EFL Students’ Speaking Proficiency and Anxiety Levels: A Correlational Study

Abstract

The speaking skill involves a number of complex affective, cognitive, emotional and situational variables that are different from the ones existing in the other skills. In the oral class, students are required to acquire the maximum quantity of vocabulary and to use it in different contexts. Also, they are required to be accurate and fluent. However, feelings of anxiety, apprehension, and nervousness are commonly expressed by English as a foreign language students when speaking the target language. This study sheds light on the relationship between EFL students‘ speaking proficiency and anxiety levels in the oral expression classes. It aims to answer the following questions: (1) what are the sources of or reasons behind EFL students‘ speaking anxiety? (2) What is the relationship between learning anxiety and EFL students‘ levels of speaking proficiency? Qualitative and quantitative data were used in this study to answer the research questions and evaluate the proposed hypotheses. Methods were collected from two third year Licence Master Doctorate groups (N=100) at the department of English in El-Tarf University in Algeria for the 2016-2017 academic year. Participants took the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) speaking assessment section as well as the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). Seventeen students and four EFL teachers took interviews. Results showed that fear of negative evaluation, lack of practice, and shyness are common reasons behind EFL students‘ speaking anxiety and that anxiety negatively affects students‘ speaking proficiency.