The Relationship between Communication Apprehension and Beliefs about Group Work in College English Classrooms

Abstract

  This paper reports the results of a study that investigated the relationship between communication apprehension in group work and the beliefs about group work in college English classrooms. Many studies on cooperative learning（CL）have focused on its effectiveness, and research on students’ perception is scarce. Moreover, no studies have closely examined Japanese students’ beliefs about group work and its relationship with the level of communication apprehension（CA）.

  A questionnaire was constructed to measure CA, beliefs about cooperation as a value, beliefs about efficiency of group work, beliefs about academic growth through group work, relationships with other group members, and beliefs about classroom instruction in college. It was administered to 123 college sophomores. The results showed they were neither free from nor excessively concerned with communication apprehension. Group CA negatively correlated with the beliefs about group work, and all the beliefs about group work were positively correlated with each other.