CHAPTER 3

Methods and Procedure

This chapter present the methods to be used in the study. It also describes the subjects of the
study, instrument used, procedures of the data gathering and the statistical treatment of the data.

This study will determine the effects of language anxiety to the academic performance of senior
high school HUMSS students in Mariano Marcos Memorial High School.

Method of Research Used

This research is quantitative study about the effects of language anxiety to students’ academic
performance. The researchers’ goal is to know the causes of language anxiety and its effects to students’
academic performance.

Subjects of The Study

The researchers picked Mariano Marcos Memorial High School for their study, for it is the most
inconvenient place to conduct their research. The researchers observed that lots of HUMSS students are
suffering from language anxiety. It is a pretty common problem among students whether it’s oral or written.
The students can’t express themselves accurately using a secondary language thus, creating a barrier for
learning might affect their academic excellence.

Validation of the Instrument

The researchers used the FLCAS survey questionnaire developed by Elaine Horwitz, Michael
Horwitz and Joann Cope for it is the best questionnaire for the students who has language anxiety. The said
questionnaire has 3 domain; communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation
where in the questions 1, 5, 11, 13, and 15 are for communication apprehension, questions 3, 4, 6, 8, and 9
are for test anxiety and the questions 2, 7, 10, 12, and 14 are for fear of evaluation. Based on the answers
of the respondents, the researchers computed the average of the respondents strongly agree answers in each
domains since it is the highest level of their certainty. The researchers found out that leading cause of the
senior high school HUMSS students language anxiety is the communication apprehension followed by fear
of negative evaluation and finally the test anxiety.
Data Gathering Procedure

The researchers of this study followed some procedures so that they will be able to achieve the
objectives of this study. Firstly, the researchers constructed the questionnaire which has two parts: the first
part of the questionnaire will answer the reason why students of Mariano Marco Memorial High School
have an anxiety towards the learning of English language. It is an open ended type of questionnaire which
means, the respondents are limited to the answers available in the questionnaire. The questions in the first
part are from the questions in Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale that were formulated by Horwitz,
Horwitz and Cope (1986). The researchers also modified the word ‘foreign’ to English for specification.
Whilst the second part is open type of questionnaire. To know the effect of language anxiety to students’
academic performance, the researchers created their own set of questions which will the respondents will
discuss their answer. Secondly, the researchers then consulted their sample questionnaire to their research
adviser Mrs. Roque and asked for her approval. After getting her approval, the researchers then seek for the
permit to conduct their survey to the principal Mr. Dela Cruz. After the validation of questionnaires, the
researchers then reproduced copies of questionnaires and proceeded to the next step where they finally
conducted their study.