A Correlation Study on EFL Students' Self-Efficacy and Attitudes Towards English and Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety

Abstract

Foreign language speaking anxiety has been a problem experienced by students for a long time. It has been thought to hinder students’ learning a foreign language, also to affect students’ achievements. Although it has been studied widely, its causes are not still fully understood. Attitude has an important role for learning a foreign language. Self-efficacy beliefs of students also have influence on language learning. The attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs are known to be factors that promote learning a foreign language or cause learners to avoid it. Therefore, it is considered that foreign language speaking anxiety may be related to students’ attitudes towards foreign language learning and their self-efficacy beliefs. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between foreign language anxiety and self-efficacy and the correlation between foreign language anxiety and the students’ attitudes. Interviews were also conducted to determine the factors and possible solutions for foreign language speaking anxiety. Three Likert-type scales were used with the participation of 32 eleventh grade EFL students to gather data. The quantitative data results showed that while there was a correlation between foreign language speaking anxiety and self-efficacy, there was no correlation between foreign language speaking anxiety and attitude. The findings of interviews indicated that from participants’ point of views there were several academic factors that cause foreign language speaking anxiety such as exams, activities during classes. The participants’ solutions for foreign language speaking anxiety were academic such as more speaking activities during class time.