The relationships between EFL learners’ anxiety in oral presentations, self-perceived pronunciation, and speaking proficiency

Abstract

Learners’ anxiety has drawn widespread attention in the field of second language / foreign language (L2/FL) teaching and learning (e.g. classroom anxiety, communication (with foreigners) anxiety, and anxiety associated with the four macro-skills, namely listening, reading, speaking, and writing). However, this topic is under-explored in L2/FL public speaking (e.g. oral presentations in academic studies), in which anxiety is especially prominent. This study investigated the relationships between EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ anxiety in public speaking, self-perceived pronunciation competence, and actual speaking proficiency. 176 tertiary-level EFL students in Hong Kong participated in this mixed-methods study using questionnaires and interviews. Overall, different aspects of self-perceived pronunciation were negatively correlated with anxiety to different extents. However, when analysed by proficiency levels, only voicing of consonants and overall pronunciation of consonants showed moderate negative correlations with anxiety for the high-proficiency and intermediate-proficiency groups respectively. In the interviews, the high-, intermediate-, and low-proficiency interviewees suggested nativelikeness, accuracy, and intelligibility respectively as their different pronunciation goals in EFL oral presentations.