Foreign Language Anxiety in Undergraduates of a Sindh University

A Qualitative Case Study

Abstract

Whereas English carries the status of ‘official language’ in Pakistan and it is solely used as the medium of instruction at the tertiary level education, English is neither the language of everyday communication nor the medium of education at the primary and secondary level public sector academic institutions in the country. Due to the lack of exposure to English, learners with a background from non-elite and non-English medium education may be observed highly language anxious at tertiary level education. At tertiary education, the students are required to communicate in English and demonstrate high level of language proficiency. However, foreign language anxiety (FLA) is considered to have detrimental effects on learning and performance in the target language. Considering the significant and detrimental role language anxiety may play, this study attempts to understand learner experiences related to foreign language anxiety with specific reference to English as a foreign language. This paper presents a small-scale qualitative case study based on the semi-structured interviews conducted with EFL learners at a public sector university in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. The results suggest that communication apprehension, fear of public speaking, fear of negative evaluation, fear of forgetting vocabulary, and fear of opposite gender are the main factors that are related to the high level of anxiety in the English language learners in the given context. Moreover, the study finds that the students with a reportedly higher level of foreign language anxiety hold a negative perception about themselves and their ability to speak in English before an audience including, but not confined to, their teacher(s) and class-mates.