Effect Of Affect Foreign Language Learning -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Effect Of Affect Foreign Language Learning? Answer: Introducation Reflective essays are such essays which helps the writer in examining the experience which they face in their life. Once these experiences are attained, the writer details about these experiences in order to explore the manner in which they change, in terms of their growth and development from the experiences faced by them. When it comes to communication, they are deemed as an important element in the life of any person and are used to state what the person feels or are going through. Communication is crucial not in the business life of a person, but also in their daily life in context of their social and personal interactions, and their written communication, along with the communications they undertake through their body language or the gestures used by them. Through the self reflection, the individual could learn about the skills which they have, the way they channel their emotions and also the other features for which the reflection is adopted. This particular self reflection or the reflective essay is based upon analysing the communications skills held by the writer and would also approach a first person approach. This would help in getting clarity on the different skills which the writer has and more importantly would highlight the skills which the writer lacks. The analysis would depend on the aspects like assertive perceptions, verbal communications, active listening, and the like. For the purpose of undertaking this reflective analysis, the writer would be making use of the five distinctive diagnostic tools which had been approved by the tutor and would highlight different aspects of the personality of the writer. In order to gain detailed learning on the shortfalls which the person has, and more particularly the manner in which these shortfalls can be given away with, a thorough review of the established literature would be undertaken. This would help the writer in creating an action plan for the next six months, where certain activities and events wo uld be planned, in order for the writer to improve upon their identified shortfalls based on the conducted literature review. For the purpose of analysing the communication skills which I have and which I faced based on the diversified situations, and as indicated in the introduction portion, I have made use of five diagnostic tools. In this regard, the first tool was Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale, herein after referred to as SPCC. This tool helps in showing the manner of the competence of an individual in their communication is analysed by them, based on the different scenarios in which they had to use communication and with the presence of a number of receivers or audiences (McCroskey McCroskey, 1998). The second tool used for the purpose of this assignment was one related to the previous one and this was Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension, herein after referred to as PRICA. This tool helps in understanding the feelings which an individual holds when they have to communicate with an individual belonging from diversified backgrounds. This includes the manner in whi ch such individual behaves when they come face to face with an individual from diversified backgrounds (Neuliep McCroskey, 1997). The third tool I used was also related to the theme of this discussion and this was Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety, herein referred to as PRPSA. This tool was developed to calculate the communication apprehension and is quite reliable where the entire focus is over the public speaking anxiety. This is a useful tool for the purpose of measuring the public speaking anxiety; though, it proves to be inadequate when it comes to measuring of the broader communication apprehension construct (McCroskey, 1970). The fourth tool I used was the Talkaholic Scale. This tool is helpful for the purpose of measuring the compulsive communication habit and also shows the competence of a person based on their nature as being either a talkative person or being a person who talks very less (McCroskey Richmond, 1995). The last tool I used was Nonverbal Immediacy Scale-Self Report, herein after referred to as NIS-S. This tool helps in highlighting the propinquity of a person regarding the commu nication. This tool also highlights the person being positive or not, in their use of the non verbal immediate behaviour undertaken with other people (Richmond, McCroskey Johnson, 2003). In order to use these diagnostic tools, I had to read the questions put in these tools in detail and clearly, and then give the best possible scoring for the specific questions which were asked. In doing so, I had to adopt an honest approach and this is what I did. Once this was done, I was able to get a better understanding on the communication style I follow and also my preferences in this context. In the use of SPCC, I got a score of 77.9, which neither put me in high ratings of SPCC nor in the lower ratings of SPCC. This does leave a lot of scope open for improvement for me as there is a need for me to improve upon my communications, irrespective of the group I interact with; whether it is stranger or dyad. The next tool I used was PRICA where I got a score of 24 which shows that I feel very comfortable when I have to deal with such individuals who have a different background from mine, in terms of culture and ethnicity. The third tool I used was PRPSA, where I got a moderate score of 100. This shows that when it comes to public speaking anxiety, I neither excel at it, nor am I horrible at it. This is aligned with the scores I got for SPCC and both of these tools in combination show that I lack public speaking confidence and become conscious when I have to communicate with the individuals who are not known to me. The fourth tool I used Talkaholic Scale I which I got a score of 31. This puts me in the borderline talkaholics range. This was a contradiction from the scores I got in SPCC, PRPSA, and for the variance in these scores, I would be finding the relevant answers from the literature review. The last tool I used was NIS-S, where I got an overall score of 85. This again puts me in a moderate category and shows that I made an average use of the non verbal communications. From these tools, two prominent areas of improvement for me can be identified, and both of these are related to the communication apprehensions. These two are the communication apprehensions and the fear of speaking in public. These are the two areas of improvement which I have to work upon in order to have a better future. Both of these areas are interacted, but are based on the markings given on two tools, i.e., SPCC and PRSPA. The weaknesses or the areas of improvement which I have can be demonstrated through two small examples which took place in my professional life. Nearly eight months back, I was working in a local cafe and had to deal with a number of customers from all walks of life. When I was new at this job, and had to work as a pastry chef. But for gaining an understanding on how each function works, I was asked to work as a server for two days. On the very first day as a server, I had to serve a customer. However, I felt very uneasy while dealing with this customer and started missing my words and talking very fast. I did manage to serve the customers, but unlike my habit of talking a lot, I could not indulge in a verbal communication with them. Though, during my tenure as a pastry chef, I was easily able to communicate with people who I had been working with. Though, till this day, I find it difficult to indulge in conversations with new people and even in approaching new people. There is one more professional interaction, which is almost embarrassing for me to admit. As a part of my training experience, I was helping in the local community program. As a volunteer, I was asked to getting to different people and getting the forms filled where the different viewpoints of the individuals had to be asked about. The first problem I faced in this was approaching people. Even when I could stop and communicate with the individuals, I was feeling hesitant and even perspiring a bit. The matter escalated when I had to communicate with a number of individuals who approached us to get their interview taken. I started getting more and more nervous and even felt uneasy in my stomach. It was almost as if I would puke. I even asked the nurse available at the camp to help me with my problem, but she informed me that it was merely my anxiety and that I had to cool down. She asked me to lie down for a while. I had never faced this much issue in communicating with others, but as soon as I saw this huge group approaching me, I got very nervous. Ultimately, I could not take their interview. Anxiety is something which is generally experienced by the individuals and can take place due to a number of reasons for the different people. Each person experiences a different type of anxiety and this can take place any time and at any place. This is the reason why anxiety may be present at certain times and at other it is not. The signs of anxiety particularly become visible when they are physical. As per Gaudry and Spielberger (1971), when a person feels anxious, they start showing signs of tremors in their limbs, they start sweating in their forehead and hands and also have flushing in their face and neck. The physical reactions which these scholars have highlighted are just some of the common indicators of anxiety and there are a number of other indicators which are easily exhibited in the anxious people, for instance, stuttering and fidgeting. Woodrow (2006) had been cited by Liebert and Morris (1967) for showing the two types of anxiety reactions, which are later on detailed in this discussion. As per Lazarus and Averill (1972), the anxiety shown in public speaking is the emotion which is based on the appraisal of threat, which covers anticipatory, uncertain and symbolic events. Broadly conceived, these features show that anxiety results when the cognitive system is disallows a person to relate to the world in a meaningful manner regarding their self. Upon a person getting anxiety, the individual is not able to think in a proper manner or even make sense of what they do or say during that time. This results in the individual behaving in a manner in which they should not. This often results in embarrassment being caused to such an anxious person (Gaudry Spielberger, 1971). When it comes to speaking before an unknown crowd, particularly the one from general public, as per Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1991), it becomes a very difficult task for certain individuals and this is especially for the students, who get very anxious when they have to address their own class. Upon this taking place, there is a level of difficulty faced by the student in differentiating between what they hear, in terms of the sounds, and the structure which surrounds this. They even have a difficulty in comprehending the very basic and simple words used in daily lives. There are other scholars who have shared similar thoughts in this regard and in this context, the word of Dunbar, Brooks and Miller (2006) also needs to be discussed. They state that when the students have to deal with something which is a very crucial aspect in their life, particularly in context of the communications skills, they often become apprehensive. The reason for putting focus on this issue stemmed from the need of good communication skills in order for a person to make the transition from the student life to professional life. The other literature which held the same view and which discussed further on this matter was the one of Beatt, Balfantz and Kuwabara (1989). They highlighted that when it comes to public speaking, there is presence of emotional disposition, which comes even before an individual has to speak and relates to anxiety. In line with this, there have been two common types or categories in which an individual reacts when they have to speak in public, for the anxiety felt by them (Woodrow, 2006). The first category is of the psychological reactions and the second category is of cognitive reactions. In terms of the psychological reactions, there is such a reaction from the body, that the body starts showing certain symptoms of anxiety. These symptoms include a person stammering, blabbering or mixing out the words, or their heart rate speeding. In terms of the cognitive re actions which an individual has to deal with, when it comes to public speaking, the person starts building a negative environment in their brain, where they degrade themselves and their work, resulting in lost confidence. This leads to a person becoming disoriented and channelling such negative thoughts. In communication skills, public speaking is an issue which leads as a cause of problem for a number of people. This is faced by people from all walks of life and relates to the apprehensions faced by an individual whilst dealing with people who are not known to them (Jaffe, 2015). In view of North and Rives (2001), where any individual was asked to speak in public, the majority would face apprehensions and would get anxious. The situations surrounding public speaking are such that the people start feeling anxious about the notion of public speaking and start depicting different signs, which are linked with the previous scholars. The signs highlighted by these scholars include gastrointestinal discomfort, sweating, palpitating, discomfort, confusion, heart racing, feeling of uneasiness and other related symptoms. Burnley, Cross and Spanos (1993) have even put a number on this and they state that nearly 85% of the individuals faced this problem. As per Scovel (1991), by facilitating th e feeling of anxiety and that too in a learned and proper way, it could garner positive result. Where this is not done, it results in the poor performance of a person. There have been certain scholars who have even traced back the history of public speaking and its first mention in literatures in terms of being a problem. They dated the issue of public issue back to 1935 and its neighbouring years. Again, they threw light on the symptoms depicted by a person when they felt anxiety and these were in terms of uneasiness and apprehensions. The unique point which they provided in comparison to the other scholars was that these symptoms were shown as if a person felt very threatened. Amongst the different types of anxiety is the speaking anxiety. This is one issue which can greatly affect the performance of a person and is related to the public speaking aspect. MacIntyre (1999) cited the work of Horwitz et.al (1986) for putting across the viewpoint that the language anxiety is originated from three key sources, i.e., the communication apprehension, the fear of negative evaluation by the others and the test of anxiety. These three sources are connected to speaking anxiety. The communication apprehension and the fear of negative evaluation are related as the former is caused by the latter. Where a person fears to be appearing as awkward, incompetent or foolish in their peers eyes, they make attempt to communicate in a confident manner, but this is something which is always not possible. The opinion of Ohata (2005) has been cited by Young (1991) in stating that there is a self perceived low ability in the students in a second language or in a foreign language and th ese are the most possible candidates for the langue and other types of anxiety. Phillips (1992) too channels the same viewpoint and provides that there is high language anxiety amongst the students. Von Worde (2003) has highlighted that the fear of communication in an oral manner and the public speaking anxiety are long accepted as being a psychological phenomena. A person is not anxious when they talk amongst their own social or friend circle, as the people there are known to them. The anxiety comes with strangers and in certain cases is also marked by intercultural apprehensions. Due to such studies, it remains unsurprising that the individuals get butterflies in their stomach when faced with public speaking. MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) have also presented another aspect to the symptoms of fear of speaking in public, where they state that when it comes to a person feeling anxious, they have a poor retrieval of items from their memory, which would not have been affected had they been communicating with someone they knew. This view is again aligned with the discussion of different literatures carried on above. In order to work upon anxiety and almost to get a win over it, there is a need to facilitate the anxiety faced by the person. This can be done by teaching the individual on how to deal with their apprehensions and the manner in which certain problems could be overcome with. When this is done, an individual can easily channel their anxiety and uneasiness in an effective and almost positive way (Jones, 2004). Through the facilitation of these feelings of anxiety, a person could be allowed to learn in a better way, along with their perceptions and attitudes towards public speaking being changed (Ohata, 2005). There was a need for communication skills to be proper and refined in order for a person to have good interpersonal working relationships (Russ, 2012). If a person has to excel in their business or professional life, there is a need for the person to work upon their public speaking skills and give away the apprehensions they have (Marinho, Medeiros, Gama Teixeira, 2017). Through the literature review conducted above, I was able to gain a better understanding on my areas of improvements. However, this is not enough and I need to draw out an action plan which could help me in actually improving upon the areas of improvement. This action plan is made for the next six months, and has been presented on weekly basis. The first and foremost thing which I would be doing is writing a daily blog, which would be like a journal covering the daily highlights of my life. This would allow me to track my journey and present a success graph at the end of six months. As the literature has helped me a lot in gaining insights on my areas of improvement, I would be joining a book club and would be visiting the library on weekly basis. This would serve two purposes. I would firstly develop a habit of reading which would help me in finding the ways to tackle my anxiety and also help me in improving my knowledge base, which would help me in my future professional life. The next thing which I would be doing relates to the experiences discussed in the previous segments of this discussion. I would be going back to the cafe where I worked eight months back. However, instead of working on the role of a pastry chef, I would be working as a server. This would allow me to get a chance of dealing with a new people on daily basis and would allow me to adopt the literature guidance of channelling the anxiety in a positive manner. In line with this, I would also go back to collecting surveys from the general public and this would again enable me to interact with new people, in large numbers. In order to check on my progress, I would be interacting with my tutor for taking new ideas and would also be taking feedbacks on regular intervals. These feedbacks would be the core of my success criteria, along with the growth in my interactions at the cafe. The details of each of these events are better presented through the action plan based on the timeline given below : Gantt Chart depicting Action Plan 14-02-18 01-03-18 16-03-18 31-03-18 15-04-18 Daily Blog Book Club Visiting library Interacting at the caf Collecting surveys Taking feedback from tutor 30-04-18 15-05-18 30-05-18 14-06-18 29-06-18 Daily Blog Book Club Visiting library Interacting at the caf Collecting surveys Taking feedback from tutor Thus, in this reflective essay, I analysed the areas of improvement for me and conducted a detailed literature review on the issues of public speaking and the anxiety associated with it. Based on the literature presented above and the past experiences of my life, I prepared an action plan which would help me in improving upon the areas in which I lack right now. This reflective essay, even though is a requirement of the course module, but it has actually helped me in gaining an insight on what my skills are and more importantly, what my shortfalls are. References Beatty, M. J., Balfantz, G. L., Kuwabara, A. Y. (1989). Trait-like qualities of selected variables assumed to be transient causes of performance state anxiety. Communication Education, 38, 277-289. Burnley, M., Cross, P., Spanos, N. (1993). The effects of stress inoculation training and skills training on the treatment of speech anxiety. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 12, 355-366. Dunbar, N., Brooks, C. Kubica-Miller, T. (2006). Oral Communication Skills in Higher Eduation: Using a Performance-Based Evaluation Rubric to Assess Communication Skills. Inovative Higher Education, 31(2). Gaudry, E. 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