Impacts of the Experience
82 The personal traits included lack of self-confidence and shyness while the
participants’ beliefs included the concern over the correctness of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. The second subtheme was manifestation of CA.
They manifested their CA physically, psychologically and behaviorally. While experiencing CA, both participants had a tendency to underestimate their
competence and showed their perfectionism. Moreover, for one participant in this study, the perfectionism led to self-criticism. Third subtheme was strategies to
cope with CA. In coping with CA, they did relaxation and thought positively. One participant also made preparations.
Having the thought that they will be negatively evaluated by the lecturer and the classmates worsened the situation. The second theme, struggle with FNE,
included three subthe mes. The first subtheme was causes of FNE. Lecturer’s
characteristics such as attentiveness to details and the way of listening to the participants as well as classmates’ characteristics that liked to underestimate
others became the major causes of partico pants’ FNE. The second theme was
manifestation of FNE. One of the participants experienced increased heartbeat, while the other experienced more difficulty in recalling what she had memorized.
The third subtheme was strategies to cope with FNE. To cope with FNE caused by the lecturer, the participant who experienced rapid heartbeat tried to take a
deep breath to calm down herself while the other one tried to think positively. To cope with FNE caused by the classmates, both participants tried to ignore the
thought that they will be negatively evaluated by the classmates. I was keen on
exploring the participants’ way of coping the CA and FNE as well as the participants’ reasons of chosing the coping strategies. The third theme
83 was reasons for choosing coping strategies. One participant shared that she chose
the coping strategy because she wanted to get a good grade in the speaking class and wanted to be as good as her friends who had previously given the
presentation. The other participant told me that she wanted to get a good grade in the speaking class and wanted to enhance her speaking skill. Their reasons
actually showed their motivation since motivation is concerned with one’s reasons for learning the language. Getting good grades and wanting to be as good as other
friends belong to extrinsic motivation whereas enhancing English speaking skill belongs to intrinsic motivation. The fourth theme was impacts of the experience.
The experience brought positive impacts to one participant. For the other participant, the experience brought a positive impact as well as a negative impact.
If I could make a short conclusion here, the anxiety would be always there though the participant had prepared themselves. Highly-motivated participats still had
high possibility in experiencing anxiety spesifically CA and FNE. Both participants had reasons or goals in learning. Therefore, they would be able to
cope with the anxiety. Though the speech and presentation were short in duration, their processes
were indeed complex phenomena. It includes participants physical, psychological, and behavioral aspects. Some findings of the study confirmed the
previous theories and other previous studies’ findings. They were related to causes of CA and FNE, manifestation of CA and FNE and strategies to cope with CA and
FNE. First, in relation to causes of CA and FNE, my study ’s findings confirmed
the previous theories and other previous studies’ findings that CA was caused by learners’ personal traits, learners’ beliefs and classroom activity. Besides, FNE
84 was caused by teachers’ characteristics and classmates’ characteristics. Previous
theories had focused on the causes of FLA in general without investigating further which factors tended to cause which type of FLA. Second, in relation to
manifesta tion of CA and FNE, my study’s findings confirmed the previous
theories and other previous studies’ findings that CA and FNE were manifested physically, psychologically and behaviorally. Third, in relation to coping
strategies of CA and FNE, my study’s findings confirmed the previous theories and other previous studies’ findings that CA and FNE could be handled by using
cognitive, affective and behavioral strategies. In addition, this study revealed more deeply three ideas that had been
proposed by previous researchers. First, it had been proposed that classroom activity was one of the factors causing FLA.
From this study’s findings, it was identified that prepared or unprepared speaking activity might determine the
manifestation of CA especially the psychological ones. The participant who had made preparations might tend to suffer from poor memory recall. Second, CA
could be manifested by underestimating self-competence. Believing self- competence is strongly related to self-efficacy. In this case, CA seemed to affect
the participants’ self-efficacy. Third, perfectionism as manifestation of CA might be influenced by students beliefs. The perfectionism was not easy to be handled.
For one participant in this study, it gave negative impacts such as self-criticism and lack of self-confidence.
Four new findings emerged from this study. They were considered new since no previous researchers found and explored more about these aspects. First,
ignoring classmates ’ negative evaluation was one possible way to cope with FNE.
85 Second,
the possible characters of lecturer that might cause FNE were lecturer’s attentiveness to details and the lecturer
’s way of listening to the presentation. Third, the experience might bring a positive impact that is preparation for the
upcoming presentation or speech. The last and the most important was that motivation seemed to have an important role in helping the participants cope with
CA and FNE. Not only was the intrinsic motivation found to be important in coping with CA and FNE, but also the extrinsic motivation. Motivation also
seemed to help participants maintain their self-efficacy. Motivation and self- efficacy seemed to work together especially in coping with CA.