The relationship of motivation, anxiety, self-confidence and extroversion, introversion to students active class participation in an EFL classroom in Turkey

Abstract

Title: The relationship of motivation, anxiety, self- confidence, and extroversion/introversion to students' active class participation in an EFL classroom in Turkey. Author: Meral Kaya Thesis Chairperson: Dr. Phyllis L. Lim, Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program Thesis Committee Members: Ms. Susan D. Bosher, Ms. Bena Gul Peker, Bilkent University, MA TEFL Program This study was designed to explore the relationship of affective variables, specifically motivation, anxiety, self- confidence, and extroversion/introversion to students' active class participation in an EFL classroom in Turkey. This study was conducted at Middle East Technical University Preparatory school. The subjects were 21 Turkish EFL students at the upper- intermediate level of proficiency. The data were gathered by using two instruments : a questionnaire assessing the strength of these affective variables in individual students, and classroom observation to determine the extent of their class participation. Three research questions were asked in this study. The first question concerned the relationships among motivation, anxiety, self-confidence, extroversion/introversion, and class participation. Pearson product -moment correlation was used to determine the strength of those relationships. The study revealed that there was a strong relationship among each of the variables mentioned above. The highest correlation was between self-confidence and anxiety, butcorrelated negatively (r=-.83, £=.000). The lowest one was between motivation and anxiety, and again they correlated negatively (r=-.50, p_=.022). Nevertheless, all variables correlated highly with each other. The second research question dealt with the relationship of motivation, anxiety, self-confidence, and extroversion/introversion to active class participation. The strongest correlation was between self-confidence and participation (r=.74, p_=.000); the lowest one was between anxiety and participation, with a negative correlation (r=.-61, p.=.003). Squared correlation coefficients (r2) were calculated to determine the amount of variance in class participation that could be explained by each of these variables. Results of this procedure indicated that all the affective variables in this study have an important relation to students' active class participation. The highest variance was between self-confidence and participation (r2=54%) ; the lowest one was between anxiety and participation (r2=37%). The last research question investigated to what extent the affective variables used in this study predict classroom participation. Multiple regression was used to determine the answer to this question. The results showed that there was no single predictor among the affective variables, although the total amount of variance explained by all of them was a very strong 60%. When the two variables with thelowest correlations with participation were taken out of the regression equation, self-confidence emerged as the single most important predictor of class participation, and together with motivation accounted for 59% of the variance. The findings of this study indicate that motivation, anxiety, self-confidence, and extroversion/introversion together have a strong relationship to students' active class participation. It can thus be claimed that motivated, self-confident, and extroverted students participate more than unmotivated, anxious, and introverted students. As a conclusion, this study will fill the gap in the literature about the relationships among the affective variables included in vthis study and class participation. In addition, this study suggests the need for teachers to consider the importance of affective factors in understanding the dynamics of students' participation in the classroom.