For youths speaking a second language in a classroom can be quite anxious, worrying how their classmates will react or if the teacher will correct every single mistake.For teachers it is as important to teach the new language as to create a welcoming classroom setting where the students feel comfortable to make mistakes. To achieve a good learning environment, it is imperative to develop an understanding from students’ perspectives what conditions are needed for participation and what obstacles are there which prevent them from participating.Three year 8 classes were invited to complete a foreign language questionnaire regarding their will to speak during English lessons. The results showed most students did not have a speech anxiety. Those who showed a certain level of speech anxiety were mostly afraid of how their classmates would react. Also, this group of students were least active at home practising English online such as speaking with others. This indicates the importance to encourage students to practise English daily to overcome their speech anxiety. It is also important for educators to create a learning environment to allow students to feel comfortable to make mistakes without being laughed at or vigorously corrected by the teacher.

The study investigated the phenomenon of speaking anxiety in two groups of English learners and two groups of Spanish learners, studying in four different courses: English 5, 6 and Spanish 3, 4. The participants answered a background questionnaire, followed up with a modified foreign language anxiety scale. The students who wanted to also, participated in an interview where they gave more in depth answers about their experience with the phenomenon. The findings showed that students experienced speaking anxiety in relation to their language learning, but at different levels such as low, medium and high-level anxiety groups. In addition to this, possible remedies for speaking anxiety suggested by the participants was also presented in the study.

The purpose of this study is to examine speaking anxiety and classroom dynamics in the ESL classroom from the students’ perspective. This paper also sets out to investigate the specific behaviors or thoughts learners have in regards to speaking English. The investigation gives an explanation how these factors influence students’ ability to learn and perform in a particular instructional framework. The ESL classroom is looked upon as a group formation having its own dynamics that might have an effect on some students’ speaking anxiety. This study is conducted using both qualitative and quantitative method. The quantitative part is based on the survey designed to establish the presence and amount of anxiety related to speaking ESL in the classroom. The qualitative part is consisted of individual semi-structured interviews. The survey is also the basis for the choice of the interviewees. The investigation is carried out in a secondary school with students from the grades 7 and 8. Results of the analysis of data suggest that speaking in the ESL is not exclusively the source of the anxiety, but that speaking in front of the class is. The research points out and supports the fact that speaking anxiety is spotted in classroom settings. In other words, this indicates the significance of the relationship between speaking English, speaking anxiety and classroom environment. Furthermore, students investigated also show the awareness of their reactions: behavioral, emotional and cognitive.

Speech anxiety is an issue that persists and presents itself innumerably in schools, especially affecting students who learning English either as their second language or as a foreign language. Speaking anxiety may stem from different sources and affect each individual student differently. The research question that is key to this research is “How can teachers support students who are struggling with speech anxiety?”The research for this thesis has been done through the use a qualitative interview with two secondary school teachers in Lund. The interview was structured after a semi-structured style to allow for guided questions and openness of any unexpected questions and answers during the interview process.The results of this research is that that tackling speaking anxiety in the classroom is no easy feat, although, from the literature and interview content it has been made clear that for a teacher to be successful in supporting their students, being prepared for possible difficulties, composed for sudden changes to lesson plans, and ready to adapt assignments where speaking is involved in order to allow students to be most comfortable and given their utmost honest performance while speaking in front of others.

Cognitive theories postulate that attention toward threatening information and away from neutral cues plays an etiological role in anxiety. The present study examines whether a preconscious attentional bias (AB) toward threatening stimuli exists in individuals with public speaking anxiety. Participants included 61 undergraduates with high and low speech anxiety. AB was measured using a dot-probe paradigm with threatening and neutral words. Reaction times to dot-probes on threatening and neutral trials were compared between the two groups. Results indicated that, contrary to expectations, high and low speech anxious participants did not differ in their mean reaction times to threat words. Thus, AB may not be measurable in individuals with public speaking anxiety using the method that the current study employed. / Master of Science

Previous studies that have utilized the Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Scale (FLSAS) have performed their studies with the assumption that Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety is negatively correlated with oral skills, i.e. as anxiety increases, speaking skills decrease. In order to confirm this assumption, this study included a survey, the purpose of which is to measure three factors, in order to verify the possibility of other factors playing possibly bigger roles, among upper secondary school students in Sweden: the frequency of language use, their anxiety levels, and foreign language speaking skills. In order to be able to discuss the data thoroughly, this study includes theories regarding motivation, Self-Determination Theory, and Willingness to Communicate (WTC). The data showed that as the anxiety of the students increased, their language speaking skills decreased, i.e. a negative correlation was discovered. However, their frequency of foreign language use remained virtually the same, regardless of their anxiety levels, i.e. no strong correlation was discovered here. Lastly, the language skills of the students showed a weak positive correlation with their language use, i.e. the more they spoke, the higher their oral skills were. Therefore, the results of this study confirm previous studies claiming that foreign language speaking competence has a strong negative correlation with foreign language speaking anxiety.

Den här uppsatsen behandlar det kommunikativa klassrummet och vad det har för eventuella fördelar. Uppsatsen utreder begreppen bundet och fritt tal och hur de påverkar elevers lärande. En annan punkt som utreds är talångest och vilken påverkan det kan ha på eleverna i det kommunikativa klassrummet. Resultatet visar vilka fördelar ett kommunikativt klassrum har. Genom det kommunikativa klassrummet blir eleverna mer aktiva och motiverade. Fokus ligger på eleverna eftersom klassrummet blir mer elevstyrt. Det fria talet, som låte releverna styra talet, är bättre för elevers lärande än det bundna där läraren styr. Ett problem som kan förhindra elevers lärande i det kommunikativa klassrummet är elevers talångest. Talångest påverkas av olika faktorer såsom rädslan att göra fel, dåligt självförtroende, kulturella faktorer och lärarens påverkan på eleverna. Detta kan motarbetas genom att läraren inte hakar upp sig på elevers misstag och att läraren kan skapa ett tryggt klassrum för eleverna.Genom att arbeta med ett kommunikativt klassrum öppnas nya vägar upp för eleven och fokus läggs mer på elevernas tal än på att läsa och skriva.

Public speaking anxiety (PSA), widespread amongst students and also the general population, is associated with substantial distress and interferes with a person’s ability to give a presentation or speech. This can lead to difficulties in social, occupational and academic areas of functioning. Despite its pervasiveness, very few individuals will seek help, most will tend to avoid the anxiety-provoking situations. This can be a serious issue if left untreated, leading to negative impacts on quality of life, for example dropping out of education early and subsequently having limited job opportunities. The literature review explored the existing body of work regarding PSA and presented the rationale for the current research, beginning with a conceptual framework and the manner in which PSA is related to Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). This was followed by a detailed investigation of existing influential models and treatment modalities for both PSA and SAD. It identified that CBT has been the most effective treatment and has been delivered via different formats; however some individuals with SAD/PSA did not respond to a mainstream CBT approach and continued presenting residual symptoms after therapy. Thus, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) was introduced, with an examination of its model and potential to help PSA. Preliminary research employing acceptance-based strategies have provided promising results. The literature review indicated a need for investigation of (i) more readily disseminated, briefer formats of ACT and (ii) whether differences exist in efficacy and sustainability between non-guided self-help and group-led therapies format. Given the large number of individuals experience PSA/SAD and the limited availability of resources, there is a need to consider ways of improving access. Thus, development of ultra-brief interventions would potentially reduce delivery cost and enhance dissemination to a larger population. Keywords: public speaking anxiety, social anxiety, interventions, experiential avoidance, fear of negative evaluation, acceptance.

This comparative study aims to discover and demonstrate the potential relationship between foreign language speaking anxiety and course level among 183 students from three consecutive courses of English as a foreign language, i.e. English 5, 6, and 7, at three upper secondary schools in the South of Sweden. Accordingly, a survey was distributed in order to account for demographic information about the students, such as course level, age, and sex, to determine the students’ oral proficiency levels, and to assess the students’ anxiety levels in relation to 33 anxiety-provoking classroom situations. The results showed that Swedish upper secondary students are not particularly anxious regardless of course level, save that the students in English 5 would feel less comfortable around native speakers of English, although not to an extent which would indicate anxiety, and that the students in English 7 would, in contrast to the other course levels, experience high levels of anxiety when volunteering answers and being called on in class. However, the most notable differences were found between the genders and between the students with high and low oral proficiency levels. Female students generally showed higher levels of anxiety than male students did. Yet, in most cases, the difference did not suggest that one of the genders was anxious while the other one was not. In terms of oral proficiency levels, the students with low oral proficiency showed higher levels of anxiety, often to the extent that they would be anxious while the ones with high proficiency would not. Thus, the levels of anxiety seem to depend on gender and oral proficiency more than the students’ course levels.

This survey-based study aimed to find out how to reduce speaking anxiety amongst second-language students attending two different upper secondary schools in Halmstad, Sweden. The survey participants were in their first and second years of upper secondary school and attending English 5 and 6 courses. The survey participants were asked to complete two online-surveys. The first survey dealt with measuring if the participants felt anxious while speaking English in class and what they considered was the most conducive way to alleviate anxiety when working with communicative exercises. After compiling the data from the first survey, it was found that the survey participants thought that working in groups would alleviate speaking anxiety the most. Following this, lessons were created where the classroom furniture was rearranged in order to promote group discussions. Subsequently, the survey participants completed the second survey, the purpose of which was to measure how they felt the group discussions went, and if they thought it helped them reduce their speaking anxiety. The results showed that the majority of the survey participants felt that group discussions made them less apprehensive about how their peers would perceive their speaking abilities. Interestingly, the results also showed that even though most of the survey participants felt that they had good English skills, they were still concerned about not being able to perform communicative tasks without inhibition. The results demonstrated that when the furniture was rearranged to suit classroom group-work, students were less worried about how they were being perceived as English speakers, leading them to feel more secure. Additionally, they became more motivated to speak English.