Listening Comprehension and Listening Anxiety: A Case of Basic Listening Class Students at English Department UNP Padang

Abstract

Listening anxiety which makes someone feel tensions, fear, uncomfortable and worry was suspected to affect students' comprehension in listening class. Therefore, this research aims to find the relationship between listening anxiety and listening comprehension of English department students who had taken Basic Listening class at Universitas Negeri Padang. The type of research used in this research was quantitative research. The population of this research was the second year students in Basic Listening Class of English Department. The sample was 30 students who were chosen randomly from the total population using Simple Random Sampling. The data were collected through questionnaire and an English Listening test using TOEIC test. The results showed that Foreign Language Listening Anxiety (FLLA) and Listening Comprehension (LC) have a negative correlation (r=-.006) which indicates that high anxiety blocks the processing of listening anxiety, and when the higher anxiety the students have, the lower listening comprehension they make. Further research related to listening comprehension and listening anxiety is suggested to do.

Listening Comprehension Anxiety: Causes and Suggestive Strategies for Solutions

“…LCA is the fear of misunderstanding, incapacity, or inability to react psychologically to other people's communications (Wheeless 1975). According to Adnan et al (2020), LCA "blocks the students from achieving the best comprehension they can get in listening" (p. 201). Adnan et al emphasized that students with higher LCA have lower listening comprehension.…”

“…Therefore, due to LCA, some English major students have problems comprehending a listening record. For example, Adnan et al (2020) conducted a study on 30 English major students at the University of Negeri Padang in Indonesia to find out the relationship between listening anxiety and listening comprehension. The result of the study revealed that there is a negative correlation between listening anxiety and listening comprehension indicating that students with higher listening anxiety have lower listening comprehension.…”