An analysis of EFL students’ anxiety factors in speaking

EFL students’ speaking performance is not only affected by cognitive, but also effective factors. Anxiety can explain why EFL students are hesitant to speak in the classroom. Anxiety can result from various causes, which are going to be described in this article. The current study was designed as a survey, employing the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) questionnaire as the main instrument. The subjects of this study were 101 students from the Department of Chemical Engineering, State Polytechnic of Malang. The results of the item analysis showed that there were nine factors contributing to the participants’ anxiety. These factors are manifested in the students’ responses towards anxious behaviors that are interpreted as the results of students’ low self-esteem, inconvenient classroom atmosphere, and peer pressure. The findings of this study can provide insights into the development of EFL students’ speaking skills, especially those related to the affective domain