Presenter Information

Luiza Zeqiri

Session

Education and Development

Description

Emphasizing the importance of the affective variables in the classroom plays a vital role in fostering students’ achievements and cultivating their emotional states. Students’ emotional distress can be induced by internal or external factors; classroom related or personal. It is disheartening that foreign language anxiety is still present and very evident even now when most students speak English in non-academic surroundings. This anxiety amplifies when students have to write or deliver public speeches in front of their colleagues. Hence, this study examines the impact that affective variables (anxiety, apprehension, inhibition, motivation, attitude) have on students’ written and spoken performance. The participants of this study were 75 students attending English courses at the Language Centre, at South East European University in Tetovo; 25 advanced students and 50 students with pre-intermediate English proficiency level. A structured student-interview and two well-known standardized questionnaires were administered: “Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale” by Horwitz, E.K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986) and “Writing Apprehension Test (WAT)” by Daly, J. A., & Miller, M. D. (1975). It can be concluded that the students with lower English proficiency level were more affected by the presence of the affective variables, which had a negative impact on their cognitive variables (memory, learning and usage of the language) and resulted in poor written and spoken performance.

Keywords:

affective variables, cognitive variables, public speaking, productive skills

Proceedings Editor

Edmond Hajrizi

ISBN

978-9951-550-95-6

Location

UBT Lipjan, Kosovo

Start Date

28-10-2023 8:00 AM

End Date

29-10-2023 6:00 PM

DOI

10.33107/ubt-ic.2023.303

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Oct 28th, 8:00 AM Oct 29th, 6:00 PM

The Interrelatedness between Affective and Cognitive Variables and their Impact on EFL Students’ Written and Spoken Performance

UBT Lipjan, Kosovo

Emphasizing the importance of the affective variables in the classroom plays a vital role in fostering students’ achievements and cultivating their emotional states. Students’ emotional distress can be induced by internal or external factors; classroom related or personal. It is disheartening that foreign language anxiety is still present and very evident even now when most students speak English in non-academic surroundings. This anxiety amplifies when students have to write or deliver public speeches in front of their colleagues. Hence, this study examines the impact that affective variables (anxiety, apprehension, inhibition, motivation, attitude) have on students’ written and spoken performance. The participants of this study were 75 students attending English courses at the Language Centre, at South East European University in Tetovo; 25 advanced students and 50 students with pre-intermediate English proficiency level. A structured student-interview and two well-known standardized questionnaires were administered: “Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale” by Horwitz, E.K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986) and “Writing Apprehension Test (WAT)” by Daly, J. A., & Miller, M. D. (1975). It can be concluded that the students with lower English proficiency level were more affected by the presence of the affective variables, which had a negative impact on their cognitive variables (memory, learning and usage of the language) and resulted in poor written and spoken performance.