Your Name and Title: Thi Tuyet (June) Tran
School or Organization Name: Institute for Employment Research, Germany
Co-Presenter Name(s): Thi Thu Hang Nguyen
Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Germany
Language in Which You Will Present: English
Target Audience(s): English teachers
Short Session Description (one line):
Factors causing student anxiety in English speaking class: from first year students’ perspectives
Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
This study was conducted with the aim to investigate the main causes of speaking anxiety experienced by the first year non-English specialized students in Vietnam. The study involved 200 students from 10 first-year classes at the Broadcasting College I. Both quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews) methods were employed in the study. The findings indicate that speaking anxiety does exist among the surveyed students. Moreover, it is also revealed that the students’ communication apprehension, test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, and negative self-perception of English ability have been proved to be highly anxiety-provoking factors for the students in speaking. Interestingly, some of these factors are closely related to the face-saving culture in Vietnam. On the other hand, the factors related to teachers’ beliefs and teacher-student interactions, which are often claimed in the literature to be the main reasons causing students speaking anxiety, did not appear to be main reasons for speaking anxiety among the majority of the students in this study. Finally, some solutions and recommendations for both teachers and students to reduce students’ speaking anxiety have been formed based on the findings of this study.
By the end of this workshop, the audience will be able to:
- Understand some of the reasons why Vietnamese students are normally not good in speaking of English both inside and outside of the class.
- Identify some common speaking anxiety-provoking factors for the non-English-specialized students. Interestingly, some of these factors are closely related to the face-saving culture in Vietnam.
- Explore some ways to help students reduce anxiety in English speaking lessons
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