Abstract

Much research has investigated foreign/second language (FL/SL) anxiety among learners belonging to various demographic backgrounds. However, very limited studies have explored this phenomenon among FL/SL users, more specifically from females’ perspectives. Additionally, the vast majority of this research has adopted quantitative techniques to identify the factors causing language anxiety. Therefore, this paper attempts to reduce this gap perceived in the literature by exploring the factors causing language anxiety among ESL users (English as a second language). A qualitative approach was adopted to collect data by conducting a focus group interview with four females, two PhD holders and PhD candidates. Remarkably, new findings were obtained by this research, where the cultural perception about women within the participants’ society was found out to be one of the reasons provoking language anxiety. Furthermore, a common belief about PhD candidates/holders to be highly proficient speakers of English and also the level of English proficiency of the listeners/interlocutors were two other interesting findings reported by the participants to increase their language anxiety. The research results are discussed and recommendations for further research are suggested.

1. Introduction

Anxiety is defined as the “subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the automatic nervous system” ( ¹, as cited in ², p.125). Due to their fear of making mistakes or losing face while speaking in English, FL/SL anxious learners usually speak with shaking hands, highly beating heart, and some can even go blank when having to speak in FL/SL ². As a result, many choose to avoid using FL/SL by remaining silent in class ². Accordingly, language anxiety has been broadly believed to be the most significant affective factor that hinders both the FL/SL learning process as well as the quality of speakers’ communication ³.

Since language anxiety is found to impede the learning progress, it has been widely researched in terms of its scope and severity among FL/SL learners (e.g., ^{4, 5, 6, 7, 8}). However, the vast majority of this research deals with classroom based anxiety ⁹, hence the limited focus on school and undergraduate students. Therefore, it is not surprising to find out that very few studies have been carried out to examine language anxiety outside the classroom context, i.e., among language users, not only learners. Furthermore, extremely limited language-anxiety research has been conducted on Arabs, whether they were ESL users (e.g., postgraduates, Masters/PhD holders) or learners. Surprisingly, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, hardly any study has been carried out to delve into this phenomenon from the perspective of female ESL users. Based on the discussion above, there emerges a need to conduct a research to reduce this gap perceived in the language anxiety literature. This paper attempts to achieve this objective.

2. Literature Review

The study of ² has been influential in theorizing and measuring anxiety with relation to a foreign language. Relevant research identifies three types of anxiety: state, trait and situational. State anxiety occurs within particular and temporary situations and vanishes when these threats come to an end ^{10, 11}. Trait anxiety, on the other hand, refers to the one’s own trait of getting anxious in any situation ^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12}. Situational anxiety, however, deals with a specific form of anxiety that takes place consistently over time within a given situation ¹⁰. Due to the fact that FL/SL anxiety is prompted by a specific set of conditions such as public speaking or participating in class, ^{2, 13, 14} distinguish language anxiety from the first two types of anxiety and classify it as a situation-specific anxiety.

As highlighted previously, a dearth of research has been conducted to investigate language anxiety among FL/SL users, particularly PhD holders/candidates. Among these limited studies are ¹⁵ exploring the factors causing English language speaking anxiety among postgraduate students of a university in Pakistan, ¹⁶ that investigated language anxiety among Jordanian Master’s students of English language at a university in Jordan, ¹⁷ and ¹⁸ examining English anxiety among Arab postgraduates in Malaysia.

All of these studies adopted ² Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and found out that postgraduates do experience anxiety when speaking English. This anxiety is attributed to many factors, the most important of which are fear of negative evaluations by others and speech anxiety.

On the other hand, ¹⁹ carried out an ethnographic study of international postgraduates at a university in England, which adopted interviews as well as observations over a 12-month academic year. ¹⁹ Results were similar to those obtained by ^{15, 16, 18}, where the participants reported that they suffer feelings of anxiety, low self-confidence, shame and inferiority.

As clearly seen, reviewing relevant literature shows that even those few studies which have explored anxiety among postgraduates did not examine PhD holders’ anxiety. In addition, those studies were conducted within classroom situations with language learners rather than language users.

3. Purpose of the Study

Attempting to reduce the gap identified in the relevant literature, the present research aims to explore the factors causing language anxiety among language users by conducting a focus group interview with four female PhD holders and candidates in Malaysia. To achieve this purpose, the main question that this study attempts to answer is as follows:

What are the factors that are likely to cause language anxiety from the perspective of Arab PhD holder/candidates in Malaysia?

4. Methodology

This study is designed as a qualitative research. The rationale for adopting a qualitative design lies in the fact that the current research does not seek to make a generalization about the factors provoking language anxiety among ESL users. Rather, it aims to carry out an in-depth investigation into the possible causes leading this phenomenon to take place among language users. As a result, the qualitative approach is the appropriate research design to utilize for the purpose of achieving the research objective mentioned above.

In order to achieve the objective set by the current research, PhD holders and candidates ESL were selected to be the informants of this research. Based on a homogenous purposive sampling, data were collected from four Arab females, two of them were PhD holders while the other two were PhD candidates. The reason why all the interviewees were females is attributed to the fact that Arabs are characterized with their patriarchal social system where a considerably male dominance is clearly observed in the society. Arabs also have a conservative culture, particularly when it comes to dealing with women-related issues. Consequently, these variables had to be put into account before collecting data in order to guarantee a convenient and free platform for the participants to express their points of view. Thus, it was ensured that the best information possible would hopefully be obtained from this group of interviewees.

Since the four interviewees as well as the interviewer herself (who is the first author of this research) were Arabs, the Arabic language was used in the interview. Using the mother tongue was advantageous as it allowed for a more dynamic and effective interaction to take place. For confidentiality purposes, the participants were given alphabet letters (e.g., Participant A, B, C, D, and E).

Anxiety is one of the personality traits that cannot be directly observed by researchers. Therefore, interview is a very useful instrument in such contexts as it allows researchers to learn more about feelings, emotions and other events that are unobservable ²⁰. Moreover, interview is effective in yielding the best information about a specific behavior of the participants ^{20, 21}. As far as this study is concerned, a focus group interview was adopted for the purpose of obtaining an inner perspective about the reasons causing this apprehension to be provoked.

5. Research Findings and Discussion

The main purpose of this study was to identify the factors leading to language anxiety from the perspectives of ESL Arab users. Firstly, all participants reported that they suffer from language anxiety when speaking in English. This result is in line with those found out by past studies (e.g., ^{14, 15, 18, 22}). Analyzing the data obtained from the focus group interview resulted in extracting unexpected themes that shed light on the causes of the phenomenon under investigation. These themes are as follows:

“…the cultural perception that our society holds about us [the women] makes us, I mean me, think twice before volunteering to talk or give an opinion publicly.” (Participant D).

“Being a female from a conservative background like ours, I wouldn’t feel as ease to talk in front of others especially if those ‘others’ were Arab males.” (Participant B).

Cultural perspective about women as a possible reason causing language anxiety could be a new finding revealed by the current study. Surprisingly, the cultural dimension has hardly been reported in any of the past studies to be one of the factors possibly causing anxiety for any group of individuals. In the case of this research’s participants who all came from an Arab background, language anxiety caused by the cultural perception about Arab women is attributed to the fact that Arabs belong to male dominated societies, where women have a minor role in life and are perceived to be in the second row with limited responsibilities for the family in the household ^{18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23}. This finding could be further justified in the light of the discussion by ¹⁸ stating that:

“….. the dominant presence of men in almost all aspects of life in those societies […. ] has generated a feeling in Arab women that priority, even to speak, should be given to men, particularly in formal settings. In other words, Arab females feel that they are not capable or do not have the right to talk in the presence of men” (p. 89).

A further and comprehensive explanation of this finding is implied in the participants’ comments, who reported that, “….there might be a feeling that I am breaking the rules of our culture if I spoke in public… I don’t want to be viewed as an ‘outlier.’” (Participant C).

“… especially with the audience’s heads turning towards you once they [the audience] hear your Arabic accent” (Participant A).

The second theme extracted from the data analysis about the factors that can provoke language anxiety from the perspective of the current study’s participants is the common belief that PhD graduates or candidates must master the language ‘perfectly’.

“… if my acquaintances, for example, knew that I am not that proficient in English, they might question my expertise later when I graduate…. even my close friends, I guess.” (Participant C).

“… yeah, I agree [responding to Participant C’s above comment]… reverse it: if you found out that your friend who studied medicine in French is not very fluent in French, what would you think about him… I mean about his expertise?” (Participant A).

This can also be considered as another interesting finding revealed by the current study. However, before discussing the possible explanations for this finding, it is noteworthy to mention that the Arab world is monolingual where Arabic is the only official language and tool for communication for most of the Arab countries. Consequently, it is understandable to find out that Arab students are not ESL fluent speakers.

Thus, this monolingual context has largely contributed to shaping a kind of cultural conception among Arabs that mastering a language is a must for anyone who seeks knowledge or studies using another language. Otherwise the knowledge obtained would be questionable.

“.. Even if you were very smart and knowledgeable in your area [of study], once you stutter, for example, in any situation, this might create exclamation marks [about your knowledge.]” (Participant B).

In other words, Arabs seem to believe that the academic value of PhD holders/candidates has a proportionate relationship with their English proficiency. Consequently, such extremist beliefs in any community would definitely cause the respective individuals to get anxious if they had to speak in public.

“….. If you looked like a proficient speaker [of English], this would create something like… I don’t know…I mean like unconscious belief or conviction in us that: oh yeah now you are eligible to have the title ‘Dr.’” (Participant D).

“….. We have this idea that a doctor [a PhD holder] ought to be a ‘perfect speaker [of English].” (Participant A).

It could be argued here that this factor is indistinguishable from fear of negative evaluations reported in previous research. However, it is incontrovertible that the cultural aspect that lies in the essence of this factor has created an obvious distinction between the factors.

The level of English proficiency of the interlocutors/ audience emerged as the third theme of this research. The interviewees revealed that this factor plays a significant role either in increasing or reducing their language anxiety.

“When I know or even feel that their [the interlocutors’ or audience’s] English is very good or even good, I would be not comfortable at all.” (Participant C)

“… I would feel much inferior to them, which would trouble me” (Participant A)

This kind of language anxiety is dependent on the level of language proficiency of their interlocutors/audience. That is, if the language proficiency of their interlocutors/audience is high, then the speaker would, in turn, suffer from high levels of anxiety, and vice versa. Upon further inquiry from the interviewer, Participant D explained that:

“…… but if I knew that it is [the audience or interlocutor’s English proficiency] similar to mine or let’s say weaker, I don’t think I would be that anxious…… it wouldn’t all, actually.”

This finding could be explained in terms of feelings of equality that participants wish to have with others, which is highly likely to release any comprehension on their part. It is important to highlight here that this factor is different from fear of negative evaluations discussed in previous research (e.g., ^{15, 16, 18, 19}). That is because in the case of fear of negative evaluations, the audience’s language proficiency is beyond of the interest and concern of the anxious speakers, unlike the factor under discussion in this section. In other words, even if the language proficiency of the audience was poor, those anxious speakers would still suffer from fear of negative evaluations that their audience might have about them.

6. Recommendations for Further Research

That language anxiety has been very much researched is almost an uncontroversial fact. However, this paper suggests that the dearth of research exploring this phenomenon in different parts of the world is the reason behind the new results revealed in this study. As a matter of fact, every community has its own set of characteristics and traits which may yield factors and causes of language anxiety other than those identified already in literature. Based on that, further research is needed to explore more undiscovered causes behind this kind of apprehension.

Apparently, culture plays a considerably major role in increasing or reducing language anxiety especially in the conservative societies. This variable needs to be further researched in the future.

In addition, investigating language anxiety from the perspectives of language users rather than language learners would definitely contribute to extending our knowledge and obtaining more ‘hidden’ reasons in this area of research.

7. Conclusion

This paper explored the reasons provoking language anxiety among ESL users from the perspectives of PhD holder and candidates in Malaysia. Interestingly, new factors that have hardly been found out in any of the previous research have emerged from the data obtained by this paper. The cultural perception about women, common belief about PhD candidates/holders to be highly proficient speakers of English, and also the level of English proficiency of the listeners/interlocutors were reported to be factors causing language anxiety among PhD holders and candidates. Hopefully, this study has provided valuable insights into the factors leading to language anxiety among ESL users.

References