Major Causes of Saudi Learners' Speaking Anxiety in EFL Classrooms

Abstract

Since oral participation is one of the most observable phenomena in language classes, it has been noticed that students often suffer from a considerable level of anxiety in EFL classrooms. Although numerous studies have tackled this issue, particular attention to Saudi learners' perspectives of the main causes of speaking anxiety is needed. Therefore, this research aims to explore the main causes of speaking anxiety that Saudi EFL learners encounter in their language classrooms. The sample of this study involved 126 ELI Saudi female students studying their foundation year at King Abdulaziza University and whose ages range between 18 to 20 years old. To reach a better and clear understanding of the research phenomenon, a mixed-method approach was used. For gathering data, two instruments were utilized; a semi-structured interview with ten students from level 102, 103, and 104 and an online based questionnaire with 116 students from level 102 and 103. The quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, and the qualitative data were thematically analyzed. The qualitative data found that the main causes of speaking anxiety were: Teachers' role in raising or reducing anxiety, lack of vocabulary, the weak educational system at schools, test anxiety, and peer anxiety. On the other hand, the quantitative data categorized speaking anxiety into three main domains: causes related to the classroom atmosphere, causes related to the EFL teachers, and others related to the test.

Causes of Saudi Students’ Unwillingness to Communicate in the EFL Classrooms

“…These feelings students experience in the classroom are consistent with what Carter and Henrichsen (2015) have described as adult learners' perception of the classroom as a platform where they are constantly fearful of others' evaluation. This finding is consistent with (Hamouda, 2012;Rafada & Madini, 2017) who found that Saudi EFL students were unwilling to speak in the classroom due to fear of being negatively evaluated by their teacher and classmates.…”

“…The most frequent cause of students' unwillingness to communicate in the classroom is the fear of making mistakes by (34%), which is consistent with (Hamouda, 2012;Liu, 2005a;Liu, 2005b;Al-wossabi, 2016;Rafada & Madini, 2017). The fear of making mistakes is the most dominant cause of unwillingness to communicate among all the other causes in the questionnaire.…”

“…This was described as a cause of learners' unwillingness to speak also in (Reza, 2015;Al-wossabi, 2016). Similarly, Rafada and Madini (2017) also found that the school has indirectly affected learners' reluctance to speak in the classroom because it contributed to their speaking anxiety due to their insufficient vocabulary. These findings clearly suggest that it is vital that teachers are adequately prepared and familiarized with the current teaching methodologies such as the communicative approach to achieve the desired learning outcomes and abandon traditional, outdated approaches since the outcomes of these approaches are unsatisfactory and lead to learners' unwillingness to speak.…”

Multimedia Glosses for Enhancing EFL Students’ Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention

“…Saudi EFL learners seem to suffer from the same difficulty. Many studies examined the problem of vocabulary deficiency in EFL Saudi learners (e.g., Al-Khairy, 2013;Al-Murshidi, 2014;Al-Qahtani, 2016;Al-Rabai, 2016;Al-Saif & Milton, 2012;Hamouda, 2013;Khan, 2016;Milton, 2012;Rafada & Madini, 2017). In order to find out how serious the problem was, a vocabulary test was administered to a group of EFL students at Jubail College of Education, IAU University.…”

The Notion of Emotion in EFL Learning and Teaching in Saudi Arabia: A Critical Review of 20 Years of Research

“…In this study, the triggers of anxiety were classified into socio-contextual factors (e.g., gender proximity and teacher behavior), psycho-linguistic factors (e.g., a lack of confidence and a fear of incorrect L2 usage), and combined overlapping factors (e.g., speaker perceptions of the listening audience and linguistically demanding classroom tasks). The data collected via semi-structured interviews and an online questionnaire in a study by Rafada and Madini (2017a) indicated that EFL teachers' behavior and practices, a lack of vocabulary, language test structure and procedures, the classroom atmosphere, and peer anxiety were the main sources of learner' speaking anxiety.…”