Fear of Negative Evaluation as a Variety of Anxiety in Foreign Language Learning

557 Pages·2014·3.21 MB·English

People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
University of Constantine 01
Faculty of Arts and Languages
Department of English

Fear of Negative Evaluation as a

Variety of Anxiety in Foreign

Language Learning
: the Case of First

Year LMD Students of English at Bejaia

University.

Submitted in partial requirement for the
Degree of Doctorat ES-Sciences in Didactics of English

Submitted by: Supervisor
Nadia Idri Prof. Hacene Saadi

Board of Examiners
Chairman: Dr. Nacif Elabed, University of Constantine 1
Supervisor: Prof. Hacène Saadi University of Constantine 1
Member: Prof. Omar Ghouar, University of Batna
Member: Prof. Hacène Hamada, ENS Constantine
Member: Dr. Ryad Belouahem, University of Constantine 1

Defended on June, 12th 2014
General Introduction
1. Background Knowledge
Affective factors seem to be one of foreign language teachers' biggest worries. This
concern is relevant; since according to experts in the field, feelings like anxiety, interest
and the desire to take part in the foreign language discussions either in the classroom or in
the speaking community may either contribute to or halt Foreign Language Learning
(FLL). This study puts focus on one of the above affective variables which is anxiety.
There is no doubt that this construct has been a matter of discussion in the last three
decades and this is due to its pervasive effects on Foreign Language Learning.
Additionally, it is common knowledge that the aim of learning is to acquire new
information. However, during language acquisition, learners’ emotional status is influential
on learning (Krashen’s works). The role of affective factors in Foreign Language Learning
has been studied extensively for the last three decades by several such authors as
Kleinmann (1977), Scovel (1978), Eysenck (1979), Krashen (1985), Horwitz, Horwitz and
Cope (1986), Steinberg and Horwitz (1986), Gardner (1976, 1993), MacIntyrer (1991a, b,
c, 1994, 1995, 2002), Aida (1994). Among other emotional variables, anxiety stands out as
one of the main blocking factors for effective language learning (Nascente, 2001). Its
damaging effects have been found in all phases of this process, Input, Processing and
Output. Young (1990, 1991, 1992) in this context is one of the prominent workers in the
field of anxiety in language learning. Whether a cause (Glanshow and Sparks, 1996), or a
consequence (MacIntyre, 1995) of learning, anxiety is a highly influential factor in the
enterprise of teaching and learning foreign languages.
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After decades of parallel, but separated, studies on anxiety, Horwitz et al. (1986)
have built a framework and made a relation between them. The first thing they claimed
was that when anxiety is limited to language learning, it falls to the category of specific
anxiety (Horwitz et al., 1986: 125) which they label Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA). For
them, Foreign Language Anxiety is a result of three constructs. Communication
Apprehension, this is seen as the fear of not understanding or not being understood by
others (Horwitz et al., 1986). Test anxiety, it is the fear of failing tests. Finally, Fear of
Negative Evaluation (FNE), this is referred to as the fear of being laughed at (Brown,
2004). From this perspective, Horwitz et al. were the first who introduced the construct of
FNE to the educational domain. This construct is what makes up the core of the present
study. Our concern is to test the significance of four sources of Fear of Negative
Evaluation stated in three hypotheses.
A growing body of educationalists, psychologists, researchers and teachers become
more interested in the study of anxiety in language classrooms and its three constructs by
using diverse methods and means though the purpose remains approximate (Kleinmann,
1977; Scovel, 1978; Krashen, 1985; Crookal, and Oxford, 1991; MacIntyre and Gardner,
1994; Bailey, 1991; Aida, 1994; Nascente, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003; Brown, 2003 2004;
Ohata, 2005; Williams and Andrade, 2008;). Additionally, many works also dealt with
Foreign Language Anxiety, its causes and the way to cope with it. However, few of them
treat the three sources of anxiety separately and very few deal with FNE independently
from the two others (Kitano, 2001; Collimore, Carleton, & Asmundson, 2003; Brown’s,
2004; Selami Aydin, 2008). This work treats this source of Foreign Language Anxiety,
searches a number of the causes that lead to Fear of Negative Evaluation we judge
influential in our EFL classrooms.
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2. Aims of the Study
The essential aim of this research is to inquire about how evaluation and more
precisely, negative evaluation can make EFL learners feel a kind of fear. This sensation is
what we attribute to Fear of Negative Evaluation, a Foreign Language Anxiety source. It is
more likely to be a serious educational crisis as the experienced fear from evaluative
situations can affect learning negatively. Then, we intend to find out the reasons and the
effects this affective problem has together with possible suggestions and implications to
handle it. In short, the following research objectives motivate the study:
1. We first aim at diagnosing the kind of negative evaluation that harms the
learners when learning a foreign language.
2. Our focus is also made on the Target Language (TL); which is EFL in the
Algerian context, and on the selection of the sample which is first year LMD students. We
consider the Target Language as an anxiety-breeding factor and the learners under
investigation are enrolled in a system which may also cause anxiety mainly that it focuses
on ongoing evaluation.
3. One of the chief aims is to check whether the causes we have introduced are the
anxiety triggers (sources of Fear of Negative Evaluation) or not, and to what extent. Again,
the effects of Fear of Negative Evaluation on learners are to be emphasised.
4. We are also going to focus on the learners’ perception of this fear and try to
know how they try to overcome this kind of fear.

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3. Statement of the Problem and Research Questions
The problem at hand has been investigated by few researchers particularly in Algeria.
Hence, there is a need for further research, if not to find out a new knowledge related to
Foreign Language Anxiety, Fear of Negative Evaluation and evaluation, at least to
contribute in providing a body of knowledge with more explanations and establish further
links amongst the variables embedded in the present research. Moreover, it is important to
find new techniques and conditions which might add a building block to the field of
research on anxiety and evaluation. Furthermore, through research one may add more
evidence to the findings of the other studies with a new population, a new context and an
innovative methodology. The originality of the present work is in the choice of the
population at hand and the research context in which it is held. That is, research on
language anxiety and Fear of Negative Evaluation has not been dealt with by researchers in
Bejaia University especially within the LMD system. Our population is first year LMD
students of English, the thing which makes it unique; further details on the population are
to be the core of a section in the general introduction and in the chapter devoted to the used
methodology here.
In this introduction, the constituent elements of this dissertation are to be presented
because details about the used methodology are exposed at length in the first chapter.
Hence, the problem can be stated as follows:
How can negative evaluation (related to peers interaction,
the foreign language, the teacher’s error correction,
assessment and testing) experienced by first year LMD
students learning English as a Foreign Language at Bejaia
University cause fear, and how can it be handled to reduce
the felt anxiety?
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Negative evaluation is assumed to be an existing factor which can lead to Fear of
Negative Evaluation. Hence, there is the need to check the significance of our sources in
the creation of Fear of Negative Evaluation. The assumption we made relies on the belief
that our informants have to do with English in a new manner; they are engaged in a new
system which has been applied in the Algerian educational system since the academic year
2004/2005. Any novelty generates anxiety and any doubt about the future is by definition
an anxiety-breeding factor. Novelty touches the way these learners are taught and
evaluated as well. One can, then, imagine the attitudes first year students of English- who
attend university courses for the first time- may have, especially if associated with all the
changes encountered within the LMD system.
To guide this work, we relied on the following questions that motivate the present
study, which are:
1. Which kind of the language classroom evaluation is considered negative?
2. Is the LMD system in itself anxiety-breeding be it based on continuous evaluation?
3. Is the Target Language; English in our case, an anxiety-breeding factor as evaluation is
one of its routine aspects?
4. What kinds of evaluation do LMD English students experience? Do LMD English
students experience such a negative feeling when being evaluated?
5. Whose responsibility is it to let this Fear of Negative Evaluation occur? Is it the
learner’s judgement of the “self” and proficiency, the peers’ or the teacher’s one?
6. Are learners conscious of the fear they feel and relate it to negative evaluation?
7. Do learners conceive this anxiety as a problem?
8. How can the teacher identify Fear of Negative Evaluation in his students?
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9. What should the teacher do to cope with this Fear of Negative Evaluation?
10. How do students deal with their Fear of Negative Evaluation?
11. What are the effects of negative evaluation on the learner as an individual, on the
group and on the learning process?
4. Hypotheses
Concerning our hypotheses, the independent variables are grouped in four causes
which lead to Fear of Negative Evaluation grouped in three hypotheses. First, learners are
said to experience a feeling of fear if evaluated in a negative way by their peers and/or
their teacher in classroom interaction. Here, we refer to peer-evaluation/teacher-evaluation
and classroom interaction. Second, Fear of Negative Evaluation can be due to the learners’
low language proficiency as they may seem and feel lower than others. Moreover, this low
English proficiency is a factor that leads to more errors (frequency and gravity of errors)
which will lead to negative evaluation and, hence, fear. Third, because learners are more
likely to make errors, teachers’ feedback is to be corrective. Therefore, what the instructor
applies in error correction influences the learners’ feelings. If the teacher’s error correction
is threatening, learners are more likely to feel anxiety from his1 negative way of evaluation,
i.e. his harsh error correction. Then focus would be put upon the negative side of this
negative feedback which is said to lead to the feeling of Fear of Negative Evaluation.
Therefore, we have selected these independent variables as causes of our dependent
variable; Fear of Negative Evaluation.

1 In the present work, we use he/his as an indefinite pronoun instead of its gender-related meaning.
That is, we do not refer it to males in our context.
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From the stated problem and the variables made explicit, the hypotheses can be
driven to be checked against the data the researcher would collect. The work is based on
three hypotheses that are:
1. First year LMD students of English would be anxious to be negatively evaluated by
their peers and teacher when interacting in the classroom setting.
2. The Fear of Negative Evaluation felt by first year LMD students of English could be
attributed to foreign language proficiency and the teacher’s handling of errors.
3. Foreign language LMD learners would feel Fear of Negative Evaluation when being
assessed and tested.
5. Participants
Subjects are first year university students learning EFL under the LMD system
registered in the academic year (2006-2007). Bejaia University applies the new LMD
system started just two year before the present investigation in Algeria (i.e. in 2004/2005).
Thus, the work may be the pioneer to study the relationship Fear of Negative Evaluation
has with learning EFL in the Algerian LMD system and its sources as well.
6. Methodology
A mixed methodology based on qualitative and quantitative methods was employed.
First participant observation to diagnose the significance of the theme during eight sessions
of research methodology courses was initiated. Accordingly, a questionnaire was
developed. Its results, led helped in constructing questions for the semi structured
interview. Finally, relying on the examination’s periods as a focal point, another purely
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qualitative method called here the “Before/After Design” was used to compare the
participants’ feeling before the first exams they experience at university and after. This
technique is quite important to gather data about the present topic based on evaluation.
7. Structure of the Dissertation
In what follows, the reader is provided with a brief synopsis of this work.
The first chapter introduces the theoretical body of the present dissertation. It
encompasses evaluation in EFL contexts within the LMD system. Relationship between
evaluation, accompaniment and tutoring are highlighted as the prerequisites of evaluation
in the LMD system. In addition, a background on evaluation, related concepts and
techniques, error correction techniques are explained. Finally, negative evaluation is
related to one of its possible effects; fear. This chapter, then, treats technical issues related
to evaluation and classifies its shortcuts and puts focus on fear.
After the introduction of fear as a possible consequence of negative evaluation, the
second chapter is devoted to discuss the concepts of Foreign Language Anxiety and Fear of
Negative Evaluation. For a better understanding, we dealt with anxiety from the clinical
point of view. Then, a short account on Foreign Language Anxiety’s definitions, kinds and
correlates is provided. Here, not all kinds of anxiety are included in this dissertation, but
we tried only to select the types which serve our coming chapters. Then, the three
performance anxieties developed by Horwitz et al. (1986) were introduced. The chapter is
detailed to guarantee the understanding of our concepts. That is why; correlates of Foreign
Language Anxiety, causes, effects and symptoms are included.
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After an overall description of the construct of Fear of Negative Evaluation, it seems
relevant to go through more detail and limit the study to educational settings. For this
reason, the third chapter of the present research is devoted to the study of Fear of Negative
Evaluation, Foreign Language Learning and Academic Achievement. Firstly, a trial is
made to explain the general link that anxiety has with language learning. More precisely,
there was a selection of both the debilitating and the facilitating kinds of Fear of Negative
Evaluation to establish their link with EFL. That is, an explicit trial related to Fear of
Negative Evaluation and language learning is present through exposing its relation to the
four language skills.
Our fieldwork is made up of three chapters. Our first chapter in this practical part and
the fourth in the dissertation is entitled: Methodological Frame. As its name suggests, the
chapter deals with such methodological issues as the statement of the problem, objectives
and the hypotheses. This was done after the construction of background knowledge about
the topic’s feasibility and the review of the literature. In addition, as part of the
methodology, dealing with research urges to consider its salient parameters like
participants, methods, procedure, validity and reliability. Finally, the chapter ends with a
its strengths and weaknesses of the work at hand.
The fifth chapter is aimed at piloting the topic and serves as a description of the
research problem’s utility and ‘researchability’. Its content is based on the description of
data got from the observation phase to check out the theme’s occurrence and utility,
delimit the research problem and construct our hypotheses. In addition, a meticulous report
of the classroom guided our thoughts towards the development of our questionnaire.
Hence, information about the questionnaire, its items and its pilot phase were provided.
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