A study on oral anxiety in EFL classrooms

Abstract

This research aims at investigating causes, effects and coping strategies to overcome oral anxiety in EFL class among tertiary students of Dhaka. Around107 undergrad students and 7 teachers were participated in the survey. A mixed method of analysis was used to arrange the collected data. The results suggest that personal and interpersonal issues, classroom environment, peer’s perception, teacher’s negative attitude towards mistakes, linguistic incapability in target language are some potential sources to create oral anxiety in EFL class among tertiary students. The findings also suggest that anxiety has a great impact on their learning process as well as on their oral performance. Basically, the study reveals that oral anxiety plays a debilitating role in learner’s academic life. The study includes different discussions of the results and tries to investigate the coping strategies to reduce their anxieties. Furthermore, some recommendations are presented at the end of the research.