Iraqi EFL Students' Perspective on Speaking Anxiety: A Pilot Study

Abstract

The study was aimed at understanding the EFL Iraqi students’ perspective on speaking anxiety. Specifically, the study investigated the causes of speaking anxiety based on data collected for a pilot study involving two Iraqi EFL postgraduate students in Universiti Utara Malaysia. Pseudonyms were used to refer to the participants as Omer and Sarah. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with the participants. The interview sessions took approximately 15-20 minutes for each participant and were videotaped and audiotaped. Semi-structured interviews with 15 questions and probes were used. The results showed that the speaking anxiety experienced by the two Iraqi students were due to the class atmosphere, the teacher’s attitudes, lack of vocabulary, rate of speech, different accent and long conversation, fear of being embarrassed, and fear of failing to perform. The causes identified are rooted in Iraqi status of English as a foreign language and method of teaching English as well as the teacher’s attitude towards their students.