Sources, Consequences and Coping Strategies of Speaking Anxiety in EFL Classroom: Gununo Preparatory Students in focus

Abstract

Learning a language is a key and system for communication, due to this it is evident that communication skills a big part of learning a language. Every school today , to practice speaking therefore a central part of English lessons .However , to make students speak the target language is not always an easy way and there can be several different reasons why this is the case . The current study investigates sources of speaking anxiety, its consequences up on learners and coping strategies of the problem. The study used questionnaire, intervi ew and classroom observation to gather data. Speaking anxiety is considered as a key problem in every school as it was tried to point out in the study .Speaking is seen as a problem concerning language teaching since it can be considered as a common difficulty . As a result, speaking anxious students have a harder time to achieve the goals of oral communication in the target language than other students. In order to encourage speaking in a classroom, it is important to strive a pleasant atmosphere in which every student can feel relaxed and motivated to communicate orally in English. Simple random sampling technique was implemented to carry out the work. The design used for the study was descriptive survey design. Mixed research approach was implemented to conduct the work, that is the study was analyzed through qualitative and quantitative methods. As it was found out from data, the major sources of speaking anxiety are lack of motivation, interest and confidence, in general, fear of making mistakes, fear of tests and assessments, fear of competition, fear of negative evaluation and perceived low ability and the like were the major sources in learning English as the foreign language. Regarding consequences, Learners with debilitating speaking anxiety tend to display avoidance of involvement in tasks by remaining silent, sitting in the back, avoiding their teachers and the like as pointed out in results. The following are problems commonly related to students��� speaking. Lack of active listening, lack of exposure and practicing, fear of making mistakes, lack of group skills, hesitation, lack of confidence, fear of expression ,limited vocabulary , wrong grammar , fluency problems and the like were pointed out in the result as the most common problems in language classes. From the study, as the major coping strategies the following were discussed. language teachers should develop much of responsibilities by critically evaluating their own manners, ways of teaching, identifying needy students and using suitable treatments to avoid social comparisons, promote cooperation instead of competition, and help learners to accept the fact that they will make mistakes as part of the learning process , make tests and assessment completely in clear manner and involve students in the time of the final grading and provision of marks