The objective of this research project is focused on identifying the level of southern Thai high school students’ anxiety in speaking performance, describing their attitudes towards speaking English in class and self-ratings of English-speaking ability, also investigating their reasons for foreign language anxiety. Anxiety is one of the affecting variables that has been found to adversely affected foreign language acquisition and performance.
The participants of the research were 25 fourth-grade high school students as a foreign language (EFL) studying English at Lantarach Prachautit School, Krabi, Thailand. The present study employed a case study qualitative research design. A questionnaire adapted from the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale was carried out to investigated levels of anxiety (on average and by dimensions). Open-ended questions were administrated to collated attitudes towards oral English, self-ratings of English-speaking ability, and reasons for speaking anxiety. The collected data were analyzed by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences program version 22 to be calculated into a mean score and percentage.
The quantitative analysis indicated that English speaking anxiety exists among southern Thai high school students generally at a moderate level. Considering of anxiety levels by the dimension, communication apprehension, and fear of negative evaluation significantly became more frequent performance anxieties than test anxiety. Qualitatively, students' negative attitudes towards speaking English in the classroom were revealed, whereas a negative self-evaluation of English-speaking ability was reported by half of the interviewed participants. Finally, the lack of students' self-confidence was found to be their major reason for speaking anxiety.
The results of this study provide insights for students in making an effort to overcome English speaking anxiety in class, whereas for instructors in creating a low anxiety classroom, especially those related to the effective domain.
Keywords: Foreign language anxiety, speaking performance, Thai high school students
