Investigating Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Among Advanced Learners of English

Abstract

The article investigates foreign language anxiety among advanced learners of English who are also MA students specialising in EFL teaching. Past research results concerning the correlation between anxiety and the level of proficiency are not unanimous. Some studies show that anxiety levels decrease with language proficiency (e.g. Gardner et al. 1997; Tanaka and Ellis 2003) while others indicate that a higher level of proficiency correlates with a higher anxiety level (e.g. Kitano 2001; Marcos-Llinas and Garau 2009). Therefore, this study aimed to analyse whether students with an advanced knowledge of English suffer from speaking anxiety, how their self-assessment of speaking skills relates to speaking apprehension, what speaking skills components are the greatest stressors for them, how typical elements of classroom learning contribute to their speaking anxiety, and whether students experience any bodily, emotional, expressive and verbal reactions to stress while speaking. The study found that participants experience stress and worry in the context of speaking a foreign language; few of them are satisfied with their speaking skills; over a half are mainly worried about their fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation and content of their oral performances; the most common classroom stressors are peers, making errors and being called on to speak spontaneously; the majority of students are also afraid of communication with native speakers. The students also suffer from numerous bodily reactions to stress and experience emotional problems while speaking. Moreover, their expressive reactions are distorted and psycholinguistic symptoms of stress can be observed.