005), Hussein Elkafaifi (2005), Greyersen and Horwitz (2002) and Casado (2001). This will lead the learners to perform poorly especially in speaking.The feeling of anxiety of necessity to be treated to avoid students that have been affected by this problem to be carried away into some other serious problems. In some studies, it was found that anxiety levels were highest during the early stages of language learning and lessened at an advanced level. This has been concluded by MacIntyre and Gardner (1991, p.111), an experience and proficiency increase, anxiety declines i n a fairly consistent manner. This means that if students keep on practicing all the language skills of English by reading books, listening to English songs, writing blogs and communicating in English continuously, they will be able to overcome the feelings of anxiety and will perform better.MethodologyThe main target of this study is to investigate the level of English learning Anxiety among the students of Centre for Foundation Studies (CFS), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). A population from CFS, IIUM was chosen to identify the specific language skills in which students in CFS, IIUM feel most anxious, the factors which are more probable to cause anxiety and the ways the students use to reduce anxiety. Data for this research was collected through a set of questionnaire.This research employed the use of questionnaire research methodology. The instrument used to collect the data was a questionnaire containing nine questions. The questionnaire was passed to thirty students of the CFS, IIUM randomly where its scope of distribution was not limited on a certain course, level of study, age or gender. To ensure that the questions were fully understood by the students, a brief portal about the topic was provided at the top of each questionnaire.