The Effect of Anxiety on Iranian EFL Learners Speaking Skill (Published)
Speaking skill is necessary for everyone who wants to learn second / foreign languages. Feelings of anxiety and nervousness are common among second/foreign language learners. Different learners with different level of anxiety use different strategies while speaking a foreign language. Existence of such feelings in the learners may prevent them from achieving the desired goal. Some speak in front of others without any anxiety, but some delay this activity until learn enough knowledge, and some delay it forever and never speak a foreign language. The aim of present study is to investigate the relationship between anxiety and English speaking skill among Iranian EFL learners. To achieve this aim 100 of EFL learners who learn English in language learning institutions in Ilam province are investigated. The instrument used in this study to measure student’s foreign language speaking anxiety is the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) developed by Horwitz (1986), and the results of speaking grades which are qualitative data from the interview with learners is used as another kind of questionnaire to measure learners speaking. To analyze the scores SPSS software was used. The results show that English learning anxiety has a significant moderate negative correlation with the English achievement of the students in this study, the participants of this study as EFL learners usually have levels of anxiety, and the higher the FLCAS score is, the low English speaking is, so by reducing the level of anxiety of learners English speaking can be improved.
Keywords: Anxiety, EFL Learner., Proficiency, Speaking Skill