T1 112006077 Full text
STUDENTS’ ANXIETY TOWARDS TOEFL TEST :
THE CAUSED FACTORS AND THE EFFECTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Indri Limandra
112006077
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
STUDENTS’ ANXIETY TOWARDS TOEFL TEST :
THE CAUSED FACTORS AND THE EFFECTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Indri Limandra
112006077
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
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Abstract
Students feeling anxious about TOEFL test is a common phenomenon.
Test anxiety itself is a disorder which leads to a nervousness, fear, and worrying
that can affect the way we feel or behave toward something
(http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/anxiety/). Test anxiety also leads human
body to different physical and mental problems. Therefore, since it is a must for
English Department students to take TOEFL test, this issue grabs the researcher’s
curiousity about what types of test anxiety symptoms the students’ have prior the
profiency test, focusing on factors that lead them to anxiety, and the effects of it.
Using qualitative research method, which included open-ended semi structured
questionnaire and interview, the result shows they had experienced the test
anxiety symptoms such as nervousness, digestive problem, rapid heartbeats, and
still many others. It happened because of both external and internal factors.
Fortunately, as an effect of test anxiety the students become more motivated to
perform better in TOEFL test.
Keywords: Test anxiety, Factors, Effect
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Introduction
“TOEFL is like a PASSPORT for non-English speaker to go to the US”,
this is what some foreign students said about what TOEFL means for them
because they cannot continue their study in the USA without passing it. In fact,
hundreds of people with different intentions take TOEFL test only to go to the
United States of America (USA) because they know that it is one of the rules if
they want to move there, but what exactly TOEFL means?
In general understanding, Test of English As Foreign Language (TOEFL)
is one of the requirements for speakers of English as a foreign language who
intended to study or to settle down in the USA. For educational purpose, TOEFL
is used as a requirement to know the potential of a non-native applicant in the
USA university or a college to measure their English proficiency in speaking,
listening, reading, and writing in standard American English.
In order to pass a TOEFL test, learners must study hard that can put them
under pressure. That is why there is a possibility that anxiety can occur in
individuals taking TOEFL test. However, anxiety does not always bring negative
effects, but sometimes it can also give a positive stimulus. In some cases,
individuals try to face their anxiety by studying and struggling more in order to
reach their goal on their test, while some are just giving up. They tend to avoid to
study and then a day or two before the test, they start to worry that they have not
studied enough which lead them to an inability to think logically, self-doubt, and
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anxiety. Looking at this situation, individual may response differently on how
they react to their anxiety towards the TOEFL test.
Even in an English learning institution such as the English Department in
Satya Wacana Christian University, students must pass the TOEFL test on their
last academic year. As a requirement to pass this test, at least students must reach
493 points or more. Any less than that, the students will be considered failed and
must repeat the class. Rumours said that many of them failed on their first test and
they had to repeat the test again. Knowing this issue, some students confess that
they are scared of TOEFL test. That is why it is important to know what kind of
anxious feelings do the language students face? How does it affect them? And
how do they deal with it? This study will try to answer these questions and discuss
this phenomenon that is very common among the second language students,
especially the English students who are still studying at Satya Wacana Christian
University.
Theoretical Framework
As the students of the English Department in Satya Wacana Christian
University, facing a TOEFL test can be very stressful and this may cause an
anxiety among them. Anxiety itself is a disorder which leads to a nervousness,
fear, and worrying that can affect the way we feel or behave toward something
(http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/anxiety/). Students may have some fear
of a certain language subject because of some reasons. As a result, some of them
are afraid to take the class, but they have to join it anyway. Then, they start
doubting themselves, comparing their ability with another student, being passive
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in class activities, and even it gets worse when they must face the test. These are
simple cases of anxiety in a second-language classroom. Macintyre and Gardner
(1991) categorized the students’ anxieties, which include test anxiety among
other types of anxiety in classroom such as learning anxiety, state anxiety,
audience anxiety, etc.
Test anxiety can be associated with cognitive anxiety. Novita (2005) stated
that cognitive anxiety is something of an upcoming event or an unpredicted
situation that an individual concerns and which causes an anxiety. For example, a
student may not be feeling well that makes him/her difficult to concentrate during
the test, or perhaps the room is not in a good condition to support them while they
are doing the test. This problem may cause anxiety because students feel that they
cannot do the test well. She also explains that there are some certain symptoms
because of anxiousness such as being not relaxed, scared, nervous, restless, and
even afraid to lose control. In simple understanding, students know and
experience it as a worry, diziness, stress, insomnia, nervousness, fear, etc.
The study in Alabama University shows that the symptoms of test anxiety
are the same for almost all students who experience it. The following is a typical
case of test anxiety:
As students enter the class, they feel nervous. They heart starts beating
faster and their muscles are tense. Their hands are cold and clammy when the test
is handed out. Then, they feel anxious. They start to wonder that they have studied
enough but they do not master the material as well as the other students. They
wished they could leave the room to study a few minutes more. Next, they begin
to believe that they lost their ability to remember what they have studied before
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the test, and when they read the test, they feel that the questions do no longer
make sense. This means they experience a mental block. Their mind refuses to
cooperate and make them feel frustrated, upset, and they cannot relax. Amazingly,
everything that they could not remember suddenly comes back to them after the
test is over. Finally, the began to feel angry to themselves because they could not
remember the materials well during the test.
(http://www.ctl.ua.edu/ctlstudyaids/studyskillsflyers/testpreparation/whatc
ausestestanxiety.htm)
Students who experience test anxiety usually puts lots of pressure on
themselves. They tend to have a high expectation to perform well in every test.
They concern about how people think of them if they failed the test. This situation
may lead them to an irrational thinking and self-doubt which makes them hard to
think logically during the test.
The students’ anxiety can occur because of some factors. They are an
internal or external factor, even in some cases, both factors can also take part.
Internal factors may appear because of students’ self perception in studying a
second
language.
A
research
in
Alabama
University
(http://www.ctl.ua.edu/ctlstudyaids/studyskillsflyers/testpreparation/whatcauseste
stanxiety.htm) introduced about mental component, which said that an anxiety can
be created by someone’s self concern about what is likely to happen. If a student
believes that they will perform poorly in a test, then they will do so. Therefore, if
a student believes in his/ her ability and has a positive expectation of how they
will perform in a test, it will help them to reduce their anxiety. In addition,
Horwitz (1986) claimed that “most of learners’ anxiety comes from their self-
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concept of ability”. Second language students usually can doubt their own skills
on a certain language subject or language skill. This phenomenon is very common
among second language students. Students think that they are not good in certain
skills such as reading, writing, speaking, or listening. This thought may create
anxiety inside them and finally distract their concentration when they take the
subject or the test.
External factors are influenced by the situation or the conditions from
outside. Take a scene for example, some students do not do well on their study
because they do not manage and organize their time or their course information
which indicate that they are lack of preparation. This condition will create
inconfidence while they are doing the test and lead them to an anxiety. Heider in
Santrock (2003) said, another factor of a test anxiety may come from the social
environment. Students’ may not have doubt on their English skills, but when they
have heard or seen that the other students have failed on a subject or a test, they
will experience an internal factor. Their confidence may be lost and they have
start questioning themselves whether the subject or the test is too hard for them
and whether they will be able to pass it. This feeling will make them feel unsafe
and become aware of the threat which indirectly opens a chance for anxiety to
come in their mind. At this situation, we can say that the student is experiencing
both internal and external factor which is very possible to happen.
Both factors can produce different reactions and they depend on how each
individual respond to it. Some will consider it as a dead end and give up. While,
some will accept it as a motivation for them to fight harder in order to show their
best performance in TOEFL test. As Gunarsa & Gunarsa in Ninawati (2002) said,
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“Achievement motivation is a power which pushes each individiual to reach
their success in a competition with an exellence goal. The goal here means self
achievement or task perfection”. Mc Clelland (1987) also stated that every
individual with the needs of high achievement will like every challenging task
they have been given and curious to know how far they can go to reach their
achievement. As an addition, Clegg in Udju (2006) defined that a motivation can
appear because there is a will or a need inside someone to reach their purpose. He
also shared four aspects which are connected with a motivation:
A hope to perform better and get up from their failure to gain
success.
A self desire to not repeating the same mistake in the future.
Learn from their failure and never give up.
A self encourage to study more.
So far it is not too exaggerating to say that the English Department
students who take a TOEFL test may experience different fears that may occur
because of some factors, and they may have different effects on each individual.
Finding out what kind of anxious feelings the English Department students face,
and how the anxiety has effect on them, and how they deal with it are the focus of
this study.
The Study
Context Of The Study
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Based on the common phenomenon about student’s anxiety, this study will
discuss about students’ anxiety towards TOEFL test that happens among the
English Department students at Satya Wacana Christian University. Then, this
idea is extended by answering these questions: What kind of anxious feeling
students’ have about TOEFL test? How does it affect them? And how do they
deal with it?
To find out “What kinds of anxious feeling do students’s have?” There are
several symptoms which can occur when a student experience a test anxiety such
as being not relaxed, self-doubt, lost control, nervous, restless, worry, etc.
Through this study, we want to know how far the students go with their test
anxiety by finding out which reactions that are usually felt by the students before,
during and after the TOEFL test. Those symptoms may appear differently or the
same in each student.
The writer is also curious about “How does the anxiety affect them?” An
anxiety can occur when a student creates his/her own perception inside their mind
and believe that a worse thing will happen. This is a case of internal factor. On the
other side, an external factor happens when a student is being socialized and heard
bad news or issues about the TOEFL test, and then they will start wondering
whether they are able to pass the test. When that proccess happened, without their
realization they has doubted themselves and created anxiety inside their mind.
This study will also discuss about these factors, and there is a possibility that a
student may experience both factors at the same time.
The last question asks about “How do the students deal with their
anxiety?” At this point, an anxiety has a role as a positive motivator or as a wall
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which blocks the students to perform better on a test. Each student has a different
response towards their anxiety. Some will face their anxiety as a challeng and face
it by studying more to pass the test, while the others are giving up to their anxiety
and avoiding to study. Again, this study will try to answer this question too.
In brief, this study focuses on the students’ anxiety towards TOEFL test,
factor creates that anxiety, and effect of test anxiety which experienced by the
students.
Participants
This study will take the English Department students at Satya Wacana
Christian University who are still taking TOEFL class and about to face TOEFL
test as the participants. The reasons why the writer chose them as the participants
is because it will be easier for the writer to reach them and to keep the validity of
their statements in answering the questionsgiven by the researcher while their
memories are still fresh, because they are experiencing the test anxiety at the time
being. It is important to note that this study will only focus on the TOEFL class
students, without any participation from the English teachers.
Method And Methodology
From the previous study about test anxiety, most researcher used
qualitative
data
methodology.
(http://libweb.surrey.ac.uk/library/skills/Introduction%20to%20Research%20and
%20Managing%20Information%20Leicester/page_54.htm). According to Locke
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(2000), qualitative research is an approach to gain a deeper understanding of a
person’s or a group’s experience which is not presented in a form of numbers.
For the instruments on this study, the researcher used semi structured open-ended
questionnaires and she also used an interview only when it is needed to clarify
statements in the questionnaires. The researcher uses qualitative data collection
because the evidences can be subjective and can vary. Besides, the answers are
also considered valid because it depends on personal experiences.
Data Collection
On this study, the researcher will use a qualitative data collection by
spreading an open-ended nature questionnaire to minimize the time consuming.
The writer understands that it would consume too much time to collect the
informations by an individual or a group interview. By doing this questionnaire,
hopefully the writer can get all of the information at the same time. The researcher
picked an open-ended nature questionnaire. The researcher
spreaded the
questionnaires to fourty TOEFL students from two classes and let them write
down all things they want to share or explain in the questionaire sheets. Part A of
the questionnaire asks about the symptoms of test anxiety that the students might
experience. In part B, the questionnaire asked about the factor that may lead the
students to a test anxiety. The last is part C, which asked about the effects of a test
anxiety. On these questionnaires, the researcher hopes that the participants feel
free to write down and explain their answers. Not only that, hopefully it also
opens an opportunity for the researcher to follow up her participants statements by
interviewing them, only if it is needed. So, the researcher can dig out more details
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of their answers on the open-ended questionnaires they have been filled. The time
and location of interview will be arranged flexibly following both interviewer or
interviewee’s free schedule, or they can use a cellphone as an instrument just in
case if both of them cannot see each other. In short, the questionnaires ask about
test anxiety symptoms, factors, and effects.
Data Analysis
To analyze the data, the writer divides the discussion of the questionnaires
into two parts, and it will be discussed qualitatively. The first part contains the
discussion about the test anxiety symptoms and the caused factors. Then, the
second part only discusses about part the effects of test anxiety.
Discussion
As learners of English as a foreign language, the students know that
passing TOEFL test is one of a requirement they cannot decline. Normally, the
score requirement is quite high. Knowing the high score target to pass the test can
make the students feel stress or anxious. Responding to this issue, some experts
come with their own theories from their studies about anxiety. One of them is
Bandura in Fauzi (2004) who defines that, anxiety is when someone cannot
predict or control any object or situation which makes the person feel scared
toward it. In TOEFL class, the students are aware of the situation that in order to
pass the TOEFL test they must reach their best score target which had been
determined. During the preparation for the test, they could not predict how the test
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would be, and how high they will achieve the score target . Moreover, they feel
uncertain whether they will be able to reach their goal score. Such uncertainty
which the students cannot control, is potential to cause test anxiety. Through a
questionnaire, the researcher found some symptoms and factors contributing to
TOEFL test anxiety, which will be discussed in the first part in this analysis. It is
then followed by the discussion on the effects of test anxiety experienced by the
students.
Symptoms of and factors contributing TOEFL to test anxiety
The data collected through questionnaires about the test anxiety shows that
all participants experienced a test anxiety durings the TOEFL test. They
experienced various symptoms. According to Coan & Raymond in Fauzi (2004),
test anxiety symptoms may appear in different ways such as a stomach ache,
upset, handscold, sweaty, headache, muscle tense and a rapid heartbeat, and still
many others. On the questionnaire number 1 and 2 which is related with test
anxiety symptoms, the students answered that they felt nervous and had
experienced those kinds of test anxiety symptoms. Moreover, most participants
confessed that they experienced around six anxiety symptoms from eight
proposed questions about test anxiety symptoms.
One common anxiety symptom experienced by almost all students is a
stomach problem. Most of TOEFL students from the two classes confessed on
their questionnaire that their stomach felt so tight when they were doing their test.
They said that they felt like there are butterflies in their stomach. Jim Folk, as the
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President
of
Anxiety
Center
(http://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-
tips/nausea.shtml) wrote on one of his blog that “Stomach and digestive
symptoms are very common symptoms of anxiety. They are caused by how
stomach and digestive tract react when the body is under stress (Anxiety stresses
the body).” Another supportive statement comes from a celebrity stress coach and
the Queen of Stress Relief, Kristen K.Brown who said on Rheanne Weaver’s
article entitled “Are Stress And Anxiety Causing Stomach Problems?” that
stomach
issues
is
a
common
symptom
of
an
anxiety.
(http://www.empowher.com/mental-health/content/are-stress-and-anxietycausing-your-stomach-problems). It means that stress is common reaction
experienced by students, triggered by the uncertainty and the high expected target.
Besides stomach ache, some students said their hands felt cold and their
heart beat so fast during the test. Gary Wickman on his blog, explained how an
anxiety or a stress may cause hands cold and rapid heartbeats. Stress can influence
human’s breathing patterns. Instantly, the person will get a hyperventilation (rapid
breathing) which makes our body hard to absurb enough oxygen, and produce
more adrenaline which increases the speed of our heartbeat. That is why we can
feel
cold
in
some
parts
of
our
body.
(http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/15717/1/Cold-Hands-and-Feet.html).
Indeed, stress or fear may affect human’s metabolism.
The next common symptom before doing the test, but not experienced by
most participants is insomnia (problem of sleeping). On the questionnaire, the
researcher also asked whether the students experienced insomnia in the night
before the test, but the results are not too strong. From fourty students, only
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thirteen students experienced it. It shows that their test anxiety did not really
influence their sleep time. The rest of the students explained that they get used to
sleeping late, or even to stay awake overnight watching movies or any other thing
on purpose, and it becomes their habit everynight. So that, no matter whether they
have a test or not, they still sleep late at night. It explains why only a small
number of students experienced insomnia. In the other words, insomnia is not
only caused by stress, but also by people’s habitual and random activities.
The test anxiety symptoms can also be felt during the test. A strong case of
test anxiety symptoms that happened to the students is they find it hard to think
clearly. Most of them confessed that they had trouble in organizing their thought
to read, to understand, and follow the directions. Some said, they have read the
test questions so many times, but they found it hard to understand the meaning.
Moreover, some students wrote on their questionnaire that they felt unconfident
with their skills during the listening section test. There are some factors which
made them doubting their listening skill. They confessed that sometimes the
conversation was too long or too slow so that they feel sleepy. Finally, they
missed the conversation and their mind suddenly got blank so that they could not
read and answer the questions. Even they got distracted easily during the test.
Another factor why those symptoms could happen were because of the time limit.
Students were fully aware that the time did not give them more space to
understand the questions and think of the best answer. This situation forced their
mind to race with the time and eventually they chose the answer as fast as they
could.
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The next test anxiety symptom is forgetting the materials that the students
have studied. Mc’ Donald in Kaplan (1991) mentioned that experiencing too
much anxiety in an academic competition can influence the students’ mindset and
decrease their memory. The result shows thirty five of fourty TOEFL students
experienced it. They tended to forget the materials they have studied prior the test.
No matter how hard they tried, they still could not remember it. What annoyed
them was that all those memories suddenly came back right after the test was
over, but it was too late for them to check their answers. “Regret always comes
late.” They could only accepted it. The two cases above shows that anxiety can
minimize the work of brain.
Moreover, many students also often overanalyze the test questions. It gives
them too many possibilities of a right answer and made them miss the simpler
correct one. It lead them to make careless errors in answering the questions. For
example, one of the students, CA, explained that he overanalyzed during the
reading sections. When he tried to connect the question and the answer,
sometimes he found so many possibilities of the correct answers. Some answers
seemed to make sense to him. So, he overanalyzed, and could not think clearly,
and ended up by choosing an incorrect answer.
Easily crying, feeling irritable, emotionally upset, or getting frustrated are
also other types of test anxiety symptoms. However, the questionnaire result
shows only few students experienced it before or during the test. It seemed that
their test anxiety did not really influence their emotional feelings. Some of them
stated thay they are type of cool students. They explained that whether they felt
anxious or nervous about how the TOEFL test would be, they did not want to take
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it too seriously. They only tried to enjoy the TOEFL class, the lecturing, and focus
more on improving their English skills to pass the test. It was a good way for them
to keep their emotional feeling in a stabil condition. Although test anxiety can also
influence the students’ emotional feelings, it seems they know how to manage that
so that it is not become a big problem.
Those test anxiety symptoms above might appear because of two factors.
Mc’ Clelland in Hapsari (2005) divided two factors that may cause an anxiety.
They are external and internal factors. An internal factor comes from individual
self challenged (intellectual skill, self-doubt, self-abillity). While, an external
factor comes from outside (social environment, competitive situation, goal
achievement, etc). The next discussion is exploring more about what factors can
cause test anxiety among the students.
Half of the TOEFL students stated that they have experienced an internal
factor by doubting their own skill when they did the test eventhough they have
studied well before. Hurlock (2003) said that anxiety may come because of an
uncertainty of what people will face an uncomfortable feeling toward themselves.
The students were uncertain about how hard the test would be. Besides that, they
“overquestioned” themselves whether the test was too hard for their level, or
whether they would be able to reach the score target, etc.
Another factor is categorized as an external factor which, then, lead into
internal factor. The other half students said they have heard bad rumours about
TOEFL test from the senior who stated that the target was too hard to achieve,
even some of them failed the class. As what EU and VL have mentioned on their
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questionnare, they wrote that they heard from their senior friends that the TOEFL
test was horrible and it was really hard to pass the score. These rumours have
influenced their minds. They thought that the test would be as hard as what their
senior told them. Then, they started to doubt themselves and felt anxious to face
the TOEFL test.
Effects of anxiety to the participants
When people feel anxious with a situation or an object, they have two
options to choose. They can go away to avoid it, or they can use it as a motivation
and face it. Bahar in Hapsari (2005) mentioned that anxiety is needed because it
makes the the person become aware of what makes them anxious, and it
encourages them to reach their a self-improvement. Generally, we all know that in
order to achieve something, we need not only a motivation, but also the four
aspects that Clegg (2006) has shared before.
The first aspect is a hope to perform better and get up from their failure to
gain success. Although the students felt scared toward the TOEFL test, they still
did not lose their hope to perform as well as they could on the final test. The
second aspect is a self desire to not repeating the same mistake in the future.
Hearing bad rumours about TOEFL test from their seniors made the students
aware to not fail on their test like their seniors did. No matter whatever it took,
they struggled to success on their test. The next aspect is a self consistency.
“Experience is the best teacher”. The students kept learned from their failure and
21
never gave up. The junior students learned from their seniors’ bad experienced,
and tried to gain more informations. They also studied more, hoping that they
would not fail on the final TOEFL test. The last one is a self encourage to perform
better. Because of their worry toward TOEFL test, the students were finally
motivated themselves to improve their English skill so that they could do the test
well. In brief, it seems that their anxiety really helped them in facing the TOEFL
test.
Basically, there are many definitions about what a motivation is. Purwanto
(2007) defined that motivation is a reason to move, to lead, and to watch
someone’s attitude on the right track. So, ones will be pushed to do something
until they reach their purpose or their achievement. Mc’ Clelland (1987) explained
that a motivation is a stimulus that move a person to finish their challenges and
work harder to achieve what they want. Santrock (2003) mentioned that a
motivation is a will to reach a success.
The results on the questionnaire shows that almost all students in TOEFL
class feel a positive effect because of their test anxiety. Most of them were afraid
to skip the class, because they did not want to miss the materials. Not only that,
they also studied more and tried to prepare their English skills well to face the
test. Even, some of them took a special TOEFL test outside the class (in Language
Training Center or other English courses), only to get prepared for the final
TOEFL test.
The students were aware that the target score to pass the TOEFL test was
uneasy and so high. They were afraid that they could not pass the target, and it
pushed them to study harder. From this reason, we can see that the students still
22
had the four aspects as what Clegg shared above. So, the researcher may conclude
that a test anxiety gave the students positive effects.
Conclusion
For students of the English Department in Satya Wacana Christian
University, it is a must to take a TOEFL test, but it can become a problem when
they feel anxious toward it. This research has found that almost all students
experienced test anxiety while they were preparing and facing TOEFL test. The
anxieties appear in various mental and physical symptoms. The majority of
symptoms that the students have experienced are nervousness, stomach problems,
hands cold followed by rapid heartbeats, disability to think clearly in
understanding the test questions, and overanalysis in finding the correlation
between the questions and the correct answers. The other symptoms such as
insomnia and emotional problems were experienced only by the minority
students.
Two factors which contributed to the existence of test anxiety among the
students are external and internal factors. As English Department students, it is
their obliglation to pass TOEFL test. Otherwise, they must repeat the class if they
failed. Unfortunately, the external factor influences the students’ fears when they
hear bad news from their senior about TOEFL test, and those issues left them with
an uncertainty condition on their mind about how bad the test would be, and how
high the score they can reach. These questions have overwhelmed their brains,
and become their burden. Then, it triggers the internal factor influence. They
began to doubt their skill, and started to worry if they would not be able to pass
23
the test. At this level, we can say that the students has experienced both external
and internal factors of test anxiety.
Finally, this research shows that the English Department students had been
through a test anxiety during the TOEFL test caused by external and internal
factors. Fortunately, their anxiety did not lead them to failure. On the other hands,
it becomes their big motivation to study more, and dig out their English skills.
They even took a short class outside such as a TOEFL course just to reach their
target score and pass the test. So, this research concludes that test anxiety has
given the students a positive effect. As an addition, the researcher hope that later
on the TOEFL students can face their fear towards TOEFL test, make it as a
motivation and show their competitive attitude.
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Acknowledgment
After more than a year I finally finished this journal as the last requirement in
order to graduate from English Department Faculty of Satya Wacana Christian
University. During the proccess of writing this journal, I got many strong supports
from the people around me. First, I praise the God who always gives me strength
to face the problems that I had to face in writing this journal. I also would like to
express my gratitude and my appreciation to Christian Rudianto ,M.Appling as
my supervisor and Dra. Martha Nandari S. Handoko, MA as my second-reader for
their patience, advice, and suppport in the process of finishing this journal. Next, I
want to thank my parents, my sisters, and all of my family who never stop
believing me since the first time I entered this college until now. The last, I also
give a big thank to all of my friends Risviska Yeyen, Ivana Kristanti, Yohanes
Kristianto, Jaclyn A. Kaunang, Jilly Kaunang, Fillia Patricia, Lady Mandagi,
Fenny Jayanti, Priska Violetta, Prilly Christia, Hepi Wulandari, Chiquita Yuliani,
Rai Veronicha, and still many others, for supporting me and for the joy you bring.
Hopefully, this journal can give an information to our educational field.
25
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Christiany ,L. (2001). Hubungan Antara Kecemasan Terhadap Kompetisi
Akademik Di Kelas Dengan Motivasi Berprestasi Pada Siswa Kelas 2 Di
SMU Virgo Fedelis. Skripsi (tidak diterbitkan). Salatiga: Fakultas
Psikologi Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
Hurlock. (2003). Psikologi Perkembangan: Suatu Pendekatan Sepanjang Rentang
Kehidupan. Jakarta: Erlangga.
Osband. (2012). What Causes Test Anxiety?. Retrieved from
http://www.ctl.ua.edu/ctlstudyaids/studyskillsflyers/testpreparation/whatca
usestestanxiety.htm
Hapsari, S. (2005). Hubungan Antara Harga Diri Dengan Motivasi Berprestasi
Pada Remaja Di Dukuh Sidoharjo Salatiga. Skripsi (tidak diterbitkan).
Salatiga: Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
Conway, J. (2007). Anxiety In Second Language Learning; Causes and Solutions.
Michigan University.
Ninawati. (2002). Hubungan Motivasi Berprestasi Dengan Prestasi Kerja
Karyawan. Phonesis-Volume 5 Nomor 8. Hal 75-90.
MacIntyre, P.D., & Gardner, R.C. (1991). Investigating Language Class Anxiety
Using The Focussed Essay Technique. [Electronic version]. The Modern
Language Journal, 75(3), 296-304.
Santrock, J.W. (2003). Life-Span Development Jilid 2. Jakarta: Erlangga.
26
Novita ,D.J. (2005). Perbedaan Stress Kerja Berdasarkan Kepribadian Tipe A
dan Tipe B Pada Supervisor Bagian Produksi PT. Daya Manunggal
Salatiga. Skripsi (tidak diterbitkan). Salatiga: Fakultas Psikologi
Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
Folk , J. (2012). Nausea and Stomach Symptoms, Stress. Retrieved from
http://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-tips/nausea.shtml
Mc Clelland. (1987). Memacu Masyarakat Berprestasi. Terjemahan: Suyatno.
Jakarta: Intermedia.
Puspitasari, E.N. (2007). Hubungan Antara Motivasi Berprestasi Dengan
Kebermaknaan Hidup Pada Remaja. Skripsi (tidak diterbitkan). Salatiga:
Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
Weaver, R. (2012). Are Stress and Anxiety Causing Your Stomach Problems?.
Retrieved from
http://www.empowher.com/mental-health/content/are-stress-and-anxietycausing-your-stomach-problems
Horwitz, E.K, Horwitz, M.B, & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign Language Classroom
Anxiety. [Electronic version]. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125123.
Purwanto, F.A. (2007). Hubungan Self Efficacy Dengan Kecemasan Dalam
Menghadapi Lingkungan Baru Pada Fakultas Mahasiswa Fakultas
Psikologi UKSW Angkatan 2006/2007. Skripsi (tidak diterbitkan).
Salatiga: Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
Wickman, G. (2013). Cold Hands and Feet. Retrieved from
http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/15717/1/Cold-Hands-and-Feet.html
Udju, S. (2006). Perbedaan Motivasi Berprestasi Ditinjau Dari Pola Asuh Orang
Tua Pada Siswa SMP Kristen Kupang Propinsi Nusa Tenggara Timur.
Skripsi (tidak diterbitkan). Salatiga: Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.
27
Appendix
Name/Student Number:
Phone Number:
Instruction: In order to do a study about “Test Anxiety” I need your cooperation
to fill this questionnaire. Please feel free to write down your answer and
explanation on the space given on the paper. Your answer will not affected your
grade on TOEFL class. Thank you.
Part A
1. Are you aware of being really nervous on a test, that you do not do your
best and lose points even though you have studied and prepared well?
2. Does your stomach
ever get tight, feel upset, hands cold, headache,
muscle tense, rapid heartbeat before the test?
3. Do you have trouble sleeping the night before the test?
4. Do you ever find your mind racing and so blank so that you cannot think
clearly during the test? Trouble organizing your thoughts? Reading and
understanding questions? Following directions?
28
5. During the test do you ever forget the material you have studied and
learned, maybe only to remember it again after the test is over?
6. Do you “overanalyzed” questions, see too many possibilities, choose the
complex answer, overlook, and miss the simpler correct one?
7. Do you make any careless errors on a test?
8. Do you find you are easily crying, feeling irritable, emotionally upset, or
getting frustrated?
Part B
1. Do you doubt your own skills before the TOEFL test?
2. Do you get affected when you heard bad rumours from the other students
about TOEFL test? Please explain.
Part C
1. After you have answered the questions part A and B, does test anxiety in
part A and B makes you study more to perform better in TOEFL test?
2. After you have answered the questions part A and B, does test anxtiety
makes you want to skip the class and avoid to study TOEFL?
29
THE CAUSED FACTORS AND THE EFFECTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Indri Limandra
112006077
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
STUDENTS’ ANXIETY TOWARDS TOEFL TEST :
THE CAUSED FACTORS AND THE EFFECTS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Indri Limandra
112006077
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
1
2
3
4
Abstract
Students feeling anxious about TOEFL test is a common phenomenon.
Test anxiety itself is a disorder which leads to a nervousness, fear, and worrying
that can affect the way we feel or behave toward something
(http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/anxiety/). Test anxiety also leads human
body to different physical and mental problems. Therefore, since it is a must for
English Department students to take TOEFL test, this issue grabs the researcher’s
curiousity about what types of test anxiety symptoms the students’ have prior the
profiency test, focusing on factors that lead them to anxiety, and the effects of it.
Using qualitative research method, which included open-ended semi structured
questionnaire and interview, the result shows they had experienced the test
anxiety symptoms such as nervousness, digestive problem, rapid heartbeats, and
still many others. It happened because of both external and internal factors.
Fortunately, as an effect of test anxiety the students become more motivated to
perform better in TOEFL test.
Keywords: Test anxiety, Factors, Effect
5
Introduction
“TOEFL is like a PASSPORT for non-English speaker to go to the US”,
this is what some foreign students said about what TOEFL means for them
because they cannot continue their study in the USA without passing it. In fact,
hundreds of people with different intentions take TOEFL test only to go to the
United States of America (USA) because they know that it is one of the rules if
they want to move there, but what exactly TOEFL means?
In general understanding, Test of English As Foreign Language (TOEFL)
is one of the requirements for speakers of English as a foreign language who
intended to study or to settle down in the USA. For educational purpose, TOEFL
is used as a requirement to know the potential of a non-native applicant in the
USA university or a college to measure their English proficiency in speaking,
listening, reading, and writing in standard American English.
In order to pass a TOEFL test, learners must study hard that can put them
under pressure. That is why there is a possibility that anxiety can occur in
individuals taking TOEFL test. However, anxiety does not always bring negative
effects, but sometimes it can also give a positive stimulus. In some cases,
individuals try to face their anxiety by studying and struggling more in order to
reach their goal on their test, while some are just giving up. They tend to avoid to
study and then a day or two before the test, they start to worry that they have not
studied enough which lead them to an inability to think logically, self-doubt, and
6
anxiety. Looking at this situation, individual may response differently on how
they react to their anxiety towards the TOEFL test.
Even in an English learning institution such as the English Department in
Satya Wacana Christian University, students must pass the TOEFL test on their
last academic year. As a requirement to pass this test, at least students must reach
493 points or more. Any less than that, the students will be considered failed and
must repeat the class. Rumours said that many of them failed on their first test and
they had to repeat the test again. Knowing this issue, some students confess that
they are scared of TOEFL test. That is why it is important to know what kind of
anxious feelings do the language students face? How does it affect them? And
how do they deal with it? This study will try to answer these questions and discuss
this phenomenon that is very common among the second language students,
especially the English students who are still studying at Satya Wacana Christian
University.
Theoretical Framework
As the students of the English Department in Satya Wacana Christian
University, facing a TOEFL test can be very stressful and this may cause an
anxiety among them. Anxiety itself is a disorder which leads to a nervousness,
fear, and worrying that can affect the way we feel or behave toward something
(http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/anxiety/). Students may have some fear
of a certain language subject because of some reasons. As a result, some of them
are afraid to take the class, but they have to join it anyway. Then, they start
doubting themselves, comparing their ability with another student, being passive
7
in class activities, and even it gets worse when they must face the test. These are
simple cases of anxiety in a second-language classroom. Macintyre and Gardner
(1991) categorized the students’ anxieties, which include test anxiety among
other types of anxiety in classroom such as learning anxiety, state anxiety,
audience anxiety, etc.
Test anxiety can be associated with cognitive anxiety. Novita (2005) stated
that cognitive anxiety is something of an upcoming event or an unpredicted
situation that an individual concerns and which causes an anxiety. For example, a
student may not be feeling well that makes him/her difficult to concentrate during
the test, or perhaps the room is not in a good condition to support them while they
are doing the test. This problem may cause anxiety because students feel that they
cannot do the test well. She also explains that there are some certain symptoms
because of anxiousness such as being not relaxed, scared, nervous, restless, and
even afraid to lose control. In simple understanding, students know and
experience it as a worry, diziness, stress, insomnia, nervousness, fear, etc.
The study in Alabama University shows that the symptoms of test anxiety
are the same for almost all students who experience it. The following is a typical
case of test anxiety:
As students enter the class, they feel nervous. They heart starts beating
faster and their muscles are tense. Their hands are cold and clammy when the test
is handed out. Then, they feel anxious. They start to wonder that they have studied
enough but they do not master the material as well as the other students. They
wished they could leave the room to study a few minutes more. Next, they begin
to believe that they lost their ability to remember what they have studied before
8
the test, and when they read the test, they feel that the questions do no longer
make sense. This means they experience a mental block. Their mind refuses to
cooperate and make them feel frustrated, upset, and they cannot relax. Amazingly,
everything that they could not remember suddenly comes back to them after the
test is over. Finally, the began to feel angry to themselves because they could not
remember the materials well during the test.
(http://www.ctl.ua.edu/ctlstudyaids/studyskillsflyers/testpreparation/whatc
ausestestanxiety.htm)
Students who experience test anxiety usually puts lots of pressure on
themselves. They tend to have a high expectation to perform well in every test.
They concern about how people think of them if they failed the test. This situation
may lead them to an irrational thinking and self-doubt which makes them hard to
think logically during the test.
The students’ anxiety can occur because of some factors. They are an
internal or external factor, even in some cases, both factors can also take part.
Internal factors may appear because of students’ self perception in studying a
second
language.
A
research
in
Alabama
University
(http://www.ctl.ua.edu/ctlstudyaids/studyskillsflyers/testpreparation/whatcauseste
stanxiety.htm) introduced about mental component, which said that an anxiety can
be created by someone’s self concern about what is likely to happen. If a student
believes that they will perform poorly in a test, then they will do so. Therefore, if
a student believes in his/ her ability and has a positive expectation of how they
will perform in a test, it will help them to reduce their anxiety. In addition,
Horwitz (1986) claimed that “most of learners’ anxiety comes from their self-
9
concept of ability”. Second language students usually can doubt their own skills
on a certain language subject or language skill. This phenomenon is very common
among second language students. Students think that they are not good in certain
skills such as reading, writing, speaking, or listening. This thought may create
anxiety inside them and finally distract their concentration when they take the
subject or the test.
External factors are influenced by the situation or the conditions from
outside. Take a scene for example, some students do not do well on their study
because they do not manage and organize their time or their course information
which indicate that they are lack of preparation. This condition will create
inconfidence while they are doing the test and lead them to an anxiety. Heider in
Santrock (2003) said, another factor of a test anxiety may come from the social
environment. Students’ may not have doubt on their English skills, but when they
have heard or seen that the other students have failed on a subject or a test, they
will experience an internal factor. Their confidence may be lost and they have
start questioning themselves whether the subject or the test is too hard for them
and whether they will be able to pass it. This feeling will make them feel unsafe
and become aware of the threat which indirectly opens a chance for anxiety to
come in their mind. At this situation, we can say that the student is experiencing
both internal and external factor which is very possible to happen.
Both factors can produce different reactions and they depend on how each
individual respond to it. Some will consider it as a dead end and give up. While,
some will accept it as a motivation for them to fight harder in order to show their
best performance in TOEFL test. As Gunarsa & Gunarsa in Ninawati (2002) said,
10
“Achievement motivation is a power which pushes each individiual to reach
their success in a competition with an exellence goal. The goal here means self
achievement or task perfection”. Mc Clelland (1987) also stated that every
individual with the needs of high achievement will like every challenging task
they have been given and curious to know how far they can go to reach their
achievement. As an addition, Clegg in Udju (2006) defined that a motivation can
appear because there is a will or a need inside someone to reach their purpose. He
also shared four aspects which are connected with a motivation:
A hope to perform better and get up from their failure to gain
success.
A self desire to not repeating the same mistake in the future.
Learn from their failure and never give up.
A self encourage to study more.
So far it is not too exaggerating to say that the English Department
students who take a TOEFL test may experience different fears that may occur
because of some factors, and they may have different effects on each individual.
Finding out what kind of anxious feelings the English Department students face,
and how the anxiety has effect on them, and how they deal with it are the focus of
this study.
The Study
Context Of The Study
11
Based on the common phenomenon about student’s anxiety, this study will
discuss about students’ anxiety towards TOEFL test that happens among the
English Department students at Satya Wacana Christian University. Then, this
idea is extended by answering these questions: What kind of anxious feeling
students’ have about TOEFL test? How does it affect them? And how do they
deal with it?
To find out “What kinds of anxious feeling do students’s have?” There are
several symptoms which can occur when a student experience a test anxiety such
as being not relaxed, self-doubt, lost control, nervous, restless, worry, etc.
Through this study, we want to know how far the students go with their test
anxiety by finding out which reactions that are usually felt by the students before,
during and after the TOEFL test. Those symptoms may appear differently or the
same in each student.
The writer is also curious about “How does the anxiety affect them?” An
anxiety can occur when a student creates his/her own perception inside their mind
and believe that a worse thing will happen. This is a case of internal factor. On the
other side, an external factor happens when a student is being socialized and heard
bad news or issues about the TOEFL test, and then they will start wondering
whether they are able to pass the test. When that proccess happened, without their
realization they has doubted themselves and created anxiety inside their mind.
This study will also discuss about these factors, and there is a possibility that a
student may experience both factors at the same time.
The last question asks about “How do the students deal with their
anxiety?” At this point, an anxiety has a role as a positive motivator or as a wall
12
which blocks the students to perform better on a test. Each student has a different
response towards their anxiety. Some will face their anxiety as a challeng and face
it by studying more to pass the test, while the others are giving up to their anxiety
and avoiding to study. Again, this study will try to answer this question too.
In brief, this study focuses on the students’ anxiety towards TOEFL test,
factor creates that anxiety, and effect of test anxiety which experienced by the
students.
Participants
This study will take the English Department students at Satya Wacana
Christian University who are still taking TOEFL class and about to face TOEFL
test as the participants. The reasons why the writer chose them as the participants
is because it will be easier for the writer to reach them and to keep the validity of
their statements in answering the questionsgiven by the researcher while their
memories are still fresh, because they are experiencing the test anxiety at the time
being. It is important to note that this study will only focus on the TOEFL class
students, without any participation from the English teachers.
Method And Methodology
From the previous study about test anxiety, most researcher used
qualitative
data
methodology.
(http://libweb.surrey.ac.uk/library/skills/Introduction%20to%20Research%20and
%20Managing%20Information%20Leicester/page_54.htm). According to Locke
13
(2000), qualitative research is an approach to gain a deeper understanding of a
person’s or a group’s experience which is not presented in a form of numbers.
For the instruments on this study, the researcher used semi structured open-ended
questionnaires and she also used an interview only when it is needed to clarify
statements in the questionnaires. The researcher uses qualitative data collection
because the evidences can be subjective and can vary. Besides, the answers are
also considered valid because it depends on personal experiences.
Data Collection
On this study, the researcher will use a qualitative data collection by
spreading an open-ended nature questionnaire to minimize the time consuming.
The writer understands that it would consume too much time to collect the
informations by an individual or a group interview. By doing this questionnaire,
hopefully the writer can get all of the information at the same time. The researcher
picked an open-ended nature questionnaire. The researcher
spreaded the
questionnaires to fourty TOEFL students from two classes and let them write
down all things they want to share or explain in the questionaire sheets. Part A of
the questionnaire asks about the symptoms of test anxiety that the students might
experience. In part B, the questionnaire asked about the factor that may lead the
students to a test anxiety. The last is part C, which asked about the effects of a test
anxiety. On these questionnaires, the researcher hopes that the participants feel
free to write down and explain their answers. Not only that, hopefully it also
opens an opportunity for the researcher to follow up her participants statements by
interviewing them, only if it is needed. So, the researcher can dig out more details
14
of their answers on the open-ended questionnaires they have been filled. The time
and location of interview will be arranged flexibly following both interviewer or
interviewee’s free schedule, or they can use a cellphone as an instrument just in
case if both of them cannot see each other. In short, the questionnaires ask about
test anxiety symptoms, factors, and effects.
Data Analysis
To analyze the data, the writer divides the discussion of the questionnaires
into two parts, and it will be discussed qualitatively. The first part contains the
discussion about the test anxiety symptoms and the caused factors. Then, the
second part only discusses about part the effects of test anxiety.
Discussion
As learners of English as a foreign language, the students know that
passing TOEFL test is one of a requirement they cannot decline. Normally, the
score requirement is quite high. Knowing the high score target to pass the test can
make the students feel stress or anxious. Responding to this issue, some experts
come with their own theories from their studies about anxiety. One of them is
Bandura in Fauzi (2004) who defines that, anxiety is when someone cannot
predict or control any object or situation which makes the person feel scared
toward it. In TOEFL class, the students are aware of the situation that in order to
pass the TOEFL test they must reach their best score target which had been
determined. During the preparation for the test, they could not predict how the test
15
would be, and how high they will achieve the score target . Moreover, they feel
uncertain whether they will be able to reach their goal score. Such uncertainty
which the students cannot control, is potential to cause test anxiety. Through a
questionnaire, the researcher found some symptoms and factors contributing to
TOEFL test anxiety, which will be discussed in the first part in this analysis. It is
then followed by the discussion on the effects of test anxiety experienced by the
students.
Symptoms of and factors contributing TOEFL to test anxiety
The data collected through questionnaires about the test anxiety shows that
all participants experienced a test anxiety durings the TOEFL test. They
experienced various symptoms. According to Coan & Raymond in Fauzi (2004),
test anxiety symptoms may appear in different ways such as a stomach ache,
upset, handscold, sweaty, headache, muscle tense and a rapid heartbeat, and still
many others. On the questionnaire number 1 and 2 which is related with test
anxiety symptoms, the students answered that they felt nervous and had
experienced those kinds of test anxiety symptoms. Moreover, most participants
confessed that they experienced around six anxiety symptoms from eight
proposed questions about test anxiety symptoms.
One common anxiety symptom experienced by almost all students is a
stomach problem. Most of TOEFL students from the two classes confessed on
their questionnaire that their stomach felt so tight when they were doing their test.
They said that they felt like there are butterflies in their stomach. Jim Folk, as the
16
President
of
Anxiety
Center
(http://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-
tips/nausea.shtml) wrote on one of his blog that “Stomach and digestive
symptoms are very common symptoms of anxiety. They are caused by how
stomach and digestive tract react when the body is under stress (Anxiety stresses
the body).” Another supportive statement comes from a celebrity stress coach and
the Queen of Stress Relief, Kristen K.Brown who said on Rheanne Weaver’s
article entitled “Are Stress And Anxiety Causing Stomach Problems?” that
stomach
issues
is
a
common
symptom
of
an
anxiety.
(http://www.empowher.com/mental-health/content/are-stress-and-anxietycausing-your-stomach-problems). It means that stress is common reaction
experienced by students, triggered by the uncertainty and the high expected target.
Besides stomach ache, some students said their hands felt cold and their
heart beat so fast during the test. Gary Wickman on his blog, explained how an
anxiety or a stress may cause hands cold and rapid heartbeats. Stress can influence
human’s breathing patterns. Instantly, the person will get a hyperventilation (rapid
breathing) which makes our body hard to absurb enough oxygen, and produce
more adrenaline which increases the speed of our heartbeat. That is why we can
feel
cold
in
some
parts
of
our
body.
(http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/15717/1/Cold-Hands-and-Feet.html).
Indeed, stress or fear may affect human’s metabolism.
The next common symptom before doing the test, but not experienced by
most participants is insomnia (problem of sleeping). On the questionnaire, the
researcher also asked whether the students experienced insomnia in the night
before the test, but the results are not too strong. From fourty students, only
17
thirteen students experienced it. It shows that their test anxiety did not really
influence their sleep time. The rest of the students explained that they get used to
sleeping late, or even to stay awake overnight watching movies or any other thing
on purpose, and it becomes their habit everynight. So that, no matter whether they
have a test or not, they still sleep late at night. It explains why only a small
number of students experienced insomnia. In the other words, insomnia is not
only caused by stress, but also by people’s habitual and random activities.
The test anxiety symptoms can also be felt during the test. A strong case of
test anxiety symptoms that happened to the students is they find it hard to think
clearly. Most of them confessed that they had trouble in organizing their thought
to read, to understand, and follow the directions. Some said, they have read the
test questions so many times, but they found it hard to understand the meaning.
Moreover, some students wrote on their questionnaire that they felt unconfident
with their skills during the listening section test. There are some factors which
made them doubting their listening skill. They confessed that sometimes the
conversation was too long or too slow so that they feel sleepy. Finally, they
missed the conversation and their mind suddenly got blank so that they could not
read and answer the questions. Even they got distracted easily during the test.
Another factor why those symptoms could happen were because of the time limit.
Students were fully aware that the time did not give them more space to
understand the questions and think of the best answer. This situation forced their
mind to race with the time and eventually they chose the answer as fast as they
could.
18
The next test anxiety symptom is forgetting the materials that the students
have studied. Mc’ Donald in Kaplan (1991) mentioned that experiencing too
much anxiety in an academic competition can influence the students’ mindset and
decrease their memory. The result shows thirty five of fourty TOEFL students
experienced it. They tended to forget the materials they have studied prior the test.
No matter how hard they tried, they still could not remember it. What annoyed
them was that all those memories suddenly came back right after the test was
over, but it was too late for them to check their answers. “Regret always comes
late.” They could only accepted it. The two cases above shows that anxiety can
minimize the work of brain.
Moreover, many students also often overanalyze the test questions. It gives
them too many possibilities of a right answer and made them miss the simpler
correct one. It lead them to make careless errors in answering the questions. For
example, one of the students, CA, explained that he overanalyzed during the
reading sections. When he tried to connect the question and the answer,
sometimes he found so many possibilities of the correct answers. Some answers
seemed to make sense to him. So, he overanalyzed, and could not think clearly,
and ended up by choosing an incorrect answer.
Easily crying, feeling irritable, emotionally upset, or getting frustrated are
also other types of test anxiety symptoms. However, the questionnaire result
shows only few students experienced it before or during the test. It seemed that
their test anxiety did not really influence their emotional feelings. Some of them
stated thay they are type of cool students. They explained that whether they felt
anxious or nervous about how the TOEFL test would be, they did not want to take
19
it too seriously. They only tried to enjoy the TOEFL class, the lecturing, and focus
more on improving their English skills to pass the test. It was a good way for them
to keep their emotional feeling in a stabil condition. Although test anxiety can also
influence the students’ emotional feelings, it seems they know how to manage that
so that it is not become a big problem.
Those test anxiety symptoms above might appear because of two factors.
Mc’ Clelland in Hapsari (2005) divided two factors that may cause an anxiety.
They are external and internal factors. An internal factor comes from individual
self challenged (intellectual skill, self-doubt, self-abillity). While, an external
factor comes from outside (social environment, competitive situation, goal
achievement, etc). The next discussion is exploring more about what factors can
cause test anxiety among the students.
Half of the TOEFL students stated that they have experienced an internal
factor by doubting their own skill when they did the test eventhough they have
studied well before. Hurlock (2003) said that anxiety may come because of an
uncertainty of what people will face an uncomfortable feeling toward themselves.
The students were uncertain about how hard the test would be. Besides that, they
“overquestioned” themselves whether the test was too hard for their level, or
whether they would be able to reach the score target, etc.
Another factor is categorized as an external factor which, then, lead into
internal factor. The other half students said they have heard bad rumours about
TOEFL test from the senior who stated that the target was too hard to achieve,
even some of them failed the class. As what EU and VL have mentioned on their
20
questionnare, they wrote that they heard from their senior friends that the TOEFL
test was horrible and it was really hard to pass the score. These rumours have
influenced their minds. They thought that the test would be as hard as what their
senior told them. Then, they started to doubt themselves and felt anxious to face
the TOEFL test.
Effects of anxiety to the participants
When people feel anxious with a situation or an object, they have two
options to choose. They can go away to avoid it, or they can use it as a motivation
and face it. Bahar in Hapsari (2005) mentioned that anxiety is needed because it
makes the the person become aware of what makes them anxious, and it
encourages them to reach their a self-improvement. Generally, we all know that in
order to achieve something, we need not only a motivation, but also the four
aspects that Clegg (2006) has shared before.
The first aspect is a hope to perform better and get up from their failure to
gain success. Although the students felt scared toward the TOEFL test, they still
did not lose their hope to perform as well as they could on the final test. The
second aspect is a self desire to not repeating the same mistake in the future.
Hearing bad rumours about TOEFL test from their seniors made the students
aware to not fail on their test like their seniors did. No matter whatever it took,
they struggled to success on their test. The next aspect is a self consistency.
“Experience is the best teacher”. The students kept learned from their failure and
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never gave up. The junior students learned from their seniors’ bad experienced,
and tried to gain more informations. They also studied more, hoping that they
would not fail on the final TOEFL test. The last one is a self encourage to perform
better. Because of their worry toward TOEFL test, the students were finally
motivated themselves to improve their English skill so that they could do the test
well. In brief, it seems that their anxiety really helped them in facing the TOEFL
test.
Basically, there are many definitions about what a motivation is. Purwanto
(2007) defined that motivation is a reason to move, to lead, and to watch
someone’s attitude on the right track. So, ones will be pushed to do something
until they reach their purpose or their achievement. Mc’ Clelland (1987) explained
that a motivation is a stimulus that move a person to finish their challenges and
work harder to achieve what they want. Santrock (2003) mentioned that a
motivation is a will to reach a success.
The results on the questionnaire shows that almost all students in TOEFL
class feel a positive effect because of their test anxiety. Most of them were afraid
to skip the class, because they did not want to miss the materials. Not only that,
they also studied more and tried to prepare their English skills well to face the
test. Even, some of them took a special TOEFL test outside the class (in Language
Training Center or other English courses), only to get prepared for the final
TOEFL test.
The students were aware that the target score to pass the TOEFL test was
uneasy and so high. They were afraid that they could not pass the target, and it
pushed them to study harder. From this reason, we can see that the students still
22
had the four aspects as what Clegg shared above. So, the researcher may conclude
that a test anxiety gave the students positive effects.
Conclusion
For students of the English Department in Satya Wacana Christian
University, it is a must to take a TOEFL test, but it can become a problem when
they feel anxious toward it. This research has found that almost all students
experienced test anxiety while they were preparing and facing TOEFL test. The
anxieties appear in various mental and physical symptoms. The majority of
symptoms that the students have experienced are nervousness, stomach problems,
hands cold followed by rapid heartbeats, disability to think clearly in
understanding the test questions, and overanalysis in finding the correlation
between the questions and the correct answers. The other symptoms such as
insomnia and emotional problems were experienced only by the minority
students.
Two factors which contributed to the existence of test anxiety among the
students are external and internal factors. As English Department students, it is
their obliglation to pass TOEFL test. Otherwise, they must repeat the class if they
failed. Unfortunately, the external factor influences the students’ fears when they
hear bad news from their senior about TOEFL test, and those issues left them with
an uncertainty condition on their mind about how bad the test would be, and how
high the score they can reach. These questions have overwhelmed their brains,
and become their burden. Then, it triggers the internal factor influence. They
began to doubt their skill, and started to worry if they would not be able to pass
23
the test. At this level, we can say that the students has experienced both external
and internal factors of test anxiety.
Finally, this research shows that the English Department students had been
through a test anxiety during the TOEFL test caused by external and internal
factors. Fortunately, their anxiety did not lead them to failure. On the other hands,
it becomes their big motivation to study more, and dig out their English skills.
They even took a short class outside such as a TOEFL course just to reach their
target score and pass the test. So, this research concludes that test anxiety has
given the students a positive effect. As an addition, the researcher hope that later
on the TOEFL students can face their fear towards TOEFL test, make it as a
motivation and show their competitive attitude.
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Acknowledgment
After more than a year I finally finished this journal as the last requirement in
order to graduate from English Department Faculty of Satya Wacana Christian
University. During the proccess of writing this journal, I got many strong supports
from the people around me. First, I praise the God who always gives me strength
to face the problems that I had to face in writing this journal. I also would like to
express my gratitude and my appreciation to Christian Rudianto ,M.Appling as
my supervisor and Dra. Martha Nandari S. Handoko, MA as my second-reader for
their patience, advice, and suppport in the process of finishing this journal. Next, I
want to thank my parents, my sisters, and all of my family who never stop
believing me since the first time I entered this college until now. The last, I also
give a big thank to all of my friends Risviska Yeyen, Ivana Kristanti, Yohanes
Kristianto, Jaclyn A. Kaunang, Jilly Kaunang, Fillia Patricia, Lady Mandagi,
Fenny Jayanti, Priska Violetta, Prilly Christia, Hepi Wulandari, Chiquita Yuliani,
Rai Veronicha, and still many others, for supporting me and for the joy you bring.
Hopefully, this journal can give an information to our educational field.
25
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Appendix
Name/Student Number:
Phone Number:
Instruction: In order to do a study about “Test Anxiety” I need your cooperation
to fill this questionnaire. Please feel free to write down your answer and
explanation on the space given on the paper. Your answer will not affected your
grade on TOEFL class. Thank you.
Part A
1. Are you aware of being really nervous on a test, that you do not do your
best and lose points even though you have studied and prepared well?
2. Does your stomach
ever get tight, feel upset, hands cold, headache,
muscle tense, rapid heartbeat before the test?
3. Do you have trouble sleeping the night before the test?
4. Do you ever find your mind racing and so blank so that you cannot think
clearly during the test? Trouble organizing your thoughts? Reading and
understanding questions? Following directions?
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5. During the test do you ever forget the material you have studied and
learned, maybe only to remember it again after the test is over?
6. Do you “overanalyzed” questions, see too many possibilities, choose the
complex answer, overlook, and miss the simpler correct one?
7. Do you make any careless errors on a test?
8. Do you find you are easily crying, feeling irritable, emotionally upset, or
getting frustrated?
Part B
1. Do you doubt your own skills before the TOEFL test?
2. Do you get affected when you heard bad rumours from the other students
about TOEFL test? Please explain.
Part C
1. After you have answered the questions part A and B, does test anxiety in
part A and B makes you study more to perform better in TOEFL test?
2. After you have answered the questions part A and B, does test anxtiety
makes you want to skip the class and avoid to study TOEFL?
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