Reducing Language Anxiety & Promoting Learner

Reducing Language Anxiety & Promoting Learner Motivation A Practical Guide for Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

FA K I E H A L R A B A I

Copyright © 2014 Fakieh Alrabai. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law. ISBN: 978-1-4834-1106-4 (sc) ISBN: 978-1-4834-1105-7 (e) Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them. Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only. Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock. Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 04/17/2014

Contents Foreword ...................................................................................................................ix Preface ....................................................................................................................xiii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................xv About this guide ................................................................................................. xvii Who this guide book is for? ............................................................................. xix How to use this book? ........................................................................................ xxi Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 The primary sources of language anxiety ......................................................... 3 Major causes that demotivate learners ............................................................... 4 Signs of anxious and unmotivated learners ...................................................... 5 Strategy one.............................................................................................................. 7 Have a positive relationship with your students ......................................... 7 Strategy Two .......................................................................................................... 10 Control your students’ language anxiety .................................................... 10 Turn your language classroom into an anxiety-free zone ............... 10 Help your students to set specific goals for learning English........ 11 Design and present classroom activities in motivating and anxiety-free ways ........................................................................ 12 Reduce communication apprehension ................................................. 17 Reduce learners’ fear of negative evaluation ....................................... 18 Reduce learners’ fear of language test ..................................................20 Deal properly with learner’s anxiety-provoking beliefs/ misconceptions ................................................................................... 21

Strategy Three .......................................................................................................23 Build up your students’ self-confidence ......................................................23 Reinforce your students’ ability for success........................................23 Acknowledge your students’ efforts and achievements ....................24 Strategy Four ......................................................................................................... 29 Stimulate your students to learn English ................................................... 29 Strategy Five ........................................................................................................... 32 Enhance your students’ autonomy and control over learning................ 32 Strategy Six ............................................................................................................34 Establish relevance between what your students learn in-class and their out-class real life .....................................................................34 Things to avoid at all times................................................................................ 37 References ............................................................................................................... 41

DEDICATION This book is dedicated with love to my darling family: my wife and our two little Angels Abdulaziz and Musab

Foreword For around half a century now, motivation has remained among the most extensively researched issues in the field of second language teaching and learning. This is hardly surprising given the undeniably important role that learner motivation plays in relation to achievement. There is practically a consensus among researchers and language teaching practitioners alike that in the absence of adequate motivation attaining high levels of competence in the target language may not be possible. The opposite is also true—high motivation is typically linked to better learning outcomes. In previous years a quite considerable research effort was devoted to theory-related aspects of motivation, such as conceptualising motivation as a psychological construct and/or defining different categories of motivation—e.g., integrative, instrumental, intrinsic, etc. More recently, there has been an increased interest in the factors which can promote learner motivation. For learners and teachers this is certainly a very welcome development, because ensuring high learner motivation is one fool-proof way of obtaining higher achievement. ix

High learner motivation, however, is not a given. As we now know from related research, motivation is a relatively unstable psychological trait which is sensitive to a broad range of learnerinternal and learner-external factors. Among the former, anxiety can have a very harmful impact on learners’ motivation and on their classroom performance more generally. As regards the learner-external factors, there is a growing recognition that perhaps the most crucial among them is the teacher. It seems quite clear that what teachers do in the language classroom and—even more so—how they do it can powerfully influence all aspects of the learning process. Teachers can definitely play a very constructive role in relation to reducing their learners’ anxiety and enhancing their motivation. Teachers’ behaviours specifically designed to enhance learner motivation have been defined in literature as ‘teachers’ motivational strategies’. This is what the current book is about. The author, Dr. Alrabai, who is already an established authority in this field of study, introduces six of what researchers regard as the most important and effective motivational strategies, and also offers some very practical and accessible guidelines about how to implement these strategies in the language classroom. Second language research has sometimes been criticised for being disconnected from the practical reality of language learning and teaching, and there appears to be at least some x

validity in this criticism. It seems that researchers tend to be preoccupied with increasingly complex and abstract language acquisition theories, which language practitioners often can’t make sense of, or can’t quite figure out how to apply in their teaching practices for the benefit of their learners. Alrabai’s book provides a most welcome break from this situation. The teacher resource he has produced is a superb example of how research findings can effectively be translated into practical application. The capacity of the six teaching strategies described in this book to enhance learner motivation has been established through sound empirical research in which the author played a leading role. Those teachers who choose to use them in the way advocated in the book can confidently expect lower anxiety, higher motivation and, ultimately, better achievement for their language learners. Christo Moskovsky Professor of Applied Linguistics University of Newcastle NSW, Australia

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Preface Learning a foreign language is a challenging task that demands years of study and tremendous persistent efforts to exert. Two of the chief affective variables usually associated with learning a foreign language are the levels of motivation towards learning this language and the levels of anxiety learners experience in the course of learning. Past research in the field of foreign languages clearly revealed that the more anxious learners tended to be, the less motivated to learn English they were (see Clément et al., 1994; Ehrman & Oxford, 1995; Hao, et al., 2004; Alrabai, 2011; etc.). These two variables negatively influence the quality of different aspects of language learning and usually result in unsatisfactory learning outcomes even for those learners who possess high learning capabilities. This explains that these two variables (anxiety and motivation) do not work independently in the foreign language learning context but rather interdepend and affect one another in such a context (see Gardner et al., 1997). As the presence of anxiety in the process of learning a foreign language often result in lack of motivation which subsequently cause disappointing learning outcomes, the need remains to look xiii

for some practical means by which to integrate motivation and diminish anxiety in the language learning process. We believe that utilizing such means would positively affect learners’ anxiety and motivation and might further impact their actual achievement in the foreign language.

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Acknowledgements The number of those to whom I am indebted to for making this work comes true is much beyond the scope of this space. I am immensely grateful to Professor. Christo Moskovsky for inspiring me to investigate such important psychological aspects of foreign language learning as motivation and anxiety and for providing the foreword of this book. Sincere gratitude goes to those top figures in the field of L2 motivation/education such as Zoltán Dörnyei, Jere Brophy, Gary Chambers, Kata Csizér, Dale Schunk, and John Malouff for their precious advice with regard to the implementation of the strategies in this guide book. “Thank you” for everyone made this dream comes a reality!

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About this guide This guide book is designed in response to the overwhelming need to find some practical techniques to control learner’s sources of foreign language anxiety such as communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and test anxiety; and to promote learners’ motivation to learn English as a foreign language. The specific techniques used to implement the six strategies proposed in this guide were designed by reviewing and synthesizing some of the suggestions made in leading textbooks on psychology, educational psychology, and motivation in education. The expert advice of those whom we regard as familiar with the issues of anxiety and motivation in FL teaching, psychology, and education was sought as well. Anxietycontrolling strategies provided in this guide are some practical means developed to tackle anxiety sources that usually stem from learner’s characteristics, learner’s beliefs about learning a foreign language, teacher’s characteristics, language testing, classroom atmosphere, learning procedures, etc. Motivationpromoting strategies involved those targeting situation-specific learner motivational dispositions, such as developing a positive xvii

relationship with learners; promoting learner curiosity, selfconfidence, and autonomy. The strategies in this guide have been examined in more than three experimental studies and they were found to be effective in reducing learners’ language anxiety and inspiring their motivation to learn.

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Who this guide book is for? This guide book is written for those teachers who teach English in Saudi Arabia as well as other EFL/ESL contexts to control for foreign language anxiety and motivation of their learners. The guide could be used with learners at all levels from primary school to university. Teachers are encouraged to do their best to use as much strategies as they could in each single lesson.

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How to use this book? Teachers should start with reading the introductory section of this book which serves as background material that contains a theoretical overview of the concepts of foreign language anxiety and motivation. The following sections describe the strategies that teachers should employ to reduce learners’ anxiety and inspire their motivation. Using this guide, teachers should familiarize themselves with these strategies before coming to class and to allow for the implementation of them whenever they have the chance to do so. It is highly recommended that every teacher uses the strategies implementation checklist available at the end of this book as to guarantee that he/she is actually utilizing these strategies in the language class.

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Introduction Key terms in this book Foreign language motivation: “The combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favourable attitudes towards learning a new language,” (Gardner, 1985, p. 10). Motivational strategies: Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008) refer to motivational strategies as: (a) instructional interventions applied by the teacher to elicit and stimulate student motivation, and (b) self-regulating strategies used purposefully by individual students to manage the level of their own motivation. Language anxiety: This term is conceptualized by Horwitz et al., (1986) as “a distinct complex of selfperceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” (128).

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Anxiety-controlling strategies: Techniques used by the foreign/second language teacher to help language learners diminish, reduce, or at least cope with the feelings of anxiety they experience when learning a foreign/second language.

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The primary sources of language anxiety According to Horwitz et al., (1986): a. Communication apprehension (fear of communicating with people), b. Fear of negative evaluation (apprehension about others’ evaluations and avoidance of evaluative situations), and c. Test anxiety (a performance anxiety stemming from fear of failure). According to Young (1991, 1994): a. The learner (personal and interpersonal anxiety, and learner beliefs about language), b. The teacher (instructor beliefs about language teaching, and instructor-learner interactions), and c. The instructional practice (classroom procedures, and language testing).

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Major causes that demotivate learners a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i.

Improper teacher behavior. Lack of support and guidance in the classroom. Tense classroom atmosphere. Lack of self-esteem and confidence. Lack of autonomy (freedom and control over learning). Feelings of anxiety. Monotonous teaching style. Boring teaching content. Lack of engagement and involvement in classroom activities. j. Lack of cohesiveness and cooperation among learners.

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Signs of anxious and unmotivated learners Past research described the anxious and unmotivated foreign language learner as an individual who: a. Perceives the L2 learning as an uncomfortable experience. b. Avoids academic challenges such as voluntary participation or taking part in classroom discussions. c. Feels social pressures not to make mistakes. d. Fears that mistakes in speaking activities would destroy his/her social image among peers. e. Is less willing to try uncertain or novel linguistic forms. f. Withdraws easily from learning activities. g. Has lower performance than non-anxious students. h. Has low self-esteem and avoids activities he/she believes as beyond his/her capabilities. i. Has low expectancy of success. j. Exhibits avoidance behaviour such as missing classes. k. Freezes up in role play activities. l. Receives low course grades. m. Maintains less eye contact with the teacher.

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n. Engages himself/herself in self-comparison with classmates and peers. o. Highly anxious learners can even speak with shaking hands and/or legs. p. Highly anxious learners can even go blank when having to speak the target language.

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Strategy one

Have a positive relationship with your students 1. Be more friendly, caring, relaxed, and patient. 2. Be more like a friend helping students to learn and less like an authority figure making them perform. 3. Show respect to your students in the way that you address them or comment on their work and behaviour – do not be sarcastic; show them that you accept them as valuable, worthwhile human beings. 4. Help your students get to know and appreciate you as a person by sharing some of your background, life experiences, interests, and opinions with them.

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5. Get to know your students: learn their preferred names quickly and use these names frequently as you interact with them. 6. Help your students get to know each other as to build a community of learners within the language class. 7. Show warmth to your students (e.g., by greeting students with a smile when you enter the class or wherever you meet them.) 8. Show interest in students, (e.g., by speaking to them individually before class and asking about their goals and extracurricular activities.) 9. Listen reflectively to your students (e.g., listen carefully to them and paraphrase what they say). 10. Show students that you care about their progress using the following ways: a. Always let students feel that you want them to learn and improve themselves. b. Observe closely the performance of your students at the beginning of each year/term to figure out their strengths, weaknesses, and their learning preferences. 8

Reducing Language Anxiety & Promoting Learner Motivation

c. Try to answer your students’ questions completely. d. Discuss and negotiate the progress of each student with him regularly. e. Respond immediately when students ask for help in the classroom. f. Be always available for your office-hours. g. Be accessible outside the classroom by allowing and encouraging students to communicate with you on the phone, by email, or through the Blackboard whenever they require assistance. h. Identify poor language learners and accommodate them as much as possible. i. Don’t show students that you are there just for the salary.

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Strategy Two

Control your students’ language anxiety Turn your language classroom into an anxiety-free zone

1. Avoid making social comparisons between learners like comparing successful and unsuccessful learners, public pronouncement of grades, negative feedback to certain learners in front of their peers, etc. 2. Avoid involving students in competition in which students work against each other avoiding the feelings of failure, or attempting to make others fail. Instead, help learners to develop a “classroom community” in the form of groups or pairs in which they work together, support each other, and act collaboratively in the foreign language classroom. 3. Bring and encourage humor in the classroom.

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4. Be like a friend of your students. 5. Support students to feel comfortable taking risks in class. 6. Tolerate your students’ mistakes. 7. Make students feel safe in your classroom by expressing their opinions freely. 8. Provide students with opportunities to share about their knowledge, backgrounds, and cultures. 9. Be patient! Help your students to set specific goals for learning English

1. Find out about your students’ individual goals for learning English. Ask every student at the beginning of the term to write down his/her goals for learning English. 2. Make sure that your students’ goals for learning English are clear, realistic, and attainable. 3. Try to link your students’ individual learning goals with the curricula goals.

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4. Do your best to help students achieve their learning goals; (e.g. suggest some ways to overcome the obstacles that might face each student in achieving his/her learning goals). 5. Make students note their progress towards achieving their goals by using self-assessment and self- monitoring progress procedures; (e.g. make a checklist of each student’s progress and let him / her note that regularly). Design and present classroom activities in motivating and anxiety-free ways I. Task design

1. Make sure that each learning task is relevant to the interest of students and it is within their learning abilities limits. 2. Try to design a variety of instructional activities while maintaining focus on the curricula content and structure. 3. Vary the main language skills the tasks activate (e.g. learning tasks can alternate between speaking, listening, reading, and writing). 12


4. Make learning tasks moderately challenging. (i.e. design tasks that are neither too hard nor too easy for students to achieve). 5. Break the difficult learning tasks down into small steps in order to make them achievable to students. 6. Make tasks contain elements of different learning styles. For example, visual (e.g. videos, pictures, diagrams), auditory (e.g. piece of music, recording of conversation), and tactile (e.g. touching people/ objects). 7. Avoid engaging students in pointless or meaningless activities such as the following: ♦ Continued practice on skills that already have been

mastered thoroughly. ♦ Looking up and copying definitions of terms that are never used in activities or assignments. ♦ Working on tasks assigned merely to fill time rather to accomplish worthwhile learning goals.

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II. Task Presentation

1. Brainstorm your students: (Brainstorming is an open sharing activity that encourages all learners to participate to focus their attention on a particular topic and to generate a quantity of ideas from them on that topic). Possible method for brainstorming - Begin by posing a question or a problem about the topic of the lesson. - Ask students then to express possible answers, relevant words and ideas. - Encourage and provide opportunity for all students to participate and express their ideas. - Tell students that there are no wrong answers for the problem. - Try to get as many ideas as possible from students. - Do not express your evaluation on any idea presented by students. - Discourage evaluative or critical comments from peers.

2. Engage learners in pre-task activities to prepare them sufficiently before taking the actual learning tasks.

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3. Start presenting each learning task with clearly setting out its goals and stating its potential practical outcomes. 4. Present tasks in clear and complete ways that students can easily understand and follow and they do not confuse them. 5. Make sure that all the instructions you do in the classroom are clear as uncertainty can lead to anxiety. 6. Engage learners in collaborative tasks, such as project work, pair work, small group work, games, role-plays, peer-evaluations, and simulations. 7. Involve students in a game-like activity relating to the topic, (e.g., playing the role of new characters in a game or a movie in order to learn new English vocabulary and expressions.) 8. Don’t start working with students on a new learning task unless they finish the task(s) they are already working on. 9. Personalize your teaching styles as to make them appropriate to the different learning styles of learners.

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10. Use variety of instructional approaches to present tasks such as lectures, demonstrations, drills, reviews, debates, group projects, discovery learning and problem solving, role playing, gaming, computerassisted instruction, etc. 11. Show your competence in English while teaching (e.g. speak fluently, keep all communication with your students in English, avoid making grammatical or spelling mistakes, etc.) 12. Use an appealing teaching style while presenting tasks by: ♦ Express interest and enthusiasm for teaching. ♦ Show sincerity and honesty while teaching. ♦ Show calm and confidence while teaching. ♦ Use hand and arm gestures when speaking. ♦ Make eye contact with all students. ♦ Speak loud usually, but vary your vocal expressions. ♦ Vary your facial expressions. ♦ Stand while teaching (i.e. do not sit in a chair). ♦ Move near and among students when teaching. ♦ Smile at students while teaching. ♦ Have a relaxed body position while teaching. ♦ Use affirmative head nodding.

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13. Discuss with students potential successful language learning strategies. Ask every student to select some strategies for himself to learn the course and to use these strategies throughout the semester. 14. Avoid putting students under unnecessary time pressure by making sure that all students can complete classroom tasks within the given period of time. 15. Guide and assist students until they perform the learning task(s) successfully. 16. Summarize the lesson outcomes at the end of each lesson. Reduce communication apprehension

1. Provide students with ample opportunity for oral practice in the foreign language. 2. Allow students to practice self-talk before they talk in real situations in the classroom. 3. Avoid involving students in speaking activities that put them “on the spot” in front of their peers without allowing prior preparation. 17

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4. Avoid situations in which highly anxious students will have to answer questions or perform in front of large group of learners. 5. In communicative situations, focus on the message the student is trying to communicate rather than on the accuracy of the student’s grammar and pronunciation. 6. Pay attention to the following activities as they are usually perceived by students as producing anxiety: a. b. c. d. e.

Spontaneous role-play in front of the class. Speaking in front of the class. Oral presentations in front of the class. Presenting a dialogue in front of the class. Writing work on the board.

Reduce learners’ fear of negative evaluation

A. Let students concentrate on doing the tasks rather than on the evaluation of their performance after completing the task. B. When assessing students’ work, make marking and grading with emphasis on noting successes rather than failures. 18


C. Deal properly with Learner’s errors: a. Tell students that they will make mistakes throughout the process of FL learning. b. Help students accept the fact that mistakes are an unavoidable natural part of the learning process and that mistakes will be made by everyone. c. Tell students that without mistakes, there is no learning and there is a lot to learn from mistakes. d. Correct learners’ errors using modelling (e.g. by repeating what the students said but with their errors corrected). e. Avoid making individual students “on the spot” while correcting learners’ errors. Instead, use formative assessment method for correcting learners’ errors (e.g. make private notes of students’ errors and then later address the whole class without saying that this is the error of X made and this is the error of Y made). f. Keep information about students’ evaluation (e.g. test scores) private. g. Don’t show a concern for errors made by students through constant feedback or grading. h. Process feedback sessions to deal with learners’ errors using the following mechanism: -

Encourage students to justify their answers.

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Help them to realize how and where they made errors.

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Give them hints so they arrive at the correct answers. Discuss with students possible strategies to avoid making such errors again in the future.

Reduce learners’ fear of language test

1. Give students some practice tests before taking the real test. 2. Avoid making difficult tests or tests that do not match what was exactly taught in class. 3. Provide students with an outline of the exam sections (including the instructions on the test) so that students will not be surprised. 4. Make tests instructions clear and familiar to students. 5. Make the criteria that will be used for marking clear to students. 6. Give students sufficient time to finish exams. 7. Correct tests and written work of students promptly.

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Deal properly with learner’s anxiety-provoking beliefs/ misconceptions

1. Have students recognize their irrational beliefs and fears in order to be able to interpret anxiety-provoking situations in more realistic ways and help them find approaches to cope up with such situations (e.g. you can, early at the beginning of the semester, ask learners to verbalize any fears they feel and then to write them on a sheet of paper and show that to you). 2. Talk openly with your students about the nature of language anxiety. Tell them that the feelings of anxiety are common in most of the language learners and are not associated with any particular individual. 3. Tell students that most learners usually feel uncomfortable, uneasy, and apprehensive in FL classrooms. 4. Help students to develop realistic expectations of themselves by letting them know that they are not supposed to be fluent in the FL or to master it in a short period of time. 5. Tackle learners’ beliefs that can evoke feelings of anxiety such as the following: 21

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a. The instructor is supposed to correct every single mistake made by the students. b. The instructor cannot have students work in pairs or groups because the class may get out of control. c. The teacher should do most of the talking in class. d. Mastering a foreign language is an overwhelming task. e. A foreign language could be learned in a short period of time (e.g. one year). f. Learning a foreign language involves only memorizing vocabulary words and grammatical rules. g. A student needs to go through a translation process in order to communicate in the foreign language. h. Learning a foreign language is easier at an earlier age. j. Making mistakes is not tolerated in language classrooms. i. A learner is supposed to be fluent or have a perfect accent in the foreign language. k. Comprehension in reading or listening is an absolute (i.e. learners do not have to understand every word they read or hear). l. Speaking in FL should be grammatically perfect. m. Pronunciation must sound native or native-like. n. Learners should understand every word from what they read or hear.

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Strategy Three

Build up your students’ self-confidence A. Reinforce your students’ ability for success 1. Help students to recognize that they have many intellectual abilities and that such abilities are open rather than fixed and they thus can improve their abilities. 2. Set high expectations for all students and show faith in their abilities by letting them believe in their abilities to learn and to succeed. When students feel that you believe in them, they believe in themselves! When students see that you believe they can, students believe they can! 3. Explain to students that difficulties in learning usually occur not because students lack ability or 23

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don’t make an effort but because they lack experience with the type of the task involved. 4. Explain to students that with patience, persistence and help from you, they will be able to master the required skills and succeed in the learning tasks. 5. Look for opportunities for student to display leadership role in class. 6. Build on the student’s strengths (always focus on aspects of strengths in students and try to get benefits from them to tackle the aspects of weaknesses). 7. Enable learners to achieve success, even if it is just a small success. 8. Make effective use of learners’ background knowledge.

B. Acknowledge your students’ efforts and achievements 1. Provide students with a positive feedback a. Always provide your students with informative feedback (i.e. give them information - in a positive

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and uncritical way- on how they can improve their competence). b. Always begin with a positive comment on what a student has achieved and end with positive comments as well. c. Always make practical encouragements and positive reinforcements while students are working on tasks like the following: “I know / am sure you can do this job” “You are doing a great job!” “Keep up your good / excellent work.” “You will feel great about yourself if you do this job.” “You are the best person to do this job.” “You are always good at it.” “You always do such a great job.” “Because you are capable, I am sure you will do it.” “Because you are working hard, I am sure you will do it.” “Others will think more highly of you if you do it.” “I will be proud of you if you do it.” “I believe that you are capable enough to learn and succeed”. 25

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d. Provide your students with positive motivational feedback on their work. You can use some of the following expressions: “You have done a great job,” “You have gotten much better at this,” “You are making a good/great progress.” “Because you are capable, you have done it.” “Because you tried hard, you have done it.”

e. Give students some private notes and comments on their written works in which you appreciate their efforts and recognise their success. 2. Praise and Recognition a. Encourage students to take pride in their learning efforts and accomplishments. b. Recognize student’s effort and appreciate it whether it was successful or not. c. Try to promote recognition of students throughout the classroom, the school, the community, and home.

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d. When giving praise to students, always focus on appreciating their efforts and achievements rather than on their role in pleasing you as a teacher. e. Be specific in praising the accomplishments of students and avoid using ambiguous statements: You can say: “I am very pleased with your reading this morning, you made the conversation between Ali and Fahd sound very real”  Don’t say: “You were really good today! ”

f. When praising students, call attention to the progress made and the new skills mastered: Say for example: “I notice you’ve learned to use different phrases in your compositions. They are more interesting to read now.”

g. Praise students privately in the following situations: ♦ When you feel that public praise may embarrass students. ♦ When you want to show a student that your praise is genuine and exclusive to him/her.

h. Use variety of phrases for praising students as the overuse of certain phrases might be considered an 27

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indication that you have not paid much attention to the accomplishments you are praising. i. Bring sometimes food and drink to celebrate the students’ success. 3. Rewards a. Use rewards just as a short-term strategy and in limited situations such as the following: ♦ Involving students in complex activities that require long engagement and creativity on students’ part. ♦ To help students who need a boost, particularly if they find tasks somewhat challenging.

b. Use unexpected tangible or intangible rewards (i.e. verbal, symbolic, or abstract). c. Avoid using expected, tangible rewards (i.e. those that one can see, touch, feel, or taste). d. Rewards need to be valued by learners. e. Rewards need to be timely administrated to learners. f. Rewards must be given for attainable tasks (not impossible to achieve). 28

Strategy Four

Stimulate your students to learn English 1. Add new, unexpected, and unfamiliar elements to the learning activities in order to call students’ attention to learning and to break the routine of the classroom. 2. At the beginning of each lesson, have the students predict what they will learn in that lesson, then show them at the end of the lesson whether their prediction was right or wrong. 3. Usually start each lesson with a question or a statement that stimulates students to go through the lesson in order to discover its answer. 4. Always involve students in stimulating learning discussions that arouse their curiosity to learn. 29

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5. Involve students in a game-like activity relating to the topic, (e.g., playing the role of new characters in a game or a movie in order to learn new English vocabulary and expressions). 6. Involve students in activities that put them into the problem-solving mode and stimulate their selfexplorations; (e.g. give them puzzles and mysteries to solve during lessons, ask them to identify something surprising in an assigned reading, ask them to predict answers to a multiple-choice question, etc.) 7. Stimulate students’ imaginations by forcing them into something creative and innovative. For example, give students a problem that needs to be solved (e.g. you don’t like your teacher to publicly compare your work with that of other students. You feel so embarrassed of that.) Then, offer them guidelines in order to solve this problem in a creative way (e.g. you must find a way to stop your teacher doing that but you also must find a way to make your teacher positively accept your idea).

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8. Tell students some stories and anecdotes about real people and events relevant to the lesson topic to familiarize them with the subject content. 9. Do the unexpected occasionally, such as asking an interesting or unfamiliar question related to the lesson.

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Strategy Five

Enhance your students’ autonomy and control over learning 1. Adopt the role of a facilitator whose responsibility is to provide students with input and opportunities to communicate in the foreign language rather than a controller whose job is to decide what students can and cannot do in the classroom. 2. Give your students as much choices as possible about their learning by allowing them to give ideas, based on their interests, needs, and goals, in planning and running their course program (e.g. give them many tasks to choose from or let them choose the way(s) they prefer performing specific activities). 3. Have students bring their own supplementary materials to the classroom; (e.g. something interesting they found on the internet or in a book or a magazine). 32


4. Give each student in class as much opportunity as possible to take part in class discussions and to ask questions whenever he/she doesn’t understand anything. 5. Give students the choice to choose the due dates of course assignments and the dates they will have the course exams. 6. Let students have a say in deciding on some of the norms (rules) that run their classroom; (e.g. ask students to suggest ways to reward students who do well or the penalty for coming late to class or submitting a late assignment (not on its due date). 7. Avoid using threats, imposing goals and deadlines, and making your students working under reward conditions. This will make your students perceive you as controlling rather than autonomy-supportive. 8. Involve students in learner-initiated activities (e.g. free discussion, drawing a picture and describing it, composing an end for a story, etc.) 9. Help students sometimes to find solutions for their problems on their own.

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Strategy Six

Establish relevance between what your students learn in-class and their out-class real life 1. Find out about the interests, goals, hobbies, and needs of your students. You can obtain that through making interviews, group discussion, one-to-one chats with them or even administrating questionnaires in which you ask them about their out-of-school activities such as the events they like, the places they usually like to go to, the life style they prefer, things they are afraid of, etc. 2. Always explain to your students the present worth of the course content (how important it is to be used in their lives right now).

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3. Teach topics in ways that have potential immediate application and possible benefit to the students in their daily life such as the following: ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

How to give directions to foreigners in English, How to do shopping in English, How to browse English websites on the net, How to participate in chats in English, How to send e-mails in English, How to interpret books, newspaper, and magazine articles written in English.

4. Create situations in the classroom in which students can use what they have already learned. For example, you can ask two students to make a chat in English in the classroom as if they were chatting online by using some of the chat words they have already learned. 5. When teaching, make up example sentences containing references to some persons in the real life (e.g. a football player, an actor, etc.). 6. Emphasize the usefulness of the subject content in students’ future life.

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7. Promote your students’ awareness of the practical benefits that learning English will bring into their life such as the following: a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h.

Getting a job or promotion. passing exams. Pursuing studies in an English-speaking country. Travelling abroad for tourism in English-speaking country. Making English-speaking friends. Browsing English websites. Chatting in English with friends on the internet. Reading about the English-speaking community and its culture.

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Things to avoid at all times 1. Unsympathetic personality. 2. Absence of teacher support. 3. Lack of time for personal attention. 4. Favoring certain students over others. 5. Teaching too much grammar or avoiding grammar altogether. 6. Negative evaluation of students’ performance either by the teacher or by peers. 7. Creating a tense classroom climate. 8. Face-threatening acts. 9. Humiliating criticism. 10. Threatening style of questioning.

11. Overcorrecting students’ mistakes or correcting them in a harsh way. 12. Correcting every single error produced by students. 13. Making fun of students’ wrong answers. 14. Announcing tests’ scores publicly to the whole classroom. 15. Calling on students’ randomly. Instead let students volunteer to participate or provide them with a predictable participation patterns (e.g. calling on students raw-by-raw or seat-by-seat). GIVE YOUR OPINION Do you suggest any other motivating ways you can use to implement these strategies to your students? If so, Please list your suggestion(s) here and let us discuss them. They might be very helpful! Please use additional separate page(s) if needed. 1.

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Reducing Language Anxiety & Promoting Learner Motivation 2.

3.

4.

5.

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Fakieh Alrabai 6.

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References Aida, Y. (1994). Examination of Horowitz, Horowitz, and Cope’s construct of foreign language anxiety: The case of students of Japanese. The Modern Language Journal, 78, 155–168. Alrabai, F. 2011. Do Motivational Strategies Work? An Empirical Investigation of the Effectiveness of Motivational Strategies in Foreign Language Classes. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. Clément, R., Dörnyei, Z., & Noels, K. A. (1994). Motivation, selfconfidence and group cohesion in the foreign language classroom. Language Learning, 44, 417–448. Dörnyei, Z. 2001. Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press. Ehrman, M. E., & Oxford, R. L. (1995). Cognition plus: Correlates of language learning success. Modern Language Journal, 79, 67–89. Gardner, R. 1985. Social Psychology and Second Language Learning: The Role of Attitudes and Motivation. Edward Arnold. Gardner, R., Tremblay, P. F., & Masgoret, A.-M. (1997). Towards a full model of second language learning: An empirical investigation. Modern Language Journal, 81, 344–362. 41

Guilloteaux, M. J. and Z. Dörnyei 2008. ‘Motivating language learners: a classroom-oriented investigation of the effects of motivational strategies on student motivation.’ TESOL Quarterly 42: 55-77. Hao, M., Liu, M., & Hao, R. P. (2004). An empirical study on anxiety and motivation in English as a foreign language. Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, 14, 89–104. Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. Modern Language Journal, 70, 125–132. MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1991). Methods and results in the study of anxiety and language learning: A review of the literature. Language Learning, 41, 85–117. Tallon, M. 2008. “A Culture of Caring: Reducing Anxiety and Increasing Engagement in First Year Foreign Language Courses.” Paper presented at the Collaborating for Student Success: Building Engagement in Learning, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX. Tanveer, M. 2007. Investigation of the Factors that Cause Language Anxiety for ESL/EFL Learners in Learning Speaking Skills and the Influence it Casts on Communication in the Target Language (Unpublished Master’s thesis). University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK. Young, D. (1991). Creating a low-anxiety classroom environment: What does language anxiety research suggest? The Modern Language Journal, 75, 426–440.

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Young, D. J. (1994). New directions in language anxiety research. In C. A. Klee (Ed.), Faces in a crowd: The individual learner in multisection courses (pp. 3–46). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Zhang, H. 2010. “An Investigation of Foreign Language Anxiety on EFL Vocational High School Students in China (Seminar paper).” University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Platteville, WI. Zheng, Y. 2008. “Anxiety and Second/Foreign Language Learning Revisited.” Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education 1: 1–12.

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STRATEGIES USE CHECKLIST HOW TO USE THIS CHECKLIST: * Fill in the checklist by referring to your instructional booklet/ guide where you will find specific techniques outlined to implement each * Follow the following way when filling in the checklist: Put a tick “” every time you use the strategy. Put an “X” in case you did not use the strategy. Put “N/A” in case it was inapplicable to use the strategy. Example: ► If you feel that in a lesson you have used one or more of the items listed under strategy 1 “Have a positive relationship with your students”’ in your instructional booklet, then put a tick “ü” in the row headed by ONE under STRATEGIES in the table. ► If you feel that in the same lesson you have not used any of the items under strategy 2 “Control your students language anxiety” in the instructional booklet, then put an “X” in the row headed by TWO under STRATEGIES in the table. ► If that same lesson’s topic itself did not allow for the use of any of the items under strategy 3 “Build up your students self-confidence” in your instructional booklet, then put N/A in the row headed by THREE under STRATEGIES in the table. 44

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