Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Reflections from teachers and students on speaking anxiety in an EFL classroom

Reflections from teachers and students on speaking anxiety in an EFL classroom Abstract This paper reports on part of the research project in which instructor perspectives on the role of anxiety in an EFL speaking classroom and anxiety-coping strategies students employ when speaking English have been investigated. The existence of students’ speaking anxiety was revealed via a teacher interview. A total of 88 students from the intact classes also responded to an interview form for an analysis of anxiety-coping strategies they utilised when speaking English in class. The qualitative data from both instruments was analysed using the content analysis. The findings of the teacher interview data put forward that students of this study have experienced speaking-in-class anxiety. This anxiety may influence their grades, to some extent. Three factors that may hinder students’ development of oral skills emerge, including their lack of self-confidence, having poor English background and having neither intrinsic nor extrinsic motivation to use English. Using the target language as the medium of communication in class is viewed by the teachers as a must in theory, but flexibility is allowed in practice. Moreover, the results of the student interview data show a wide range of strategies employed to deal with anxiety (ie social, affective, meta-cognitive, compensatory, cognitive and memory-related strategies). Social strategies are the most frequently-used techniques. Suggestions for improvement in the overall oral English (ie vocabulary focus, audiovisual focus, self-practice, social focus, auditory focus, meta-cognitive focus, compensatory focus and affective focus) have also been given by the student participants. An increased repertoire of vocabulary is viewed as the most effective tool for such improvement. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Language and Cultural Education de Gruyter

Reflections from teachers and students on speaking anxiety in an EFL classroom

Download PDF
25 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/de-gruyter/reflections-from-teachers-and-students-on-speaking-anxiety-in-an-efl-c1ZuZcMi3s
Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by the
ISSN
1339-4584
eISSN
1339-4584
DOI
10.1515/jolace-2016-0025
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract This paper reports on part of the research project in which instructor perspectives on the role of anxiety in an EFL speaking classroom and anxiety-coping strategies students employ when speaking English have been investigated. The existence of students’ speaking anxiety was revealed via a teacher interview. A total of 88 students from the intact classes also responded to an interview form for an analysis of anxiety-coping strategies they utilised when speaking English in class. The qualitative data from both instruments was analysed using the content analysis. The findings of the teacher interview data put forward that students of this study have experienced speaking-in-class anxiety. This anxiety may influence their grades, to some extent. Three factors that may hinder students’ development of oral skills emerge, including their lack of self-confidence, having poor English background and having neither intrinsic nor extrinsic motivation to use English. Using the target language as the medium of communication in class is viewed by the teachers as a must in theory, but flexibility is allowed in practice. Moreover, the results of the student interview data show a wide range of strategies employed to deal with anxiety (ie social, affective, meta-cognitive, compensatory, cognitive and memory-related strategies). Social strategies are the most frequently-used techniques. Suggestions for improvement in the overall oral English (ie vocabulary focus, audiovisual focus, self-practice, social focus, auditory focus, meta-cognitive focus, compensatory focus and affective focus) have also been given by the student participants. An increased repertoire of vocabulary is viewed as the most effective tool for such improvement.

Journal

Journal of Language and Cultural Education – de Gruyter

Published: Sep 1, 2016

References

  • Changing the atmos fear in the public speaking classroom of Humanities and Social
    Stewart
  • The effect of affect on FL learning : A review of the anxiety research Language
    Scovel
  • Preparing Thai students English for the ASEAN Economic Community : Some pedagogical implications and trends Language Education and Acquisition Research Network LEARN
    Choomthong
  • From EFL classroom into the mainstream : A socio - cultural investigation of speaking anxiety among female EFL learners of Culture
    Sadeghi
  • Foreign language classroom anxiety The Modern Language
    Horwitz
  • What are the main sources of Turkish EFL students anxiety in oral practice ? Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative
    Subaşi
  • Learning and instruction Upper Saddle River
    Mayer
  • The impact of gender on foreign language speaking anxiety and motivation Procedia - Social and Behavioral
    ÖztÜrk
  • Anxiety and speaking English as a second language RELC
    Woodrow
  • Helping adult and young learners to communicate in speaking classes with confidence Mediterranean Journal of Social
    Derakhshan
  • Anxiety of speaking English in class among international students in a Malaysian university of Education and Research
    Zhiping
  • An exploration of speaking - in - class anxiety with Chinese ESL learners
    Mak