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

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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 & 2 46 TPFLE
Cope, 1986 and Aida, 1994). It was suggested in that study that perhaps the non-heritage students are more anxious in the foreign language classroom due to the presence <strong>of</strong> students who already know some Spanish. Table 2 Pre-Test Anxiety Scores (Heritage vs. Non-Heritage) 95% Confidence Interval HERITAGE Mean Std. Error Lower Bound Upper Bound 1 heritage 42.988 4.192 34.294 51.681 2 non-heritage 52.833 4.724 43.037 62.630 Table 3 Comparison <strong>of</strong> Anxiety Studies Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope (1986) Aida (1994) Tallon (2003) Sample Size 108 96 101 Heritage = 44 (43.6%) Non-Heritage = 57 (56.4%) Language Level First year First year First semester Language Spanish Japanese Spanish Cronbach‟s Alpha .93 .94 .96 Mean 94.5 96.7 96.3 Heritage = 87.1 Non-Heritage = 104.6 Standard Deviation 21.4 22.1 26.8 <strong>The</strong>se results suggest that heritage students do not seem to suffer much general foreign language anxiety in the foreign language classroom. This is not surprising, as many <strong>of</strong> them come from a background in which they hear and/or speak the language in the home. On the other hand, non-heritage students in this study experienced a higher level <strong>of</strong> anxiety, which is also not surprising. <strong>The</strong> difference in anxiety scores between the two groups is about 10 points. Because <strong>of</strong> the small sample size, tests for statistical significance were not done. However, these results confirm the findings in Tallon (2003), which – based on a much larger group <strong>of</strong> subjects – found a statistically significant difference in anxiety scores for heritage students <strong>of</strong> Spanish and non-heritage students. Research Question #2: Do students (both heritage students and non-heritage students) experience a reduction in foreign language anxiety by using asynchronous CMC (ACMC)? As Table 4 and Figure 1 illustrate, there was not much change in the anxiety scores in the control group from the pre-test to the post-test (cf. 47.833 to 46.125). However, there was a drop FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY AND CMC 47
Page 1 and 2: The Effect
Page 3 and 4: studies have also found a greater l
Page 5 and 6: felt more relaxed during this activ
Page 7: RESEARCH QUESTIONS The</str
Page 11 and 12: Table 5 Pre- and Post-test Anxiety
Page 13 and 14: “Yes I enjoyed the work that I di
Page 15 and 16: Estimated Marginal Means Estimated
Page 17 and 18: ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael Tallon (P
Page 19 and 20: Apprehension and Hispanics: An Expl
Page 21 and 22: Appendix A Pre-Test Questionnaire (
Page 23 and 24: SA A N D SD 1 2 3 4 5 _____________
Page 25 and 26: Appendix B Post-Test Questionnaire
Page 27 and 28: Appendix C Post-Test Questionnaire

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