Factors affecting students' speaking anxiety in English language classroom
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In today's world, it is obvious that learning English is not just memorizing words or grammar rules. There is an increasing importance attributed to communicative English. Speaking, one of the four basic language skills, is considered extremely necessary for learners to use the target language effectively. However, anxiety in speaking classes is seen as a major obstacle for language learners’ performance and communicative competence. The aim of this study is to identify whether the high school students’ foreign language speaking anxiety has significant differences in terms of their gender, grade level, self-perceived English level, receiving any special support for speaking, and their English exam scores. A Likert type scale was administered to 250 students studying at a state high school in the fall semester of the 2022-2023 academic year. According to the findings, it was seen that they had a moderate level of anxiety. Moreover, it was seen that there was no statistically significant difference between students' foreign language speaking anxiety level and having received special speaking support before. However, students' genders, grade levels, English scores in the previous year, and their self-perceived English level were found to be effective on foreign language speaking anxiety.
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