Pakistani Students' Anxiety during Classroom Presentations: A Case Study

Abstract

This case study aims to explore the link between the increased anxiety levels while speaking in class and during presentation performance among ESL students. To this effect, the study employs mixed method approach by adapting The First Language Classroom Anxiety Scale developed by Horwitz et al (1986) and preparing a questionnaire for ESL students using a five-point Likert scale. The respondents (N=120) of the study were Bachelor of Science (BS) students randomly selected from Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water & Marine Sciences (LUAWMS). Likewise, two teachers also took part in semi structured interviews. Later on, classroom observations were also held in their respective classes to scrutinize and triangulate the data by pinpointing the indicative symptoms of anxiety for substantiating the preceding data. The results showed that L2 speaking anxiety emanates from setting, fear of performance, limited linguistic knowledge and non-systematic error corrections and psycho-social reasons.