The Sociolinguistic Parameters of L2 Speaking Anxiety

Much of the research into language anxiety has concentrated on the detrimental effects of speaking anxiety on academic achievement. However, less attention has been paid to the components of oral classroom anxiety that are an impediment to the development of L2 speaking fluency. Clearly, understanding the nature of speaking anxiety will help towards finding ways to alleviate it. This chapter reports on the non-linguistic, socio-psychological constraints of speakingin-class anxiety. The researcher adopted a sequential explanatory design. Data were generated through a survey and qualitative interviews, and analyzed employing factor analysis and qualitative coding respectively. The findings revealed a dynamic interplay between oral classroom anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, and low self-perceptions of speaking ability. The paper concludes by urging language educators to reevaluate the social contexts of the foreign language classroom with a view to adjusting their L2 speaking practices to learners’ affective state in class.