Universidad Veracruzana

Facultad de Idiomas

Finding Out about the Language Classroom

Licenciatura en Enseñanza del Inglés

How to decrease anxiety levels for group speaking tasks for low proficiency
students from ages 18 to 23 from different university degrees using StoricubesTM
to develop speaking skills.

Hector Jose Perez Prior

zS16010854
14 December 2017
Introduction
The assumption that anxiety is a deterrent for student's participation in English learning
activities is a widely spread subject of research papers from all over the world. For the author
of this document when engaging in speaking activities, especifically dialogues in pairs during
the winter term of 2018, in a university classroom of basic level with students, ages ranging
from 18 to 23 years old, non-verbal signs could be observed that indicated resistance to
participate in such activites. The assumption and objective of this research, is that if the
speaking practice was scaffolded and done through a game, students would have a
better time doing practicing and thus feel more comfortable participating in class thus
lowering their apparent fear. Achieving this would have clear benefit for the class because
they would participate more and the individual student's experience because they would feel
more confident. Leyneham (2009) lists some of the consequences of high levels of anxiety in
the classroom: Poor academic performance and under ‐achievement, poor engagement in
class, school refusal and school drop. Doing this research would also help in preventing these
symptoms or reduce them as much as possible.

Research paradigm
According to Sagor (2000), action research can be defined as:
“A disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The
primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the “actor” in improving
and/or refining his or her actions.” (Chapter 1. What Is Action Research? Para.
2)page number?

The glossary of education reform (2015) states:

“Action research refers to a wide variety of evaluative, investigative, and
analytical research methods designed to diagnose problems or
weaknesses—whether organizational, academic, or instructional—and
help educators develop practical solutions to address them quickly and
efficiently.” (Action Research , Para. 1) page number?

The most useful in the context of this document might be the one defined by Allwright (1991)
As presented in the learning-experience notes Classroom- centred
 research is just what it says it is -research centred on the classroom…”
He states that classroom research simply tries to investigate what
actually happens inside the classroom. “It is in fact research which treats
classroom interaction as virtually the only object worthy of investigation”
(p.2).

Sagor (2000) sets the steps for action research as Selecting a focus, clarifying theories,
identifying research questions, collecting data, analyzing data, reporting results, taking
informed action. Nugent, Malik and Hollingsworth (2012) defines the action research process
as:
 Identify a problem and ask a question.
 Create an action plan.
 Enact the plan.
 Study the plan in action (collect data/evidence).
 Report results and get feedback.
 Modify the plan.
 Try it again; study it again. (p.18)

Perhaps the most pertinent process in the context of this paper are the steps proposed by
Nugent and their detailed description can be better understood by using them in the context of
how the process was applied in this research .

Create an action plan.

After choosing the problem, an action plan was developed. These points below are written as
they were originally designed and put into action.
1. (Reflect stage) Identify what types of anxieties exist and determine if there are any of
these types in the classroom. This step was devised to contextualize the research
looking into current investigation and papers on the topic to go beyond empiric
observations.
2. (Plan stage) Choose research techniques (Face to face informal interview,
Questionnaire about anxiety in the classroom for educators, Online poll). Select a
game that develop speaking proficiency
 3. (Act stage) Start using the game to collect data about anxiety during activity and
compare to previous practices.
4. (Reflection stage) Analyse information and reach conclusion on the effectiveness of the
speaking game (Story cubestm)

Research Techniques
Allwright (1991) says that beyond empirical observation, written questionnaires and interviews
are the way to correlate the observe data.

The evidence collected was the Teachers notes on the students reactions when engaging in
speaking activities. This included observation schedules. Where a list of behaviours (anxiety
indicators) to look for while students are working in speaking activities mainly dialogues.
Audio recordings from the face-to-face interviews were collected and two different
questionnaires one directed at students to find out about their needs and to confirm or deny
the existence of anxiety in their learning and one directed at other educators on the topic of
anxiety in their classrooms.

The data from these technique was applied and analysed using graphics to the contrast them
with the observation and the original assumptions from the reflexion stage of the research.

The comparison from the original premise, that anxiety was caused by speaking activities and
social fear to the result of the research techniques comes from lack of comprehension and not
from social fear.

Enact the plan

There was a need to investigate anxiety in the English learning classroom. The first question
to answer first was what types of anxieties are affecting these students? In the paper
Understanding the Nonverbal Behavior of Socially Anxious People during Intimate Self-
disclosure (Kang, S., Rizzo, A. & Gratch, J. 2012) there is a list of expressions that show
anxiety: gaze aversion, frowning eyebrows, leaning, moving arms and hands, constant
rocking, touching on body, shaking head, fidgeting arms and hands, and fidgeting feet and
legs. All of these cues were confirmed by comparing the original observations from the
Teacher of the group's reactions during speaking activities.
After these observations, a more explicit research tool was required to investigate the needs
and opinions from the students themselves on the issue of anxiety. The first questionnaire
was an online poll using Google forms and was designed following the indication found in
Munn and Drever (2004). The questions were published on a Facebook page dedicated to
communication between the English students that attend the university and the faculty.
^^^Podrías incluir ejemplos o una imagen de pantalla o un link a la pagina de Facebook

The second tool was designed taking guidance from psychological anxiety-screening test.
The model document was taken from Anxiety and Depression Association of America(es un
libro? Porque si es así tienes que poner el nombre complete o la referencia) and was easily
adapted by contextualizing the questions to the classroom situations and environment and
was originally directed at teachers but were later changed to a student audience. Social
anxiety manifestations, according to informal interviews with students during class, centre in
listening and reading, which coincides in part with what Horwitz, E, Horwitz, M & Cope, J
(1986) detail in their conclusion (te faltó la cita textual para saber en que coinciden). Batiha,
Jafar & Mohd Noor, Noorizah & Mustaffa, Rosniah. (2014) sustain that the results of their
study “suggest that test anxiety, fear of failing the course, instructor-learner interaction,
vocabulary, negative evaluation, and high expectations were factors that provoked the
general foreign language classroom anxiety the most” and this information was corroborated
by the students' answers in the online poll. Horwitz (1986) also concludes in part that, “foreign
language anxiety can probably be alleviated, at least to an extent, by a supportive teacher
who will acknowledge students' feelings of isolation and helplessness and offer concrete
suggestions for attaining foreign language confidence.” This presents an opportunity that
teacher-student rapport could be the best option for the teacher to diminish student anxiety.

Study the plan in action (collect data/evidence).

The web-based informal questionnaire results indicated a willingness to participate in a broad
selection of activities, most of which involved stress-producing activities. The results from this
findings point to a different conclusion than the intended in the research question for this
paper. Anxiety levels were within acceptable levels for the classroom wellbeing. This could
indicate that there are other circumstances in this particular class that have prevented
students from feeling uneasiness.
Exploring what Batiha et al. (2014) suggested about a worry-free environment, a review of the
classroom's ecosystem can shed some light on the reasons for the students' positive attitudes
towards learning and producing language. The way these lessons are regulated mirror the
suggestions made in the article At a Glance: Classroom Accommodations for Anxiety by
Morin (2018). Low-level anxiety classes have clear frames of operation in regards to social
interaction between students, between learners and teacher and what the course's learning
expectations are. In this particular group, there is a clear protection of the right of students to
make mistakes, the right to feel relaxed or free from mockery. There is also the principle of
learning to their own pace and to set their own expectations about learning outcomes. These
principles are manifested in rules about assessment between peers, meaning that they are
not allowed to express in any way something that could stop students from participating and
learning. This rule has been successful so much that they do feel capable of telling a story in
English even if they had never done it before or do not have the skills to do it.

The information provided by the overall data informs that there is a healthy level of anxiety in
this group of learners, classroom-behaviour rules have created a safe learning space, the
comfort from the safe learning environment has bred a sort of overconfidence or
overestimation of the students own language skill proficiency and this confidence can be
harnessed to develop true language skills scaffolding language sub-skills. Most interviewed
students are concerned about their listening and reading comprehension skills so activities
have to be focused on developing them.

The original proposal for the action research was to develop speaking skills using a set of
StorycubesTM to reduce anxiety by practising in a controlled and free environment. These
were the steps develop:
1 Choose a cube from a set of three.
2 Show the students all six pictures in the cube.
3 Ask students for identification of the image (words or sentences)
4 Do step 3 for of 5 remaining pictures.
5 Use the images to create or develop non-sense or funny stories if possible.
In practice, the students had the disposition to get involved but it was clear that they lacked
the abilities to actually participate. In informal interviews during this activity, the students
noted that they didn't feel nervous but they just didn't know the words. This establishes the
necessity of further research beyond anxiety and into language skill building.

Validation for this action research is just reserved to triangulation of all the data collected and
the interactions to the tutor for this project. The investigation resulted in interesting results and
can be compared with many other papers on the topic from peers educators from around the
world, a comparison between both readings was made a the results were similar.

Report results and get feedback.

The result for this research was done presenting development documents and in several
online conversations with a tutor: There was indeed levels of anxiety in the classroom
caused by the students lack of comprehension skills from listening and reading
activities and not from speaking. The chosen strategy (storycubes) to alleviate this
anxiety, based on the assumption that social interaction was the source of the fear,
was beyond the level of proficiency of the learners a second research cycle should be
done with the new premise (developing comprehension skills) with simpler but
dedicated speaking activities.

After presenting the contradictory results of the data a new action plan was devised for further
research cycles.

Suggestions for further research cycles.

For a second research cycle, the proposal is to develop language confidence using
Cambridge assessments YLE's speaking items to create and build speaking skills'
foundations. The starter's speaking test is a face-to-face test that lasts between 4 and 5
minutes. There are five parts to the test and all of them can help develop the necessary skills
to produce language at A1 level.

The main focus of this research cycle would be the scene picture used in most of the sections
of the assessment. The image shows a familiar situation for the students that includes
relevant vocabulary for the level. In the presenting stage of the activity, the students would
practise identifying people, animals and things and their place within the scene. In
subsequent sessions, the difficulty level would increase by trying to give meaning to the
situation portrayed in the scene by making inferential questions. For example: What is
happening here? Or, What is this person doing? Why?
The highest level and ultimate objective are for the students to create a narrative from the
scene.

Conclusion
Looking to improve one's teaching practice must be an imperative for any English as a foreign
language educator, this continuous cycle of research an teaching can help close the gap
between teaching language as a system and to move to learn language as communication,
these are not mutually exclusive but have to be integrated into actual teaching so students
can maximize their learning, fulfil their language needs and achieve success in their pursuit of
the English language proficiency.
***Creo que la conclusion esta un poco corta, podrías hacer un mini resumen o señalar que a pesar de
haber desarrollado un plan al inicio tuvo que cambiarse en vista de los resultados obtenido por lo que
conlcuyes que…. Y ya pones esa misma conclusion a la que llegaste,
Es decir solo escribir unas 100 palabras antes de la conclusion que tienes.
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