An interrogative study on factors affecting language anxiety in ESL classroom / Nur Shakila Izzati Rusli

This study aimed to investigate the anxiety level of ESL students towards speaking English in ESL classrooms, looking at different programs and gender. Guided by four research objectives and four research questions, this study has employed a descriptive research design using both the quantitative and qualitative
methods for data gathering and analysis. The subjects for this study consisted of 48 students: 24 TESL students and 24 INTEC students. ELAS results indicated that TESL students exhibited a slightly higher anxiety level as compared to INTEC students. Secondly, the findings revealed that fear of negative evaluation and other people's perceptions are the most notable factors affecting language anxiety in ESL classrooms. Thirdly, the findings showed that role-playing spontaneously and writing work on the board are the activities that cause high anxiety among ESL students. It was found that most of them dealt with language anxiety by growing confidence. Overall, it can be concluded that the results seemed to be contradicted to theories and the previous studies conducted in different settings. Discussions and recommendations based on the findings were made at the end of this study.