Relieving Social Anxiety Disorder: The Impact of Traveling Abroad on Improving English Listening Skills From Students’ Perspectives

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate the underlying effects of short-term traveling abroad on relieving social anxiety disorder (SAD) and improving English listening skills based on students’ perspectives. The study examined the effects of two independent variables: (1) the duration of traveling abroad and (2) the type of listening sources. Mixed-method approaches with a purposive sample were used consisting of 112 students with (SAD) majoring in English at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. All participants enrolled in the fall 2018 semester and had traveled abroad to an English-speaking country for a period ranging from 1 to 8 weeks. Surveys were distributed, and five participants were semi-structurally interviewed. The study found that: (1) with alpha set at (α ≤ .05), traveling abroad was a significant factor in relieving the (SAD), and statistically significant differences were observed for the duration of travel abroad for those who stayed abroad longer; (2) there were three effective listening sources on relieving the (SAD) during traveling abroad: (a) living with a host family or a roommate, (b) solo listening to TV channels or movies, and (c) social gatherings and events; and (3) formal listening situations such as the ones occurred at banks, airports and police stations, were the most confusing and least effective. In addition, for the variation of the effective listening sources, one-way ANOVA was used, and the results showed no statistically significant differences. More traveling or study abroad opportunities should be encouraged as the study opens doors for further academic investigations.