ERIC Number: ED583661
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Nov
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Anxiety among Engineering Students in a Graduate EFL Classroom
Samoilova, Valeriia; Thanh, Vo Duy; Wilang, Jeffrey Dawala
Online Submission, Paper presented at the International Conference on Innovation in Education (Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, Nov 24-25, 2017)
This article reports the descriptive results of foreign language anxiety experiences of engineering students in a top-ranked research university in Thailand. Although numerous studies have been conducted in the past years about English language anxiety, few studies have reported anxiety situations specific to Thai engineering graduate students in learning English as a foreign language (EFL). The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) modified by Mak [18] was distributed to two groups of graduate students--Chemical Engineering and Food Engineering to identify highly anxiety provoking situations and/or situations indicating language anxiety specific to engineering students. Descriptive analysis of FLCAS revealed that sixty percent of the students (n = 35) have "negative self-perceptions about their English ability." Nevertheless, more than seventy percent showed that they are "not frightened" when they do not understand their teacher and they 'look forward' to attending their English lessons, especially in the class of Chemical engineering students. Meanwhile, Food Science engineering students indicated that they are "focused" as they expect to "learn grammatical rules" in their English class. Further results have shown that Chemical engineering students tend to "understand their peers" when they get nervous while Food Science engineering students usually 'compare their performances' with other students. In sum, both groups share 13 anxiety provoking situations, five anxiety provoking situations specific to Chemical engineering students, and two specific anxiety provoking situations for the Food science group. The study generated pedagogical implications for teaching English language to engineering graduate students. [This paper was published in: "Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Innovation in Education." Thailand: Institute for Innovative Learning, Mahidol University. p286-296.]
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Thailand
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A