Language, reading and writing anxiety among Filipino public high school students in the online learning environment

• Main Author: Kim, Hyemin
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: Distance education; Anxiety; High school students; Online and Distance Education; Secondary Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_deal/7; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=etdm_deal
• Institution: De La Salle University

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced schools around the world to suddenly shift to online learning or to other learning modalities. Russell (2021) posits that many learners in the online learning environment may have significant levels of language anxiety due to a changed learning environment and because of a lack of agency in selecting their learning environment. This study aims to investigate language anxiety among senior high school students in the Philippines who are learning English online for the first time. Grade 11 and 12 ESL Filipino learners participated in a survey consisting of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale, and Writing Anxiety Test that measure language anxiety in oral communication, reading, and writing, respectively. A semi-structured interview with highly anxious participants was conducted to identify specific sources of language anxiety. Results reveal that while participants generally report neutral levels of language anxiety, the subscales that yield the highest anxiety levels are communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation. Interview data from highly anxious participants reveal affective factors in second language acquisition, as well as pandemic-related factors, as sources of language anxiety. Analysis of the combined data highlights the finding that participants are found to have high levels of anxiety on peer judgment. This finding is consistent with the report of the major global assessment PISA in 2018 revealing that Filipino students aged 15 years worry about what others think of them when they fail. The study recommends targeted classroom practices aimed at promoting a growth mindset among Filipino adolescents especially during the pandemic, supporting current literature that establishes the relationship between language mindsets and language anxiety.