Investigating the freshmen's anxiety and enjoyment through online speaking skills courses in pre-service English language teacher education programmes in Turkey

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Ondokuz Mayıs University, Lisansüstü Eğitim Enstitüsü, Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Anabilim Dalı, Turkey

Approval Date: 2022

Thesis Language: English

Student: RABİA İREM DURMUŞ

Supervisor: Nalan Kızıltan

Open Archive Collection: AVESIS Open Access Collection

Abstract:

This study has been conducted in order to reveal freshmen's Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety (FLSA) through online speaking skills courses in the 2020-2021 academic year in the current coronavirus pandemic. The introduction of the online foreign language speaking skills courses coming with the COVID-19 pandemic burdened extra stress on oral communication activity that is already stressful. Therefore, analyzing the students' emotions and attitudes during online speaking skills courses has become essential to reach relevant information to increase the quality of online foreign language speaking skills courses by determining hindering and facilitating factors. Since emotions have the power to affect adaptation and cognition, the present research focuses on both positive and negative emotions to figure out the independent variables affecting freshmen's emotional states in online foreign language speaking skills classes. The present research consists of 722 participants from 33 universities from seven regions in Turkey. Since the present research adopts a quantitative research design, freshmen's FLE and FLSA have been measured through Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (FLES) and Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Scale (FLSAS). The questionnaire was posted online using GoogleDocs with the help of academic staff and remained accessible for three months in the spring term of the 2020-2021 academic year. The results of the study have shown that freshmen have been found to be highly enjoyed and moderately anxious in online speaking skills courses and a significant negative correlation has been revealed between FLE and FLSA. In terms of gender, it has been reached that gender has no effect on FLE, but it has an effect on FLSA. When region variable effect on FLE and FLSA has been analyzed, it has been revealed that there seems a significant difference according to regions in terms of FLE and FLSA. Analysis has also revealed that there is a significant correlation between the degree of plurilingualism and FLE and FLSA scores. Perceived level of English proficiency has been found as an affective factor on FLE and FLSA. Lastly, speaking skills classroom environment preferences of freshmen for speaking skills courses have been determined to be an affective factor on their FLE and FLSA. According to the results, suggestions have been presented accordingly.