Teachers' and students' perspectives on the reasons for speaking anxiety in english for specific purposes

Abstract

The goal of this quantitative study is to fill the research gap and determine the teachers' and students' perceptions of the reasons for speaking anxiety in English for specific purposes (ESP). A survey was carried out with 335 students and 24 teachers of ESP from 18 Slovenian higher educational institutions responding to a purposely constructed questionnaire. ESP students emphasized a lack of the knowledge of the carrier content in English and their mother tongue, whereas the teachers stated that oral tests, failing to speak fluently and concern about being looked down upon for making mistakes in real and carrier content are crucial causes of ESP students' speaking anxiety. A lack of the knowledge of the carrier content is an important reason for speaking anxiety that language teachers in ESP are not aware of to a sufficient extent.