The Impact of Anxiety on Students Classroom Oral Participation

Abstract

When learning a foreign language, learners are affected by many variables. Language anxiety is one of them which is the feeling of apprehension nervousness and worry toward learning a foreign language one of them and .It is one of the most important facts that affect student‘s foreign language learning. The aim of this study is to investigate how significant are the effects of anxiety on foreign language learners’ oral participation among the third-year students at the University of Adrar. The population of this study included eighty nine (89) students of the English department who are learning English as a foreign language, but the sample consisted of fifty three 53 students from the two groups and six (06) teachers. Furthermore, we adopted the quantitative method to collect data from the large number of students using the questionnaire. Thus, we hypothesized. That “if anxiety is reduced, student’s oral participation will be promoted”. In order to verify the strength of this hypothesis, we have used questionnaires as the main tool of data collection. Based on these questionnaires, our hypothesis is confirmed, and the results that were reached reveal that there is a reverse relationship between anxiety and the students’ oral production that is; the higher the language anxiety is, the lower the oral participation will be. The study suggests some recommendations that both students and teachers can rely on to minimize and overcome foreign language speaking anxiety and help students to effectively perform in the second language acquisition. The teacher being a facilitator, creating a friendly and supportive learning environment, adapting the cooperative model and the natural approach, are among the suggested pedagogical recommendations to alleviate students’ anxiety, and foster classroom oral participation.