A strategy to reduce anxiety in oral activities through motivation

Abstract

This statement, as well as Young’s “speaking in the foreign language is often cited by students as their most anxiety-producing experience” (1990, p. 539), could be considered the driving force behind the present paper. Learning to speak a foreign language represents much more than simply memorizing lexical terms and rules and combining linguistic structures, as it involves different aspects concerning learners’ emotions, attitudes, experiences and personality. As a result, in order to determine the possible reasons for fearing speaking activities, this paper will identify the psychological characteristics and external factors that may result in a specific group of students’ high levels of anxiety, to later suggest an action plan to reduce it and thus improve the learning process.