The Effects of Computer-Mediated Communication on Foreign ...

Experimental groups A and B participated in electronic, asynchronous discussions (i.e.,
an e-mail bulletin board) using Blackboard outside <strong>of</strong> class. <strong>The</strong> topic for all groups was
activities done in childhood, focusing on the Imperfect (past tense) in Spanish. <strong>The</strong> assignment
for the ACMC groups consisted <strong>of</strong> three parts: on the first day (Monday), students entered the
forum in Blackboard for their particular group and posted answers to questions regarding
activities they used to do in their childhood (the questions came from an activity in their
textbook); on the second day (Wednesday), students responded to answers posted by their group
members (e.g., stating why they liked a particular answer, asking for more details, replying with
a similar story <strong>of</strong> their own); and on the third day (Friday), students voted for their favorite
response and stated why. All posts were required to be in the target language (Spanish). <strong>The</strong>
following Monday a discussion was held in class about the responses (letting everyone know
what the most popular answers were for each group and why). <strong>The</strong> control group did the same
assignments in the classroom, spending about 10-15 minutes each class period to complete the
assignment.
A questionnaire assessing foreign language anxiety was administered to both groups as a
pre-test and post-test (from Arnold 2002; see Appendix A for the pre-test questionnaire and
Appendices B and C for additional items on the post-test questionnaires, one for the
experimental groups and one for the control group) 1 . <strong>The</strong> pre-test questionnaire was designed to
establish an individual‟s level <strong>of</strong> foreign language anxiety and is an adapted form <strong>of</strong> the “Foreign
Language Classroom Anxiety Scale” (FLCAS) from Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope (1986) (items
relating to test anxiety were deleted from the original scale for the adapted scale). <strong>The</strong> post-test
questionnaire was designed to assess anxiety levels after the treatment, as well as collect
information about students‟ reactions to the treatments (for the experimental groups) and to the
classroom group discussions (for the control group). <strong>The</strong> post-test section based on the FLCAS
was identical with the pre-test questionnaire. Additional items pertaining to the group
discussions were added to the post-test questionnaire to evaluate students‟ responses to the
treatments (see questions 20 to 32 on the post-test questionnaires). <strong>The</strong> theoretical range for the
adapted anxiety scale was 33 to 95; the higher the number, the higher the level <strong>of</strong> foreign
language anxiety. <strong>The</strong> questionnaires were designed to collect both quantitative data (using
likert-scale questions) as well as qualitative data (using open-ended questions). Participants also
provided some background information on the questionnaires.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Research Question #1: Do heritage students <strong>of</strong> Spanish experience foreign language anxiety in
a second-semester language classroom? If so, how does their level <strong>of</strong> foreign language anxiety
compare to the level <strong>of</strong> foreign language anxiety found in non-heritage students?
Based on the pre-test questionnaire, the heritage students experienced little foreign
language anxiety, with a mean anxiety score <strong>of</strong> 42.988 (out <strong>of</strong> a range <strong>of</strong> 33 to 95) (see Table 2
for anxiety scores). <strong>The</strong> non-heritage students experienced a higher level <strong>of</strong> anxiety, with a
mean score <strong>of</strong> 52.833. Because <strong>of</strong> the small sample size, tests for statistical significance were
not appropriate. However, these results confirm the findings <strong>of</strong> another study (Tallon, 2003) in
which the mean anxiety score on the FLCAS was significantly higher for non-heritage students
(cf. 104.6) than for heritage students (cf. 87.1) (see Table 3, which compares the results <strong>of</strong> that
study with the results <strong>of</strong> two other studies on foreign language anxiety – Horwitz, Horwitz &
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