Students’ Speaking Anxiety in EFL Classroom

Abstract

Language anxiety is becoming a significant issue in language teaching and learning. It has been a common problem in the EFL context and has had a significant impact on language teaching. Furthermore, students who were learning English felt anxious, and the factors that contributed to their anxiety were identified. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate some of the factors that influence students’ anxiety and to identify the types of anxiety that they experience. The data were collected through questionnaires from 150 students from Cihan University-Duhok General Education Department English Branch second and third year and through semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed descriptively to answer research questions. The findings indicated that students from Cihan University had a higher level of anxiety. In addition, some factors causing students’ anxiety in learning English were lack of vocabulary, pronunciation, preparation, grammar, and prior knowledge of the classroom activities, including fear of making mistakes, fear of negative evaluation, afraid of being laughed at by other students, and lack of self-confidence.