and WTC in speaking and writing tasks in students' with low and high levels of FLCA WTC. Total WTC. Speaki ng WTC. Writin g Mann- Whitney U 1883.5 00 2206.000 1945.000 Wilcoxon W 4886.5 00 5209.0 00 4948.00 0 Z -4.008 -2.855 -3.789 Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .004 .000 .000
As it can be seen in Table 5, the Z observed are -4.008, -2.855, and -3.789 at the p-value < .05. As the results of the Mann-Whitney U test demonstrate a statistically significant difference exists among the two groups of high and low FLCA with regard to their WTC total and WTC across speaking and writing tasks.
5. Conclusion
Developing language learners who are able to conquer communication limitations that are imposed on them from their native language and culture is among the basic aims of foreign language learning and teaching. Being the case, in addition to having an ample supply of linguistic, paralinguistic, and non- linguistic repertoire, it is a necessity for a language learner to be psychologically ready and willing to communicate beyond the borders of their classroom. The first steps of involving foreign language learners who are not only able, but also willing to communicate are taken in language classes through engaging them in class activities. Learners' willingness to communicate is of the main factors to function in another language. By the same token, it is important to consider factors influencing it.
The present study, thus, was conducted to portray the possible relationship between EFL learners' FLCA and their WTC which contribute to a deeper understanding of students' low cooperation in class activities. Addressing the hypothesis, the researchers found that individuals' FLCA subcategories negatively correlated with their WTC. This implies that the more anxious the language learners are, the less tendency they show to engage in foreign language tasks either they are in written forms or oral. In other words, whether individuals decide to engage in the act of communication is determined by the fluctuation between FLCA and WTC. It can be explained based on the overall context of language learners' classes. Correcting every mistake that individuals make in front of their peers and classmates may help them to improve their language proficiency, but it negatively influences their affection toward language learning. Providing students with united and encouraging situations in which errors are considered as a part of the learning process rather than negative evaluations makes them less apprehensive learners. As Liu and Chen (2013) asserted, decreasing learners' tension, language teachers should make learning a positive experience by increasing students' involvement, create an understanding atmosphere and be sensitive to students' anxiety as they make mistakes, and generally maintain a non- threatening environment.
Not surprisingly, it was found that students who suffer from high levels of FLCA are less willing to engage in speaking tasks and activities. As it was shown in Table 2, this can be explained in terms of the anxiety that students have in English classes which is more significant in comparison with other subcategories. Students' self-expression is very high within speaking tasks and this may also increase their vulnerability. Accordingly, teachers should pay more attention to the strategies they employ to approach students' errors and mistakes. Liu and Chen (2013) stated that individuals' general worry about
Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods ISSN:2251-6204
their language performance together with their low self-confidence in speaking form the foundation of language anxiety. In the same vein, Phillips (1992) found that anxious learners indicated negative attitude toward oral tests and the more language anxiety students had, the lower test performance they gained on their oral tests.
The study, also, indicated the existence of a negative relationship between FLCA and WTC across writing tasks and situations. This is in line with what previous researchers have reported. Xiao and Wong (2014) maintained that while from the four language-based activities, writing arouses more anxiety and among the three subcomponents of writing anxiety –including somatic anxiety, avoidance behavior, and cognitive anxiety– avoidance behaviour is more noticeable. Chen and Lin (2009) indicated that a significant negative correlation existed between foreign language writing anxiety and writing achievement. Taken these findings into accounts, it seems plausible to say that the negative relationship between writing anxiety and writing achievement is due to students' low desire and tendency to cooperate in writing tasks. In other words, students' high language anxiety and low willingness to engage in writing tasks lead them not to put what they have learnt into practice and therefore receive no affective feedback from their teachers to improve their achievement.
Comparing Table 2 and 3, one could infer that individuals experience more anxiety in writing tasks rather than those in speaking. As there is a must to work on learners' productive skills in academic settings, it is suggested that language teachers manoeuvre over speaking tasks which are generally less anxiety provoking than those of writing. Exposing students to words and chunks they need and engaging them in meaningful interaction might give direction to their writing and makes it less stressful and more appealing. In addition, learning English as a foreign language, students encounter some limitation to practice speaking outside their language class. To make up for the limited time that teachers and students have in language classes, it might be better to spend this precious time on speaking tasks and work on writing tasks as do-it-at-home activities.
A more precise look at Table 1, 2, and 3 reveals the fact that among all subcategories of FLCA, anxiety of English class is a star player in influencing students' total WTC and their WTC across speaking and writing tasks. This indicates that teachers are at play in influencing learners' anxiety and willingness. According to Lucas et al (2011), anxiety of English class mainly involves teachers and teaching styles. In a study conducted by Williams and Andrade (2008), the researchers found that learners mostly ascribed the cause of their anxiety to other people including their teachers and instructors. Bearing this in mind and encountering anxious students, class activities should be modified to manage learners' anxiety to the extent possible. In this case, it is believed that recasts and metalinguistic corrective feedback, both, are beneficial elements for learners with high and low FLCA (Rassaei, 2015). Yet, another way to reduce learners' FLCA is the authenticity of the virtual environment and the interaction that occurs in there (Grant, Huang, & Pasfield-Neofitou, 2014). According to Gregersen, Meza, and MacIntyre (2014), evading restraining forces, facilitating reinterpretation of physiological cues, helping learners to deal with anxiety and planning an instant escape route, utilising the power of preparation, planning, and rehearsal, all in all, can be employed to cope with either positive or negative emotions. Atas (2015) claimed that employing the techniques of drama influences students' emotional quality of foreign language classroom and reduces their speaking anxiety as well. This is achieved by making them feel better, getting rid of the prejudice they have about English classes, and making them eager to come to foreign language classes. Considering the data presented in Table 4 and 5, it can be concluded that individuals' levels of total WTC and their WTC in speaking and writing tasks were statistically significantly higher in the group who experienced lower levels of FLCA. This suggests that lower levels of FLCA can contribute to higher levels of WTC in a meaningful way and if the real aim of learning a second or foreign language is to enable individuals communicate efficiently, one should not condone the deterrent effect of FLCA.
Although over the last few decades research on communication has been at the locus of academics' attention, more needs to be done to crystallize factors that influence learners' communication in academic environments. As observed in the present study, instructors' teaching styles are the main source of learners' foreign language classroom anxiety. However, there is still a need to throw light on specific teaching styles, learning strategies, and appropriate contexts that relieve learners' anxiety and foster language practice and usage.
Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods ISSN:2251-6204
REFERENCES
Al-shboul, M. M., Sheikh Ahmad, I., Sahari Nordin, M., & Abdul Rahman, Z. (2013). Foreign language anxiety and achievement: Systematic review. International Journal of English linguistics, 3 (2), 32-45.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).
Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
Atas, M. (2015). The reduction of speaking anxiety in EFL learners through drama techniques. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 176, 961 – 969.
Cassady, J. C. (2010). Anxiety in schools: The causes, consequences and solutions for academic anxieties. Peter Lang: New York.
Cao, Y. (2011). Investigating situational willingness to communicate within second language classrooms from an ecological perspective. System, 39, 468-479.
Chen, M.C. & Lin, H.J. (2009). Self-efficacy, foreign language anxiety as predictors of academic performance among professional program students in ageneral English proficiency writing test.
Perceptual and Motor Skills, 109(2), pp. 420-430.
Dewaele, J., & MacIntyre, P. (2014). The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and enjoyment in the foreign language classroom. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4(2), 237-274.
Ghorbandordinejad, F., & Moradian Ahmadabad, R. (2015). Examination of the relationship between autonomy and English achievement as mediated by foreign language classroom anxiety. Journal of psycholinguistic Research.
Grant, S., Huang, H., & Pasfield-Neofitou, S. (2014). The authenticity-anxiety paradox: The quest for authentic second language communication and reduced foreign language anxiety in virtual environments. Procedia Technology, 13, 23-32.
Gregersen, T., Meza, M. D., MacIntyre, P. D. (2014). The motion of emotion: Idiodynamic case studies of learners' foreign language anxiety. The modern Language Journal, 98(2), 574-588.
Heath, R. L., & Bryant, J. (2012). Human communication theory and research: Concepts, contexts, and challenges
(2nd ed.). New York : Routledge.
Horwitz, E. K. (2010). Foreign and second language anxiety. Language Teaching, 43, 154-167.
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign Language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125-132.
Jeong, H., Sugiura, M., Suzuki, W., Sassa, Y., Hashizume, H., & Kawashima, R. (2015). Neural correlates of second-language communication and the effect of language anxiety. Neuropsychologia, 66:182-192. Kang, S. (2005). Dynamic emergence of situational willingness to communicate in a second language.
System,33(2), 277-292.
Kang, D. (2014). The effects of study-abroad experiences on EFL learners' willingness to communicate, speaking abilities, and participation in classroom interaction. System, 42, 319-332.
Khodarahmi, E., & Motallebi Nia, Z. (2014). EFL teachers' classroom discipline strategies and learners' willingness to communicate in English inside the classroom. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 98, 976-981.
Kondo, S., & Yang, Y-L. (2003). The English Language Classroom Anxiety Scale: Test construction, reliability, and validity. JALT Journal, 25, 187–196.
Kębłowska, M. (2012). The place of affect in second language acquisition. In M. Pawlak (Ed.), New perspectives on individual differences in language learning and teaching (pp. 157-167). Berlin: Springer.
Liu, H., & Chen, T. (2013). Foreign language anxiety in young learners: How it relates to multiple intelligences, learner attitudes, and perceived competence. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 4(5), 932-938.
Lucas, R. I., Miraflores, E., & Go, D. (2011). English language learning anxiety among foreign language learners in the Philippines. Philippine ESL Journal, 7, 94-119. Retrieved May 5, 2014, from http://www.researchgate.net/ publication/
MacIntyre, P. D., Burns, C., & Jessome, A. (2011). Ambivalence about communicating in a second language: a qualitative study of French immersion students' willingness to communicate. The Modern Language Journal, 95, 81-96.
Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods ISSN:2251-6204
McCroskey, J. C., & Richmond, V. (2005). An Introduction to communication in the classroom: the role of communication in teaching and training. Old Tappan: Pearson Education.
Munezane, Y. (2015). Enhancing willingness to communicate: Relative effects of visualization and goal setting. The Modern Language Journal, 99 (1), 175-191.
Pawlak, M., & Mystkowska-Wiertelak, A. (2015). Investigating the dynamic nature of L2 willingness to communicate. System, 50, 1-9.
Phillips, E. (1992). The effects of language anxiety on students' oral test performance and attitudes.
Modern Language Journal, 76, 14-36.
Rassaei, E. (2015). Oral corrective feedback, foreign language anxiety and L2 development. System, 49, 98- 109.
Salehi, M., & Marefat, F. (2014). The effects of foreign language anxiety and test anxiety on foreign language test performance. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(5), 931-940.
Spielmann, G., & Radnofsky, M. (2001). Learning language under tension: New directions from a qualitative study. Modern Language Journal, 82, 251-255.
Tran, T. T. T., & Moni, K. (2015). Management of foreign language anxiety: Insiders' awareness and experiences. Cogent Education, 2, 1-20.
Trang, T. T. T, Baldauf Jr. R. B., & Moni, K. (2013) Investigating the development of foreign language anxiety: An autobiographical approach. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 34(7), 709- 726.
Weaver, C. (2005). Using a rash model to develop a measure of second language learners' willingness to communicate within a language classroom. Journal of Applied Measurement, 6(4), 396-415.
Weaver, C. (2007). Willingness to communicate: A mediating factor in the interaction between learners and tasks. In K. v. d. Branden & K. v. G. M. Verhest (Eds.), Tasks in action: Task-based language education from a classroom perspective (pp. 159-194). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Williams, K. E., & Andrade, M. R. (2008). Foreign language learning anxiety in Japanese EFL university classes: Causes, coping, and locus of control. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 5(2), 181-191. Xiao, Y., & Wong, K. F. (2014). Exploring heritage language anxiety: A study of Chinese heritage language learners. The Modern Language Journal, 98(2), 589-611.
Yan, J. X., & Horwitz, E. K. (2008). Learners'' perceptions of how anxiety interacts with personal and instructional factors to influence their achievement in English: A qualitative analysis of EFL learners in China. Language Learning, 58(1), 151-183.