EFL Students’ Perspectives on Speaking Performance and Language Anxiety

This study aimed to investigate EFL students’ perspectives on variables of language anxiety related to speaking performance in the classroom and to identify relevant differences between genders. The participants were 336 college students aged 19-27 who were enrolled in six practical English classes and four freshman English classes. They all responded to a questionnaire and 13 of them were interviewed to complement the questionnaire data. T-tests were run to examine the relationship between gender and each variable. The findings showed that: (1) both genders in general did not fear receiving negative evaluations from their peers; (2) cooperative classroom activities dealing with favorite topics were shown to contribute to lowering both genders’ language anxiety, whereas having to speak in front of the class provoked the most anxiety; (3) female students had higher anxiety about their speaking performance in class, were more concerned about making mistakes, felt more overwhelmed by the number of grammar rules, and showed more perfectionist tendencies than male students to a significant degree. Pedagogical implications for EFL classroom instructors are suggested.