Speaking up without Freaking out

Nurul Aldillah
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

nurul@usm.my

Abstract
It has been reported that language learners use various strategies in learning a second or foreign
language and a lot of researches have been done in this area. However, few studies have explored
the impact of using scaffolding impromptu speaking activities in ESL classroom on alleviating
speaking anxiety. Thus, the current study is an attempt to investigate whether scaffolding
impromptu speech activities could help the students to perform better during oral presentation
and reduce their speaking anxiety. At the beginning of the study, the students were asked to
answer online questionnaire on speaking anxiety experience while holding an oral presentation
tasks or assessment. 38 undergraduate students did the prepared impromptu speaking activities
such as they have to do self-video recorded, impromptu speech in group and online discussion.
This intervention was carried out for six weeks. After that, another online questionnaire on the
effectiveness of scaffolding impromptu speaking activities was distributed. However, I only
received 25 responses from the participants. Besides that, participants' views about the
impromptu speaking activities were also examined through focus group interview. The results of
the study indicated that by scaffolding impromptu speaking activities in ESL classroom, the
students were able to reduce their speaking anxiety and enhance their oral presentation skill.

Keywords: presentation skill, scaffolding, speaking anxiety

Manuscript submitted: 31 July 2019
Manuscript revised: 31 August 2019
Accepted for publication: 8 September 2019

__________________________________________________________________________

Introduction

In the educational world, Daly says speaking is seen as a necessary, positive personal
characteristic (as cited in Suleimenova, 2013). However, foreign language learners often express
feelings of stress, nervousness or anxiety while learning to speak the target language and claim to
have „mental block‟ against learning (Suleimenova, 2013). Campbell and Ortiz (1991) found
language anxiety among university students to be „alarming‟ and estimated that up to one half of
all language students experience debilitating levels of speaking anxiety.

Language anxiety has been considered to be an important affective variable in foreign
language learning process because anxiety can obstruct the learning process (Ellis, 1996; Hilleson,
1996; Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986; Kaya, 1995; Koba, Ogava & Wilkinson, 2000; MacIntyre
& Gardner, 1991; MacIntyre, Gardner & Moorcroft, 1987; Price, 1991; Tsui, 1996; Young, 1991).
Research has provided abundant evidence for its existence and its impact on the learning
development. Anxiety has been found to be associated negatively with language performance and
language proficiency. Tallon (2009) indicates that many factors determine the outcome of the
learning process, including individual differences such as cognitive abilities, personality
characteristics, learning styles, meta-cognitive differences, social contexts, and affective aspects.

He points out that one of the most important affective variables in learning a foreign language is
foreign language anxiety.

Therefore, this study looks deeply into the problems faced by the tertiary level second
language (L2) learners in speaking. Based on the observations done in the classroom, most
learners were found to have anxieties in delivering speech, presenting, as well as participating in a
simple group discussion. At higher education level, this problem is quite a concern for these
undergraduates have begun to learn English since elementary school. This chapter is organized
as follows: the first section is the background of the study, followed by the research objective of
the research. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether scaffolding impromptu speech
activities could help the students to improve their speaking skills and reduce speaking anxiety.

Literature Review

Speaking anxiety is characterized by fear and anxiety in communicating with people, such
as difficulty in speaking in public, listening or learning a spoken utterance are all manifestations
of communication apprehension. This type of anxiety in learning a second language is derived
from the learners‟ personal knowledge that they will have difficulty understanding others and
making themselves understood. Learners suffering from communication apprehension choose to
keep silent in their English classes. Daly (1991) states that one of the most studied topics in the
field of speech communication is the tendency on the part of some people to avoid, and even,
fear, which is communicating orally. Horwitz et al. (1986) define communication apprehension
(CA) as “a type of shyness characterized by fear or anxiety about communicating with people”.

The scaffolding includes all the things that teachers do already when they predict the kinds
of difficulty that the class or individual students in it will have with a given task. ESL students
greatly benefit from the type of scaffolding that makes extensive use of visual or visual
scaffolding. When students can see an image of what the teacher is describing or see the key
words that the teacher is explaining, this not only serves to make the input considerably more
comprehensible, but serves to remove the affective filter which results from the fear or boredom
that comes of understanding very little in class.

Methods

Research design

This action research is a mixed-research study followed the one group pre-test and post-
test design. In this research design, the quantitative data included responses in the questionnaire
on speaking anxiety and the effectiveness of scaffolding impromptu speaking activities.
Meanwhile, the qualitative data included focus group interview to five volunteered students from
the participants.

Research site and participants

The study was conducted in the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian Campus in
Kubang Kerian, Kelantan. It involved 38 students who were from the School of Medical and
Sciences. 18 of the students were taking Scientific and Medical English course and 20 of the
students were taking Academic English course as a compulsory subject upon their Degree
completion. The sample consisted of three main ethnics in Malaysia which were Malay, Chinese
and Indian yet the group was largely dominated by the Malays. They also had a catchment area
where students came from mixed background, ranging from poor to wealthy families.
Furthermore, the English course was a compulsory pass course; therefore, the students had to
do well in order to be awarded distinction result upon their degree completion. 38 selected
students from two English classes responded to the 10 items in the online questionnaire

regarding their speaking anxiety. Scaffolding impromptu speaking activities were carried out for 6
weeks. Then, the students were given another online questionnaire on the effectiveness of
scaffolding impromptu speaking activities. Finally, focus group interview was conducted to five
volunteered students from participants.

Data collection and analysis

Two sets of information were needed for writing the final report of this research. they were
required to answer the research question. I had to make sure that all participants answer the first
and second questionnaire forms. Questionnaire was designed for collecting the students‟
response during pre and post-test concerning their opinion upon their speaking anxiety as well as
the factors that contribute towards the issue. After that, a six weeks‟ course was designed for the
students in combating their speaking anxiety. Basically the original plan was to have five weeks
course yet I felt that having five meetings were important for the students and it would be great
to see them performing using the target language and that was why chosen a six week timeframe
was chosen whereby the sixth meeting would be the assessment week. There were a few
components which had been highlighted in the program where throughout the program the
main objective was to uplift their anxiety so that they were able to use the language fluently
without any worries through speaking. The course was designed in line with the requirement of
the course assessment which needed to be sat by the students.

During these six weeks of English lessons, the individual and group work task had been
done so that the students could get themselves familiarized with the assessment later. As for the
individual task, the students were asked to do their own video recording so that they would feel
comfortable speaking to themselves first in front of their camera. They could talk on any topics
that they wanted and feeling comfortable with. This was a way to help them in reducing their
speaking anxiety. All the recordings were uploaded on the Edmodo which supported their virtual
learning environment. Then the students also did an impromptu speech based on the topics
which they were assigned every week.

Next would be the group work task. Personally, I believe that the students are able to
deliver in front of their friends without any worries as their friends would be their first audience
for the assessment. As a result, a module had been designed by giving them a challenging group
work in order to improve their proficiency throughout the week whereby they did a mini project
and it had to be consecutively carried out as this would prepare them for the assessment week in
the sixth meeting. The second questionnaire consisted of ten questions regarding the
implementation of scaffolding impromptu speaking activities to enhance speaking skill and
reduce speaking anxiety. This questionnaire was distributed after the participants had gone
through all the impromptu speaking activities. However, only 26 of the participants responded to
the second questionnaire. However, one of the limitations in this study was not all the
respondents answered both questionnaires. This was mainly because I could not monitor all the
participants in answering the questionnaires as both questionnaires were online questionnaires.
Frequencies and percentages were used to determine the extent of scaffolding impromptu
speaking activities can enhance students‟ speaking skill and reduce their speaking anxiety. Semi-
structured interview questions were applied to examine the students‟ feelings about the use of
scaffolding impromptu speaking activities and their level of anxiety.

Discussion

This questionnaire 1 was designed to collect the data on the participants‟ current
proficiency level pertinent to speaking skill and their anxiety level before departing into a more
serious business of dissecting the information hence helping them to counter their problem.
From the data analysis for the question 1, it showed that 60.53% or 23 of the participants agreed

that they felt tensed and nervous when preparing for giving the speech in English. Only one of
the participants responded strongly disagree for item 1. This showed that their level of speaking
anxiety was high when it came to give speech in English. For item 2, 5.26% of the respondents
answered strongly disagree, 2.63% answered disagree and 39.47% answered neutral which meant
they were not sure and 42.11% answered agree and 10.53% answered that they felt tensed when
they knew there was oral assessment in English course outline. For item 3, 42.11% of the
respondents agreed that they their thoughts became confused and jumbled when they were asked
to give a speech in English. From this result, it could be seen that the participants were not really
confident to deliver their speech in English and it was probably due to lack of English
vocabulary or fear of negative evaluation from friends which led to speaking anxiety.

For item 4, most of the participants answered agreed with the percentage of 65.79 and 5.
26% answered strongly agreed that they got anxious thinking about their upcoming English
presentation. This showed that the participants had high level of speaking anxiety. Apart from
that, for item 5, 52.6% of the participants answered disagree, which showed that majority of the
participants had fear of giving speech in English. For item 6, 52.63% of the participants
disagreed that they felt relaxed while doing oral presentation in English. For the item 7, 26.32%
of the participants answered disagree and 31.58% answered neutral that they found it hard to
concentrate on the following parts of their speech if they made mistake while giving speech in
English. For the item 8, 44.74% of the participants agreed that they had difficulty to pronounce
some English words during oral presentation. From the result of this item, it could be said that
some of the students had problem with pronunciation while doing oral presentation. For item 9,
majority or 44.74% of the participants answered agree, that they felt less anxious when working
in group. Meanwhile, for item 10, 42.11% of the participants agreed that they felt less anxious if
their teacher asked them to talk about something that they knew.

As a conclusion from this data analysis, it showed that majority of the participants had high
level of speaking anxiety especially if they were asked to do oral assessment. The students were
also not in favor of having the speaking class because they felt that this made them vulnerable
and creating insecured feeling if they could not speak well in front of their friends. As a result,
this put down their motivation in learning the language.

Table 1. Percentage of participants‟ responses on perceptions towards oral activities and their
speaking anxiety levels

Item Question SD D N A SA

1. While preparing for giving a speech in English, I
feel tensed and nervous.

2.63

7.89 15.79

60.53

13.16

2. I feel tense when I see the words 'speech' or
'presentation' in my English course outline.

5.26 2.63 39.47 42.11 10.53

3. My thoughts become confused and jumbled when
i am giving a speech in English.

0 18.42 28.95 42.11 10.53

4. I get anxious when I think about a speech being
presented in English coming up.

5.26 5.26 18.42 65.79 5.26

5. I have no fear of giving a speech in English. 2.63 52.63 28.95 7.89 7.89
6. I feel relaxed while doing oral presentation in

English.
0 52.63 26.32 15.79 5.26

7. When I make a mistake while giving an English
speech, I find it is hard to concentrate on the
parts that follow.

2.63 26.32 31.58 28.95 10.53

8. During my oral presentation, I experience some 5.26 15.79 31.58 44.74 2.63

Meanwhile, questionnaire 2 was designed to know the perception of the participants on the

usage of scaffolding speaking activities during speaking lessons to enhance their speaking skill
and reduce speaking anxiety. Based on the table 2, it showed that 57.69 % or 15 of the
participants agreed that scaffolded impromptu speaking activities helped to boost their
confidence in oral presentation. None of the participants responded strongly disagree or disagree
for item 1. This showed that scaffolded speaking activities help them to improve their
confidence level. For item 2, none of the respondents answered strongly disagree and disagree,
15.38% answered neutral which meant they were not sure and 65.38% answered agree and
19.23% answered that scaffolded impromptu speaking activities aid them to acquire new
speaking skill. For item 3, 76.92% of the respondents agreed that scaffolded impromptu
speaking activities helped them to stimulate ideas for oral presentation. From this result, it could
be seen that impromptu speaking activities could encourage them to deliver their speech
spontaneously.

For item 4, most of the participants answered agree with the percentage of 61.54% and
11.54% answered strongly agreed that they became more confident to speak in English. This
showed that the participants have high level of confidence after experience scaffolded
impromptu speaking activities. Apart from that, for item 5, 3.85% or 1 of the participants
answered strongly disagree, 42.31% answered neutral, 38.46% answered agree and 7.69%
answered strongly agree that scaffolded impromptu speaking activities helped them to speak
correctly regarding grammar. This result showed that by scaffolding speaking activities, it did not
really mediate the participants in term of grammar. Same goes for item 6, 42.31% answered
neutral that scaffolded impromptu speaking activities could reduce their speaking anxiety. From
this result, it revealed that, some of the participants still felt anxious when it came to speaking in
English.

However, 38.46% or 10 of the participants agreed that scaffolded impromptu speaking
activities could reduce their anxiety. For the item 7, majority of the participants agreed that they
could share idea with their friends during impromptu speaking activities. For the item 8, 34.62%
of the participants strongly agreed and 46.15% agreed that scaffolded impromptu speaking
activities helped them to convey idea spontaneously. For item 9, majority or 50% of the
participants answered neutral which means that they were not sure if they felt nervous when
their English teacher asked them to do impromptu speaking activity. This showed that, they still
felt anxious perhaps because they were not ready to talk in English or they were asked to talk
about topics that they did not know. Meanwhile, for item 10, 57.69% of the participants agreed
and 23.08% answered strongly agree that scaffolded impromptu speaking activities helped them
to be a better English speaker. This revealed that scaffolded impromptu speaking activities
improved their speaking skills.

As a conclusion from this data analysis, it showed that majority of the participants stated
that scaffolded impromptu speaking activities could facilitate them to become a better English
speaker and helped them to improve their speaking skills.

difficulty in pronouncing English words.
9. When working in group, I feel less anxious to

speak in English.
0 15.79 23.68 44.74 15.79

10. I feel less anxious if my teacher asks me to talk
about something that I know.

2.63 10.53 13.16 42.11 31.58

Table 2. Percentage of participants‟ responses on the effectiveness of scaffolding impromptu
speaking activities

Qualitative data analysis result

This section includes analysis of the focus group interviews conducted with the sub-sample
of five interviewees. These analyses were used to answer the following research question: How
do the students feel about the WhatsApp experience? The analysis of the students‟ feelings about
the scaffolding speaking activities experience indicated that most of them liked the idea
scaffolding speaking activities during speaking lessons and they felt that it contributed to their
language performance especially in enhancing their oral performance and mediate them to
reduce their speaking anxiety. The answers had been categorized according to themes as below:

a) Scaffolding impromptu speaking activities help to gain confidence in speaking
b) Advantages of Scaffolding Impromptu Speaking Activities
c) Enhance Speaking Skill

Some of the participants stated that they felt more confident to talk in English after they
experienced all the interesting scaffolding speaking activities. Examples of the answers are:

i) In my opinion, the activity has helped me to build my confidence because the activities are fun and
engaging. In fact, it is less formal and it allows your participation without any limit. I also can be myself
without worrying about any constraints from the lecturer.
ii) Frankly speaking, I was shy in the first place yet after undergone the activities, I feel more prepared
and comfortable in speaking in front of the public. I also feel that I have overcome the fear whereby I can
control my anxiety when presenting.

Item Questions SD D N A SA

1. Do you think scaffolded impromptu speaking
activities help to boost your confidence in oral
presentation?

0 0 7.69 57.59 34.62

2. Scaffolded impromptu speaking activities help
me to acquire new speaking skill.

0 0 15.38 65.38 19.23

3. Scaffolded impromptu speaking activities help
me to stimulate ideas for oral presentation.

0 0 15.38 76.92 7.69

4. Scaffolded impromptu speaking activities help
me to speak in English confidently.

0 3.85 23.08 61.54 11.54

5. Scaffolded impromptu speaking activities help
me to speak correctly regarding grammar.

3.85 7.69 42.31 38.46 7.69

6. I think impromptu speaking activities can
reduce my speaking anxiety.

3.85 7.69 42.31 38.46 7.69

7. I can share my idea with my friends during
impromptu speaking activities.

0 3.85 15.38 57.69 23.08

8. Scaffolded impromptu speaking activities help
to convey my idea spontaneously.

0 0 19.23 46.15 34.62

9. I feel nervous when my English teacher asks us
to do impromptu speaking activity.

0 11.54 50 19.23 19.23

10. Scaffolded impromptu speaking activities help
me to be a better English speaker.

0 3.85 15.38 57.69 23.08

Next, participants were asked to indicate the advantages that they obtained from the
experience during speaking lessons. The students gave different answers to this question. Three
students reported that it created an opportunity for them to improve their fluency and
pronunciation. Furthermore, they felt their speaking anxiety was reducing and mediate them in
enhancing their speaking skill. Another student reported they felt more motivated to speak in
English as their friends gave positive evaluation and feedback when they talked in English.
Below were some examples of the participants‟ answers:

i) From the technical aspect, I am able to improve my fluency. This is because I had problems in
delivering the contents because I am too cautious with what am I saying as I was afraid that it is not
clear enough. However, after weeks of training, I found that one of the activities has helped me a lot
especially when it comes to public speaking session.
ii) I like all the speaking activities especially the mini project which we were asked to video recorded
ourselves. It makes me become more motivated to improve my speaking skill.
iii) It gives me the opportunity to be myself when interacting with my friends. I always prefer to have my
friends around me when doing this kind of activity because I feel more secure and motivated. Having
supported by friends is important to me because it helps in boosting my confidence since I have supportive
friends who will not laugh at me if I have mispronounced the words.

Finally, students indicated if they are eager to continue practicing scaffolded impromptu
speaking activities for improving their speaking skills as a part of classroom activity for the
future. However, other students reported that they could talk in English more confident and
agreed to continue practicing scaffolded impromptu speaking activities during speaking lessons.
Examples of the answers were as below:

i) It does help and I feel that I am ready to deliver my presentation. Now I feel that my friends will not
laugh at me anymore because I am capable of pronouncing the words correctly as well as able to speak
clearly without any hesitations.
ii) The activities have helped me a lot because it allows personalisation whereby I can say anything I want
according to my likings because there are activities which focus on the personal aspect of the learners.

Regarding the first research question of this study, levels of English anxiety among the students
were high. Majority of the students stated that they felt anxious when they had to talk or give a
speech in English. In the real language use situation, it is normal for second language learners to
feel some anxiety. As stated by Khairi and Nurul Lina (2010), moderate feelings of anxiety in
second language learning might help students to create the desire to learn, to motivate and to get
the students realize that they should work harder to acquire the target language.

Teachers have to understand individual learner‟s strengths and weaknesses, and then to
provide him or her with the necessary assistance through instruction so that he or she may meet
the challenge independently. The problem of learners‟ speaking anxiety is one of the greatest
obstacles teachers have to overcome in language classrooms. Scaffolding, as an instructional
strategy, is a significant tool to contribute to the learning process because it provides
opportunities for students to solve their learning problems.

The findings demonstrated that scaffolding provided students with the right balance of
independence and support they needed to improve their English speaking performance.
Scaffolding strategies makes it possible for the students to show improvements in their
willingness to speak and participate in different tasks and activities in their English language
classroom.

Conclusion and Recommendations/Implications

In conclusion, this study gives evidences that scaffolding impromptu speaking activities
contribute to the improvement of oral presentation skill. The results of the study also showed
that the students experienced significantly less anxiety after they had been experienced of various
interesting and fun speaking activities. Therefore, by creating a friendly, informal and learning-
supportive environments for language learning by teachers‟ friendly, helpful and cooperative
behaviour, it makes students feel comfortable when speaking in the class. This research is a very
small research conducted in a very limited time. There are many variables which occurred but
simply ignored by the researcher due to so many unavoidable constraints. For further research,
the researcher would like to recommend a few important recommendations to other researchers
who may be interested in doing the same research in the future.

First, one limitation of this study relates to time of doing this study. Maybe, dedicating
more time and class sessions could lead to better results than it was in this study. The results of
this research can make other researchers motivated to go through other dimensions of speaking
through scaffolding to meet the needs of the learners. Secondly, this research was conducted a
very small population of one class only. To obtain a more comprehensive result the research
should be conducted to all the undergraduate students taking English courses. Thirdly, due to
the time constraint, the researcher designed the questionnaire without piloting it. Therefore, for
future research, in order to get valid and reliable data, questionnaire should be piloted before
distribute to the participants. Other than that, for future research, questionnaire should be
distributed with the students‟ present.

Finally, this study did not examine the link between anxiety and students with different
ESL proficiency levels and furthermore, teacher perspectives are not within the scope of this
study. Further research should include participants with varying ESL proficiency levels and
language teaching professionals.

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