CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, it reviews some important perspectives about speaking difficulties. It provides a critical review and analysis of the literature relevant to the study. There have three studies by previous scholar whose works are about the attitude of the students towards the language learning and also some studies about the language anxiety in language learning. There are many significant theories related to the present study such as Vygotsky who mentions the understanding of human cognition and learning as social (Ratana, 2007).

2.1 ATTITUDE TOWARDS LANGUAGE LEARNING

There have three scholars who are doing a study about the attitude towards the language learning. First, a study from B.E. Lafaye and S. Tsuda (2002) second is a study from Gajalakshmi (2013) and lastly is a study by Atef and Munir (2009). All three scholars do their study to high school students and university students.

B.E. Lafaye and S. Tsuda (2002) investigate the attitudes to English among students in higher education in Japan. Empirical data have been drawn from a survey of over 500 Japanese university students. The subjects targeted were the total population of the newly-established Jinbun Gakubu (Humanities) Department of Tokaigakuen University, located in Nagoya. 82% of

all first years and 69% of all second years completed the questionnaires. The subjects totaled 518, of which 287 were first year students and 231 were second year students. 36% of the subjects were male and 63 % were female. All students were studying one of the following three courses: Human Behavior, Language Communication, or International Culture.

The study set out to investigate how the average Japanese student feels about English, that is, what he/she thinks of his/her learning experience and his/her own ability, and whether or not he/she actually perceives a need for English. They also want to investigate whether students are amenable to the idea of English as an official language.

Questionnaire-based data collection was preferred over others, being most easily administered and able to be duplicated for an unlimited number of subjects. According to them, the questionnaires were all to be distributed to the first years on the same day, avoiding the wellknown problem of low response to questionnaires, and the authors distributed and collected the questionnaires themselves. The second year students’ questionnaires were collected by seminar teachers.

Results from this survey show that students want to learn practical English that will allow them to function in different contexts and that will facilitate their communication with many different nationalities, hence their desire towards an international variety. This implies that new curricula will have to be designed taking into account these needs for the students who are not satisfied with the situation as it stands. In my opinion, the result of the study show that early half of the students cannot say whether they agree or disagree with the proposal that English should

be introduced as an official language.

Gajalakshmi (2013) investigates the IX-standard students’ attitude towards learning English language. Objectives of the study are to find out the 9th standard school students’ attitude towards English and to find out the attitude of 9th standard school students towards English in relation to the following variables in example; gender, medium of instruction, religion, locality of the school, type of school, and type of management.

A standardized questionnaire was administered in the form of normative survey to 600 IX standard students who are selected randomly from various high and higher secondary schools in Puducherry region to collect their attitude towards learning English language. Likert type of attitude scale designed with the help of the standardized tool prepared by Dr. Lilly Epsy Bhai and S. Magethiran was used for this normative survey. The five point scale consists of 28 test items with 14 favorable and 14 unfavorable statements against five different responses via "strongly agree" (SA) "Agree" (A) Undecided (UD), Disagree (DA) and "Strongly Disagree" (SD).The collected data was statistically analyzed by SPSS ver-16.

The results of the study revealed that there is a significant difference based on the gender, locality of the school, type of school, type of management. Hence it was concluded that more classroom activities in the study of English enhance pupils’ attitude to learn English. Therefore, teachers have to come out with more activities in the classroom which can courage the students to learn English better and change their attitude towards English language learning.

Atef and Munir (2009) investigate motivation and attitudes towards learning English of Petroleum Engineering Undergraduates at Hadhramout University of Sciences and Technology. This study aims at investigating petroleum engineering students’ motivation and attitudes towards learning the English language. The objectives are as to determine which of the three types of motivation (instrumental, integrative and personal) could be the primary source of petroleum engineering students’ motivation towards learning the English language and also to determine the type of attitude that petroleum engineering students have towards learning the English language.

The target students’ population in this study was all the students who studied in the academic year 2006-2007 in the Department of Petroleum Engineering (DPE) at HUST, Yemen. The total number of the students was 191 males. There were no female students in the department.

This study was conducted to identify petroleum engineering students’ motivational and attitudinal orientations in learning the English language. To achieve this objective, two research tools were used namely, questionnaire and interviews. In addition, using multiple methods in a research design would also help to “give a fuller picture and address many different aspects of phenomena” (Silverman, 2000).

The findings showed the students’ positive orientation toward the English language. The results indicated that a high number of the students showed their interest in the culture of the English speaking world as represented by English-language films.

2.2 LANGUAGE ANXIETY IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

Language anxiety is a very serious problem for students in the term of learning a language. A lot of studies have been done to identify about this problem yet it is still happened. In this part, I will review about few past studies regarding language anxiety by other scholars. They are Khairi and Lina (2009) and Ayu and Nadia (2013). Their study is all about language anxiety in language learning.

Khairi and Lina (2009), do an investigation to determine the perceptions of University Technology Malaysia students towards the feeling of anxiety they experienced when speaking in the second language. The objectives of the study were to investigate students’ anxiety level towards speaking English as a second language and to identify the types of speaking activities that caused high anxiety level among the students. Communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation and general feeling of anxiety were among the factors studied in the research.

The respondents are from Faculty of Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering (FKKKSA) and Faculty of Geo-information Science and Engineering (FKSG). There were a total of 60 respondents involved in this study. Thirty-two were female students while another twenty eight students were male.

The instrument used by the scholars was adapted from Horwitz’s (1983) Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). The questionnaire consists of 32 items, each one

on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS version 10.0 Windows and were represented in the form of descriptive statistics which include percentages and mean. Results from the study show that students experienced moderate level of anxiety. As for my opinion, the students have problem with the rules of the language when they want to speak in English. That’s why they have modest language anxiety level in learning a language.

Ayu and Nadhia (2013) explored the nature and anxiety of speaking English as a second language among male and female Business Degree students in University of Selangor (UNISEL), Batang Berjuntai, Selangor. The objective is to identify potential sources of anxiety relevant to the students’ affective needs or concerns in an institution of higher learning through the use of an in-depth qualitative questionnaire.

The sample is selected from the five major courses of the Business Degree students of the Faculty of Industrial Management, UNISEL, Berjuntai Bestari Campus, Selangor. Each course is represented by 30 samples in which equal sample for male and female students. This study also discusses some of the influences or impact of anxiety-provoking factors on second language learning, along with some implications for further research on language anxiety.

As for the result of the study, they concluded that among all of the factors that can be listed from the open- ended questions; the top cause is the perceptions of others. Most of the respondents agreed that they felt anxious when they thought about the perceptions of others when they had to speak in English. In my opinion, language anxiety happen in language learning

among students is because what will the others say and think at the time they are trying to speak English.

2.3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The relationship between attitude and language anxiety can be conceptualized in the language learning process. Figure 1.1 depicted the relationship of the two variables; attitude and language anxiety that occurs among the students to success in learning the English language.

Language Learning

Attitude

(-)

Shy

Language Anxiety

Anxious

Lack of confident

(+)

Performance

Figure 1.1: The Conceptual Framework of the study

Figure 1.1 shows the model of concept in English language learning. There have two components which are attitude and anxiety. First and foremost, attitude is a very important role among the students to learn a language. If the attitude towards the language learning among students is positive which means that the students have a good attitude in English, they will successfully perform in learning the language. For instance, a students who have very good interest in English, he or she will attract to the language and enjoyed learning the lesson. They will put effort to learn and face all the circumstances while learning the language and will perform better at the end.

Meanwhile, if the students have negative attitude in English, it will make them feel difficult to process the lesson and they will be bored easily since they have little or no interest towards the lesson. It can relate to the anxiety level of the students, for instance, when they have some problem to use the language in the classroom. Shyness, anxious and lack of confidents are some of the causes to the language anxiety. When the students are shy to demonstrate their ability in the classroom, it will make them difficult to use the language and they will start to tremble when uttering the language. As a result, they will feel afraid to speak in front of their peers because they afraid to make mistakes and be an object of ridicule. At the end, they will have some problem to perform the language correctly.

In short, Figure 1.1 shows that either attitude or anxiety that affected the language learning, motivation is a vital role to make the students to be success in language learning. Yet, if

the students have a very positive attitude towards the language learning and a low level of anxiety, it can reduce the role of motivation for the students.

2.4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.4.1 Theory X and Theory Y by Douglas McGregor (1960)

Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human motivation created and developed by Douglas McGregor in the 1960s. Both theories have to do with the perceptions managers hold on their employees, not the way they generally behave. It is attitude not attributes. Theory X assumes that the average person has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he can.

The assumption of Theory X is following strong rules and controls before they will work hard enough. Basically, Theory X has no ambition, wants no responsibility, and would rather follow than lead. It does not care about organizational goals and self-centered. They also resist changing. In other words, Theory X is a negative attitude of a worker in an institution. This theory need to avoid because, essentially, Theory X assumes that people work only for money and security.

In Theory Y, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control. Theory Y work can be as natural as play and rest. People will be selfdirected to meet their work objectives if they are committed to them. They also will be committed to their objectives if rewards are in place that addresses higher needs such as self-

fulfillment. Under these conditions, people will seek responsibility and most of them can handle responsibility because creativity and originality are common in the population.

As a conclusion, Theory X can be related to the negative side of attitude towards language learning among the students. This is because, students with a negative attitude shows that they have no interest towards language learning and put no effort for it. Students in Theory X would have some problem in learning process such as language anxiety which make them more difficult to learn the language. Meanwhile, Theory Y shows that the students who have a positive attitude towards language learning. They are very motivated to learn and put effort to learn the language. They aimed to success which they assume as the reward of their hard work in learning process. At the end, students in Theory Y will perform better compare to students in Theory X who get unsatisfied result of the performance.

2.5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Based on the studies that have been done the scholars which have been discussed earlier, it shows that most of the students have different attitudes towards English language learning. The most important is, the students need to be motivated not only by the teachers but also by the surrounding and how the language being exposed to them. Other than that, language anxiety also is a viral problem among students to learn English language since they are not a native speaker. Young (1992) stated that speaking can cause high anxiety level and the reason for this is that teacher often expects the beginners to perform beyond their ability. From all above statements

that have been stated earlier, we can see how this problem is a serious problem. This can be supported with the opinion of Tarmizi Amran (2003) which stated that the awareness of the need and importance of language English will create a positive attitude among students. This language is actually not a burden for the students but it is an advantage for them if they can master the language.

REFERENCES Atef Al-Tamimi & Munir Shuib (2009). Motivation and attitudes towards learning English: A Study of Petroleum Engineering Undergraduates At Hadhramout University of Sciences And Technology. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies. 9(2). Ayu Rita Mohamad & Nadhia Dalila Ab Wahid (2013). Anxiety and speaking English as a second language among male and female business students in universiti industry Selangor. Retrieved July 17, 2013, from http://www.academia.edu/2053663/Anxiety_and_speaking_english_as_a_second_langua ge. B. E. Lafaye & S. Tsuda (2002). Attitudes towards English language learning in higher education in Japan, and the Place of English in Japanese Society. Intercultural Communication Studies XI: 3. Gajalakshmi (2013). High School Students’ Attitude towards Learning English Language. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 3 (9). Khairi Izwan Abdullah & Nurul Lina Bt Abdul Rahman (2009). A study on second language Speaking anxiety among utm students. Retrieved July 17, 2013, from http://eprints.utm.my/10275/2/Nurul_Lina_Bt_Abdul_Rahman.pdf. Ratana Pawapatcharaudom (2007). An investigation of Thai students’ english language problems and their learning strategies in the international program at Mahidol University. Silverman, D. (2000). Doing qualitative research. A practical handbook. London: Sage Publications

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