Anxiety on English Speaking in Classroom of Year Four Students at the Faculty of Languages, Souphanouvong University, Lao PDR

Abstract

The objective of this study was to study the anxiety on English speaking in classroom and the main cause of students’ anxiety on English speaking of the fourthyear students at the Faculty of Languages, Souphanouvong University. It was a quantitative study and the participants were the 36 students in fourth year from department of Foreign Language, Faculty of Languages, Souphanouvong University. The instrument was a questionnaire, consisting of 22 items about anxiety on English speaking and the main cause of students’ anxiety on English speaking. The Mean and Standard Deviation used SPSS Program to analyze the data. The findings of the study reveal that the students have problems in English speaking during class  because they  get nervous when speaking English as shown in the items of advice and self-report, answering their teachers’ questions have the Mean of 4.00 and S.D of 0.87 and students feel very self-conscious about speaking English in front of other friends in class, with the Mean of 3.97 and S.D of 0.87, students worry and make mistakes and are afraid that their classmates will laugh at them, with the Mean of 3.96 and S.D of 0.87. The study also finds that the main cause of students’ anxiety on English speaking in classroom is that students are anxious to speak English in class, because they have a lack of flexibility of words, concerning their ideas, with the Mean of 3.89 and S.D of 1.30.  Also, students have a lack of words and experience in pronunciation, with the Mean of 3.86 and S.D of 0.96. Moreover, students are afraid of making mistakes in grammar and structure of sentence, with the Mean of 3.61 and S.D of 0.96.