Abstract
Introduction. The study aims to investigate what factors strengthen and weaken personal speaking anxiety. With the use of selected standardized surveys, the research examines how drama techniques affect a learner’s level of English language speaking anxiety. Materials and Methods. The research group includes 17 Polish primary school learners who attended drama classes and prepared two performances in English for other learners and their parents. The questionnaire with the stated research questions was applied, and the data ob tained were statistically analyzed. Results. The research results show that the learners participating in English drama classes had a lower level of speaking anxiety than those who did not practice drama at all. As to the learners´ English language proficiency, the level of speaking anxiety dropped with the rise of academic level. No significant difference was observed either in the level of speaking anxiety between male and female participants or in the level of speaking among learners of different age. The impact of drama techniques implemented into the English language classes is discussed in the study. The research results indicate the influence of drama techniques on the reduction of the level of speaking anxiety. The decrease is very noticeable that should inspire teachers to use drama techniques while teaching a foreign language, especially speaking skills. The analysis also indicates a close correlation between drama classes and the inc reasing level of English proficiency. Discussion and Conclusion. The topic of the article is to meet the interest of foreign language teachers and learners, would-be teachers of the English language.
Highlights
Poland and the Czech Republic remain the states where English as a foreign language (EFL) is taught from the earliest age
The results show that there is a positive correlation between the age and English pronunciation anxiety of Slovak EFL teachers which means that the older the EFL teachers are, the more they suffer from English pronunciation anxiety
The aim of the first research question was to determine whether students who participated in drama classes differed in the level of speaking anxiety from those students who did not participate in these classes
Summary
Poland and the Czech Republic remain the states where English as a foreign language (EFL) is taught from the earliest (i.e. preschool) age. It is easy to notice that the skill of speaking is excluded from this examination despite the fact that many researchers claim that speaking remains the most paramount skill and signifies that a learner is able to read, listen and write with understanding. Neither in Poland nor in the Czech Republic is there a sufficient amount of research taking this matter into the deeper consideration. Apart from that, another under-investigated goal is to find out whether the level of one’s speaking anxiety correlates with such sociolinguistic variables as gender, age and the level of self-esteem
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