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Anxiety in academic speaking situations among EFL majors: a case study

  • Biljana Radić-Bojanić and Jagoda Topalov EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: June 11, 2021

Abstract

In the study reported a total of 145 students pursuing the academic title of a BA in English language and literature were tested with the aim of establishing which explanatory variables have the independent power to explain the level of English language speaking anxiety. The instrument used in the study was taken from Yaikhong et al. (2012) and adapted for the purposes of the current investigation. The response variable in the study was the average level of anxiety measured by means of the questionnaire, whereas the explanatory variables included gender, the year of study, the number of presentations students gave during the course of their studies, the grade in language skills, the expected grade, the self-perceived proficiency and the perceived difficulty of the English language. The results reveal that gender, the expected grade and the self-perceived proficiency can account for the variation in the levels of anxiety among students. The paper ends with suggestions of interventions for helping students cope with the negative effects of anxiety on their speaking performance and learning experiences.


Corresponding author: Jagoda Topalov, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia, E-mail:

This is an improved and updated version of the paper entitled “Anxiety in academic speaking situations among EFL majors” presented at the fourth English Language and Anglophone Literatures Today Conference held in Novi Sad in March 2017. The paper is supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia under project no. 01600.


Funding source: Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia

Award Identifier / Grant number: 01600

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Received: 2020-11-10
Accepted: 2021-03-13
Published Online: 2021-06-11
Published in Print: 2021-05-26

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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