The main objective of this M.A. thesis is to investigate which factors bear the highest rate of occurrence in terms of speaking anxiety, to explore the reasons behind in-class speech anxiety and determine suitable measures that are likely to alleviate speaking anxiety among anxious learners. Hence, the theoretical part acknowledges the strong influence of affective factors for successful foreign language learning, and explores, in detail, the causes, symptoms and "debilitating" effects of speech anxiety that more often than not impede the learner from conveying the desired content and suuccessfully developing their speech in a foreign language classroom. The empirical part is based on the analysis of a questionnaire fulfilled by two classes of primary and secondary school learners who are both learning English as their first foreign language and Spanish as their second foreign language. The analysis investigates the following aspects of speech anxiety: main causes, relations between the patterns of interaction and the degree of anxiety, relations between the type of a speaking activity and the degree of anxiety, relations between assessment and the degree of anxiety, and lastly, the degree of speech anxiety in terms of the first and second foreign language. Apart from the analysis, interviews with primary and secondary language teachers allow for a more pragmatic and personal analysis of speech anxiety regarding their personal teaching experience.
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