Anxiety in French language classroom. The attitudes of Polish high school students towards teaching/learning speaking

Abstract

While learning a foreign language, students have to practise speaking through different in class activities. Unfortunately, speaking is often a challenge for students not only due to linguistic difficulties, but most importantly because of the stress caused by using a foreign language in front of their classmates. This phenomenon, called language anxiety, makes it impossible for some students to participate actively, thus to develop their speaking skills. It is therefore important to understand which types of tasks cause the highest level of anxiety as well as to find out what can help students overcome their anxiety. To answer these questions, we conducted a research among Polish high school students learning French. They were asked about their attitudes towards different speaking activities in class as well as about the atmosphere in the classroom. The results indicate that students are the most stressed while speaking in front of their peers and prefer interaction in small groups. Language games also appear to lower the level of anxiety during speaking. In addition, positive atmosphere and lack of judgment help students overcome their fear, but they do not eliminate it completely for every person.