Exploring the Studies on Speaking Anxiety in Second/Foreign Language Learning

Abstract

Emotions have been attracting researchers’ attention for a long time, especially anxiety, which is a negative emotion that has an adverse effect on second language/foreign language (SL/FL) studies and the results obtained. One of the most well-researched emotional elements in SL/FL is the FL/SL speaking anxiety. This paper reviews the previous theories and empirical studies focusing on SL/FL speaking anxiety. Scholars agree that SL/FL speaking anxiety mostly hinders the learning process, speaking performance, and outcomes. According to previous empirical studies, researchers employed instruments such as diaries, interviews, and questionnaires and discovered that many FL/SL learners are suffering from moderate to severe levels of anxiety when speaking an SL/FL. Their SL/FL speaking anxiety is a result of concerns about committing mistakes, fear of peers’ mocking and being negatively assessed by teachers, inadequate vocabulary and grammar knowledge, concerns about examinations, insufficient exposure to FL outside of the classroom, lack of preparation, the inability to understand the interlocutors’ words, and so on. Since it is important to enhance SL/FL learners’ speaking skills, many scholars have come up with anxiety coping strategies to alleviate SL/FL learners’ speaking anxiety.