person with higher level of linguistic intelligence can easily get the gist of what is heard and will not be very anxious in listening. (taken from LOW-ANX5)
9 Since the interviews were conducted in Chinese, the excerpts were translated into English by the researcher.
Moreover, it was found that in terms of the PER factor, among the ten HI-ANX interviewees, five of them reported that they were extroverted and five, introverted.
The same pattern was reported by the LOW-ANX interviewees with five saying that they were extroverts and the other five, introverts. As for the LI factor, four of the HI-ANX interviewees considered themselves as persons with a high level of LI, and six of them with a low level of LI. However, for the LOW-ANX interviewees, except for one interviewee, all of them reported that they had a high level of LI. These results showed that the participants’ LI seemed to be more related to their ANX than their PER since more interviewees perceived LI as something related to anxiety. Also, more interviewees pointed out that their PER did not seem to influence their ANX. The group effect also confirmed these results that both the HI-ANX and LOW-ANX interviewees included the extroverted and introverted participants in a half-and-half manner, but for the LI, the LOW-ANX interviewees tended to be formed by the participants with a higher level of LI only.
The results gained from the two anxiety groups can be discussed as follows.
The group effect regarding the personality and linguistic intelligence of the two groups was ensured since it was found that the higher or lower anxiety participants would possess different levels of personality and linguistic intelligence. More specifically, for the more anxious listeners, they were found less extroverted and also with poor linguistic intelligence. The other group of the less anxious listeners was the opposite. They were found more extroverted and also to be with better linguistic intelligence. These results were then confirmed by the correlation analyses showing that there was a negative correlation between the participants’ listening comprehension anxiety and their personality and between their listening comprehension anxiety and their linguistic intelligence. Nevertheless, considering the intensity of the listening comprehension anxiety with the participants’ personality and
linguistic intelligence, it was found that both anxiety groups yielded more significant results of correlating their listening comprehension anxiety with their linguistic intelligence than personality level. The interview data also showed that a more consistent association of the anxiety with the participants’ linguistic intelligence than with their personality level. More interviewees voiced for the influence of the linguistic intelligence level than the influence of the personality on their listening comprehension anxiety. These results basically echoed with the findings of the present study mentioned earlier that there was a relationship between listening comprehension anxiety with personality and linguistic intelligence level. And the participants’
linguistic intelligence was found to be more dominant than personality in affecting the anxiety. In addition, the present findings highlighted again the previous claims calling attention to be given to language learning anxiety and personality (Eysenck, 1961;
MacIntyre & Charos, 1995) and possible influences of intelligence on the language learning since listening comprehension anxiety can surely be defined as a language learning related construct (Armstrong, 2000; Hall-Haley, 2001; Hall-Haley, 2004).
Summing up, the participants’ personality and linguistic intelligence were found to be related to their listening comprehension anxiety. With the results obtained from two anxiety groups, the same findings were confirmed. Specifically speaking, the more anxious listeners were less extroverted and possessed a lower level of linguistic intelligence; the less anxious listeners were more extroverted and had a higher level of linguistic intelligence. In addition, compared the participants’ personality and linguistic intelligence with their anxiety, linguistic intelligence was found to be a more dominant factor affecting their listening comprehension anxiety than personality.
4.3 Other Factors and Solutions of Listening Comprehension Anxiety
To address the third research question, some other factors and solutions in relation to the participants’ listening comprehension anxiety will be reported in this section. These results were obtained from the interviews with the participants. The factors affecting the participants’ listening comprehension anxiety will be described first, followed by their suggested ways to reduce listening comprehension anxiety.
Finally, discussions will be made during the course of presenting the interview data in attempt to frame the results obtained into a clear assertion.
4.3.1 Other Factors Affecting Listening Comprehension Anxiety
In addition to personality and linguistic intelligence, the interviewees reported some other factors that might affect their listening comprehension anxiety. Below are seven factors that were reported to affect the participants’ listening comprehension anxiety.
Factor 1: Inherent Features of Testing
The most influential factor mentioned by the interviewees was the testing itself.
This finding is consistent with the studies of general language anxiety (e.g. Horwitz et al.’s, 1986; Young, 1991) and some studies of listening anxiety (e.g. Cheng, 2005;
Vogely, 1998). Several interviewees (11 out of 20) indicated that they experienced listening comprehension anxiety when they thought it was a test (see HI-ANX3, LOW-ANX5 and LOW-ANX8 for example). They suggested that they felt anxious about listening due to the pressure and anxiety-provoking nature in a testing setting (see HI-ANX3 for example). In addition, the reason why they were afraid of tests was mainly due to the fear of not being able to understand what they were going to hear (see HI-ANX6 and LOW-ANX8 for example). Interviewees of the HI-ANX group
and the LOW-ANX group were both anxious about test-related events or activities.
Excerpt 4-3 below shows some examples obtained from the HI-ANX and LOW-ANX interviewees:
Excerpt 4-3
1. I consider listening is definitely anxiety-provoking especially when it is related to testing. I dislike the evaluations related to test stuffs because … tests are not really practical when they are applied to daily communication. (taken from HI-ANX3) 2. Yes! I experience listening comprehension anxiety for I am afraid of not getting
what I hear. This may lead to the poor performance in my grades. But, if the listening has nothing to do with the tests, it doesn’t matter whether I comprehend it or not. (taken from HI-ANX6)
3. Generally speaking, I don’t experience listening comprehension anxiety unless I am engaged in the tests …. (taken from LOW-ANX5)