Factors Contributing to English Speaking Anxiety Among Final-Year Undergraduate Students in the English Department: Insights from a Qualitative Study at a Public University in Karachi

Abstract

Public speaking anxiety is pervasive, and thus, many students fail to put across their ideas and thoughts effectively. The students should overcome their English-speaking anxiety as it could bring numerous unfavourable outcomes later in their professional lives. The final-year undergraduate students often experience severe and intense English-speaking anxiety. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the factors that cause English-speaking anxiety among the final-year undergraduate students. Also, this research aimed to investigate the extent to which the final-year undergraduate students of the English Department have been able to overcome their English-speaking anxiety over the last six semesters. The qualitative research method was used in the current study, and the data were collected through a virtual focus group discussion. The study was conducted with five final-year students of a public sector university in Karachi using convenience sampling. The findings show that peer pressure, pronunciation, low opinion of oneself, undue expectations, fear of negative evaluation, lack of syntactic knowledge, limited vocabulary, fewer collaborative activities, and lack of motivation are the main factors that cause English-speaking anxiety. Also, the recommendations by students reveal how they could overcome their English-speaking anxiety if they develop certain productive habits and if their educational institutes could organize the suggested interactive sessions.