Foreign Language Enjoyment and Anxiety: How special are they in Hong Kong single-sex and co-educational EFL classrooms?

Anxiety, the negative emotion has been described as one of the strongest predicators of success or failure in FL learning. Enjoyment, the positive emotion in SLA eases the effects of negative emotions that causes inadequate concentration and limits the potential language input. The single-sex and co-educational schooling also showed different emotions in foreign language classroom. The present study explores the relationship between Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) in Hong Kong EFL classrooms, and its difference in Hong Kong single-sex and co-educational EFL classrooms. A mixed-method approach (questionnaires and interviews) was employed in this study. 51 boys in a boys’ school, 36 boys and 51 girls in a co-educational school filled out the questionnaires. Based on their English results, 12 students were selected for the focus group interview.

The findings indicated that a negative correlation between Foreign Language Enjoyment and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety was found in Hong Kong secondary school students. In particular, teacher-related enjoyment has the strongest negative correlation with anxiety, whilst self-related anxiety was founded to have the strongest negative correlation with enjoyment. No significant differences were found statistically in single-sex and coeducational English classrooms in both Foreign Language Enjoyment and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety respectively. It can be regarded as the exclusive control of teachers, examdriven learning and Chinese cultures that can have a boost of enjoyment in class and can trigger students’ anxiety at the same time.

It is important for teachers to design appropriate and interactive learning activities for students and to create a positive character in the classroom, whilst schools should also be aware of the overly strict guidelines and unified syllabus in language teaching, thereby reducing students’ anxiety and boosting their enjoyment.

負面情緒中的「 焦慮」 被形容外語學習中成敗最大的影響因素。在第二語言習得中，正面情緒中的「 愉悅」 可以減少因為負面情緒引致的注意力不集中及限制語言的汲收。而單一性別學校和混合性別學校在外語課堂中亦表現出不同的情緒。此研究旨在探討香港學生的外語學習愉悅和外語學習焦慮之關係， 香港單一性別學校和混合性別學校的學生在英文課愉悅和焦慮的分別。 本研究探用了混別方法研究（問卷及訪談），男校的 51 位男生，男女校 36 位男生及 51 女生填寫了問卷。根㯫參與者的英語成績，共有 12 名參與者出席了小組焦點訪談。

結果顯示了外語愉悅和外語焦慮呈顯著着負相關。老師相關的愉悅是影響焦慮最大的負相關，而自身焦慮是影響外語愉悅的最大負相關因素。單一性別和混合性別學校在外語享受和外語焦慮亦沒有數據上的大分別，存在的潛在因素可以視為教師的互斥控制控制、 考試向導外語學習及中華文化中的影響。

因此，老師應設計合適及互動的教學活動和在課室內展示正面的形象。學校亦該注意減少過度單一的考試向導的教學內容，以此減少學生在英文堂上的焦慮及增加他們的愉悦。