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Coping with Speaking Test AnxietyKalsoom Sanad ShahCalifornia State University, Monterey BayIST522 Instructional DesignProfessor FarringtonDec 15, 2017Coping with Speaking Test AnxietyThe DLIFLC, as part of the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), is a globally recognized institute that provides resident instruction at the Presidio of Monterey in more than two dozen languages. My instructional design module will be to train/help the Urdu language learners to cope with their oral proficiency test anxiety issue. These students are in the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC), Monterey Bay. All language courses, taught at the institute, range from 24 to 64 weeks in length, depending on the difficulty level (Category) of the language. The Urdu language is part of the Undergraduate Multi-Language School (UML). Currently, UML has four languages: Urdu, Pashto, Indonesian and Spanish. Urdu, a category 3 language, is a 47-week long program that welcomes members from various branches of the United States military. At the end of the course, the students take the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) and are graded according to the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) standard grading scale (0+ to 5). The Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) is conducted afterward. The Testing Division at the Presidio conducts DLPT whereas the Proficiency and Standardization Division, Department of Defense (DoD) Marina, CA Center OPI conducts OPIs. The DLIFLC’s new graduation standard of 2+,2+,2 in reading, listening, and speaking skills, respectively will be implemented by 2022. According to this new graduation standard, all the DLIFLC students are required to achieve 2+, 2+, 2 to graduate from any of the languages. After graduation, the DLI students are expected to deploy in the target language countries, where they have to deal with native speakers on an as need basis, as this is one of the requirements of their assigned duties. For communication, the DLIFLC students need to have good speaking abilities in the target language. Thus, the DLI students have to score ILR level 2 or high in their OPIs. The Urdu students who come from different educational, ethical, cultural, economic backgrounds and belong to different age groups, are required to achieve the DLIFLC’s goal of 2+,2+,2 like students in other languages. Overall, the Urdu language students are getting good grades in their DLPT (reading and listening tests) but in their OPIs, they barely score 1+, which is considered a very low score. After conducting a assessment process, it was concluded that the Urdu students have a very high-level of speaking test anxiety and, therefore, they cannot perform well on their OPIs and hence score low. This test anxiety has created an obvious gap between DLPT and OPI scores. The Urdu learners have this issue (speaking-test anxiety) because of a lack of knowledge, where neither the students nor the teachers know how to deal with the speaking test anxiety of the target group (the students). Keeping in mind DLIFLC’s goal, I want to help my students overcome this test anxiety issue. Therefore, I will design a 50-minute instructor-led training module that will demonstrate how to cope with this issue and then score better in their OPIs to fill the gap between their grades.AnalysisNeeds AssessmentI discussed the issue of test anxiety, in detail, with the Urdu Department Chair and talked about my plan and its projected application. After receiving permission from the concerned supervisor, I started my research. First, I collected previous Urdu students’ profiles who scored 3, 3/1+ or 2+, 2+/ 1+ on their DLPTs and OPIs respectively, from the said supervisor. These profiles are prepared on the first day of their arrival at the DLIFLC where they are required to fill in several types of questionnaires about their learning habits, motivational levels, learning strategies, etc. I focused more on The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) forms, which are used to check the motivation level and test anxiety of the students. While analyzing these profiles, I came to know that the students’ test anxiety scores were extremely high. These profiles and previous records gave me a clear picture that the main issue with our Urdu students is their test anxiety. However, I wanted to make it more accurate for which, I decided to do a short survey in the Urdu department. I gathered twelve Urdu language students from two different sections of the second semester and invited six, second-semester teachers to participate in the survey. Before they started this short survey, I briefed them about the survey. I prepared two questionnaires, one for the students and one for the teachers. The students’ questionnaire consisted of four items with three options each while the teachers’ questionnaire consisted of only three items. In the survey, in response to the first question, 10/ 12 respondents said that they feel nervous before their speaking tests. In response to the second question, 11/ 12 students mentioned that they have not attended any type of test anxiety training before. For the third question, 10/ 12 students said that they feel uncomfortable when they speak to someone for the first time in the Urdu language. In response, to the last question, where they were asked, “Do they recommend a training for test anxiety?”, 12/ 12 students recommended such a training for the target population (students). The teachers’ survey gave the same results, where all six teachers said that their students feel nervous before their speaking tests. In response to the second question, 6/ 6 teachers said that they have not arranged any type of test anxiety training for their students. At the end, 5/ 6 said “yes”, they recommend a training session for the students to know how to cope with their test anxiety during their speaking tests.The survey results clearly indicated that the students have this very issue of anxiety during their speaking tests. It also revealed that the issue is mainly due to the stakeholders’ lack of knowledge, (i.e. the Urdu learners do not know how to deal with their speaking test anxiety), while their teachers also seem to have no clue how to help their students cope with the issue. In addition, the survey results identified that the huge gap among Urdu learners’ grades (reading/ listening, and speaking), is directly connected to the issue of test anxiety. Hence, the Urdu learners cannot perform very well in their final OPIs. Interestingly enough, these same students do very well on all of their internal speaking tests conducted by their class teachers. Therefore, based on the survey results, it is concluded that the Urdu learners have never attended any test anxiety workshops/training and resultantly, they do not know how to cope with this issue. Another thing revealed after the need analysis was, that the Urdu learners and teachers are highly motivated to receive such a training, which will help them cope with their speaking anxiety issues. Based on the needs assessment results, I will design a 50-minute training session (instructor-led classroom training module) for the Urdu learners and teachers, where I will briefly introduce the issue and the factors responsible for speaking test anxiety. I will also talk about some basic strategies (before and during) which will help them better deal with the issue. During the training session, I will make a suggestion to our school management to arrange some mock OPI sessions with Urdu OPI testers (especially in Third Semester). This will not familiarize Urdu learners with the OPI tests, in general, but will give them a chance to talk with their Urdu OPI testers in an informal setting. This will, significantly, decrease their anxiety level in their actual OPI tests, at the end of the program.Learner Analysis My audience will be the Urdu students and teachers in the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey. Currently, there are 25 students in the Urdu department and 18 teachers. Since I intend to arrange this training module for second-semester students and teachers only, I will have 12 students and 6 teachers as participants. The Urdu learners come from different geographic locations in the US, and they belong to different age, ethnic, cultural, and social groups. The majority of Urdu learners are fresh graduates from high school with no prior second language acquisition experience, while some who have deployed to other countries, have prior experience of other (foreign) languages. The majority of Urdu teachers are native speakers, who belong to different areas in Pakistan and India. The Urdu teachers have come from different educational, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. They have different language accents and dialects. Being an Urdu instructor, I want my Urdu learners to get good scores in their reading, listening, and speaking skills. The Urdu students are able to get 3/2+, in their reading and listening skills, but they cannot maintain this in their OPI tests. To find out the reason for this gap, I conducted a short survey and gave two separate questionnaires to the students and teachers. (The questionnaires are included in the appendix section) After the needs analysis, I found out that the gap between grades (listening, reading, and speaking) is because of test anxiety. The Urdu learners face this issue due to a lack of knowledge, which is, they do not know how to cope with this issue. The learner analysis process also revealed that neither the students nor teachers know how to deal with this speaking test anxiety issue. Context Analysis I will design a 50-minute instructor-led training module. I will conduct the training session personally. The number of the participants are 18, where 12 are the second-semester students and six are the second-semester teachers. First, I decided to conduct the training session in a classroom, where we have a smart board facility, but since I have 18 participants for this training session and the classroom will be too small to accommodate all of them, I will have to reserve our computer/language lab. The lab I am requesting for this training is fully equipped with all the logistical resources like smart boards, whiteboards, computers, and internet access.Content Analysis The main goal for the Urdu students is to learn how to cope with their speaking test anxiety issue and score high grades in their OPI tests. The needs assessment results clearly indicated the need for such a training that helps the Urdu students to overcome the test anxiety issue. The training session will have the following components/ topics.The Urdu students will learn the definitions of the term test anxiety by watching a PowerPoint presentation.The Urdu students will learn about various types of test anxiety, especially the oral/speaking test anxiety.The Urdu students will learn different strategies (before and during the test) to cope with their speaking test anxiety.The Urdu students will watch a few videos about the people who have overcome this issue and what strategies they have used. The Urdu students will read a few scenarios and will find out what scenario is related to the speaking anxiety.The Urdu students will do a multiple-choice activity in Kahoot.The Urdu students will watch an interactive video with quiz.The Urdu students will practice some of the strategies with their classmates at the end of the session.DesignReview LiteratureTest anxiety. In today’s competitive world, where tests have become an essential tool to measure someone’s performance and ability, this goal to excel have increased the test anxiety issues among learners. The test anxiety issue and test performance are closely connected with each other. Test anxiety is a fear of failure and a worry about one’s performance. Test anxiety refers to a type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure (Gordon & Sarason 1955; Sarason 1980). Anxiety is a basic human emotion consisting of fear and uncertainty that typically appears when an individual perceives an event as being a threat to the ego or self-esteem (Sarason, 1988). According to McDonald, if a learner has high-level anxiety before or during a test, the learner may not perform well and will not be able to show his/her true abilities in the test (2001) and because of that, the learner receives low grades in the test.This is an utmost reality that test anxiety affects the learner’s performance, “test anxiety present in the testing situation is an important variable in test performance,” (Mandler & Sarason, 1952, p. 172). Mori (1998) supported the Mandler and Sarason’s point and said that high levels of test anxiety interfered with learner’s test performance.Speaking Test anxiety among Second Language Learners. According to Krashen, high-test anxiety has a negative on learners and this is very common among second language learners (1982). Many studies prove that there is a close relationship between test anxiety and second language proficiency, and because the test anxiety is one of the major factors, it can significantly hinder the learner’s performance. Different researches (Gardner, 1985; Gardner, Tremblay, and Masgoret, 1997) showed there is a very high correlation between test anxiety and the learner’s performance. Moreover, speaking anxiety is divided into three parts: “communication apprehension”, “test anxiety”, and “fear of negative evaluation” (Horwitz, et al., 1986). Foreign language or second language anxiety is the name of given to those nervous feelings, which a learner feels when he/she speaks in the target language. MacIntyre and Gardner (1989) said that “the language student has mature thoughts and ideas but an immature second-language vocabulary with which to express them” (p. 252), and this lack of vocabulary creates stress and nervousness that affect the learner’s speaking proficiency, badly. To Cope with Speaking Test Anxiety. It is investigated by several studies that anxiety has two different perspectives, one is trait anxiety and the other one is situation-specific anxiety. According to Spielberger (1983) and Gardner (1991), trait anxiety is an individual tendency where the individual is anxious in any situation, whereas situation-specific anxiety is related to a particular time and situation. The majority of the people experience anxiety (speaking) that is present only during a particular situation or incident, which can be considered passing, and ideally will diminish over time (Shomoossi & Kassaian, 2009). The speaking anxiety or language anxiety falls under situation-specific anxiety, which is situational, not stable or permanent, therefore, this issue can be resolved through different techniques or strategies. MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) supported this point and said that there is a need for “research into reducing the effect of anxiety”. Several researches and studies have been conducted and based on these researches and studies, numerous strategies have come up that can help a learner to cope with his/her speaking anxiety. Deep breathing, along with relaxation techniques, is a strategy that can be used by everyone to control anxious feelings (LaLande, Bambling, King, & Lowe, 2011; Nassau, 2007; Zuercher-White, 1998). Learning ObjectivesI have one terminal objective and five enabling objectives for this training session. Two objectives are based on the cognitive domain where the learners will use their mental skills, and two objectives are based on the affective domain. There is only one objective, which is based on psychomotor domain, where the students will practice some of the strategies with their partners. Terminal Objective: By using/practicing the speaking test anxiety strategies (before and during) the Urdu students will cope with their speaking test anxiety and score high grades in their OPI interviews to achieve the DLIFLC’s standard of 2+,2+,2.Enabling Objective: From memory, the Urdu students will identify speaking test anxiety with 100% accuracy (Cognitive Domain) Enabling Objective: From memory, the Urdu students will differentiate what strategies should be used before and during speaking tests with 100% accuracy (Affective Domain) Enabling Objective: From memory, the Urdu students will order their selection of strategies for reducing their anxiety with 100% accuracy (Affective Domain) Enabling Objective: From memory, the Urdu students will answer the multiple-choice questions with 100% accuracy (Cognitive Domain) Enabling Objective: From memory, the Urdu students will practice some of the strategies with a partner at the end of the session with 100% accuracy (Psychomotor Domain)Test InstrumentsIn this 50-minute instructor-led training session, the participants will do several activities to check their comprehension level. In the first activity, the students will read a few scenarios about different types of test anxiety and will find out which scenarios are based on the speaking test anxiety. The instructor will provide feedback to the students after the activity if needed. The second activity will be (a) multiple-choice activity, which will be designed in Kahoot, where the participants will differentiate between before and during test anxiety strategies. The participants will get immediate feedback from Kahoot. The third activity will be a quiz and an interactive video, where the participants will watch a video and answer the relevant questions. They will get immediate feedback. The fourth activity will be the practice, where the participants will practice some of the strategies (before and during the speaking test) with their classmates. At the end, the instructor will provide feedback accordingly. The last activity, in this training module, will be the feedback survey, which the participants will fill out. The feedback survey will be designed in (a) Google survey form. Delivery System and media DecisionsI will design an instructor-led classroom-training module, which will be 50 minutes long, where the first 10 minutes will be utilized to talk about different types of anxiety. The rest of the time will be used to explain different (before & during) test anxiety strategies. I will use PowerPoints slides, images, handouts, videos, google survey form, and Kahoot in my training session. The training will be arranged in the computer lab in the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, where the participants will have access to internet and computers as they will have some activities like multiple-choice activity in Kahoot and interactive video quiz that need high-speed internet access. The reason behind this instructor-led session is to provide a face-to-face instruction where the participants can ask questions, and concerns if they have, regarding any part of the training session. Another main reason is to provide an opportunity to the students to practice some of the strategies with their partners, in the presence of the instructor, at the end of the session. After the training session, I will make a few suggestions to our school management, focusing mainly on how to better help the Urdu learners cope with their speaking test anxiety. One such suggestion will be to arrange mock OPIs for the Urdu learners with the Urdu OPI testers. At the end, the participants will be asked to fill out a feedback survey form regarding the training module, which will help me to improve the training module for future sessions.Instructional Strategies and ActivitiesThe whole training session will be conducted by one instructor, who will present the material to the students, engage the students in different activities, and answer the questions of the participants (if they have any). I will reuse two YouTube videos, which I will trim according to the needs, and the rest of the material I will design/ develop from the scratch. My training module is based on the constructivist approach, because in my training module the participants will be asked to build on the existing knowledge and will also be actively participating in different activities rather than just listening passively and mechanically ingesting knowledge from the teacher or the textbook.AgendaIntroduction (10 minutes)The instructor will introduce the topicBriefly explain the objective of the training sessionGo over the content of the training sessionThe instructor will ask the students about their prior knowledge about the topic Tasks (35 minutes)Students will watch a PowerPoint presentation about the different types of test anxietyStudents will read a few scenarios and will identify which scenario is based on the speaking test anxietyStudents will do another short activity in pairs, to differentiate between before and during test anxiety strategies The instructor will give the handouts (scenarios) to the students and the students will order different strategies according to their needs Students will do a multiple-choice activity in Kahoot Students will watch an interactive video and take a quiz Students will practice some of the strategies with their partnersSummary (05 minutes)The instructor will briefly summarize the content of the trainingThe students will fill out the Feedback Survey form ReferencesWrap up (Thank you to the Urdu Second Semester students and teachers)Development and ImplementationList of Major DeliverableA 50-minute instructor-led modulePower Point PresentationHandouts for before and during test anxiety strategies Read different scenarios and identify which are based on speaking test anxiety Students will watch two YouTube videos about different (before and during) speaking test anxiety strategies Multiple-choice activity for comprehension check-in Kahoot An interactive video with quizPractice activity (students will practice some of the strategies with their partners)Feedback survey (google survey form)Development PlanThe training session will be only 50 minutes long and no extra money or labor is required for this training session. I will have to design multiple-choice activity in Kahoot and on the training day, I will share the link and password of Kahoot with the participants to take the quiz. I will place one interactive video with a quiz in the students/teachers’ resources folder (both teachers and students have access to this folder) to do it. I will design the feedback questionnaire in (a) google survey form and will send the survey to the participants in an e-mail, so they fill them in after the training session. I will need three weeks to create and develop this training module for the students. The training session will be implemented in February 2018. As mentioned in the beginning, the Urdu department supervisor supports this training, additionally, the second-semester students and teachers, and all the participants, are motivated to attend this training session. In addition, I will conduct this training session in the afternoon, so that way I will not disturb the students’ core teaching hours. Therefore, I will not have any major issue or challenge, to implement this training. The only challenge, which I may come across, is that I have to schedule a pre and post-training session meeting with the UML’s academic specialist, who will review my training module and give me some suggestions before the training. After the training I will have to discuss how the training went on, and the feedback of the students. Because of his busy schedule, I might have some challenges to setting up a meeting with him, but other than this there will be no challenge or issue in the design/ development of the module.Implementation PlanI will conduct this training in the computer lab where we have high-speed internet, updated computers, and a smartboard. There will be no issue in the implementation process of this training because the students, teachers, and the instructor (me) are quite familiar with this computer lab and we will not have any issue with the log in system as we all have the usernames and passwords for the computers. Another thing, this computer lab is located in a quiet place and no disturbance or other external factors can disturb the training session, so it will be easy for them to concentrate on the assigned tasks/ materials. EvaluationFormative EvaluationFor the formative evaluation, I will ask the participants to fill out the Google feedback survey form at the end of the training module. In the survey, I will ask the participants, how the training, what part/activity they like the most in the training session, what part/activity needs modification, do they recommend this training session for future students or any follow up sessions, and the last question will be based on any suggestions for improvement in the training module. This way, I will be able to modify the same training module for the upcoming students. Summative EvaluationFor this training module, the summative evaluation will be collected after the final OPI interviews, where I will interview the same students to ask how the training session and the strategies they learned help them, and what strategy works well. I will also interview the teachers and ask them what strategy they use in the class and how their students feel before and during their OPI tests. In addition, based on these results, I will modify the training session for the upcoming batches of students in the Urdu department. ReferencesBuchler, R. K. (2013). Anxiety-reducing strategies in the classroom. Retrieved from Fulton, B. A. (2016). The relationship between test anxiety and standardized test scores. Retrieved from , H. L., & Coy, D. R. (2003). Helping students cope with test anxiety. Eric digest. Retrieved from , J. L. (2013). The altitude of test anxiety among second language learners. Language Testing in Asia. Retrieved from doi: 10.1186/2229-0443-3-10Masuda, C. (2010). Causes and effects of foreign language classroom anxiety: A case study of learners of Japanese in the United State. Retrieved from , B. A. (2015). Exploring anxiety in speaking exams and how it affects students’ performance. International Journal of Education and Social Science, 2 (12). Retrieved from , Z. (n.d). Language anxiety and its effect on oral performance in classroom. Retrieved from , W. & Liu, M. (2013). Evaluating the impact of oral anxiety and speaking strategy use on oral English performance. The Journal of Asia Tefl. 10(2), 115-148. AppendicesAppendix AHow do you feel before your speaking test?NervousConfidentNormalHow do you feel when you talk to someone for the first time in Urdu?ComfortableUncomfortableNormalHave you attended any workshop or training related to test anxiety strategies?YesNoDon’t knowDo you suggest that the program should offer a training session to know how to cope with test anxiety during your speaking test?Yes NoDon’t careAppendix B How do your students feel before their speaking test?HappyNervousNormal Have you arranged any training or workshop for your students about test anxiety during their speaking test?YesNoNot NecessaryDo you suggest that the program should offer a training session to know how to cope with test anxiety during your speaking test?YesNoDoesn’t matter ................
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