Examining the Complexities of Foreign Language Anxiety: Gendered Perspectives and Pedagogical Interventions in EFL Oral Performance
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Abstract
Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety (FLSA) has emerged as an important affective variable that impacts oral performance and communicative ability in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. This study examines the complex and multi-faceted nature of speaking anxiety in first-year English students at the University Center of Maghnia, Algeria. Employing a convergent mixed-methods design, the research utilizes quantitative data collected through the Public Speaking Class Anxiety Scale (PSCAS) and student surveys, and qualitative data collected through classroom observation and semi-structured interviews. Findings show a high to moderate prevalence of speaking anxiety, with extremely high rates among female students. Contributing factors include fear of negative evaluation, lexical insecurity, prior negative learning experience, strict correction practice, and culturally mediated classroom interactions. These trends are interpreted through the prisms of Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis, Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory, and Tobias’s Input-Processing-Output (IPO) Model, highlighting the interconnectedness of emotional, cognitive, and socio-cultural factors in the construction of language learning experience.
The study concludes that FLSA is not merely an edge challenge but a core obstacle to communicative development that requires pedagogical responses going beyond language instruction. It proposes the use of emotionally responsive pedagogy such as creating peer support, limiting punitive error correction, enhancing learner autonomy, and promoting metacognitive awareness. Through its advocacy of an inclusive, psychologically safe, and interaction-filled learning space, the research contributes to the current initiatives aimed at reframing language teaching in language that not only upholds emotional well-being but also communicative effectiveness.
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