Helping students overcome foreign language speaking anxiety in the English classroom: theoretical issues and practical recommendations

By Iakovos Tsiplakides, A. Keramida. 2009

274 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Despite the fact that foreign language speaking anxiety is a common phenomenon in the teaching of English as a foreign language in Greece, teachers do not always identify anxious students, and often attribute their unwillingness to participate in speaking tasks to factors such as lack of motivation, or low performance. This article aims to contribute to the literature on language anxiety and to provide teachers with strategies for reducing foreign language speaking anxiety stemming from students’ fear of negative evaluation from their peers and perception of low ability. Using qualitative research, it presents a classroom-based case study which aims at examining the characteristics of anxious students with a view to implementing classroom interventions to reduce foreign language speaking anxiety. The effectiveness of these interventions is also presented and evaluated, and the pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed.

Subfields: Language and Linguistics, Literature and Literary Theory, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/87c9de539de2b89b09ab4d3f119e12b3d5cba977

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Citations in the corpus

The Correlation between Speaking Anxiety, Self-Confidence, and Speaking Achievement of Undergraduate EFL Students of Private University in Palembang (2018, background): “Tsiplakides (2009) stated that speaking anxiety is a person’s reluctance to participate in conversations using a particular language.”
EFL Speaking Anxiety among Senior High School Students and Policy Recommendations (2015, background): “…with what other previous researchers (Young, 1991; Mac Intyre & Gardner, 1994; Cheng, Horwitz, & Schallert, 1999; Kitano, 2001; Liu & Jackson, 2008; Tsiplakides & Keramida, 2009; Fang-peng & Dong, 2010; Mak, 2011; Öztürk & Gürbüz, 2014) found although they did not particularly use the same phrases.”
Factors Underlying Low Achievement of Saudi EFL Learners (2016, background): “…resources that EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia should consult because they provide practical methods for addressing learner anxiety (Alrabai, 2015; Alrabai, 2014a; Alrabai, 2014d; Hashemi & Abbasi, 2013; Javid, 2014; Kondo & Ling, 2004; Nagahashi, 2007; Tallon, 2008; Tsiplakides & Keramida, 2009).”
A Model of Foreign Language Anxiety in the Saudi EFL Context (2014, background): “There are many recent resources that EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia should consult because they present practical means of addressing learner anxiety (Alrabai, 2014b; Hashemi & Abbasi, 2013; Kondo & Ling, 2004; Nagahashi, 2007; Tallon, 2008; Tsiplakides & Keramida, 2009).”
Speaking anxiety among Turkish EFL learners: The case at a state university (2014, background): “In her study investigating the students’ perspectives on speaking and anxiety, Young (1990) maintains that activities requiring speaking performances are the most anxiety provoking ones for students.”
What are the Main Sources of Turkish EFL Students' Anxiety in Oral Practice?. (2010, background): “…language anxiety due to the possibility that it may inhibit language learning for some time since the literature has showed that anxious students are less willing to participate in learning activities and have lower performance than non-anxious ones (Horwitz, 2001; Tsiplakides & Keramida, 2009).”
The influence of teachers' anxiety-reducing strategies on learners' foreign language anxiety (2015, background): “…recognized in the literature on anxiety and educational psychology (e.g., Dörnyei 2001a; Kao and Craigie 2013; Horwitz and Young 1991; Tallon 2008; Tsiplakides and Keramida 2009; Young 1991, 1999; Zhang 2010) as being potentially effective in reducing learners’ FL anxiety; moreover, the applied…”