The Relationship between Perceived Psychological Barriers, Anxiety, and Rural Affiliation of Pakistani College Students to Communicate in English

Abstract

Learning a foreign language is always a challenging and complicated process. Learning other than the native language encounters several psychological barriers in the minds of learners, particularly, for students belonging to rural areas. The study goal is to identify the relationship between perceived psychological barriers, anxiety, and rural affiliation of Pakistani college students communicating in English. The objective of the study is to investigate perceived psychological barriers encountered by students speaking in English. The study used the mixed-method design of quantitative and qualitative research. The data were gathered through questionnaires from students and semi-structured interviews with teachers. Adopting purposive sampling of 50 students and 10 college teachers to know their perspective on the objective of the study. The main identified barriers were inferiority complex, peer pressure, loss of words, hesitation, lack of confidence, and shyness. The results also showed a negative relationship between students’ rural affiliation which caused psychological barriers and speaking anxiety among them. The study results contribute to the contemporary literature on pedagogical psychology, foreign language anxiety, and applied linguistics. In particular, to the well-being of rural learners and to understand the relationship between psychological development, anxiety, and social background.