Speaking Achievement across Levels of Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety among Female Students in EFL Class
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20372/star.V15.i1.08Keywords:
Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety, Speaking Achievement, EFL Learners, Single-Sex School, Mixed-Sex School, and Oral Performance.Abstract
This study examined variations in English-speaking achievement across different levels of foreign language speaking anxiety among female students in EFL classrooms. A comparative research design was employed involving 104 female students drawn from a total population of 139 students. Simple random sampling was used to select 52 students from Homosha Secondary School, while census sampling was utilized to include all 52 students from Pharo Assosa School since the number was manageable. Data was collected using a standardized Speaking Achievement Test and a validated Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Scale. After normality and homogeneity of variance had been checked, descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA were utilized. The results show a strong negative association between speaking anxiety levels and speaking achievement. Students grouped as having low speaking anxiety achieved the highest speaking scores, while those with moderate anxiety demonstrated slightly lower achievement, and students with high levels of anxiety scored the lowest achievement. Post-hoc comparisons indicated that the significant differences were primarily obtained in the high-anxiety group. These findings suggest that speaking anxiety becomes considerably harmful when it reaches high intensity. The study highlights the importance of incorporating anxiety-reduction strategies in EFL classrooms to support learners with their speaking skills.
Downloads
References
Aida, Y. (1994). Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope's construct of foreign language anxiety: The case of students of Japanese. The Modern Language Journal, 78(2), 155–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1994.tb0 2026.x
Awan, R. N., Azher, M., Anwar, M. N., & Naz, A. (2010). An investigation of foreign language classroom anxiety and its relationship with students' achievement. Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 7(11), 33–40. https://doi.org/10.19030/tlc.v7i11.249
Bell, S. M., & McCallum, R. S. (2012). Do foreign language learning, cognitive, and affective variables differ as a function of exceptionality status and gender? International Education, 42(1), 86-106
https://trace.tennessee.edu/internationaleducation/vol42/iss1/6
Dewaele, J.-M., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2014). The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and enjoyment in the foreign language classroom. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4(2), 237–274.
https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2014.4.2.5
Dewaele, J.-M., Petrides, K. V., & Furnham, A. (2008). Effects of trait emotional intelligence and sociobiographical variables on communicative anxiety and foreign language anxiety among adult multilinguals: A review and empirical investigation. Language Learning, 58(4), 911–960.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2008.004 82.x
Diamond, D. M. (2005). Cognitive, endocrine and mechanistic perspectives on non linear relationships between arousal and brain function. Nonlinearity in Biology, Toxicology, Medicine, 3(1), 1–7.
https://doi.org/10.2201/nonlin.003.01.001
Eysenck, M. W., Derakshan, N., Santos, R., & Calvo, M. G. (2007). Anxiety and cognitive performance: Attentional control theory. Emotion, 7(2), 336–353.
https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.7.2.336
Ghorbandordinejad, F., & Ahmadabad, R. M. (2016). Examination of the relationship between autonomy and English achievement as mediated by foreign language classroom anxiety. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 45(3), 739–752.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-015-9371-5
Gregersen, T., & Horwitz, E. K. (2002). Language learning and perfectionism: Anxious and non-anxious language learners' reactions to their own oral performance. The Modern Language Journal, 86(4), 562–570.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4781.00161
Horwitz, E. K. (2017). On the misreading of Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) and the need to balance anxiety research and the experiences of anxious language learners. In C. Gkonou, M. Daubney, & J.-M. Dewaele (1Ed.), New insights into language anxiety: Theory, research and educational implications, 31–48. Multilingual Matters.
https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783097722-004
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. A. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1986.tb05256.x
MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1994). The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language. Language Learning, 44(2), 283–305.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-770.1994.tb011 03.x
MacIntyre, P. D. (2007). Willingness to communicate in the second language: Understanding the decision to speak as a volitional process. The Modern Language Journal, 91(4), 564–576. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2007.00623.x
MacIntyre, P. D., & Gregersen, T. (2012). Emotions that facilitate language learning: The positive-broadening power of the imagination. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2(2), 193–213.
https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2012.2.2.4
Öztürk, G., & Gürbüz, N. (2013). Speaking anxiety among Turkish EFL learners: The case at a state university. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 9(1), 254–267.
https://www.jlls.org/index.php/jlls/article/view/178
Park, G. P., & French, B. F. (2013). Gender differences in foreign language anxiety: A longitudinal study. System, 41(2), 462–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2013.04.001
Şener, S. (2015). Foreign language learning anxiety and achievement: A case study of the students studying at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. Turkish Studies – International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, 10(3), 875–890. http://dx.doi.org/10.7827/TurkishStudies.7732
Teimouri, Y., Goetze, J., & Plonsky, L. (2019). Second language anxiety and achievement: A meta-analysis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 41(2), 363–387. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263118000311
Young, D. J. (1991). Creating a low-anxiety classroom environment: What does language anxiety research suggest? The Modern Language Journal, 75(4), 426–439. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1991.tb05 378.x
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Science, Technology and Arts Research
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
STAR © Copyright; All rights reserved
