Foreign language Anxiety and Oral Performance among form one students in Kuching Sarawak / Irene Anak Manja

The Oral Proficiency in English Language for Secondary School (OPS English) programme for secondary schools will be starting in 2017. Due to this, there is an urgent need to understand the impact of this programme on students' anxiety levels. Thus, the main aim of this study is to investigate students' perceptions regarding Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) in OPS English classrooms. This study also examines the relationship between FLA and students' grades, interest and language exposure. Mixed methods are employed, using survey and interview methods. A modified version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale questionnaires (FLCJ\S) by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) was deployed in six (6) schools in Kuching division, with a total of 187 students. Meanwhile, a set of semi-structured questions was used with ten students divided into an equal number of male and females at different levels. The results revealed three interesting findings. Firstly, the students were experiencing moderate levels of language anxiety (M=2.40, S.D.=0.45). Secondly, the weak or struggling students manifested the highest level of anxiety. The correlation analysis revealed that there was very significant negative relationship between FLA and students' grades, interest and language exposure. However, the strength of these relationships was rather weak, except for language exposure. The findings implied that there were other variables that may influence FLA level. In the interview, it was revealed that teachers' pedagogical approaches were considered as factors that contribute to language anxiety in the OPS English classroom. Recommendations were made regarding teachers' pedagogical approaches and limitations of the study.