Investigating Learners’ Attitudes towards the Effect of ...

People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

University Larbi Ben M’hidi Oum El Bouaghi

Faculty of Letters and Languages

Department of English

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of

English, in partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Master Degree in Language

Sciences and Teaching English as a Foreign language

Presented by:

BREK Bouchra

ZAOUIA Bouchra

Examiner 1: Pr. Merrouche Sara

Examiner 2: Mrs. Maamouri Hanane

Supervisor: Dr. MERABET Mohamed Hamza

2019/2020

Investigating Learners’ Attitudes towards the Effect of

Language Anxiety on Sight Translation Tasks

The Case Study of Third Year LMD Students of English at Larbi Ben

M’hidi University, Oum El Bouaghi

i

DEDICATIONS

In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

We dedicate this work to our parents for their support and love. May god bless them.

To all those who contributed to the success of this research work.

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the Name of Allah, The Most Merciful, The Most Gracious

First, Alhamdulillah who has given us guideness, protection, security, and health to

finish this work.

Second, we want to express our sincere gratitude to our supervisor Dr. Merabet

Hamza Mohamed for his time, support and advices to finish this work. In addition, we would

like to express our special thanks to the members of the jury

for their comments, critics and time spent in reading and evaluating the work.

Needless to say, we are grateful for all students of third year who answered our

questionnaire.

iii

Abstract:

Language anxiety is defined as being afraid, nervous, and embarrassed when learning a

foreign language. Previous studies have dealt with it in relation to consecutive interpreting

and simultaneous interpreting; yet, only few researches have focused on its effect on

students’ performance in sight translation tasks. Therefore, this thesis seeks to understand and

investigate learners’ perceptions towards the impact of language anxiety on sight translation

tasks. A modified version of Horwitz et al (1986) questionnaire provided quantitative data

from 55 third year didactics participants from the English department at Larbi Ben M’hidi

University. The findings indicated that the informants hold negative attitudes for the effect of

language anxiety on ST tasks. Moreover, the study revealed that the students feel anxious

more in translation module than in the other modules. The research also offers set of

strategies for teachers and learners to cope with language anxiety. As a result of this

investigation, recommendations were identified for future researches.

Key words: language anxiety, sight translation

iv

List of Abbreviations

CA: Communication apprehension

EFL: English as a foreign language

FL: Foreign language

FLA: Foreign language anxiety

FLCAS: Foreign language classroom anxiety scale

LMD: License master doctorate

OEB: Oum El Bouaghi

SL: Source language

ST: Sight translation

TA: Test anxiety

TL: Target language

v

List of Tables and Figures

Table 01: Learners’ gender……..............................................................................................29

Table 02: Learners’ age……………………………………………………...........................30

Table 03: Participants’ English level………………………………………………………...30

Figure 01: FLCAS model by Horwitz et al 1986…………………………………………....16

Figure02: Foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS)……………………….........17

Figure 03: Pie chart related to students' feeling of certainty about solving ST task…….…..31

Figure 04: Pie chart related to students' apprehensiveness of making mistakes in ST……...32

Figure 05: Pie chart related to students' feelings of fear when they do not understand the

content of the text…………………………..………………………………………………...32

Figure 06: Pie Chart related to students' willingness to take more ST course………………33

Figure 07: Pie Chart related to students' thoughts about unrelated things to ST……………34

Figure 08: Pie Chart related to students' thoughts about their classmates abilities compared to

them………….…………………………………………………………………………….....35

Figure 09: Pie Chart related to students' feelings of easiness during test in ST………….....36

Figure 10: Pie Chart related to students' nervousness in doing ST task without

preparation…………………………………………………………………………………...36

Figure 11: Pie Chart related to students' fear from failing in ST class……………………...37

Figure 12: Pie Chart related to students' level of anxiety that might lead them to forget words

they know…………………………………………………………………………………....38

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Figure 13: Pie Chart related to students' unwillingness to volunteer answers of the

instructor……………………………………………………………………………………...39

Figure 14: Pie chart related to students’ anxiety when they do not understand teachers’

correction……………………………………………………………………………………..40

Figure 15: Pie chart related to students’ anxiety in ST tasks even when they are

prepared………………………………………………………………………………………41

Figure 16: Pie chart related to students’ willingness to go to ST courses…………………..41

Figure 17: Pie chart related to students’ fear from teachers’ correction…………………….42

Figure 18: Pie chart related to students’ anxiety when they are going to be called to

translate…………………………………………………………………………………........43

Figure 19: Pie chart related to students feeling towards performing in front of their

classmates…………………………………………………………………………………….44

Figure 20: Pie chart related to students’ anxiety in ST course more than other courses……45

Figure 21: Pie chart related to students’ fear when they do not understand all the words in

the text………………………..………………………………………………………………46

Figure 22: Pie chart related to students’ anxiety when facing complicated sentences……...47

Figure 23: Pie chart related to students fear from laughing at their mistakes……………….48

Figure 24: Pie chart related to students’ fear of evaluation…………………………….........49

1

Table of Contents

Page

Dedication……………………………………………………………………………………...i

Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………………..ii

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………….iii

List of abbreviations ………………………………………………………………………….iv

List of tables and figures…………………………………………………………………...v-vi

General introduction………………………………………………………………………..04

Background and statement of the problem…………………………………………………..04

Aims of the study………………………………………………………………………........04

Research questions…………………………………………………………………………...05

Research hypotheses………………………………………………………………………....05

Significance of the study……………………………………………………………….........05

Methodology of research……………………………………………………………….........06

Population and research sampling……………………………………………………………06

Structure of the dissertation………………………………………………………………06-07

Chapter One: theoretical part: Language Anxiety in Sight Translation Tasks

Section One: Anxiety in EFL Class

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….........09

1.1- Definition of anxiety…………………………………………………………………09

1.2- Types of anxiety……………………………………………………………………...10

1.2.1- Trait and state anxiety……………………………………………………………...10-11

2

1.2.2- Situation specific anxiety……………………………………………………………...11

1.2.3- Facilitating and debilitating anxiety…………………………………………….....11-12

1.3- Manifestations of language anxiety……………………………………………….....12

1.4- Factors of anxiety………………………………………………………………….....13

1.4.1- Communication apprehension……………………………………………………........13

1.4.2- Test anxiety…………………………………………………………………………....13

1.4.3- Fear of negative evaluation……………………………………………………………14

1.5- Differences between first and second language anxiety……………………………...14

1.6- Instruments for measuring anxiety…………………………………………………...15

1.6.1 - Description of foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS)………………....15

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………....17

Section Two: Anxiety in Sight Translation Tasks

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………..........19

2.1- Definition of sight translation…………………………………………………….19-20

2.2- Sight translation: mode of translation or interpretation?............................................21

2.3- Difference between sight translation and other modes of translation…………….21-22

2.4- Translation/ interpreting difficulties faced by EFL learners………………….......22-23

2.5- Anxiety in sight translation: previous studies……………………………………......24

2.6- Strategies of reducing sight translation anxiety……………………………………...25

2.6.1 - The role of teacher in reducing students’ anxiety during ST tasks………….............26

2.6.2- The role of students in reducing their anxiety during ST tasks……………………….26

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………............27

3

Chapter Two: Field Work

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….28

2.1. Research methodology…………………………………………………………..............28

2.2. Population of the study……………………………………………………………..........28

2.3. Description of student’s questionnaire……………………………………………..........29

2.3.1- Results description and analyses ………………………………………………….29-50

Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………..............51

Limitations of the study………………………………………………………………............51

Recommendations and further suggestions…………………………………………………..52

General conclusion……………………………………………………………………….....53

List of references……………………………………………………………………………54

Appendices …………………………………………………………………………….........58

Appendix 1: student’s questionnaire………………………………………………............58

Resumé ……………………………………………………………………………...............62

63.............…………………………………………………………………………………ملخص

4

General Introduction

Background and statement of the problem:

Many students enrolled in the English department of Larbi Ben M’hidi University of

Oum El Bouaghi get good marks in translation when it comes to written and theoretical based

tasks. Yet, when it comes to interpreting and sight translation, many students face serious

problems and their performance is questionable. In general, “sight translation is an oral

translation of a written text” as Gonzalez, Vasquez and Mikkelson (1991, p. 401) stated.

Also, Minyar Beloruchev (1999) defined sight translation as “a written translation activity”

(cited in Krapivkina, 2018, p. 696). Moreover, one of the difficulties that EFL learners face is

language anxiety. Different definitions of language anxiety have been provided by many

researchers. According to Macintrye and Gardner (1994) it is “the feeling of tension and

apprehension specifically in second Language contexts including speaking, listening, reading

and writing in foreign language classroom” (p.284). However; Horwitz, Horwitz and cope

(1986) explain language anxiety as “a distinctive complex of self perception, believes,

feelings and behaviors related to classroom language learning process” (cited in Zdena, 2016,

p.4). Therefore, the issue of this study concerns the negative effect of language anxiety on

student’s performance in sight translation tasks. In this respect knowing about that effect

between language anxiety and ST tasks from learners’ perspective is very necessary.

Aim of the study:

This study aims at:

Exploring the impact of language anxiety on sight translation tasks. More specifically,

the study is looking to demonstrate learner’s attitudes towards that phenomenon.

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Identifying some strategies that may reduce this problem in order to enhance students

learning achievement in ST.

Research questions:

To achieve the proposed aims, a set of research questions are constructed as follow:

Q1/ what are students’ attitudes towards the effect of language anxiety in ST tasks?

Q2/ what are the strategies that EFL teachers and learners should do to decrease language

anxiety during translation tasks?

Research hypotheses:

The hypotheses that will be tested in this research are:

H1/ Students hold negative perspective towards the impact of language anxiety in ST tasks.

H2/ Language anxiety has a negative effect on ST tasks.

H3/ Students and teachers should use a set of strategies to overcome that phenomenon.

Significance of the study:

Investigators’ personal experience with language anxiety has promoted this research.

Thus, this study will investigate the effect of language anxiety on sight translation tasks. So

far, most studies in the field of translation have focused on simultaneous and consecutive

translation. Hence, it is hopefully expected that the present investigation will make a major

contribution to research on the field of translation by shedding light on the type of sight

translation in particular. Also, it seeks to provide different strategies for language learners to

cope with their language anxiety. It is estimated that this study will contribute to a deeper

understanding of the problem under investigation.

6

Methodology of research:

The present study was conducted using a quantitative research method because in the

treatment of such topics we need to quantify attitudes from a large sample of students. Thus,

the research data in this thesis were drawn from a questionnaire which is a modified version

of the foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS) developed by Horwitz et al (1986).

After obtaining all the data required, it will be analyzed in a descriptive way in the practical

part.

Population and research sampling:

Third year LMD students of didactics in the department of English at Larbi Ben

M’hidi University were chosen as a case study to conduct this research. This population was

opted for since they have prior knowledge about translation and will deal with sight

translation tasks in the second semester. Therefore, we expect them to answer our

questionnaire appropriately.

Structure of the dissertation:

The present research includes a general introduction about the topic which contains

the statement of the problem, the aims of the study, the research questions and hypotheses,

the significance of the research and the methodology of research. Also, the thesis is divided

into two chapters; the first chapter tackles the theoretical side of the study whereas the second

represents the practical side.

Chapter one seeks to lay out the theoretical dimensions of the research, it is composed

of two sections. The first section is devoted to the first variable, Language anxiety in details

including: definition and types of anxiety, factors of anxiety, differences between first and

second language anxiety and instruments for measuring anxiety while the second section is

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concerned with the second variable which is sight translation tasks. It includes: definition of

sight translation, its types, and difficulties faced by EFL learners in translation and so on.

Chapter two describes the method that is used in this research. It analyses the data

gathered, addresses each of the research questions in turn, summarizes the main research

findings, and includes a discussion of the implication of the findings to future research into

sight translation.

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Chapter one: Theoretical Part

Section one: Anxiety in EFL Class

Introduction

1.1- Definition of anxiety

1.2- Types of anxiety

1.2.1. Trait and state anxiety

1.2.2. Situation specific anxiety

1.2.3. Facilitating and debilitating anxiety

1.3- Manifestations of language anxiety

1.4- Factors of anxiety

1.4.1. Communication apprehension

1.4.2. Test anxiety

1.4.3. Fear of negative evaluation

1.5- Differences between first and second language anxiety

1.6- Instruments for measuring anxiety

1.6.1. Description of foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS)

Conclusion

9


Section one: Anxiety in EFL Class

Introduction

Learning any language is no longer seen as mastering the basic forms and structures.

Nowadays in foreign language context, students learn a language for many concrete purposes

such as: school requirements and finding a job, moreover, they seek to be communicatively

competent. However, some students may feel anxious when they come to use the language

due to many factors. Many studies prove that students experience higher levels of anxiety in

foreign language classes than in math and history (Horwitz et al.1986, Macintrye and

Gardner.1989). Furthermore, this section will introduce an overview about language anxiety

with its definitions, its types and possible factors that lead to anxiety in learning. In addition,

it sheds the light on the difference between first and second languages anxiety with

mentioning the research tools that help in measuring anxiety level of EFL students.

1.1.Definition of anxiety

Anxiety refers to the negative vibes and feelings that cannot be seen or controlled by

students i.e. it is associated with feeling of nervousness, fear, threat, avoidance of classroom

participation while learning a FL as explained in (Zdena, 2016, p. 3). Researchers have

focused on the nature and the logical reasons behind this behavior in order to have better

understanding of the phenomena. In fact, language anxiety was defined by many researchers

and psychologists but the most prominent definition was given by Horwitz et al, (1986) as

follow “it is a distinct complex of self perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to

classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning

processes”(cited in Oteir & Al-otaibi, 2012, p. 312). According to Doubek and Anders

(2013), Anxiety can be defined as:

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A mental and physical state characterized by specific emotional, physical,

cognitive and behavioral symptoms. It is an adaptive reaction which

mobilizes the organism and helps it defend, attack, and avoid an anxiety

Stimulus. The stimulus can be a previous external or internal antecedent

trigger” (cited in Zdena, 2016, p. 3).

On that account, anxiety is seen as a response to any external or internal factor, i.e.

anxiety stimulus. However, Spielberger defined anxiety with simple words as “An unpleasant

emotional state or condition which is characterized by subjective feelings of tension,

apprehension, Nervousness, and worry” (spielberger, 1972, p.482).

1.2.Types of anxiety

Foreign language anxiety is a specific type of anxiety that is associated only with FL

contexts and it is related to the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing).

Furthermore, researchers studied the relationship between FLA and other anxieties. On this

basic, five main types have been identified: state anxiety, trait anxiety, situation specific

anxiety, facilitating anxiety, and debilitating anxiety.

1.2.1. State anxiety

State anxiety is “the apprehension that is experienced at a particular moment in time

as a response to a definite situation” (Ellis, 1994, cited in Alshahrani, 2016, p.67). That is to

say that it is a temporary emotional state that everyone may experience when they feel danger

in a specific situation. For instance, some students feel afraid of speaking in front of their

teachers and classmates even though they had background knowledge about the topic

presented. This type of anxiety goes away when the situation that is considered as a threat

goes away.

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1.2.2. Trait anxiety

It is a personality characteristic caused from fear, worries across many situations but

the level of that anxiety differ from one situation to another. According to Spielberger (1983)

“trait anxiety is defined as an individual tendency to be anxious in any situation” (cited in no

name, 2016, p. 30). Moreover, State anxiety and trait anxiety goes hand in hand, whenever

the level of trait anxiety is higher; the level of state anxiety is higher too. Moreover,

according to Brown (2000), Scovel (1978), and Baily &Nunan (1996) “people that are

generally with high tension of stress in many things are more related to trait anxiety” (p.250).

1.2.3. Situation-Specific Anxiety

Foreign language anxiety is distinct from trait and state anxiety and it is classified as

situation specific anxiety. “This type of anxiety is promoted by specific set of conditions for

example public speaking or participation in class” (Ellis, 2008, no page). That is to say that

people who have this type of anxiety may feel nervous in one situation but not in others.

1.2.4. Facilitating Anxiety

“Facilitating anxiety motivates the learner to fight the new learning task” (Scovel,

1978, p.139), i.e. this type of anxiety have a positive effect on student's learning achievement

in which it stimulates and activate his brain to work hard in order to accomplish the required

task and even to concentrate more rather than avoid doing tasks. In this respect, Scovel

(1978) suggests that facilitating anxiety pushes the learner to do his best in order to overcome

his lacks, and to limit the negative effects of anxiety that disturbs their learning (cited in

Abderrazzag, 2010, p.8).

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1.2.5. Debilitating Anxiety

“It is a type of anxiety that motivates the learner to flee the new learning task; it

stimulates the individual emotionally to adopt avoidance behavior” (Scovel, 1978, p.139). In

other words, this type of anxiety has a negative effect on learner's performance in which it

stimulates his brain to withdraw from doing the necessary tasks while learning. For example,

the learner runs away from doing an oral exam or presentation because of fear from teachers’

negative judgments.

1.3. Manifestations of foreign language anxiety:

Many people think that manifestations/symptoms of language anxiety while learning a

foreign language are Obvious and easy to know. However, it has received much attention by

researchers and foreign language teachers who have attempted to find out in what way

students suffer from such a problem using diaries, interviews and scales in their studies.

Hence, different views and categories of language anxiety were identified. Leary(1982)

identifies three main kinds of behavior associated with anxiety in social situations: Arousal-

mediated responses, disaffiliate behavior, image protection behavior (Cited in Jean T.

Stephenson Wilson, 2006, pp50-51).

The first behavior appear when the person becomes too active in which he fidgets and

squirms while seated, often feeling restless. The second behavior is when the person avoids

doing the necessary tasks and avoids preparing at home and even being unable to engage in

classroom activities and dialogues. The third behavior is exemplified by smiling and nodding

frequently, by seldom interrupting others, focusing on frequent communicative feedback like

(uh-huh) (Leary, 1982, cited in Young, 1991, pp. 429-430).

13

Furthermore, MacIntyre (1995) identified three components of language anxiety:

Cognitive, affective and behavioral. The first aspect (cognitive) increases in distracting self-

related cognition, expectations of failure and a decrease in cognitive processing ability (cited

in Belgin, 1999, p46), while the second aspect (affective) is associated with feelings of worry

and frightening. The third aspect (behavioral) is about being neutral and silent and avoid

engaging in any situation.

1.4. Factors of anxiety

In order to solve any problem, it is needed to know about its causes first. It is now

well established from a variety of studies that there is a positive correlation between language

speaking anxiety and communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative

evaluation (Horwitz et al, 1986, cited in kitano, 2001).

1.4.1. Communication apprehension

Communication apprehension is an important factor in language anxiety. According

to James Mc Croskey “it is the broad term that refers to an individual’s fear or anxiety

associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons”

(cited in Lahgui, 2017, p. 9). That is to say, a person who experiences CA is uncomfortable

when using TL. This may cause physical responses in any particular situation as sweating,

shaking, and being unable to recall pieces of information.

1.4.2. Test anxiety

Test anxiety is a “type of performance anxiety stemming from a fear of failure”

(Horwitz et al, 1986, p.127). Students usually experience anxiety when evaluation takes

place; the idea that they may have bad marks or fail in the test will affect their performance

for sure. Horwitz et al (1986) explained that TA threatens the language performance.

14

Undoubtedly, it makes the student loses his self confidence and keeps thinking that he will

fail the task or test (cited in Salhi, 2015, p. 15).

1.4.3. Fear of negative evaluation

As its name suggests, the student fears from his peers’ assessment, more specifically,

when they point to his mistakes or criticize him negatively. As a result, he will be

discouraged to learn, to participate, or to perform in any situation. “It is an extension of TA”

(cited in Salhi, 2015, p. 16), since test talking situations are evaluation situations. However,

unlike TA which is limited only to test talking situations, fear of negative evaluation may

occur in social evaluation situations (cited in Lahgui, 2017, p.10). Horwitz and Cope (1986)

gave a clear definition for that factor, they stated that it is “an apprehension about others’

evaluation, avoidance of evaluative situations, and the expectation that others would evaluate

oneself negatively” (cited in Lahgui, 2017, p.10).

1.5. Difference between first and second language anxiety

Whether we are speaking our mother language or a second language in public

situations, language anxiety is there. However, many scholars hold the view that both

anxieties differ. It is thought that the anxiety experienced when speaking the FL seems to be

more debilitating than the anxiety experienced when speaking the first language (cited in

Tanveer, 2007, p.3). For that reason, speaking a second language needs more efforts than the

first language. The speaker has to pay attention to grammatical structures, words

pronunciation, selection of vocabulary and so many complicated matters (cited in Salhi,

2015, p.8).

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1.6. Instruments for measuring language anxiety

There are several instruments to measure language anxiety. Zheng (2008) summarized

them into three ways: behavioral, observation, physiological assessment or participants’ self-

report. To begin with behavioral test, it focuses on observing the actions of a subject as

sweating and blushing. Second, physiological assessment that focuses on the techniques of

taking heart rates, blood pressure, and palm sweating of the subject in order to be correlated

with his emotional state. Last and not least, According to Zheng (2008) “participants’ self-

reports are usually used to examine anxiety in educational studies where participants are

asked to report their internal feelings and reactions (cited in Khiari, 2016, p.9).

Moreover, there are different scales to measure language anxiety, including: personal

report of communication apprehension (PRCA) by Mc Croskey in 1970, speaking anxiety

scale by Cleverger and Halvorsan in 1992, personal report of public speaking anxiety by Mc

Croskey in 1970, and the most commonly used one FLCAS foreign language classroom

anxiety scale by Horwitz et al in 1986 (cited in Khiari, 2016, p.10).

1.6.1. Description of foreign language classroom anxiety scale

Horwitz et al (1986) described FLCAS as “a self-report measure which assesses the

degree of anxiety, as evidence by negative performance expectancies and social comparison

psycho-physiological symptoms and avoidance behaviors” (cited in Boukeffa, 2018, p.13). It

is more useful than other scales because it considers the three factors of anxiety,

communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of peers’ and teachers’ assessment. It

contains 33 statements that reflect feelings about the English class, the subject should read

them carefully and indicate whether he strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly

disagree.

16

.

Figure 01: FLCAS model by Horwitz et al 1986

Looking at figure 01, it is apparent that Horwitz model is related to the three anxiety

factors as mentioned before. It is composed of three categories; each category consists of a

number of items from the scale.

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Figure 02: foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS)

Conclusion

The elements discussed in this section reveal important pieces of information

concerning anxiety in EFL classrooms. EFL learners suffer from different types of language

anxiety, the reason behind each type differ from one learner to another because of learners

differences. Moreover, not all students have high levels of anxiety; they may know the degree

of their anxiety by answering the most common scale of FLCAS.

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Section two: Anxiety in Sight Translation Tasks

Introduction

2.1- Definition of sight translation

2.2- Sight translation: mode of translation or interpretation?

2.3- Difference between sight translation and other modes of translation

2.4- Translation/ interpreting difficulties faced by EFL learners

2.5- Anxiety in sight translation: previous studies

2.6- Strategies of reducing sight translation anxiety

2.6.1 - The role of teacher in reducing students anxiety during sight translation tasks

2.6.2- The role of students in reducing their anxiety during sight translation tasks

Conclusion

19

Introduction

Students who learn English as a foreign language are more and more in need of

having translation module in their schedules. Sight translation is usually learned and

practiced as a mode of translation and interpretation with advanced-level students. Most of

English teachers are aware of sight translation benefits in developing student's reading and

speaking skills since it depends on reading the written text and then translating it orally. It

goes without saying that students will face many problems in doing this process; troubles in

pronunciation, in reading or speaking may be related to many factors among which we may

cite language anxiety. In this sense, this section is devoted to explore sight translation starting

with its definition and special reference to its process, then moving to discuss the difference

between ST and other modes of interpreting. In addition to tackling difficulties that students

may face while doing ST tasks, and finally suggesting some strategies that may help students

reduce their language anxiety while sight translating.

2.1- Definition of Sight translation

According to Gonzalez, Vasquez and Mickelson (2012), “Sight translation is the act

of oral translation of written text and it is a combination of translation and interpreting” (cited

in Fatollahi, 2016, p. 153), i.e. sight translation task is when the interpreter/student is given a

written word text (in source language) and asked to translate it orally (in target language), out

loud, and immediately.

“ST is the combination of written input and interpreting as oral output depending on

the context” (Setton & Mott, 2007& Agrifoglion, 2004), since it requires reading and

production synchronization. Moreover, since ST begins with reading the source text, students

must read as much as possible in many disciplines so not to have any problems while reading

the source text and to produce a successful ST.

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Other definition is that of Weber (1990) “sight translation necessitates rapid analysis

of a text, swift information transmutation from one language to another while avoiding

transliteration or literal translation, and the techniques/approaches of public speaking (cited in

Lee, 2012, p.695). What is significant about this definition is that it captures a number of

important features of ST. It stresses the rapid analyses because time is of great importance

while sight translating. Furthermore, it highlights the problem of literal translation, also

known as word for word translation, i.e. translating each word separately without looking for

the whole meaning of the passage. This problem should be avoided in order to transmit the

message correctly.

In fact, this type of translation is used in our daily life activities: in courtrooms,

hospitals, conferences, business, in reading personal letters or medical reports for example

reading ordinance by pharmacist to patients. Also, this type of translation has been taught as a

separate course in most translation and interpretation programs in Europe for instance in

ESIT (école supérieure d'interprétes et de traducteurs, Université de la Sorbonne nouvelle

Paris 3). Sawyer (2004) refers to the fact that 30 to 50 percent of translation classes in Spain

are spent on ST and it becomes a branch of study.

ST process makes the interpreter/ student think about the equivalent words in target

language while reading the source text; so, he has to store some words in short term memory

but if the sentences are quite long, the interpreter/student has to make more efforts and with

more training this will be very beneficial in developing the four skills and also the mental

skills. This has been proved by Pratt (1991) who stated that “ST exercises contribute to

developing mental skills ;such as comprehension speed, memory, ability to perceive the

whole text, not its separate parts, ability to visualize key words, synthesizing skills, ability to

avoid using false cognates”(cited in Krapivkina, 2018, p.696).

21

2.2- ST: mode of translation or interpretation?

Since ST is the reformulation of verbal/oral output (target language) from the written

input (source language), it is considered by many researchers as a hybrid of translation and

interpretation. However, most of researchers see it to be closer to interpretation. According to

Dragsted & Hansen (2009) “… it still remain closer to interpreting than written translation

due to the linguistic interference resulting from accessibility to the source text, expectation of

speed delivery and the change in medium (written to spoken)” (cited in khoshsalighehh, M &

Baghi, H, 2019).

ST is the process of manipulating visual and oral modality and can be defined as “a

specific type of written translation as well as a variety of oral interpretation” (Lambert, 2004,

p.298). Thus, ST is in an area between translation and interpretation because translation is

the transformation of written text from one language to another and interpretation is the

translation of written text orally ( work with the two modes at one time).

2.3- Difference between ST and other modes of interpretation

Three types of interpretation have been used in different settings (conferences,

business, and courts): simultaneous interpretation, consecutive interpretation and Sight

translation; each mode work for special needs and require the use of different strategies

Simultaneous interpretation also known as conference interpreting and it is the

reproduction of the SL into TL by the interpreter as the same time as submitting the original

speech as it is explained in Shao Chuan Wu (2010):

Simultaneous interpretation is provided to the audience in real time as the

speakers deliver their speeches. So that conference delegates from different

cultures and languagç²²e backgrounds can communicate without delays.

Conference interpreters, who work behind the scene in a sound-proof booth,

22

are the core members of a team that facilitate this multilingual

communication process (p.2).

Consecutive interpretation is the reproduction of SL into TL after the speaker has

finished a part or the whole of the original speech. The interpreter may take notes and it is

almost used in legal setting like in victim, suspect, witness and police interviews. This is

explained in AIIC’s (2010) definition:

The interpreter providing consecutive interpreting sits at the same table

with the delegates or at the speakers’ platform and interprets a speech into

the target language after the speaker speaks. The length of the speeches

varies. For this purpose the interpreter may take notes (cited in Seyda, 2011,

p.11).

Some scholars advocate the idea that ST requires no memory efforts comparing to

other types of interpretation while others said that the interpreter may sight translate the

written text with short term memory effort especially when the sentences are too long or

when there is a syntactic difference between the SL and TL especially if the two languages do

not belong to the same route.

Another difference raised by many scholars is the nature of ST input (the written

document) and its’ possibility of interfering in translation. Agrifoglio (2004) noted that “the

two main differences between the input in ST and in interpreting from an oral source are

related to the opposition between oral and written language, and between the reading and

listening processes”. She argues that reading and listening processes are different because the

written text is more complex in various areas (syntax, lexis, style) than oral speech.

2.4- Sight translation/ interpreting difficulties faced by students

There is no doubt that students will face problems before, during, or after any

interpreting or translation task, because the interpreting process is not an easy matter. Only

23

one mistake may ruin the whole message, according to Skolastika (2017) "anxiety becomes

one of the factors determining the success of the interpreting course" (p. 50).

There are many problems that may affect ST performance including language

problems, cultural problems, and textual problems. Linguistic problems come first.

According to specialists in the field of translation, the translator does not share the sense of

linguistic forms, but he interprets (cited in Laura, 2016, p. 53). Since all what matter is to

transfer the source text from one language to another. EFL learners may have problems with

the language forms used. For instance, the language may be hard or full of figures of speech

that may cause a difficulty in finding equivalences of words in the target language.

Moreover, according to Ghazala (1995: 20) translating the cultural terms is one of the

most complicated issues in translation. He also argued that "if the translator ignores the

relationship between language and culture, he will face difficulties when translating (p.193),

(cited in Benaboud , 2019, p.12). That is to say, if the translator does not know both the

source and the target culture, he will misunderstand the message and transfer it wrongly

especially when the two cultures are totally different. The translator must identify first the

cultural elements and decode them then he can complete his translation task.

Textual problems are so common. These problems have to do with coherence and

cohesion. If the source text is coherent, it would be easy for the translator to understand it and

vice versa. When the translator has understanding problems, he will fail in transmitting the

message or his translation will lack coherence. Concerning cohesion, it is "related to the

organization of the text, the sequence of ideas in the text, and must observe the

morphological and syntactic standards" (cited in laura, 2016, p.55). In this respect, if the

source text is well organized and the flow between the ideas is untroubled, the translation will

24

be organized and untroubled as well. These problems will affect the EFL learners or any

translator negatively. As a consequence, they will be anxious and fail the task.

2.5- Anxiety in sight translation (previous studies):

After reviewing a good number of theses about sight translation, only few studies

investigated its relationship with language anxiety. This part presents these studies in brief as

following:

In the research of Hoorieh Baghi that is entitled: stress in written and sight translation

in training setting. The main purpose was to investigate stress in translation. Non random

sample of graduate and undergraduate students from the north eastern part of Iran were asked

to solve a written and a ST task from English to Persian. Blood pressure and heart rates were

measured before and while solving the tasks. Also, interviews took place after finishing the

tasks to enforce the results. The findings indicated that both written and ST are stressful but

ST is a more stressful task. Furthermore, it revealed that there is no significant difference

between males and females concerning blood pressure and heart rates and the interview data

confirmed these conclusions.

This study differs from the current study in the methodology used as well as the

choice of the sample. Yet, it has approximately the same aim.

Another interesting study is that of Karen Chung Chien Chang. It aimed at generating

a measure for helping translation and interpreting instructors to understand the challenges that

learners face when performing a ST task. The study involved two groups of participants

including 136 learners. The students were majoring in English and trained in translation for a

whole year. The first group was asked to fill a modified version of Lu and Liao’s

questionnaire in order to identify potential subscales. Then when the refined version with the

25

identified subscales was finalized, the questionnaire was administered to the second group to

make sure that the results from the administration of both questionnaires were consistent.

Then the researcher verified the reliability and validity of the final questionnaire.

This measurement tool may be of great help in conducting research about the same

subject, or in helping instructors in providing some strategies to help their learners in

overcoming their anxiety in ST. the current work also looks at identifying some techniques

and strategies for students and teachers in order to decrease the level of anxiety while sight

translating.

Last and not least, the findings of Amparo and Daniel’s work have revealed that fear

of public speaking is not related to interpreting/ translating. As it is known, fear of public

speaking or facing audience are factors of anxiety. Hence, it is clear that not all factors of

anxiety have the same effect on translation performance.

The results obtained from these studies helped in gaining insights about the effect of

anxiety on sight translation. More specifically, they shed light on the problems that students

and teachers face when learning and teaching translation. Moreover, they clarified that not all

the reasons of anxiety have an effect on translation performance.

2.6- Strategies to reduce learners’ anxiety in interpreting tasks

According to Skolastika (2017), students and teachers should help and understand

each other, so that the students can reduce their anxiety while joining interpreting

activity"(p.51). In other words, the teacher has to provide a good atmosphere for the learners

so that they can deal with their anxiety.

26

2.6.1- Teachers' role

The role of the teachers is to help students recognize their anxiety and provide them

with some strategies or try some techniques that will help them overcome their anxiety. As

Horwitz et al (1986) have explained, " educators have two options in dealing with anxious

students, the first one is educators can help them to learn how to overcome the existing

anxiety and the second is educators can make the learning situation less stressful" (cited in

Skolastika, 2017, p. 12), i.e. teachers should break the ice and avoid traditional methods in

teaching, for example, they can make tasks enjoyable so that the learners feel less anxious

and perform better.

2.6.2- Learners' role

Kondo and Young (2004) explained “five strategies to reduce students’ anxiety:

preparation, relaxation, positive thinking, peer seeking and resignation” (cited in Skolastika,

2017, p. 13).

Concerning the first strategy, it has to do with making efforts to control anxiety level

by improving learning strategies. In here, students may devote extra time for reading

passages so they get familiar with many words, this will raise their self confidence. Second

strategy is relaxation. According to Skolastika, it involves strategies to reduce the physical

symptoms of anxiety (p. 13), for instance, deep and slow breathing and visualization

technique in which the anxious learner will imagine that he/she is calm, confident, and

delivering the correct answer or message, then he/she will increase the chance of doing so.

Moving to positive thinking, it is approximately the same as visualization technique; the

learner needs to send positive vibes into the brain so he can deal with his/her nerves easily.

The forth strategy is peer seeking. In here, the learner needs to find a classmate that suffers

from the same problem so they can encourage each other to decrease their level of anxiety.

27

The last strategy is resignation or giving up. The learner will try to avoid the situation in

which he feels anxious by being inattentive, sleeping in class, talking to classmates or just by

thinking in other matters that are not related to the teachers' talk.

Conclusion

This chapter tackles the relationship between anxiety and sight translation. Since sight

translation is a complicated process, the translator or the student may face many difficulties

or problems while performing it. Some of these problems are discussed in the chapter among

which anxiety which is the main shared problem between all translators. Moreover, this

chapter contextualized the research by providing background information about the two

variables. The most striking observation to emerge from this chapter was that the relation

between language anxiety and sight translation is noticeable because each type of anxiety

affects ST performance differently. For instance facilitating anxiety motivates learners to do

their best to fulfill the task unlike debilitating anxiety which hinders their performance. The

next chapter, therefore, moves to discuss the association between the two variables in details.

Finally, we can say that solving the problem of language anxiety is not an easy task because it

needs great efforts from teachers and learners to cope such phenomenon.

28

Practical part: Findings and discussion

Introduction

This chapter provides detailed analyses for the data collected for this project. The data

were obtained from the students’ questionnaire. The chapter is divided into two sections. The

first one discusses the questionnaire description and findings and the second section provides

the discussion of the final results of the study and the recommendations along with the

limitations of the research.

Research methodology

In this study, a quantitative method has been used in order to determine learners’

perspective about the impact of language anxiety on ST tasks which is the major objective of

this study. As an instrument in gathering data, questionnaire can be very useful. Data were

analyzed by calculating the percentage of students answers (always, often, sometimes, rarely,

and never) in each item.

Population and sampling

Our population of this study is third year LMD English students at OEB University

who are about 157 students arranged in five groups. From this population, two groups where

randomly selected as a sample of this study, they contain 59 students, only 55 of them

answered the questionnaire and the rest were absent. In fact, the researchers opted for this

sample in particular because they have previous idea about ST process and they will be

practicing it in the second semester.

29

Description of the learners’ questionnaire:

The main objective of the questionnaire is to gather as many information as possible

about students attitudes towards language anxiety in ST tasks. It is a modified version of the

questionnaire developed by Horwitz et al (1986), it was submitted to third year LMD students

at OEB University to measure their anxiety with relationship to ST tasks in classroom. For

instance, the original statement was: it wouldn’t bother me at all to take more foreign

language classes. We made some changes to bring it to our context and the new statement is:

it wouldn’t bother me at all to take more sight translation courses.

It is composed of 27 questions arranged in three sections. The first section is named

personal information. It aims at providing data about students mainly about their age, gender

and English level. The second section is titled anxiety in sight translation tasks that aims at

reporting learners’ perceptions about anxiety. The third section is entitled strategies to reduce

ST anxiety. It consists of two parts in which students give their suggestions on how they can

reduce their anxiety by themselves and how teachers can help them in reducing it.

Section one: questionnaire’ results analyses and discussion

Results’ description and analyses:

Section one: personal information

Question one: gender

Gender Number Percentage

Males 9 16%

Females 46 84%

Table 01: learners’ gender

30

From the table above, we notice that most of the participants are females.

Question two: age

Age Number Percentage

From 19 to22 44 80%

From 23 to 36 11 20%

Table 02: learners’ age

We notice that the samples’ age varies from 19 to 36 years old. However, most of

them are between 19 and 22 years old.

Question three: English level

English level Number Percentage

Excellent 0 0

Good 15 27%

Average 39 71%

Poor 1 2%

Table 03: Participants’ English level

The table reveals that the majority of the participants have good and average level in

English. So, we can say that our sample is homogeneous since all the participants have

approximately the same level.

Section two: Anxiety in sight translation tasks

Statement one: I feel quite sure of myself when I am solving a sight translation task.

31

Figure 03: Pie chart related to students' feeling of certainty about solving ST task.

This question aims at identifying the feeling of students toward solving a ST task. An

important percentage (45%) of questioned students answered that they sometimes feel quite

sure of their selves when solving ST Task. 20% of students never feel sure of their answers

and 18%of them rarely when they feel sure of their answers and this can be related to their

lack of experience and practice of ST tasks. In addition, just few of students (2%) informed

that they feel sure but 15% opted for the option “often”. Further analysis of individual

answers shows that these participants are the same who have good level in English.

Statement two: I worry about making mistakes in sight translation

always

2%

often

15%

sometimes

45%

rarely

18%

never

20%

32

Figure 04: Pie chart related to students' apprehensiveness of making mistakes in ST.

From the chart above, we can see that the majority of students (67%) stated that they

always have worries about making mistakes in ST. 20% often worry about making mistakes

and this may be related to speaking anxiety or fear of negative evaluation from their teachers

and classmates. However, very few of them answered with “sometimes” and “rarely”. We

can say that their fear is justified because they think if they commit a mistake they

would be laughed at in the class.

Statement three: It frightens me when I don’t understand the content of the text I am

going to translate.

always

67%

often

20%

sometimes

7%

rarely

6%

never

0%

always

55%often

18%

sometimes

18%

rarely

9%

never

0%

33

Figure 05: Pie chart related to students' feelings of fear when they do not understand

the content of the text.

According to this chart, Most of students (55%) reported that they feel scared when

they do not understand the content of the text they are going to translate. 18% choose the

answer “often” and 18% choose “rarely”. The answers were expected because if they do not

understand the content how they are going to translate it correctly and this will increase their

level of anxiety and they become more frightened.

Statement four: It wouldn’t bother me at all to take more sight translation courses.

Figure 06: Pie Chart related to students' willingness to take more ST course.

The chart above reveals that 42% of students answered that taking more ST courses

would not sometimes bother them. 14% of them have no problem with taking extra ST

courses. Furthermore, 25% of the remaining participants said that taking more ST courses

would bother them rarely and 15% of students choose the option “never” i.e. they never

would take more ST courses.

always

14%

often

25%

sometimes

42%

rarely

4%never

15%

34

Statement five: During sight translation I find myself thinking about things that have

nothing to do with the course.

Figure 07: Pie Chart related to students' thoughts about unrelated things to ST.

This question aims to investigate the student's interest toward ST course. An

important percentage of students (40%) do not think about things that have no relationship

with the course, while 24%said “sometimes” and 24%said that they rarely have ideas that are

not related to ST course. Moreover, a small number of students said that they often think

about unrelated things in classroom (7%) and only 5% of the participants are always absent-

minded during the course (this can be related to personal issues).

Statement six: I keep thinking that the other students are better at sight translation

than me.

always

5%often

7%

sometimes

24%

rarely

24%

never

40%

35

Figure 08: Pie Chart related to students' thoughts about their classmates abilities

compared to them.

This question aims at investigating one of the reasons that led to poor performance of

students especially during ST course. 26%of students always think that other students are

better in ST than them. 29% answered “sometimes” and 16% choose the option “often”. Not

feeling equal with other classmates can negatively influence student's performance although

all the students have approximately the same level (from question three). On the other hand,

18% of students rarely think that other students are better in ST than them and surprisingly

11%never feel that and this may be related to their self confidence.

Statement seven: I am usually at ease during tests in sight translation.

always

26%

often

16%sometimes

29%

rarely

18%

never

11%

36

Figure 09: Pie Chart related to students' feelings of easiness during test in ST.

This question tested the ability of students to stay at ease during tests at ST. 42%of

students informed that sometimes feel at ease during tests which means sometimes they are

not. While 18% answered that they never feel at ease during tests and 24% answered

“rarely”, that is to say that tests of ST frighten learners more than daily tasks. As a

conclusion, learners fear of evaluation more than being anxious about making mistakes.

Statement eight: I start to panic when doing sight translation without preparation.

always

3%

often

13%

sometimes

42%

rarely

24%

never

18%

always

42%

often

31%

sometimes

14%

rarely

9%

never

4%

37

Figure 10: Pie Chart related to students' nervousness in doing ST task without

preparation.

The chart reported that 42% of respondents always panic when doing ST without

preparation. 31% often feel that and 14% answered “sometimes”. The process of ST itself is

translating without any previous preparation and this can be a problem for students who have

an average and poor level of English. 9% said “rarely” and 4% said “never”.

Statement nine: I worry about the consequences of failing my translation class.

Figure 11: Pie Chart related to students' fear from failing in ST class.

Most of students worry about success in their classes and having good marks more

than having knowledge and information. This explains why 52% of the sample always worry

about the consequences of failing more than doing ST tasks. 21% of students answered

“often” and 21% answered “sometimes”. Only 4% of them said that they rarely worry about

the consequences of failing the ST course.

Statement ten: In sight translation task, I can get so nervous that I forget words I know.

always

52%

often

21%

sometimes

21%

rarely

4%

never

2%

38

Figure 12: Pie Chart related to students' level of anxiety that might lead them to forget

words they know.

In this question, a considerable number of students 46% can get so nervous to the

point that they forget words they know. 20% said that this happen to them often and 25% said

“sometimes”. Only few students rarely get so nervous that they forgot words they know,

whereas the remaining participants i.e. (2%) never experience this. We deduce from this that

the majority of the participants are negatively affected by anxiety.

Statement eleven: It embarrasses me to volunteer answers to the instructor in sight

translation tasks.

always

46%

often

20%

sometimes

25%

rarely

7%

never

2%

39

Figure 13: Pie Chart related to students' unwillingness to volunteer answers of the

instructor.

In this question, Students express diverse of answers about feeling embarrassed to

volunteer answers to the instructor in ST tasks. 30% of students reported “sometimes”, while

only 5% said that they always feel embarrassed to volunteer. Where we notice 18% never

mind to volunteer answers followed by other 18% who rarely feels so. This problem may be

because of shyness, negative evaluation from teachers and classmates, and mispronunciation

of words.

Statement twelve: I get upset when I don’t understand what the teacher is correcting.

always

5%

often

24%

sometimes

35%

rarely

18%

never

18%

40

Figure 14: Pie chart related to students’ anxiety when they do not understand teachers’

correction.

Results in the pie chart above reveal that 31% of the participants sometimes get upset

when they do not understand the teachers' correction. Moreover, we find about 27% always

experience this feeling. Whereas 18% often worry about their inability to understand what the

teacher is correcting, 17% said "rarely" and finally 7% of them said "never". I.e. the students

are unaware of their mistakes and they fear that they cannot understand the teachers’

correction and their fault to correct it. As a consequence, the learner feels anxious and the

reaction or the response to the teacher would be unclear or incorrect too.

Statement thirteen: even if I am well prepared for sight translation tasks, I feel anxious.

always

27%

often

18%sometimes

31%

rarely

17%

never

7%

41

Figure 15: Pie chart related to students’ anxiety in ST tasks even when they are

prepared.

Results in the pie chart above reported that the majority of the informants often feel

anxious even when they are well prepared for the sight translation task, where we notice 27%

of them said that they always feel this. Then, 24% of the students sometimes worry about

this. Moreover, 16% said "rarely". Finally, only 2% expressed that they never had that

feeling. We notice that preparation has nothing to do with reducing language anxiety.

Statement fourteen: I feel like not going to my sight translation courses.

always

27%

often

31%

sometimes

24%

rarely

16%

never

2%

always

0%

often

16%

sometimes

29%rarely

29%

never

26%

42

Figure 16: Pie chart related to students’ willingness to go to ST courses.

Results in the pie chart above illustrates that 29% of the total participants sometimes

feel like not going to their ST course. Other 29% of the students rarely feel like this.

Followed by 26% of students who reported "never" and 16% who answered "often". Finally,

no one said "always". Consequently, we can deduce that students like ST courses.

Statement fifteen: I am afraid that my translation teacher is ready to correct

every mistake I make.

Figure 17: Pie chart related to students’ fear from teachers’ correction.

The pie chart shows that 27% of the informants always worry about the teachers'

correction for every mistake they make. Moreover, 26% of them sometimes have this feeling,

whereas 16% often worry about that. That is to say that the correction distracts the students

from answering and this may make them feel nervous, followed by other 16% of students

who rarely experience this. Finally, 15% said "never".

always

27%

often

16%sometimes

26%

rarely

16%

never

15%

43

Statement sixteen: I can feel my heart pounding when I am going to be called on in sight

translation course.

Figure 18: Pie chart related to students’ anxiety when they are going to be called to

translate.

This pie chart illustrates that around 55% of the informants feel their heart pounding

when called on to translate. Furthermore, we find about 18% often experience this. Then 15%

of them reported “sometimes” and 7% said “rarely”. Finally, only 5% said “never”. This way

of calling them randomly raises their anxiety. In order to decrease their level of anxiety, the

teacher may call them in a certain order that they are aware of.

Statement seventeen: I feel very awkward about doing sight translation in front of other

students.

always

55%often

18%

sometimes

15%

rarely

7%

never

5%

44

Figure 19: Pie chart related to students feeling towards performing in front of their

classmates.

According to this chart, most of the informants (27%) opted for the option “always”.

Whereas 24% of them reported “often”, followed by 18% who never experienced that

feeling of awkwardness about doing ST in front of their classmates, that is to say that they are

self confident. Then 16% expressed “rarely” and 15% said “sometimes”. We deduce from

this that the student feels uncomfortable when performing in front of an audience and this

may make him hesitate in answering or avoid answering at all.

Statement eighteen: I feel more tense and nervous in my sight translation course than in

my other courses.

always

27%

often

24%sometimes

15%

rarely

16%

never

18%

45

Figure 20: Pie chart related to students’ anxiety in ST course more than other courses.

Noticing the pie chart above, it shows that 27% of the participants sometimes feel

nervous in ST course more than any other courses. In addition, 26% of them said “rarely”,

22% reported “often”. Followed by 18% who always feel more tense in ST course, those

students may have problems with the module of translation itself or with the fact that it is

based more on practice and they are shy. Finally, 7% expressed “never”.

Statement nineteen: I get nervous when I don’t understand every word in the text I am

going to translate.

always

18%

often

22%

sometimes

27%

rarely

26%

never

7%

46

Figure 21: Pie chart related to students’ fear when they do not understand all the words

in the text.

The pie chart results display that more than half of the respondents (58%) reported

that they always feel nervous when they do not understand every word in the text to be

translated, followed by 20% of them who reported “often”. We can deduce from this that the

majority of the respondents need to know the meaning of each word in the text in order to

translate it and this is wrong. They have to deduce the meaning of hard words from the

context. Moreover, 15% of them said “sometimes”, 5% reported “rarely and 2% said “never”.

Statement twenty: when facing long and complicated English sentences during a sight

translation task, I become anxious.

always

58%

often

20%

sometimes

15%

rarely

5%

never

2%

47

Figure 22: Pie chart related to students’ anxiety when facing complicated sentences.

It is obvious from the pie chart above that 53% of the participants always feel anxious

when facing long and complicated sentences in the text to be translated, whereas 25% of the

students often worry about complex and compound sentences. Moreover, 20% reported

“sometimes”. Then 2% said “rarely” and no one said “never”. We can say that texts with

short and complete sentences would be helpful for them.

Statement twenty one: I am afraid that the other students will laugh at me when I make

mistakes.

always

53%often

25%

sometimes

20%

rarely

2%

never

0%

48

Figure 23: Pie chart related to students fear from laughing at their mistakes.

According to the results shown in the chart above, 47% of the respondents said

“never” that is to say that their classmates’ reaction or judgment won’t make them lose

concentration or confidence. Then, 13% of them reported that they rarely get afraid that their

friends will laugh at their mistakes. Other 13% expressed that sometimes they experience it.

A small percentage of informants chose “often”. Finally, 22% opted for “always” i.e. they

fear of negative judgments of their classmates and they need to get rid of that habit.

Statement twenty two: I will be anxious when knowing someone is going to evaluate my

ability in performing sight translation.

always

22%

often

5%

sometimes

13%rarely

13%

never

47%

49

Figure 24: Pie chart related to students’ fear of evaluation.

Noticing the chart above, we can see that approximately half of the informants get

anxious about the sight translation performance evaluation 24% opted for “often” and 22%

for “always”). Furthermore, 25% expressed “sometimes”. Then 20% never fear from the

evaluation and only 9% said “rarely”. We deduce that the fear of evaluation is one of the

main sources for anxiety.

Section three: Strategies to reduce sight translation anxiety

1. Teachers’ strategies to reduce students’ anxiety

In this section, students were given the opportunity to give comments and suggestions

about how teachers can help them in order to decrease their anxiety in sight translation tasks

and session. It aims to collect some ideas that may work as a solution for their problem. All

the students 100% have answered this question. The majority of respondents stated that the

teacher should provide them with more practice so that they get used to sight translation.

What is surprising is that almost half of those informants expressed a desire for having extra

sessions for practice if the official time is insufficient. Moreover, they reported that they need

more time for reading the source text as well as time for getting ready so that they will not

always

22%

often

24%sometimes

25%

rarely

9%

never

20%

50

panic. In addition, they reported that when they are performing the task, they lose

concentration easily. Therefore, they explained that the teacher should never interrupt them

during their performance by correcting their mistakes. They emphasized that the teachers’

comments should be in a positive manner so that they will not be discouraged. Another

suggestion was about the length and the language of the text. The majority of the respondents

preferred to start translating sentences or easy short texts then moving gradually to hard long

texts. Finally, approximately all the participants want to translate alone, that is to say that

they do not feel comfortable facing their classmates.

2. Students strategies to reduce their anxiety

In this question, students were asked to give some strategies that they may use to

reduce their anxiety in ST tasks. A common answer between most of students is practice and

self- confidence. Since anxiety is associated with bad feelings and emotions like threat and

fear, successful ST task performance depends on one’s self motivation and student's ability to

be positive in front of challenges. Other strategies that were mentioned by a lot of students

are well preparation, reading books and magazines which can help to minimize the chances

of not understanding words in source language while sight translating. Moreover, some

students said that reading and practicing ST tasks in home can lead them to succeed in doing

it in class by focusing on translating the whole meaning of the text rather than translating

word by word.

Conclusion:

Based on the main findings of students’ responses of 22 items that shed the light on

diverse of aspects related to students attitudes, feelings and behaviors toward language

anxiety and its impact on ST tasks performance, language anxiety has a negative influence on

their attitude and their performance. First, knowing students’ attitudes can help to diminish

51

the obstacles they go through when they come to translate; for instance, when a teacher of

translation understands that having no idea about the content of the text of certain field

(scientific text for example) will increase students’ level of anxiety, he automatically will

give them a brief summary or explain some related terminologies which can make them feel

more comfortable while translating. Second, most of students feel afraid from negative

evaluation of their classmates even though they are in the same level (average, question 3),

and also afraid from making mistakes (67% said always) which effect their performance

negatively .Moreover, according to students answers of questionnaire their level of anxiety

increase when they are going to be called in ST course, here the teacher may let them the

choice to volunteer, it would be better than calling them randomly to translate. In addition,

the results show that ST course would make them more anxious than other courses because

ST depends more on speaking in class than other modules and also students’ awareness of

their lack of speaking skills. Finally, most students said that they are suffering from anxiety

even when they are well prepared which means that it is not an easy matter and has a great

influence on their performance and level in English.

Limitations of the study:

Many limitations of this study are to be noted:

First, in order to investigate students’ opinions, a limited time has been given to them

to answer the questionnaire because of their schedule.

Second, a ST task with different criteria to asses was designed for third year LMD

Students to get their marks and to better understand how language anxiety is reflected

in their performance and marks later. However, and because of the spread of the

deadly global epidemic 'The Corona Virus, the study was stopped and the researchers

made changes into their research.

52

Third, many needed resources were inaccessible or paid.

Recommendations and further suggestions:

Based on the research findings and limitations, a number of recommendations are

made:

a. More research is needed to determine which factor of anxiety hinders ST performance

most.

b. The study should be repeated using another methodological tool rather than

questionnaires in order to confirm and validate the findings of the present research.

c. A third broad recommendation is that translation teachers should adopt some

techniques and strategies to diminish the amount of anxiety so that students have

positive perspective about translation in general.

d. Students should know that feeling anxious is normal and that they have to control

their anxiety in order to foster their ST performance.

53

General conclusion:

This study set out to better understand the learners’ perspective about the impact of

language anxiety on ST tasks. It also proposes a set of strategies that might help teachers and

students in overcoming language anxiety problem. The most obvious finding among those of

this study is that students hold negative attitudes towards language anxiety. In other words,

language anxiety hinders learners’ performance in ST tasks and this may affect their marks

negatively. The second major finding was that teachers should expose their students to more

practice on sight translation so that they can overcome their anxiety while performing such

activities. So, the more practice they get, the more easy the ST process will be. Another

interesting finding is that learners feel anxious more in ST course than in the other courses

due to the fact that ST course depends more on speaking skill while the other courses are

mainly lectures. Therefore, our research hypotheses are confirmed validating our assumptions

that there is a negative effect between the two variables and that the students hold negative

perception about the effect between them. However, these results may not be applicable to

the wider population because the present study was limited in several ways; the investigation

has only considered the context of students who are having a module of translation and are

not specialized in it. Moreover, it was not possible to assess learners’ performance in class to

validate the questionnaire’s findings, for this reason the results could not be generalized to all

situations and groups. So, further investigations and experimentations about the association

of anxiety and ST are strongly recommended.

54

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Appendices

Appendix 01:

Student’s questionnaire

Foreign language classroom anxiety scale

Dear students,

This questionnaire is an attempt for gathering the information needed for the

accomplishment of master’s dissertation. We direct this questionnaire in order to investigate

the effect of language anxiety on sight translation tasks from students’ perspective. We would

be very grateful if you could help us to accomplish our research by filling in the

questionnaire. Your answers are very important to the validity of our research. Thus, we hope

that you will give us your full attention.

Please, tick (√) the answer that corresponds to your choice.

Thanks for your collaboration

Larbi Ben M’hidi University, Oum El Bouaghi

Faculty of Letters and Languages

Department of English

Miss BREK Bouchra

Miss ZAOUIA Bouchra

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Section one: Personal information:

Name: …………………………………………….

Gender: female male

Age: …………….

Your English level: excellent good average poor

Section two: anxiety in sight translation tasks:

Statements always often sometimes Rarely never

1. I feel quite sure of myself when I am solving a sight

translation task.

2. I worry about making mistakes in sight translation.

3. It frightens me when I don’t understand the content of

the text I am going to translate.

4. It wouldn’t bother me at all to take more sight

translation courses.

5. During sight translation, I find myself thinking about

things that have nothing to do with the course.

6. I keep thinking that the other students are better at sight

translation than me.

7. I am usually at ease during tests in sight translation.

8. I start to panic when doing sight translation without

preparation.

9. I worry about the consequences of failing my translation

class.

10. In sight translation task, I can get so nervous that I

forget words I know.

11. It embarrasses me to volunteer answers to the instructor

in sight translation tasks.

12. I get upset when I don’t understand what the teacher is

correcting.

13. Even if I am well prepared for sight translation tasks, I

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feel anxious.

14. I feel like not going to my sight translation courses.

15. I am afraid that my translation teacher is ready to

correct every mistake I make.

16. I can feel my heart pounding when I am going to be

called on in sight translation course.

17. I feel very awkward about doing sight translation in

front of other students.

18. I feel more tense and nervous in my sight translation

course than in my other courses.

19. I get nervous when I don’t understand every word in the

text I am going to translate.

20. When facing long and complicated English sentences

during a sight translation task, I become anxious.

21. I am afraid that the other students will laugh at me when

I make mistakes.

22. I will be anxious when knowing someone is going to

evaluate my ability in performing sight translation.

Section three:strategies to reduce sight translation anxiety:

Please add comments and suggestions about how teachers can help you in order to

decrease your anxiety in sight translation course.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

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Provide some strategies that you may use to reduce your anxiety in sight translation

course.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

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Resumé:

L'anxiété du langage est définie comme la peur, la nervosité et la gêne lors de

l'apprentissage d'une langue étrangère. Des études antérieures l'ont traité en relation

avec l'interprétation consécutive et l'interprétation simultanée; pourtant, seules

quelques recherches se sont concentrées sur son effet sur la performance des étudiants

dans les tâches de traduction à vue. Par conséquent, cette thèse cherche à comprendre et

à étudier les perceptions des apprenants à l'égard de l'impact de l'anxiété du langage

sur les tâches de traduction à vue. Une version modifiée du questionnaire de Horwitz et

al (1986) a fourni des données quantitatives de 55 participants de troisième année de

didactique au département d’anglais de l’Université Larbi Ben M’hidi. Les résultats

indiquent que les informateurs ont des attitudes négatives quant à l'effet de l'anxiété du

langage sur les tâches de traduction à vue. De plus, l'étude a révélé que les étudiants se

sentent plus anxieux dans le module de traduction que dans les autres modules. La

recherche propose également un ensemble de stratégies permettant aux enseignants et

aux apprenants de faire face à l'anxiété du langage. À la suite de cette enquête, des

recommandations ont été identifiées pour de futures recherches.

Mots clés: anxiété linguistique, traduction visuelle

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الملخص

تعلم لغة ثانية. و قد تطرقت دراسات كثيرة إلى هذا اج أثناءبالخوف و التوتر و الإحر الشعوراللغوي بيعرف القلق

، ولكن القليل من ركز على تأثيره على أداء الطلاب في فوريةرجمة الشفوية المتتالية و الالمفهوم رابطة إياه بالت

. لذلك، تسعى هذه الأطروحة )الدراسة( إلى فهم و معرفة تأثير القلق اللغوي على أداء الطلاب في منظورةالترجمة ال

طالب 55( إلى 1986) Horwitzالخاص. وقد قدمت نسخة معدلة من إستيبان منظورهممن خلال منظورة الترجمة ال

ام البواقي. من خلال أجوبة الاستبيان بينت النتائج -ربي بن مهيديجامعة الع-في السنة الثالثة من قسم اللغة الانجليزية

ك، كشفت لضافة إلى ذلإ. بامنظورةأداءهم في الترجمة ال أن الطلاب اتخذوا موقفا سلبيا اتجاه القلق اللغوي و تأثيره على

يمية الأخرى. كما يقدم هذا البحث الدراسة إلى أن الطلاب يشعرون بمزيد من التوتر في مادة الترجمة مقارنة بالمواد التعل

د مجموعة من الإستراتيجيات للمعلمين و المتعلمين للتعامل مع القلق اللغوي. وأخيرا ونتيجة لهذا التحقيق، تم تحدي

.بحوث مستقبليةبعض التوصيات ل

منظورةالترجمة الكلمات مفتاحية: القلق اللغوي،

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