A study on the causes of the students’ english listening anxiety in university of languages and international studies, vietnam national university, hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
***************

PHÙNG THI ̣HẰNG

A STUDY ON THE CAUSES OF THE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH
LISTENING ANXIETY AT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL
UNIVERSITY, HANOI.
(Nghiên cứu những nguyên nhân gây lo lắng khi nghe của sinh viên trường Đại học
Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2017


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
****************

PHÙNG THI ̣HẰNG

A STUDY ON THE CAUSES OF THE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH
LISTENING ANXIETY AT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL
UNIVERSITY, HANOI.
(Nghiên cứu những nguyên nhân gây lo lắng khi nghe của sinh viên trường Đại học
Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Dr. Mai Thị Loan

HANOI - 2017


DECLARATION
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled “A study on the causes of the students’ English listening anxiety in University
of Language and International Studies” submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master in English Teaching Methodology. Except
where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been utilized without due
acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2017

Phùng Thị Hằng

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor Dr.

Mai Thi Loan. In the absence of her help, encouragement and support, this thesis
could not have been completed. Not only did she provide me with invaluable
guidelines but she also read and commented on numerous portions of the manuscript.
I am indebted to all staff, professors and members the of Faculty of
Postgraduate Studies, University of Language and International Studies, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi who taught me

valuable and interesting courses and

offered much help during my study at the University.
I would also like to acknowledge my sincere thanks to all students at University
of Engineering and Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and all the
people who have assisted my research work.
I would like to thank my friends, my classmates for their advice and useful
documents.
Finally, my special thanks go to my parents and my husband who have always
given me their endless love, understanding and encouragement throughout the study.

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ABSTRACT
Listening skill plays an important role in real- life communication as well as
foreign language acquisition. Therefore, this study has been conducted to investigate
the causes of English listening anxiety which non- major students face through their
process of learning listening.
The researcher conducted the study on 100 General English 2 (GE2) students of
University of Engineering and Technology, Vietnam National University (VNUUET). The data have been collected via the questionnaire and interview. The
questionnaire examined the sources for the students’ anxiety in listening activities and
the measures for alleviating the situations. The interview enables the researcher to gain

a more comprehensive understanding of the sources and solutions for the students’
English listening anxiety. The findings of the questionnaire and the interview
identified three main sources of the students’ listening anxiety which are listening
input, listener and physical setting. From these findings, the potential solutions were
also proposed such as self- study, providing comprehensible inputs, making listening
purposeful for the students, exposing the students to various types of listening
materials, introducing listening strategies, enhancing the students’ knowledge of
vocabulary and offering good condition facilities.
.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION .............................................................................................................. i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATION..........................................................................................vii
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ........................................................................... viii
PART A: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1
1. Rationale for the study ................................................................................................ 1
2. Aims and objectives of the study................................................................................. 2
3. Research questions ...................................................................................................... 3
4. Scope of the study ....................................................................................................... 3
5. Method of the study ..................................................................................................... 3
6. Significance of the study ............................................................................................. 4
7. Design of the study ...................................................................................................... 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................... 5

1.1. Review of previous related studies. .......................................................................... 5
1.1.1. Previous Studies overseas ..................................................................................... 5
1.1.2. Previous studies in Vietnam .................................................................................. 6
1.2. An overview of listening comprehension ................................................................. 8
1.2.1. Definition of listening comprehension .................................................................. 8
1.2.2. The significance of listening comprehension ........................................................ 9
1.2.3. The listening comprehension process.................................................................. 10
1.3. Overview of anxiety ............................................................................................... 11
1.3.1. Definitions of anxiety .......................................................................................... 11
1.3.2. Types of anxiety .................................................................................................. 12
1.3.3. Foreign language anxiety .................................................................................... 13
1.4. Listening anxiety .................................................................................................... 14
1.4.1. Causes of listening anxiety ................................................................................. 14
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1.4.2. Instructional approach for listening anxiety alleviation ...................................... 22
1.5 Summary.................................................................................................................. 24
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................. 25
2.1. Restatement of research questions ......................................................................... 25
2.2. Setting of the study ................................................................................................. 25
2.3. Participants of the study ......................................................................................... 25
2.4. Research types ........................................................................................................ 25
2.5. Data collection instruments .................................................................................... 26
2.5.1. Questionnaire ....................................................................................................... 26
2.5.2. Interviews ............................................................................................................ 27
2.6. Data collection procedures ..................................................................................... 27
2.6.1. Questionnaire ....................................................................................................... 27
2.6.2. Interview .............................................................................................................. 28
2.7. Data analysis methods ............................................................................................ 28

2.8. Summary................................................................................................................. 28
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ............................................... 29
3.1. Questionnaire .......................................................................................................... 29
3.1.1. Listening anxiety associated with input factors .................................................. 29
3.1.2. Listening anxiety associated with listener factors ............................................... 31
3.1.3. Listening anxiety associated with physical setting ............................................. 33
3.1.4. Students’ opinions of solutions to listening anxiety............................................ 33
3.1.5. Students’ expectation toward teacher and university .......................................... 34
3.2. Interview ................................................................................................................. 37
3.2.1. Students’ responses about the causes of listening anxiety .................................. 37
3.2.2. Students’ recommendation about solutions ......................................................... 41
3.3. Discussions and implication of the research .......................................................... 42
3.3.1. Listening anxiety- provoking causes for VNU- UET Students........................... 42
3.3.2. Implications of the research ................................................................................ 43
4.3. Summary................................................................................................................. 47
PART C: CONCLUSION ........................................................................................... 48
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1. Recapitulation ............................................................................................................ 48
2. Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 48
3. Limitation and suggestions for further study ............................................................ 49
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 50
APPENDIX 1 .................................................................................................................. I
APPENDIX 2 ................................................................................................................. V
APPENDIX 3 ............................................................................................................... IX
APPENDIX 4 .............................................................................................................. XII

vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATION
GE2: General English 2
UET: University of Engineering and Technology
VNU: Vietnam National University, Hanoi
FLA: Foreign language anxiety

vii


LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figures

and

Items

Page

tables
Figure 1

Listening anxiety related to listening text factors

29

Figure 2

Listening anxiety related to speaker factors

30

Figure 3

Listening anxiety related to listener factors

31

Figure 4

Listening anxiety related to physical setting

33

Figure 5

Students’ opinion of solutions to listening anxiety

34

Table 1

Students’ expectation toward teacher and university

35

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale for the study
It is undeniable that listening skill is viewed as a vital skill to human being’s
communication as well as language acquisition. Without human’s understandings
about the language in which they are exposed to, communication will not take place.
Furthermore, of the four language skills, listening is one of the most crucial for
language learning. It helps the learner to internalize the rules of the language and then
facilitate the emergence of other skills (Vandergrift, 1997:168). Similarly, Rost
(1994:141) emphasized listening is important in the language classroom because it
provides input for the learner. Without understanding input at the right level, any
learning simply cannot begin. Vogely (1998) mentioned that listening is also the most
frequently used skill in the language classroom. Listening skill is extremely vital for
the lives of students since it is used as a means of learning at all phases of instruction.
Besides, listening is used for more than any other single language skill in normal daily
life. Rubin & Thompson (1994:85) viewed listening as the most significant of the
language skills as people spend nearly 60% of their time listening. Listening also gives
people a chance to approach other language skills and help them enhance their general
ability in it. The development of other language skills can be improved through this
receptive skill. Over the past 10 years, communicative language approach has gained
prevalence thanks to practical and effective features of learning foreign language. This
fact puts a priority on learners’ ability to communicate. However, a large number of
learners are unable to communicate well in English due to partly their listening ability.
Students of University of Engineering and Technology are no exception.
In addition, psychological factors learners might experience such as apprehension,
worry or even dread have an adverse effect on learners. Among these psychological
problems, foreign language anxiety (FLA) tremendously interfered with learners’
foreign language learning as well as acquisition. Aida (1994) considered FLA as a
rather pervasive phenomenon impeding learners from achieving a high level of
proficiency in foreign language. Oxford and Shearin (1996: 121- 122) stated that:
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“FLA directly influences how often students use second language learning strategies,
how much students interact with native speaker, how much input they receive in the
language being learned (the target language), how well they do on curriculum- related
achievement test, how high their general proficiency level becomes, and how long they
preserve and maintain second language skills after language study is over…”.
Alleviation of anxiety is a key to success in learning foreign language and second
language. As mentioned above, listening skill is of primary importance in foreign
language learning and acquisition. During listening process, however, different factors
may cause easiness and tension for language learners and interfere with students’
listening performance. Young (1992) stated that poor listening ability results from
many factors such as immature teaching methodologies, ineffective listening
strategies, insufficient emphasis on listening and students’ lack of vocabulary, but
more increasingly important one is anxiety. In Krashen’s term (1985: 13), listening
anxiety may act as an affective filter, which makes comprehension harder. The harder
listening comprehension is, the more prevalent listening anxiety becomes present in
the learner. This creates a cycle which needs to be broken to allow for proper
comprehension of what is being listened to. Despite its adverse effect in listening
comprehension skill, there have not been so many researches on listening anxiety in
particular up to now. As a teacher of English, from my own experience and
observation, I have noticed that students frequently experienced FLA in general and
anxiety in listening skill in particular. Additionally, the researchers of previous related
studies recommended that more studies should be implemented to identify causes of
listening anxiety and potentially overcome anxiety- related problems so that the
learners’ abilities will be reflected accurately. Therefore, I find it necessary to
investigate the causes of students listening anxiety. From the findings of the study, the
author hopes to examine the sources of listening anxiety, thereby proposing solutions
to lessen the harmful effects of the students’ nervousness while listening.
2. Aims and objectives of the study
The aim of the study is to help students to alleviate their state of listening anxiety,

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thereby improving their listening competence.
The objectives of the study are:
- To identify the causes which render GE2 students nervous and confused while
listening to English.
- To propose some solutions to lessen students’ listening anxiety.
3. Research questions
The study is intended to explore the causes of students’ English listening anxiety
at VNU-UET and address possible solutions to improve the situation. With this
purpose, two following questions were investigated.
a. What are the potential causes which render the GE2 students at VNU-UET anxious
and confused during English listening process?
b. What are the possible solutions to lessen the students’ listening anxiety?
4. Scope of the study
Despite the fact that there is existence of FLA in all four skills, my present research
will just focus on the causes and possible solutions of students’ listening anxiety. The
subjects of the study are non- major students at pre- intermediate level at VNU-UET.
This study does not aim at all English non- major students and students at other levels
of proficiency. Besides, there is no teachers’ participation in this study. The collected
data of the causes and solutions to listening anxiety are only from students’ opinions.
5. Method of the study
The research is conducted by certain steps as follows:
To begin with, the survey questionnaire for students was employed to explore causes
of anxiety during listening process. Besides, the students’ opinions of solutions that
can be implemented to help them to overcome anxiety while listening were revealed
through the questionnaire.

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Next, personal interviews with students were carried out so that the researcher can
gain more comprehensive insight into listening anxiety and explore the causes behind
them.
After that, the data was gathered, stored and analyzed quantitatively and
qualitatively to obtain realistic results.
To end with, recommendations for the solutions to the students’ English listening
anxiety were proposed based on the results discovered from all data collection
instruments.
6. Significance of the study
This study made contribution to exploring the causes of listening anxiety which
greatly influence on students’ listening comprehension at VNU-UET. The findings of
the study are believed to assist them to manage their anxiety level in listening skill.
Recommended solutions promisingly encourage the students to learn and make
progress in listening skill, thereby enhancing students’ listening performance.
7. Design of the study
The study is divided into three parts:
Part A: The introduction presents the rationale for the study, the aims and objectives,
the research questions, the scope, the methods, the significance, and the design of the
study.
Part B: The development consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 is the literature review
which provides an overview of the theoretical background and the previous related
researches to the study. Chapter 2, the methodology restates the research questions and
describes the setting, the participants, and the research methods of the study. Chapter 3
presents data analysis and the findings.
Part C: The conclusion mentions recapitulation, briefly summarizes the study and
makes some suggestions for further studies.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Review of previous related studies.
Below are certain typical studies of the topic in both Vietnam and overseas. All
these studies share a common purpose in exploring the causes of listening anxiety
learners were faced with in process of learning listening skill and proposing solutions.
1.1.1. Previous Studies overseas
In this part, the studies conducted by Vogely (1998), Elkhafafi (2005), and
Samaneh (2015) will be presented as follows:
The research of Vogely (1998) discovered the sources of listening anxiety among
learners of Spanish at an American University. The instrument employed in this study
was a questionnaire. The findings of the research revealed that students experienced
anxiety while listening derived from four main sources. They include characteristics of
listening comprehension input (nature of speech, level of difficulty, lack of clarity,
lack of visual support, and lack of repetition); process- related aspects (inappropriate
strategies, lack of processing time, inability to study listening comprehension and
inability to check the answer); instructional factors (lack of practice, uncomfortable
environment) and personal and interpersonal attributes (fear of failure/ nervousness
and instructor’s personality. Vogely (1998: 68) suggested that students should be
offered comprehensible inputs, introduced appropriate strategies, allowed enough
processing- time and provided more practical exercise.
Elkhafaifi (2005: 211) did an empirical study on the effect of general foreign
language learning anxiety on students’ achievement and of listening anxiety on
learners’ listening comprehension. This research involved 233 post-secondary students
of Arabic as a foreign language. The survey questionnaire was employed in this study.
Regarding to the findings, it is revealed that students with higher levels of foreign
language tend to have higher levels of listening anxiety and vice versa. The author also
suggested that there was apparent existence of foreign language listening anxiety,

5


which is distinguished from other types of anxiety. He also discovered that anxiety
may affect students’ performance in foreign language classes. Sources of listening
anxiety in the researcher’s study are involved in general grade, listening grade, years
in school and years studied Arabic. From the findings, it was suggested that learners
should be given more listening practice, taught listening strategies, and offered
comprehensible inputs as well as less stressful classroom environment to reduce
listening anxiety.
The study of Samaneh (2015: 3) found out sources of learners’ listening anxiety at
language schools in Isfahan in Iran. The instruments used in this study are a survey
questionnaire for the students and a semi- structured interview with them. The findings
of the research explored the main factors affecting learners’ listening comprehension
competence include inappropriate strategies, lack of time to process, level of difficulty,
nature of speech, environment, peer, instructors and lack of practice. Based on the
discovered causes, he recommended that students should be taught to strategically
engage in listening process, given more practice with numerous types of exercise, and
exposed to unfamiliar vocabulary.
However various the researchers’ solutions contributed to the field of listening
comprehension skill, my study aims to discover more causes the learners experience
and propose further solutions to listening anxiety.
1.1.2. Previous studies in Vietnam
In our country, the area of listening comprehension has recently appealed many
researchers’ attention. The studies presented in this part are the researches by Phạm Lê
Phương Anh (2008), Lê Thị Thu Huyền (2010) and Nguyễn Minh Nguyệt (2017).
The study of Phạm Lê Phương Anh (2008) uncovered the factors inducing the
students’ anxiety while listening by the 10th form students at Dong Da high school,
Hanoi. The instruments employed to investigate in this research are a survey
questionnaire for students and an interview with them. The findings of the study

identified various causes of anxiety while listening, which is derived from

6


characteristics of the listening text, characteristics of the listener, and characteristics of
the listening process. From the results of the research, some recommendations were
proposed to the students and teachers. In detail, it is advisable that students should
have more listening practice, enhance English proficiency, build confidence and seek
for peers. Teachers are also recommended to improve their teaching methods and
facilitate the students to enhance their English competence. She also suggested that
further studies should be implemented to discover more about effects of listening
anxiety on students’ performance.
The research of Lê Thị Thu Huyền (2010) revealed the causes of listening anxiety
which first-year English major students experienced at Hong Duc University. The
instruments used in this research are a survey questionnaire for students and an online
interview with them. The sources of listening anxiety found out from the findings of
the study are associated with listening text, speaker, listener and listening environment.
She suggested that students should be provided with diversified and suitable listening
texts, background knowledge and listening strategies. Moreover, it is suggested that
teachers should increase students’ retention of information, build up an enjoyable
atmosphere and motivate their students. From her recommendation for further
research, it is advisable that more study should be conducted to explore the effects of
listening anxiety on students’ listening proficiency.
Nguyễn Minh Nguyệt (2017) did an exploratory study on the 10th form students’
listening anxiety at Thuong Cat High School. The instruments used in this research are
a survey questionnaire for students and interviews with them. The revealed causes are
originated from the listening process, listening texts and students’ learning habits.
From the findings of the research, it is revealed that students should be provided with
appropriate listening materials, taught effective listening strategies and assisted to

enhance level of proficiency. She also suggested that further studies should be carried
out to explore more causes of anxiety the students face as well as recommend further
solutions to reduce state of anxiety among the students.

7


In short, the researches in Vietnam and overseas mentioned above uncovered that
students’ listening anxiety are associated with input factors, listener factors and
environmental factors. According to researchers’ expectation, my thesis was
conducted with the aims of learning more about the causes and solutions to anxiety
while listening.
1.2. An overview of listening comprehension
1.2.1. Definition of listening comprehension
There exists different views about listening comprehension but emerges traditional
and alternative view. In the traditional view, listening, along with reading, is regarded
as a passive language skill. The learners receive passively the information provided in
the listening materials and strive to draw the meaning from individual syntactic and
semantic components of the utterance and the manner in which it is spoken. They
seem to be seldom required to use language in listening classes. Students only listen
and answer comprehension questions in most of the listening lesson. On behalf of this
view, Elkhafaifi (2005: 505) stated that “student is a mere bystander or recipient of
input during the communication process”. On the contrary, in the alternative view,
listening is a really receptive skill and the learner is no longer passive and is
considered as an active model builder. Anderson and Lynch (1988: 6) pointed out that
listener plays a crucial part in the listening process by activating numerous kinds of
knowledge and employing their own linguistic command and background knowledge
about the speaker, the context and about the world in general to gain full
comprehension of what they are listening to.
Buck (2001: 1- 3) stated that listening comprehension is a very complex process. It

is an active process of constructing meaning employing a number of different types of
knowledge in which linguistic and non linguistic knowledge are involved. He also
pointed out that various variables have an effect on comprehension and any
characteristics of the speaker, the situation or the listener can potentially affect the
comprehension of the message.

8


Sharing the same point of view with Buck, Rost (2002: 33) defined listening
comprehension as an interactive process in which listeners are involved in constructing
meaning. Listeners comprehend the oral input through sound discrimination, previous
knowledge, grammatical structures, stress and intonation, and the other linguistic or
non-linguistic clues.
Brown and Yule (1983: 58) stated that listening comprehension is an individual
understanding of what he has heard and it is the listener’s ability to repeat the text
despite the fact that the listener may repeat the sound without real comprehension.
There are four levels of comprehension on which listening exercises can be
constructed. To begin with, the listener can repeat the text. After that, students should
have heard and understood the meaning of particular items that are used in that text.
Then, student should be able to resolve anaphoric reference and to determine what was
referred to. Finally, students should be able to work out not only what is directly
asserted but also implied in the text.
In short, from above-mentioned definitions, listening comprehension is an active
process in which learners strive to interpret speakers’ message and respond by
employing their own linguistic competence and background knowledge.
1.2.2. The significance of listening comprehension
There came an increasing awareness of the importance of listening, especially with
the emergence of communicative approach. With a large number of studies on the
aspects of listening, it is obvious that listening comprehension play a vital part in

human being’s communication, language acquisition and learners’ academic success.
Listening skill assists the students to improve their communication competence.
River (1966: 196) stated that if what is being said is not comprehended by another
person, communication cannot take place. It is evident that listening is a receptive skill
and also a crucial part in human’s communication. Overall, successful listening may
involve successful communication.

9


Rost (1994: 141) pointed out the importance of listening in the language classroom
since it offers input for the students. In the absence of accessible input at the right
level, learning cannot work well. Therefore, students’ language proficiency partly
depends on their listening competence. He also mentioned that in addition to creating
the right condition for language development, listening can bring about enjoyment and
stimulate cultural interest (via movies, radio, TV, etc) and fulfillment of social needs
(development of relationships, confidence, etc).
In conclusion, it is undeniable that the role of listening comprehension skill is
greatly crucial to human’s everyday communication as well as the language learning
and acquisition. Therefore, teaching and learning listening comprehension skills are
attracting more and more attention of researchers, scholars and educators.
1.2.3. The listening comprehension process
There has been much debate about how linguistic and non- linguistic knowledge is
applied to the incoming sounds, but two most important views are dominated: the
bottom- up view and the top- down view, which refer to the order in which the
different types of knowledge are applied during comprehension (Buck, 2001: 2).
In bottom- up processing, Buck (2001: 2-3) pointed out that the listening process
takes place in a definite order, starting with the lowest level of detail and moving up to
the highest level. The new incoming data is first decoded into phonemes (the smallest
meaning unit), which is then used to identify individual words. In the next higher

stage, words are linked to form phrases, which made up sentences. These sentences
construct a complete text and the meaning of which is then constructed by the listener.
During this process, students simply move from sound to word to sentence to text. On
the other hand, he mentioned top- down process in which various types of knowledge
are involved in understanding language and are not applied in any fixed order but used
in any order.
On the other hand, Rost (2002: 53) mentioned that the top- down processing refers
to the use of pre- packaged patterns of background knowledge that we have stored in

10


memory from prior experiences to grasp the information they hear. Nunan (2002:17)
also stated that the top- down processing refers to making use of the learners’
background knowledge and global understanding to infer the meaning from and
interpret the message. These views emphasize the prominence of learner’s background
knowledge in making sense of the information they hear. The prior knowledge
facilitates the students to understand the incoming data by relating the familiar
information to the new one.
To obtain listening competence, learners should be cautious not to go overboard
with top- down at expense of bottom-up or via verse. It is advisable that the listeners
should combine the bottom- up and the top- down approach to increase listening
comprehension. Both processes play an important role in decoding the meaning of the
discourse. The lack of either process will certainly fail to make sense of the text. This
may be the reason why another kind of listening process, the interactive process is
proposed. In case the learner is unfamiliar with the content of text material while
listening, he can use bottom- up processing to recall knowledge of lexis and syntax to
comprehend the message. In case the spoken text is familiar with the learner, he can
apply his background knowledge to deduce the meaning and comprehend the message
of the listening text.

In conclusion, listening is a very complicated process in which both top- down and
bottom-up processing are important. Therefore, an effective listener should take an
active participation, which requires linguistic and non- linguistic sources. That is the
active nature of listening comprehension.
1.3. Overview of anxiety
1.3.1. Definitions of anxiety
There have been various definitions of general anxiety addressed. Scovel (1978: 134)
mentioned anxiety as feeling of uneasiness, frustration, self- doubt, apprehension, or
worry. He also defined anxiety as a psychological construct, which commonly
described by psychologists as a state of apprehension or worry. Horwtiz, Horwtiz, and

11


Cope (1986: 125) stated anxiety as the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension,
nervousness and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system.
Hansan (2000:91) thought anxiety as an experience of general uneasiness, a sense of
foreboding, a feeling of tension.
The researcher is more inclined to the view of anxiety as the individual feelings of
nervousness, uneasiness, frustration and apprehension.
1.3.2. Types of anxiety
According to many researchers (Lewitt: 1980, Morris, Davis & Hutching: 1981,
Spielberger: 1983, Horwtiz, Horwtiz, and Cope: 1986, MacIntyre& Gardner: 1991;
Ellis: 1994; McCroskey: 2001, Brown: 2006) anxiety can be divided into three types:
trait anxiety, state anxiety and situation- specific anxiety.
To begin with, trait anxiety is referred to as “a constant condition without a time
limitation” (Lewitt, 1980:11). According to MacIntyre & Gardner (1991: 87) trait
anxiety is viewed as an individual’s likelihood of becoming anxious in any situation.
Some people tend to be anxious about many things in different circumstances,
therefore, trait anxiety is also viewed as “a steady personality feature” (Brown, 2006).

The four trait anxiety scale options are: almost never, sometimes, often and almost
always
Besides, state anxiety is fleeting and not a constant feature of an individual’s
personality. Spielberger (1983) mentioned that state anxiety is an apprehension
experienced at a particular moment in time, for instance, taking an interview. There are
four trait anxiety scale options: not at all, somewhat, moderately so and very much so.
Morris, Davis & Hutching (1981:543) expressed that state anxiety refers to transitory
experiences of tension, apprehension and activation of autonomic nervous system in
certain situations.
Finally, situation- specific anxiety can be regarded as the possibility of becoming
anxious in particular situations and events such as test, public speaking or class
attendance (Ellis, 1994: 480). McCroskey (2001: 3) viewed this type as an individual’s
12


level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with
another person.
1.3.3. Foreign language anxiety
It is widely recognized that there exists foreign language anxiety and its potential
for significant interference with language learning. MacIntyre & Gardner (1994: 288290) defined foreign language anxiety as the feeling of tension and apprehension,
especially associated with the second language context, including speaking, listening,
reading and writing. Horwtiz, Horwtiz, and Cope (1986: 128) expressed that anxiety
belongs to situation- specific one happening especially in the classroom. They defined
foreign language anxiety as a distinct complex of self- perception, beliefs, feelings,
and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from uniqueness of the
language learning process.
There are various sources and factors that can cause students’ learning anxiety.
Horwtiz, Horwtiz, and Cope (1986: 127) proposed three sources of foreign language
anxiety: communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation.
Communication apprehension is a type of shyness characterized by fear of or anxiety

about communicating with people. In other definitions about communication
apprehension, McCroskey (2001: 13) stated that communication apprehension is the
broad term referring an individual’s level of fear or anxiety associated with either real
or anticipated communication with another person or persons. On the other hand,
Brown (2006) referred communication apprehension to learner’s inability to
adequately express mature thought or ideas. Horwtiz, Michael, and Cope (1986: 127)
mentioned communication apprehension or certain similar reactions obviously play a
crucial role in foreign language anxiety.
Regarding to test anxiety, Horwtiz, Horwtiz, and Cope (1986: 127) viewed it as a
type of performance anxiety deriving from a fear of failure. They explained that testanxious students often put unrealistic demands on themselves and feel that anything
less than a perfect test performance is a failure. On the other hand, Sarason (1978:214)
conceptualized it as the tendency to view with alarm the consequences of inadequate
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performance in an evaluative situation. Test anxiety tends to occur when learner had a
poor performance in the last examination and then, he potentially develops a negative
stereotype about test and have irrational perceptions in evaluative situations. Some
people even may suffer from a stomach or a tension resulted from test- taking, others
may feel shaky, sweaty or heart’s quick beating during the test situation.
In terms of fear of negative evaluation, Horwtiz, Horwtiz, and Cope (1986: 128)
referred it to apprehension of about others’ evaluation, avoidance of evaluative
situations, and the expectation that others would evaluate oneself adversely. They
thought fear of negative evaluation is broader in scope because it is not only restricted
to test- taking situation but it may also take place in any social, evaluative situation
such as interviewing for a job or speaking in a foreign language class. MacIntyre &
Gardner (1991: 105) refer evaluation to students’ academic and personal evaluation on
the basis of their performance and competence in target language.
In brief, anxiety is an influential factor in a foreign language learning domain and
plays a crucial role in language learning’s performance. The construct of anxiety has

been recognized as one of the most significant measures of foreign language learning.
The problem of anxiety and the accompanying erroneous beliefs about foreign
language learning represent serious impediments to the development of second
language fluency as well as to performance.
1.4. Listening anxiety
1.4.1. Causes of listening anxiety
It is undeniable that listening is regarded as the most difficult among four skills. A
large number of students have difficulties with different aspects of listening
comprehension. It is below-mentioned problems that make them feel anxious and
confused while listening.
From Underwood’s point of view (1989: 16- 19), there are seven potential factors
to significant interference with the learners’performance while learning listening
comprehension: fast speed; inability to get things repeated; the listener's limited
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vocabulary; failure to recognize the signals; problems of interpretation; inability to
concentrate; and learning habits. Many language learners believe that the greatest
difficulty with listening is that the listeners cannot control how quickly a speaker
speaks, which bothers them.
Rubin (1994: 87) proposes a framework of five factors impeding listening
comprehension: text characteristic (speech rate, pause phenomena and hesitation, level
of perception, stress and rhythmic patterning perception, the first and second language
difference, syntactic modifications, redundancy, morphological complexity, word
order, discourse makers, and visual support for texts); interlocutor characteristics
(gender and language proficiency); task characteristics such as task type; listener
characteristics such as language proficiency level, memory, attention, age, gender,
learning disability in the first language and background knowledge; and process
characteristics including top- down, bottom- up, parallel processing, listening
strategies and negotiation of comprehensible input.

Brown and Yule (1983: 74) mentioned four main sources of anxiety while listening
including the speaker (speech rate, varied accent); the listener; the content
(vocabulary, grammar, background knowledge); and visual support (diagrams,
pictures, charts…). Yagang (1994: 189) attributed the difficulty of listening
comprehension to four sources: the message, the speaker, the listener and the
physical setting whereas Samaneh (2015: 6) identified three factors as having
influence on listening anxiety including input factors, individual factors and
environmental factors. These three factors could induce GE2 students at VNU-UET
anxious and confused and will be discussed as followed.
1.4.1.1. Listening anxiety associated with input factors
There have been certain studies conducted to explore the anxiety- provoking factors
among learners during listening activities. Such factors are presented as below:
Unfamiliar lexis and complex syntax
The research of Vogely (1998: 70) revealed that students were anxious and
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