A Qualitative Study of Pakistani University EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of their Students’ Speaking-Anxiety and their Anxiety-Reducing Strategies in the Classroom

Abstract

According to Arnold & Brown (1999:8), a student’s, “anxiety is quite possibly the affective factor that most pervasively obstructs the learning process”. In the same line, Zheng (2008:1) concluded that speaking in English class “can sometimes be a traumatic experience” for some students because of language anxiety. Studies have highlighted a number of sources of anxiety. However, the majority of anxiety studies report language teachers as a major contributor to their students’ anxiety. Trang et al., (2013) reported that there might be discrepancies between students’ and teachers’ views about the role and effects of anxiety. Hence, it underscores the need to examine teachers’ views about the role of anxiety in a language class. However, Ohata (2005) highlights that far too little attention has been paid to this topic. Alghothani (2010) stresses that since teachers play a vital role in affecting students’ anxiety, their own awareness of students’ anxiety together with teachers’ views about its role should be examined. The present study aims to fill this gap by exploring Pakistani University EFL teachers’ perceptions of their students’ speaking-anxiety (SA) along with the strategies used by teachers to reduce it. The study employed semi-structured interviews to collect data from five universities in Pakistan. Interviews with 14 Pakistani EFL teachers were conducted. The data were analysed qualitatively following steps (data reduction, data display and conclusion) suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994). The findings indicate that most of the teachers were not fully aware of SA and its potentially debilitating effects on language learning. As a consequence, they did not take students’ SA into account when they were teaching. Finally, implications and suggestions for teachers and educational/language policy-makers are discussed.