Effects of constructive alignment strategies on learners’ anxiety and performance in communicative English skills

Studies indicate that anxiety, stemming from factors such as inadequate English proficiency, inappropriate materials design, and the characteristics of instructors and students, can hinder second language acquisition. To alleviate this anxiety and improve foreign language performance, English teachers are increasingly implementing a variety of strategies. This study aimed to examine the effect of constructive alignment strategies on students' learning anxiety and academic achievement in a communicative English skills course at Ambo University. Employing a mixed method research design, 164 first-year students were purposefully selected for the study. A preliminary assessment was conducted, consisting of questionnaires, classroom observations, and a preliminary test for the entire learners. This assessment served as a measure of student homogeneity and provided a point of departure for comparison. Based on the results, the learners were classified into control and experimental groups. The experimental group received constructive alignment strategies for thirteen weeks, while the control group received conventional teaching methods. Subsequently, a post-intervention assessment was administered using similar evaluation tools. The collected data were analyzed using both quantitative (descriptive and inferential analysis) and qualitative (thematic analysis) methods. The results of this study demonstrate that the implementation of constructive alignment strategies considerably reduced learners' anxiety (u = 2.72, at p = 1.51) and consequently led to substantial improvements in their academic achievement in all language domains (u = 8.26 at p = 2.41 ) to varying degrees in the course. The study also results in a strong negative correlation between learners' anxiety and their course performance (r = −0.7747 at p = 0.00 ). These findings imply that teachers can remove learners' anxiety by properly employing constructive alignment strategies, and thereby enhance students’ English language learning outcomes.