Causes of business english speaking anxiety in the Balkans

Slavica Cepon

doi:10.18172/jes.2957

Abstract

Learner anxiety is a critical affective factor in foreign languages education. This study investigated the main causes of speaking anxiety in the context of business English (BE) instruction. In-depth interviews were conducted among BE instructors and learners at higher educational institutions in six countries in the Balkans. The study identified several causes of speaking anxiety, the most crucial being the lack of knowledge in economics and the BE lexis as the carrier content in BE learning. And especially so, when the latter combined with other causes, such as the necessity to speak unprepared in class in front of one’s peers, or problems with BE vocabulary acquisition or recollection. A quarter of the interviewees who considered themselves low-anxiety when speaking general English were prone to elevated levels of speaking anxiety when performing complex speaking tasks in BE class which require a degree of fluency in general English.

Highlights

Anxiety is an important factor affecting the learning of foreign languages (Horwitz et al 1986; Young 1990; MacIntyre and Gardner 1994; Horowitz 2001; YanXiu and Horwitz 2008) that has been researched both qualitatively (Price 1991) and quantitatively (Horwitz et al 1986)
Since speaking in the target language seems to be the most intimidating aspect of foreign language learning (Young 1990; Horwitz et al 1991; Price 1990; Öztürk and Gürbüz 2014), this study focuses on foreign language speaking anxiety
The key finding is that most students (80) are extremely nervous when required to speak in their business English (BE) class

Summary

Introduction

Anxiety is an important factor affecting the learning of foreign languages (Horwitz et al 1986; Young 1990; MacIntyre and Gardner 1994; Horowitz 2001; Yan. Xiu and Horwitz 2008) that has been researched both qualitatively (Price 1991) and quantitatively (Horwitz et al 1986). Spielberger (1983) defined anxiety as “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the automatic nervous system” (Horwitz 2001: 113). Horwitz, and Cope were the first to treat foreign language anxiety as a separate distinguishable phenomenon or as “a distinct complex of self-perceptions, feelings and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” (1986: 128). Dornyei (2005: 39) believes that the complexity of foreign language anxiety is still not clearly defined and is too often equated with other fears or phobias. As much as one-half of all language students experience a startling level of anxiety

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