SPEAKING ANXIETY OF EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: Indonesian and Moroccan cases

The English language has become one of the most spoken languages around the world. It is the language of science, literature, and business. English is a global language that everyone should be able to understand and speak to guarantee a better future. However, a number of students feel anxious about speaking English as a foreign language, which deprives them of communicating their needs, expressing their ideas, and opinions. To date, many pieces of research on foreign language anxiety have been conducted, specifically in speaking skills, and have revealed numbers of causes and factors that lead to anxiety. The aim of this paper is to explore the speaking difficulties encountered by Moroccan and Indonesian high school students, as well as shed light on the level of anxiety they are experiencing and its causes. This study employs mixed-method. A questionnaire of 33 items was administered to 30 Moroccan high school students, and 30 others to their fellow Indonesian student. Moreover, an online interview of 3 Indonesian and 3 Moroccan students was conducted to explore the sources of their speaking anxiety. The quantitative and the qualitative data demonstrated that Indonesian students experience high level of anxiety compared to their fellow Moroccan students. Fear of making mistakes and negative evaluation are the most major causes of EFL speaking anxiety. The amount of exposure to the English language and the sociolinguistics factors play a role in these findings. Keywords: Foreign language anxiety, Indonesian students, Moroccan students, speaking anxiet