THE CORRELATION OF GENDER AND CLASSROOM SPEAKING

ANXIETY AMONG ENGLISH DEPARTEMENT’S STUDENTS AT

A thesis proposal

Written by:

DEGITA WILZA. J (A1B217035)

English Education Study Program

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 Table of contents

CHAPTER I.....................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the research...............................................................................................3
1.2 Research questions............................................................................................................4
1.3 Purpose of the research.....................................................................................................5
1.4 Limitation of the problems................................................................................................5
1.5 Significance of the research..............................................................................................5
CHAPTER II...................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Speaking ability.................................................................................................................6
2.2 Definition of anxiety.........................................................................................................9
2.3 Speaking in class anxiety..................................................................................................9
2.4 Gender and language.......................................................................................................10
2.5 Gender and Classroom speaking skill.............................................................................11
2.6 Previous of the research on speaking anxiety and gender..............................................13
CHAPTER III................................................................................................................................15
3.1 Research design....................................................................................................................15
3.2 Population and sample.........................................................................................................15
3.3 Data collection method........................................................................................................16
3.4 Data Analysis.......................................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................22

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the research

Speaking is an activity that someone uses to communicate with others by expressing their

feeling and mind by using language. In English language learning, speaking is very

essentials. The students are expected to communicate or express their idea very well.

However, it still difficult for the students to master the speaking skill.

There are several factors that have been considered to lead the students difficulty

acquiring the studetns speaking skill. For example, bad pronunciation, lack of vocabulary,

bad grammar, and afraid of being judge by others. According to Cheng, Horwitz, and

Schallert, (1999), Kitano (2001) said that speaking has been acknowledge as to be the most

difficult to be mastered by efl students. Thus, trigger of speaking anxiety occurrence among

the EFL students.

Since speaking is essential in learning a language, and also not all of the students have a

good speaking ability, which can cause speaking anxiety among EFL students. From the

researcher’s experience as an EFL student, being afraid of the bad evaluation or being judged

by the others student is one of the most embarrassing moment in the classroom. On the other

hand, confidence also influences students' speaking performance even though they lack

vocabulary and lousy grammar. This situation commonly occurred during the group

presentation, where every student has a chance to speak in front of the class. Meanwhile, for

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 the anxious student only focus on what they already wrote on a piece of paper or focus on the

PowerPoint’s slides.

According to Baalen (2001) explains that women talk more, give more information and

are more concerned with someone’s feelings. Scientists such as Lakoff (2004), Yule (2006),

and Coates (1993) claim that these differences are something we learn from our childhood

because it sits within us throughout our youth when the adult identity is acquired. This

means that boys and girls use language differently in school. Girls have thus learned the

social-communicative structures to not be as loud or vulgar in their expressions as boys are.

In mixed classes, the inter students or students to lecturers speaking interaction, it can be

seen that boys talk less than girls do in student’s interaction.

From the researcher’s observation from the first semester until the now of the

researcher’s study, the researcher found that male students of the University of Jambi tend to

have a good speaking performance and confidence than female students. Even the large

numbers of the student are females. Most of the male students have good pronunciation and

grammar, yet it does not mean that those female students could not speak well in English. So

from this phenomenon, the researcher proposes to investigate whether gender is affecting the

student’s speaking anxiety or not.

1.2 Research questions

1. Does gender factor influenced speaking anxiety in classroom?

2. Is there any correlation between speaking anxiety and gender?

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1.3 Purpose of the research

This research aims to analyze the correlation of gender and speaking anxiety in classroom in

English department at university of Jambi. This study might be useful to raise readers’ awareness

of speaking anxiety in classroom and also as references for the future study of the correlation of

gender and classroom speaking anxiety.

1.4 Limitation of the problems

This analysis will be investigating the 9th semester students of the English department at

the University of Jambi.

1.5 Significance of the research

The researcher hopes that the result of this research can give valuable and benificial

contribution to the people who read it and can be function as a reference for the next

researcher or lecturer which is interest in the same field.

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 CHAPTER II

REVIEW TO RELATED LITERATURE

1.1 Speaking ability

Nunan (2003) states speaking are a productive oral skill that consists of producing

systematic verbal expression to transfer meaning. Speaking is a way to utter and the

feeling and mind by using language. Based on Harmer (2001) speaking skill view from

the communicative aspect has two different aspects. First, accuracy, including the correct

use of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation practiced through controlled and guided

activities. Second, fluency that is the skill to make the speaker is going to speak. Hedge

(2000) defines speaking as the ability in which the people are judged when the first

impressions. It means that speaking is an important skill which deserves more attention in

both first and second language because it reflects people’s thoughts an personalities.

In learning EFL, students should master the foreign language skills: reading,

writing, listening, and speaking. Students usually measure their achievement in mastering

foreign languages through how well they can practice their spoken skill. Speaking means

to negotiate one’s speech that intend to convey meanings and to give effect to the listener

states (O‟Malley, 1996 in Rebecca 2002). From those statements above, the writer can

conclude that speaking is an activity involving two or more people in which is the

participants are both the listeners and the speakers having to act what they listen and

make their contribution at high speed. It can be concluded that speaking ability is a skill,

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 which is communicating the speech sound for expressing and conveying a messages or

ideas.

Luoma (2004) argues that speaking is a very difficult skill that needs much time

to be improved. Speaking skill is not the same with writing and reading. First language

speaking is different with second language speaking relating to the lack of learners in

grammar and vocabulary knowledge that is the process to receive a word become note

automatically in second language speaking (Thornbury 2009). Syakur (1987) details that

there are, at least, five components with which speakers need to engage when speaking,

including: comprehension (ability to understand the meaning and the capacity to engage

in a conversation); grammar (well-structured sentences); pronunciation (comprehensible

articulation); word choice (appropriate diction); fluency (the ease and speed of the flow

of expression). Syakur (1987) theory was used as the framework in constructing the

questionnaire for this study.

Five components which are speakers need to enggage when speaking:

1. Comprehension

According to Burns (2003), it is far more important for speakers to be able to

achieve intelligibility (the sound patterns produced by the speaker are recognisable as

English) comprehensibility (the meaning of what is said can be understood by the

listener) and interpretability (the purpose of what is said can be understood by the

listener).

2. Grammar

It is needed for students to arrange a correct sentence in conversation. It is in line

with explanation suggested by Heaton (1978: 5) that students’ ability to manipulate

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 structure and to distinguish appropriate grammatical form in appropriateness. The

utility of grammar is also to learn the correct way to gain expertise in a language in

oral and written form.

3. pronunciatioan

Pronunciation is the way for students‟ to produce clearer language when they

speak. It deals with the phonological process that refers to the component of a

grammar made up of the elements and principles that determine how sounds vary and

pattern in a language. There are two features of pronunciation; phonemes and supra

segmental features. From the statement above, the researcher concluded that

pronunciation is the knowledge of studying about how the words in a particular

language are produced clearly when people speak. In speaking, pronunciation plays a

vital role in order to make the process of communication easy to understand.

4. fluency

Fluency is the ability to read, speak, or write easily, smoothly and expressively. In

other words, the speaker can read, understand and respond in a language clearly and

concisely while relating meaning and context. Fluency can be defined as the ability to

speak fluently and accurately. Fluency in speaking is the aim of many language

learners. Signs of fluency include a reasonably fast speed of speaking and only a

small number of pauses and “ums” or “ers”. These signs indicate that the speaker

does not have spent a lot of time searching for the language items needed to express

the message. From the ideas above, the writer concluded that another important

component is fluency. Fluency means the capability of someone speaks fluently and

accurately with little using pauses like „ums‟ and „ers‟, and so on.

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1.2 Definition of anxiety

According to American psychological assosiation Anxiety is an emotion

characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like

increased blood pressure. Anxiety is a state of uncomfortable emotion where danger is

perceived, and the victim has a powerless feeling with the expression of tension in

anticipation of danger. In the classification of anxiety, Scovel (1978) refer to ‘trait

anxiety’ as a rapid permanent behavior or feeling to be anxious and this is considered to

be part of personality. Ellis (1994) refers to the third classification as ‘situation-specific

anxiety’ which is associated with apprehension that stands out for particular

phenomenon and situations. Gardner and MacIntyre (1994) explain the idea behind

apprehension experienced as often related to a particular situation where the second

language in which the speaker is not fully competent is to be used in public speaking.

1.3 Speaking in class anxiety

In the context of foreign language learning, anxiety is often associated with

speaking ability (Lucas, 1984; Phillips, 1992, Price, 1991). Many studies have

consistently shown that foreign language anxiety and speaking ability are, to a certain

extent, interwoven. Horwitz et al (1986), for instance, argued that communication

comprehension is conceptually relevant to foreign language anxiety. Price (1991), then,

revealed that speaking in front of peers in the target language provoked the most anxiety

for learners in her foreign language class. On a similar thread, Palacios (1998) asserted

that speaking caused the most anxiety among foreign language learners. Clearly, the

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 correlation between speaking and anxiety is a cause-effect relationship in which

speaking itself leads to anxiety for foreign language users/learners.

Public speaking anxiety is usually associated with fear among different

categories of people in any society (Gibson, Gruner, Hanna, Smythe& Hayes, 1980). In

addition, “public speaking anxiety represents a cluster of evaluative feelings about

speech making” (Daly, Vangelisti, Neel, & Cavanaugh, 1989, p. 40) in which case

speakers who are very anxious do not experience positive feelings related to the context

of public speaking. For several years back, researchers in communication have tried to

examine the explanation encompassing the psychological and physiological parts of

public speaking anxiety in order to proffer considerable remedy that may lessen the

adverse influence of anxiety for public speakers.

Public speaking anxiety is a dilemma faced by the populace, but students in

particular. McCroskey (1977) reported that invariably twenty percent of students are

faced with public speaking anxiety. To elucidate further, he documented that an

individual level of fear of anxiety is correlated with either real or proposed

communication with another individual or persons.

1.4 Gender and language

There has been much linguistic research in this field and many researchers claim that

there is variation in how men and women use language. Women are perceived to talk more

cautiously than men and deliberate before they speak. Another important question concerns

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what we can expect from each other in gendered communication, and for example, men are

expected to talk rougher and are allowed to swear, while women are expected to talk

stereotypically like a lady, which means soft and careful. One of the big differences is that

women tend to be more polite than men. These differences do not affect everyone, but the

general idea is that there exist gender and language variations. Scientists such as Robin

Tolmach Lakoff (2004), George Yule (2006) and Jennifer Coates (1993) claim that these

differences are something we learn from our childhood, because it sits within us throughout

our youth when the adult identity is acquired. This means that boys and girls use language

differently in school. Girls have thus learned the social communicative structures to not be as

loud or vulgar in their expressions as boys are.

The nature of language use is known to differ between men and women. Women are

expected to talk more properly than men and men are expected to speak more carelessly. In

Language and woman’s place Robin Tolmach Lakoff talks about the difference and the

expectations of how men and women are supposed to talk. He says that men say whatever

they have in mind without thinking; therefor they speak careless (Lakoff 2004 s.80 & 84).

1.5 Gender and Classroom speaking skill

Male and female students tend to have different speaking styles in the classroom.

Female students tend to speak in order to establish status and hierarchy, and their style

tends to be more argumentative. Many prefer to work with others to solve problems. On

the other hand, male and female students tend to have different attitudes toward their

own abilities and different ways of dealing with failure. In EFL classrooms, gender

operates on three levels, namely the language itself, classroom processes and the

interaction between people in the classroom, whether lecturer-student or inter student

conversation with regard to the negotiation of meaning, dominance, interpersonal

relations, the amount of talk and leading the conversation. According to (Pavlenko &

Piller, 2008), there are three different frameworks to deal with gender issues, they are in

the differences framework, such as “women as a group” and “men as a group”, in the

research of linguistic diversity, and in the research of second or foreign language

education, which finds, for instance, that females generally do better than males in this

field.

There are differences of male and female language performance in the classroom

interaction. Such as women talk more and give more information than men. Furthermore,

most of female use more words and pronouns when they make a conversation and

interaction in the classroom. In line with this statement, women are better than men in

human relations, recognizing emotional overtones in others and in language, emotional

and artistic expressiveness, esthetic appreciation, verbal language and carrying out

detailed and pre-planned tasks (Zaidi, 2010). On the other hand, (Baalen, 2001) explains

that women talk more, give more information and are more concerned with someone’s

feelings. Male language was reported to show “control”, for example by the use of short

sentences.

In mixed classes, the inter students or students to lecturers speaking interaction, it

can be seen that boys talk less than girls do in student’s interaction. Besides, the

classroom interaction is often malfunction, Less motivation, poor performance

unresponsive, and low language ability students are some of the causes in passive English

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 class. In the preliminary research, the attention was focused on girls and boys during the

teaching and learning process in the classroom.

It can be conclude that, we can see clearly that male students speak less than female

student. Most of female use more words and pronouns when they make a conversation

and interaction in the classroom. In line with this statement, women are better than men

in human relations, recognizing emotional overtones in others and in language, emotional

and artistic expressiveness, esthetic appreciation, verbal language and carrying out

detailed and pre-planned tasks.

1.6 Previous of the research on speaking anxiety and gender

There are so many of previous reseach that conducted by the writer from national into

international research. The Study also Focus on the same phenomena of speaking anxiety

influence by gender. These are previous reseach about speaking anxiety and gender.

First, Mukhlash Abrar (2017). His reseach is about an investigation into Indonesian EFL

University. This reseach is focused in to investigate EFL learners· speaking anxiety and

itsassociated factors. More specifically, the study was purposed to examine the constructs of

a speaking anxiety and to explore the model for predicting speaking anxiety based on gender,

proficiency and class type.

Second, Rio Herwanto (2013), his research is about factors that cause language

anxiety in the English classroom speaking performance in smp negeri 4 pakem

Yogyakarta.His reseach is aimed at describing the factors that cause language anxiety in

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the English classroom speaking performance as one of the causal factors in order to get

the broader understanding about this phenomenon.

Third, Sigit Apriyanto & Adelina Anum (2018), this reseach title is gender dynamics

on speaking interaction in the college classroom. This reseach is aimed that the gender

dynamics, the influence of lecturers to the student’s interaction and the influence of

classmates to the students’ interaction in speaking interaction. This study also study about

how gender affecting the speaking anxiety in EFL classroom.

Fourth, Ahmed Gaibani and Fadil Elmenfi (2014) this resachtitle is The Role of

Gender in Influencing Public Speaking Anxiety. This study is about to investigate the

role of gender in influencing public speaking anxiety. This study also studied about

gender affecting the speaking anxiety n EFL classroom and also public speaking anxitey.

From all of the studies above that explain about speaking anxiety and gender, but it

has differences with this study. This study is to analyze the influence how much does the

gender affecting the speaking anxiety among male and female EFL students in English

department on University of Jambi classroom.

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 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research design

Research design are plans and the procedures for research to detailed methods of data

collection and analysis (Cresswell,2009:3). To measure the number of the speaking anxiety

levels among the EFL students in this reseach, the researcher will conduct the quantitative

research method. Quantitative research method deals with quantifying and analysis variables in

order to get a result. Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and

generalizing it across groups of people or to explain a particular phenomenon. In this

research, to collect the data the reseacher will be adopted the quiationares from Foreign

Language Cassroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) of Horwitz et.all (1986) has been used by many

researchers in conducting the research to measure the level of anxiety. According to Damayanti

(2009) & many other researchers used FLCAS to measure the level of anxiety of the

respondents. It proves that FLCAS shows high validity and reliability in every study using it.

3.2 Population and sample

Population

The population of this study is the English Departement’s students at University of

Jambi and the total of the populations are 364 students.

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 Sample

Taherdoost (2016:20) stated that sampling in a research can be used to make

conclusions about a population or to make generalizations in relation to existing theories.

There are 66 female students and 13 male students in the last year student. In this study,

the writer will choose systematic sampling and the total of the samples are 26 students

consist of 13 males and 13 females.

3.3 Data collection method

Methodology

In this reseach, the researcher uses quantitative method with survey research. Survey

research is the most frequently used in all disciplines. Survey research involves acquiring

information about one or more groups of people – perhaps about their characteristics,

opinions, attitudes, or previous experiences – by asking them questions and tabulating

their answers.

Instrument

In order to measure students’ speaking anxiety level, this study used the Foreign

Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) developed by Horwitz et al. (1986). This

open-ended questionnaire has been used and validated by many researchers. FLCAS, in it

function to measure the level of anxiety perceived by foreign. FLCAS consists of 33

questions with answers response options ranged from 1-5 of each item. The 5-point

Likert’s scale is range from “Strongly Agree” (SA), “Agree” (A), “Neither Agree nor

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 Disagree” (NA), “Disagree” (D), and “Strongly Disagree” (SA). This kind of

questionnaire suited the participants’ language learning situation context related to the

word “foreign language” used in the original FLCAS.The FLCAS consists of 33 items. It

has two forms of statements which are positive and negative. Positive statements in the

questionnaire are in number 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 18, 22, 28, 32. While, negative statements are

in number 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31,

and 33. The answers to each item can be one of these: strongly agree; agree; neither agree

nor disagree; disagree; and strongly disagree. For each item a score was given ranging

from 5 for strongly agree; 4 for agree; 3 for neither agree nor disagree; 2 for disagree; 1

for strongly disagree. However, items 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 18, 22, 28 and 32 were to be score

reversed, so that a higher score would be an indicator of higher anxiety (Souad, 2010;83)

3.4 Data Analysis

There are several steps in analyzing quantitative data. First, the researcher rank the

respondents' data based on when the questionnaires were collected. Second, the received data

will be entered into the research table. Third, in the research table, the researcher calculates the

percentage of respondents who are divided into five parts, namely strongly agree, agree, neither

agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. The use of scale classification in this study is to measure

the agreement and disagreementof respondents to the object in the questionnaire. The

quistionnares will be distribute through Google form to the respondents.

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In this study, the researcher will use JASP(Jeffreys’s Amazing Statistics Program) statistics to

measure the level on students’ speaking anxiety. The higher the total points were, the more

anxious the students were. The points depend on students responses to the statements.

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 Appendix

Quistioners for the participants

Adopted by Horwitz

No Questions SA A NA D SD
1 I never feel quite sure of myself when I am speaking in
my English class.
2 I don't worry about making mistakes in English class.
3 I tremble when I know that I'm going to be called on in
English class.
4 It frightens me when I don't understand what the teacher
is saying in English.
5 It wouldn't bother me at all to take more English classes.
6 During English class, I find myself thinking about things
that have nothing to do with the course.
7 I keep thinking that the other students are better at
English than I am.
8 I am usually at ease during tests in my English class.
9 I start to panic when I have to speak without preparation
in English class.
10 I worry about the consequences of failing my English
class.
11 I don't understand why some people get so upset over
English classes.
12 In English class, I can get so nervous I forget things I
know.
13 It embarrasses me to volunteer answers in my English
class.
14 I would not be nervous speaking the English with native
speakers.
15 I get upset when I don't understand what the teacher is
correcting.
16 Even if I am well prepared for English class, I feel
anxious about it.
17 I often feel like not going to my English class.
18 I feel confident when I speak in English class.
19 I am afraid that my English teacher is ready to correct

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 every mistake I make.
20 I can feel my heart pounding when I'm going to be
called on in English class.
21 The more I study for a English test, the more confused I
get.
22 I don't feel pressure to prepare very well for English 19
class.
23 I always feel that the other students speak the English
better than I do.
24 I feel very self‐conscious about speaking the English in
front of other students.
25 English class moves so quickly I worry about getting left
behind.
26 I feel more tense and nervous in my English class than
in my other classes.
27 I get nervous and confused when I am speaking in my
English class.
28 When I'm on my way to English class, I feel very sure
and relaxed.
29 I get nervous when I don't understand every word the
English teacher says.
30 I feel overwhelmed by the number of rules you have to
learn to speak English.
31 I am afraid that the other students will laugh at me when
I speak the English.
32 I would probably feel comfortable around native
speakers of the English.
33 I get nervous when the English teacher asks questions
which I haven't prepared in advance.
*SA = Strongly Agree

A = Agree

NA = Neither Agree

D = Disagree

SD = Strongly Disagree

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