A STUDY OF ENGLISH SPEAKING ANXIETY AMONG TERTIARY STUDENTS IN A MALAYSIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

This study aims to determine the English speaking anxiety level, examine the relationship of English proficiency levels and their anxiety level, identify the factors that lead to such anxiety as well as to identify the strategies of overcoming speaking anxiety. The study was conducted at University Malaysia Sarawak, with a total number of 120 undergraduates. The instrument used for the survey was Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Scale (FLSAS) which was developed by Huang (2004). The data obtained were analyzed using SPSS version 22. The findings show that majority of the students had a moderate level of speaking anxiety and fear of evaluation being the major factor. Besides, students’ speaking anxiety levels had no relationship with their English proficiency levels. The students in this study encouraged themselves to take risk in language learning, and they also preferred using relaxation techniques to reduce their anxiety. The findings from this study would help students to be aware of the factors that cause their nervousness as well as the strategies that are available to cope with their anxiety