Anxiety in Classroom English Presentations: A Case Study in Korean Tertiary Educational Context

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine Korean students’ anxiety in classroom presentations in tertiary educational context through classroom observation, self-reported questionnaire and semi-structured interview. In the stage of classroom observation, the potential responsivities relating with anxiety were explored through the analysis of fieldwork notes; the questionnaires were filled out by the students after they finished their presentations to unveil the students’ perceptions of their anxiety and the causes for such anxiety; the semi-structured interview was carried out to provide further evidence for the above findings. The research participants were twenty two students majoring in English education in a Korean national university. The research findings indicated that Korean students suffered different degree of anxiety in the course of classroom presentations; the major responsivities to anxiety included repeatedly occurring subconscious behaviors, silence, speech disruptions and slow rate of speaking and so forth. Concerning the causes arousing anxiety in classroom presentations, there were four major sources, consisting of negative attitude towards classroom presentations, preparation time, language proficiency, negative feedback from peers, while other factors like making mistakes, attention from audience, and teachers’ feedback were not the major source for students’ anxiety. These research findings should shed new light on classroom teaching for language teachers to improve their curriculum design to relieve students’ anxiety in classroom presentations.