The Influence of Teachers’ Corrective Feedback to College Students’ Anxiety in Learning EFL

• Main Authors: Mei-Jy Chung, 鍾梅枝
• Other Authors: Yih-Lan Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/74960524471407796117

碩士 === 銘傳大學 === 應用英語學系碩士班 === 100 === Many college students in Taiwan are afraid of learning English even after having years of English learning experience. This is especially true in class activities when mistakes were corrected by instructors. Fear may result in negative effect such as, horror and anxiety. According to Gardner (1991) anxiety poses several potential problems for the student of a foreign language because it can interfere with the acquisition of the new language. Among the instructional skills, teachers’ corrective feedback plays an important role in reducing students’ anxiety. The purpose of this study is to investigate of the correlation between teacher’s corrective feedback and learner’s foreign language anxiety. 221 juniors from a private University participated in this study. They completed a survey questionnaire adapted form of FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale) by Horwitz et al. (1986), including 15 items about language learning anxiety； there are also another 11 items about students’ perception of teachers’ corrective feedback and 10 items about students’ anxiety about teachers’ corrective feedback. In addition, semi-structured interviews were given to 4 students. Quantitative data from questionnaire have undergone correlation analyses to confirm the relationship between teachers’ corrective feedback and students’ anxiety. Classroom observations had also been conducted four times each 30 minutes, in two classes. Results showed that students’ anxiety would induce from teachers’ corrective feedback, and students’ general anxiety in learning English are closely associated with their specific anxiety toward teachers’ corrective feedback. It is suggested that teachers should pay attention to students’ anxiety when they correct students‘ errors. Besides, teachers could understand what kinds of corrective feedback would induce students’ anxiety, and they avoid using these kinds of corrective.