The Relationship between Students Speaking Achievement and Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the major causes of speaking anxiety and the relationship between students speaking anxiety and student speaking achievement. For this purpose 135 grade 12(twelve) social and natural science stream students were randomly selected from Hawassa, Addis ketema preparatory and secondary school. A self-reporting Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Scale questionnaire (FLSAS) which is consisted of 28 items was administered to measure the students’ English speaking anxiety level. To determine the relationship between the students speaking anxiety and speaking achievement, the result of achievement test, which was designed by the researcher, was used. Pearson’s Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to determine relationship between anxiety and achievement. Moreover, an Independent Samples t-test was used to find out whether there is significance difference between males and females’ anxiety level and achievement. The results of the study revealed that there are four general causes of speaking anxieties: oral presentation test, self-assessment of speaking ability, comparison of other, and fear of negative evaluation. The study also showed that there was high negative correlation between students’ speaking anxiety and achievement. With respect to gender, no statistically significant difference was observed between males and females on their foreign language speaking anxiety and achievement.