An Investigation of Factors Causing ESL Learning Anxiety in Classroom: A Case Study of ESL Learners at Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur

Abstract

English language plays crucial role as an official language of Pakistan and it is applied normally as a medium of instructions crossway over instructional institutions and business organizations. Since anxiety hinders the studying and learning techniques, in this way it's been widely inquired approximately the world and indicates to be underneath seemed into Pakistani context. As a result the important aim of this research is to investigating factors causing language anxiety in learning to speak English in classroom among undergraduate students of Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur, Sindh, Pakistan. This Study followed a case study with mixed method approach using both quantitative and qualitative tactics. The population of this research study was 214 learners of English from Faculty of social sciences, Departments of Economics, International Relations and Media Studies. In this research study sampling size of 150 students was taken randomly who participated. Questionnaire used “to know students’ level of anxiety was adopted from FLCAS scale, developed by Horwitz et al (1986)”. Qualitative data was also obtained by conducting semi-structured interviews from 15 students randomly from three departments, 5 from each, and classroom observation was also carried out for three weeks. The results showed that anxiety of English classes is high rated Mean=31.98, Secondly fear of negative evaluation Mean=30.62, thirdly communicative apprehension Mean= 25.01 and fourthly test anxiety Mean= 13.89. It indicated that students have problem of anxiety. The statistics was analyzed in element eventually each quantitative and qualitative findings have been mixed to attain the end result of the study. The Findings of study mostly shown anxiety factors in classroom and are prominent such as fear of teacher, other student’s fear of being mocked, fear of making mistakes, lack of confidence, peer pressure, anxious personality, unsure about their abilities, fear of negative evaluation, worry of failing in examination tests, low proficiency, lack of vocabulary. Therefore results are significant that students have problem of anxiety while learning to speak English in classroom.