Intermediate EFL Learners’ Shyness, Communication Apprehension, the Accuracy and Fluency of their Oral Performance

محورهای موضوعی : Research in English Language Pedagogy

Maryam Babapoor ¹ (Department of English, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Iran)
Zohreh Seifoori ² (Department of English, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran)
Mahtaj Chehreh ³ (Department of English, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran)

تاریخ دریافت : 1396/10/30 تاریخ پذیرش : 1396/12/22 تاریخ انتشار : 1397/06/10

کلید واژه: Shyness, communication apprehension, Accuracy, Oral performance, Fluency,

چکیده مقاله :

Achieving proportionate levels of accuracy and fluency in oral proficiency seems extremely far-fetched to many adult learners whose enthusiasm to learn through participation in communicative tasks is adversely influenced by aversive affective factors like shyness and communication apprehension (CA). The present correlational study explored Iranian English learners’ shyness and CA, and the accuracy and fluency of their task-based performance for any probable association. The research participants comprised a homogenous sample of 50 female learners from a pool of 70 intermediate learners. The revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale (RCBS) (Cheek, 1983), and Personal Report of Communication Apprehension-24 (McCroskey, 1982) were employed to measure the participants’ shyness and CA. A narrative picture-description task was used to elicit and record the participants’ oral performance. Further statistical analyses of the data verified that the group was within the shyness and apprehension range and that these features were negatively correlated with the fluency and accuracy of their speech. The findings underscore the need to help learners overcome these deterrent variables to enhance their disrupted and inaccurate performance. Pedagogical implications will be discussed in the paper.

منابع و مأخذ:

Adeyemo, S. O. A., Ganiyu, M. A., & Rosli, B. M. (2017). Assessing communication apprehension and implication for employability among mass communication students. Journal of Humanitits and Social Science, 22(3), 78-84.

Arquero, J. L., Fernandez-Polvillo, C., Hassall, T., & Joyce, J. (2017). Relationships between communication apprehension, ambiguity tolerance and learning styles in accounting students. Revista de Contabilidad – Spanish Accounting Review, 20(1). 13-24.

Austing Cavanaugh, S. (2015). Intercultural contact, communication apprehension and social perspective taking. Working Papers on Language and Diversity in Educaiton, 1(1), 1-25.

Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. J. (1974). Working memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), Recent advances in learning and motivation (Vol. 8. pp.47-90). New York: Academic Press.

Bandura, A. (1978). The self-system in reciprocal determinism. American Psychologist, 33, 344-355.

Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4^th ed.). New York: Pearson Education Company.

Cheek, J. M. (1983). The revised Cheek and Buss shyness scale (RCBS). Retrieved from www.ellesley.edu/Psychology/Cheek/research.html

Cheek, J. M., & Buss, A. H. (1981). Shyness and sociability.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 330-339.

Ching Sin, T. T. (2015). Communication apprehension and academic performance among undergraduates at a Malaysian Public University. (Master’s thesis, University of Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia) Retrieved from http:http//studentsrepo.um.edu.my /5853/1/Main_Text.pdf.

Crozier, W. R. (1979). Shyness as a dimension of personality. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 18(1), 121-128.

Darke, S. (1988). Effects of anxiety upon inferential reasoning task performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 499-505.

Evans, M. A. (1989, March). Classroom reticence: What it looks like and what might account for it. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco. USA.

Eysenck, M. W., & Calvo, M. G. (1992). Anxiety and performance: The processing efficiency theory. Cognition and Emotion, 6, 409-434.

Farooqui (2007), Developing-speaking skills of adult learners in private universities in Bangladesh: Problems and solutions. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 47(1), 94-110.

Foster, P., & Skehan, P.  (1999). The influence of source of planning and focus of planning on task-based performance. Language Teaching Research, 3, 215-247.

Gholami, M., & Karimzadeh, S. (2010). The relationship between shyness and language learning among ILI boy students. The Journal of Modern Thoughts in Education, 4(2), 133-146.

Horwitz, E., Horwitz, M., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. Modern Language Journal, 70, 125-32.

Jones, M. G., & Gerig, T. M. (1994). Silent sixth-grade students: Characteristic, achievements, and teacher expectations. The Elementary School Journal, 95, 169-182.

Leary, M. R. (1986). Affective and behavioral components of shyness: Implications for theory, measurement, and research. In H. J. Warren, J. M. Cheek, & S. R. Briggs (Eds.), Shyness perspectives on research and treatment (pp. 27-38). New York: Plenum Press.

McCroskey, J. C. (1997). An introduction to rhetorical communication, (7^thed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

McCroskey, J. C. (1986). An introduction to rhetorical communication. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

McCroskey, J.C.  (1982). Oral communication apprehension: A reconceptualization. Communication Yearbook, 6,136‑170. Retrieved fromwww.as.wvu.edu/%7Ejmccrosk/

McCroskey, J. C. (1977). Oral communication apprehension: A review of recent theory and research. Human Communication Research, 4, 78–96.

Mischel, W., & Peake, P. K. (1982). Beyond déjà vu in the search for cross-situational consistency. Psychological Review, 89, 730-755.

Ostovar Namaghi, S. A. (2015). The effect of shyness on English speaking scores of Iranian EFL learners. Language and Linguistics, 12, 22-27.

Pye, J. (1989). Invisible children. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Saeghi Bennis, A. R., & Edalati Bazzaz, V. (2014). The impact of pushed output on accuracy and fluency of Iranian EFL learners’ speaking. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 2(2), 51-72.

Sánchez, L. (2006). Bilingualism/ second language research and the assessment of oral proficiency in minority bilingual children. Language Assessment Quarterly, 3 (2), 117-149.

Sarason, I. G. (1975). Anxiety and self-preoccupation. In I. G. Sarason & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.), Stress and anxiety (Vol. 2. pp. 27-44). New York: Wiley.

Sarason, I. G., Sarason, B. R., & Pierce, G. R. (1990). Anxiety, cognitive interference, and performance. Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 5, 1-18. 

Seifoori, Z. (2016). Metacognitive awareness and the fluency of task-based oral output across planning conditions: The case of Iranian TEFL students. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 4(1), 11-26.

Seifoori, Z., & Vahidi, Z. (2012). The impact of fluency strategy training on Iranian EFL learners’ speech under online planning conditions. Language Awareness, 21(1-2), 101-112.

Seyitoglu, F., Guven, A., Kocabulut, O. (2015, July). Effects of intercultural communication apprehension on satisfaction of foreign students. Paper presented at the First European Academic Research Conference on Global Business, Economics, Finance and Social Sciences (EARL 5Italy Conference). Milan, Italy.

Vriniotis, C., & Evans, M. A. (1988, February). Children’s social communicative competence and its relationship to classroom participation. Paper presented at the Biennial meeting of the University of Waterloo Conference on Child Development, Waterloo, Ontario.

Wine, J. (1971). Test anxiety and the direction of attention. Psychological Bulletin, 76, 92-104.