Pakistan Languages and Humanities Review P-ISSN 2708-6453

July-September, 2022, Vol. 6, No. 3[425-439] O-ISSN 2708-6461

RESEARCH PAPER
An Analysis of English-Speaking Anxiety of University Students in
Nangarhar, Afghanistan
Qinaat Saeed*1 Shahabullah2 Samina Rana3

1. M.Phil. Scholar, Department of English, Hazara University, Mansehra, KP, Pakistan

2. Lecturer, Department of English, University of Buner, Buner, KP, Pakistan,
[email protected]
3. PhD Scholar, Department of English and Applied Linguistics, Allama Iqbal Open
University, Islamabad , Pakistan
DOI http://doi.org/10.47205/plhr.2022(6-III)37
ABSTRACT
The present study focuses on the anxiety level of undergraduates enrolled in private
universities in Nangarhar, Afghanistan. The study used a survey descriptive design
for data collection from a sample of two hundred students from four universities
selected through a non-random convenient sampling technique. The data was
collected through Likert Scale adapted from Horwitz & Cope (1986). The collected
data was analyzed through SPSS, while the difference between the two groups was
analyzed through t-test. The study found that communication apprehension, fear of
negative evaluation and test anxiety were causing anxiety among the students.
Furthermore, no significant difference was found among male and female participants
in communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation. Moreover, the
difference for test anxiety was found out significant because the male participants
were more anxious than female participants about their performance in tests. The
findings of the study suggest that English speaking anxiety is a serious issue that has
to be addressed because its occurrence influences students’ performance in term of
using their speaking skills of a foreign language.
Afghan Students, Communication Apprehension, English, Speaking
Keywords Anxiety, Fear of Negative Evaluation, Test Anxiety
Introduction

In Afghanistan, second or foreign language education has grown quickly over

the last two decades. English being a global language, has been included in the
curriculum of schools, colleges and universities in Afghanistan. As a result, Afghan
students are expected to master English throughout their studies. But many English
language learners/students in Afghanistan still struggle to understand and use their
English abilities in terms of all four skills, especially, their speaking skills, because
success in a foreign language learning is commonly measured by one's ability to have
a conversation in the target language (Schmidt, 2010). One of the reasons of lacking
in English speaking skills is speaking anxiety of a foreign language. Numerous
studies have been conducted to evaluate the association amongst speaking and
foreign language anxiety hindering learning outcomes of students in particular
courses. Language anxiety as a separate feature of language education and as a
psychological component of foreign language learning has been researched for some
period (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991). Speaking, being a useful talent (Jack, Richards
& Rodgers, 1992) is one of the four fundamental aspects that students must master in
 Pakistan Languages and Humanities Review (PLHR) July-September, 2022, Vol. 6, No. 3

order to learn English, demanding specific attention and instruction at all level of
English language learning. Speaking, being a direct way to convey our thoughts,
ideas, and opinions etc. (Rabiah, 2018) has many elements that hinder our progress
in second or foreign language learning. Foreign language anxiety (stress, worry and
fear of making mistakes among others factors) can have a negative impact on a
speaker's overall performance and prevent him/her from correctly speaking the
foreign language (Jansová, 2021).

Because of speaking anxiety, the crippling worry may increase the actual filter
and establish a "mental barrier" that inhibits understandable input from being
employed for dialectal acquisition (Krashen, 2013). Both sensory emotion (elicited by
external stimuli, such as cool, sweet, fatigued, satiety, and hunger etc.) and cerebral
emotion (intellectual feeling, social feeling, ethical feeling, aesthetic feeling, and
definite feeling etc.) on a broader or weaker level change the physical or mental
activity of an individual making a student’s self (Sadapotto, Syamsu, Usman,
Darmiani & Nadirah, 2022). When it comes to learning a foreign language, students'
emotions are more discouraging than encouraging. Anxiety is one of the emotional
states that makes such a process harder. Anxiety can be classified as a sensation of
stress, concern, or worry, and it will obstruct learners' capacity to function well in a
foreign language classroom. According to Oxford and Ehrman (1992, p.60) "Most
linguistic research reveals a negative association between anxiety and performance".

Anxiety is "a sensation of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry as

well as autonomic nervous system activation or alertness" (Spielberger, Jacobs,
Russell & Crane, 1983, p. 113). Anxiety is characterized by a sense of not knowing
who or what is causing the anxiety; this is why anxiety is accompanied by feelings of
helplessness and in some cases, panic. Although fear and anxiety are closely related,
people are more likely to be terrified of something concrete, something they are
familiar with, whereas anxiety develops from a dread of the unknown in humans.
Anxiety is normally characterized as a trait or a mood, however the phrase situation-
specific anxiety has recently been coined to underline the long-term and
multidimensional nature of some fears (Horwitz, 2001). There are different types of
anxiety like trait anxiety, state anxiety and situation-specific anxiety. Trait anxiety is
a personality trait that is relatively consistent. An anxious person with trait is prone
to be anxious in a variety of scenarios (Woodrow, 2006). As a result, trait anxiety is
the proclivity or readiness to react anxiously in specific conditions. Contrarily, state
anxiety happens in a given instant and is only brief. The focus is on here-and-now
experience, meaning the emotional condition at a given instant. It is a mixture of trait
anxiety and situational anxiety (Macintyre & Gardner, 1991). As a result, those who
are nervous in general, or who have high levels of trait anxiety, are more likely to
experience state anxiety in stressful situations. The situation-specific anxiety is the
anxiety in specific situation like public speaking, arithmetic performance, English
class engagement, and writing performances etc. (Macintyre & Gardner (1991).

Literature Review

Success in language learning is determined by a person's desire or the level at

which he tries to achieve his goals. People will not put in the effort to learn the
language if they are not motivated to do so (Gilakjani, 2012). Learners’ thoughts,
beliefs, expectations are important in determining language learning success. The
confidence of learners helps in learning a second language, while the emotion of
uneasiness, fear, nervousness, and apprehension hinders learning which is
commonly termed as foreign language anxiety (Dewaele & Al-Saraj, 2013).

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Nervousness is linked to both productive (speaking and writing) and receptive skills
(listening and reading). Speaking skill, no doubt is one of the most important skills
among others. But speaking could lead to a high level of anxiety because feeling
stressed, frightened, and uncomfortable affect speaking skills more than any other
skills of the targeted language (Suleimenova, 2013). Although, there is no universal
definition for foreign language anxiety, there are a few that are commonly used.
Many people have a mental barrier to learning a foreign language, while being
competent learners in other circumstances and having a genuine affection for
speakers of the target language. As a consequence, the issue here is a specific type of
anxiety reaction that obstructs the entire effort and ability to function properly in
various settings involving a foreign language (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986).

Learners, teachers, and the way instructions are delivered are all common
sources of language anxiety (Young, 1991). Spielberger and Vagg (1995) asserted that
symptoms including muscular trembling, perspiration of the palms and foreheads,
and flushing of the neck and cheeks are all signs of worry. According to Liebert and
Morris (1967), the two forms of anxiety reactions, i.e., emotional (characterized by
physiological and behavioral responses such as squirming and hesitating) and agony
(characterized by a cognitive response or active mental activity) were recognized.
These intellectual or mental effects may be observed only under more controlled
situations (Spielberger, 1972). Learning a language is different in different situations.
Javed, Eng, Mohamed and Sam (2013) looked into the relationship between two
crucial aspects in English learning, i.e., motivation and nervous situations. Optimism
and anxiety are the two measures on which the official language is based. As pointed
out and examined, Pakistani ESL students' opinions toward characterizing their
status as non-English natives are influenced by sociolinguistic, geographical,
economic, and political rather than linguistic considerations. That is why, in a non-
native speaking environment, intelligibility and comprehensibility are checked in the
perspective of classroom anxiety (Wilang & Singhasiri, 2017).

Due to a variety of design and technique modifications in prior studies

conducted across numerous years and decades, researchers have derived rather
confusing findings about the impact of various influences on learning foreign
languages. Because of a wide range of outcomes, demonstrating a broad perspective
on this topic and concisely explaining its consequences, factors, sources, and other
variables have proven difficult. As a result, more research is needed before reaching
any conclusions about foreign language anxiety.

According to Kitano (2001), gender and anxiety levels are linked along with
number of learners and social and environmental factors (Kunt & Tüm, 2010) and
personality factors (Kráová & Sorádová, 2015). “Females are more passionately
developed than males in their responses to very frightening and relaxed settings"
(Spielberger, Jacobs, Russell & Crane, 1983, p. 19), on the other hand, male learners
were shown to be more anxious when they regarded their spoken language to be less
proficient than many others; however, no such association was identified among
female students (Matsuda & Gobel, 2004). On the opposite, Machida (2001), looked at
gender differences for foreign language learning in a classroom environment and
anxiety and discovered that female students were more worried than male students.
Speech concerns in ESL classrooms have been investigated identifying the impact of
gender on speech fears among students (Hwa & Peck, 2017).

We have diverse mental levels when it comes to last understanding; thus,

some are more likely to acquire a foreign language than others. Being a part of a lot

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of learning, dependence is completely unworkable and unreasonable, resulting in

worry among students. Learners’ self-respect or self-consciousness of language
dependability, peer competing attitudes of teachers, gender differences at different
academic level, experience of visiting a foreign language nation, and work experience
are all possible sources of anxiety for learners (Chan & Wu, 2004). Having anxiety in
learning a foreign language is a personal capacity that varies from one person to
another (Liu & Huang, 2011).

Many factors affecting language learning anxiety were identified, they

included “cognitive (e.g., language aptitude and learning styles), affective (e.g.,
attitudes, motivation, and learning anxiety), metacognitive (e.g., usage of language
learning strategies), and demographic characteristics” (Olivares-Cuhat, 2010, p. 99).
Some of these factors contribute in language learning while others hinder learning
with ease. Choy, Fyer and Lipsitz (2007), found a number of factors that contribute to
speaking anxiety. During their research, they discovered that more than half of the
respondents expressed dread while speaking English. For the analysis of anxiety,
both educational and cultural components should be considered (Gardner, 2007)
because second language is learnt by human being and every human is a product of
a particular culture, and as a result, culture has an impact on many facets of a person's
personality. Similarly, Weda and Sakti (2018), explored contributing factors for
anxiety during English language learning. Teachers, low capabilities, an inadequate
resources and assistance, and, maybe most importantly, student anxiety are all
significant considerations. The main reasons of student anxiety in the EFL classroom,
according to the findings of this study, were, first and foremost, the dread of failing
English course. Second, as individuals ask questions, the learners become more
apprehensive and upset because they do not grasp the answers. Third, when students
forget to pay attention to their various talents, they become distracted, and when
students fail to understand the themes covered by teachers in the EFL session, they
feel frightened and nervous. When learners have a great level of speaking
nervousness, commonly, one among the six principles of the causal factors of
speaking anxiety has been explored. The classroom management factor was the most
commonly experienced factor by the students during the learning speaking process
(Handayani, Rozimela, & Fatimah, 2020). The size of the audience in the class was
also found significant in determining the speaking anxiety (Raja, 2017).

According to Eddraoui and Wirza (2020), foreign language anxiety is a

significant issue that has affected the development of students' speaking abilities over
time. Anxiety, about speaking a foreign language, causes students to avoid speaking
the target language. Fear of making mistakes, fear of negative evaluation, and other
factors can all contribute to foreign language speaking anxiety. Most studies have
shown that foreign language anxiety has a damaging effect on one's ability to achieve
in the target language in a number of contexts. Research has demonstrated the
negative relationship between foreign language anxiety and achievement and how it
is influenced by a variety of factors, including age, years of study, gender, prior reality
of living in or visiting the target culture, academic achievement, prior experience
learning foreign languages, self-perceived foreign language proficiency, self-
perceived scholastic competence, perceived self-worth, and perfectionism (Kunt &
Tüm, 2010). Debilitating anxiety, on the other hand, encourages the student to "flee"
the new learning activity, therefore emotionally motivating the student to avoid the
situation. According to Anandari (2015), students experienced foreign language
anxiety, and self-reflection exercises assisted them in recognizing their strengths and
weaknesses, as well as problem resolution, in order to improve their public speaking
ability.
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Anxiety does not always have a negative effect on language learning (Moyer,
2008), because "facilitating anxiety has a favorable effect on oral performance"
(Young, 1990, p. 541). Horwitz (2010), on the other hand, claims that this would
require language learners to feel slightly worried in order to work more. According
to Scovel (1978), anxiety may facilitate a work if it is relatively easy; on the other side,
the more difficult the task, the more detrimental it is. Scovel (1978, p.138), added that
good performance in any (music; sport; language learning, particularly speaking)
"requires enough anxiety to evoke the neuromuscular system to optimized levels of
performance, but not so much that the complex neuromuscular systems underlying
these skills are disrupted". We can consider anxiety as a beneficial aspect in language
learning, according to Welsch, Terrell and Nadolski (1992), if by anxiety we mean
"attentiveness" or "alertness." The learners require input, but they must also pay
attention to that material in order to learn a language effectively. On the other hand,
Krashen and Terrel (1983), claims that there is no benefit to anxiety in language
acquisition, while there may be for language learning. There has been no conclusion
on general aspects affecting the issue of foreign language anxiety due to ambiguous
results in numerous studies. These two aspects should maintain a specific balance in
order to keep the organism in constant balance with its changing environment.

There is a relationship between speaking anxiety and the use of affective

language learning strategies used by learners (Ginting and Sebayang, 2021).
Similarly, spontaneous activities should be used to alleviate nervousness when
communicating with learners (Yalçın & İnceçay, 2014). There have been studies
focusing on developing ways for overcoming public speaking anxiety in classrooms.
It was suggested that learners require encouragement from the beginning of the
learning stage to boost their confidence, so that the instructor may completely
encourage students during class (Raja, 2017). The classroom exercises such as role
play and presentation, practice and enumeration before presentations or speeches can
reduce fear of public speaking (Garmston & Wellman, 1992, p.35). Similarly, class
preparation has an impact on reducing foreign language anxiety (Saltan, 2003).
Speaking anxiety has also been investigated from discourse analysis perspective
(Zhiping & Paramasivam, 2013), an EFL learning interlanguage environment
perspective and different systems of grammar perspectives (Mehmoodzadeh, 2012).
Foreign language anxiety in a classroom has been explained from theoretical
perspective as well. There are a number of domains of anxiety like communication
apprehension (McCroskey's, 2015), fear of negative evaluation (Leary & Tangney,
2011) and test anxiety (Gregersen & Horwitz, 2002). According to Gaibani and
Elmenfi (2016), speaking anxiety is a type of shyness that is distinguished by a dread
of social interaction. speaking anxiety can be classified into four categories: trait-like
(Richmond et al., 1998), generalized context (McCroskey, 2015), personal group
(McCroskey, Richmond & McCroskey, 2002) and situational or state-like (Frantz,
Marlow & Wathen, 2015). Speaking anxiety varies which is determined on whether
the participants' intents or methods are employed to ease their nervousness or not
(Yami, 2015). According to the point of view of Yoon (2012), there are three basic
features of teaching anxiety amongst ESL teachers: lack of self-assurance, absence of
groundwork and the use of main language. Anxiety is even prevalent among
university students due to variety of reasons in the EFL classroom. Students at the
higher education level experience more anxiety for spoken aspect of language in
classroom (Ahmed, Pathan, & Khan, 2017) like foreign language speaking anxiety for
other skills among university students (Karatas, Alci, Bademcioglu, & Ergin, 2016).

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Martial and Methods

The population of this study was the private sector universities’ students of
Nangarhar, Afghanistan. A sample of four private universities in Nangarhar province
was selected through a non-random convenient sampling technique, i.e., Khurasan,
Alfalah, Al Taqwa, and Rokhan. Form these universities, a sample of two hundred
students was selected having equal number of male and female students. The study
was carried out using a survey descriptive research design to describe the
characteristics of anxiety selected sample (Gay, Mills & Airasian, 2011). The data was
collected through a five Likert scale questionnaire having 33 items adapted from
Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986). The questionnaire contained questions about
communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. Out of
these items, thirteen items focused on comprehension apprehension, thirteen on fear
of negative evaluation and seven on test anxiety. The researchers removed and
clarified the ambiguities in the questionnaire. Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope’s (1986),
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) was used an analytical
framework in the present study. FLCAS consists of three domains: communication
apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative assessment/evaluation.

Communication apprehension is a distress or nervousness experienced by an

individual in response to actual or expected communication with another person or
group of people and test anxiety is an anxiety or apprehension felt before, during, or
after a test as a result of worry, fear, or concern. On the other hand, fear of negative
evaluation deals with worries about bad evaluation by others and the anticipation
that others will assess one badly. All these three domains are generally focused and
communication apprehension is specifically in the present study.

Figure 1: Model of foreign language anxiety (Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope, 1986)

The collected data was analyzed through descriptive statistics in SPSS

(version 22). The mean and standard deviation were calculated which helped in
defining the sources of English-speaking anxiety factors and causes amongst English
language learners. An independent sample T-test was calculated to show the
differences in anxiety level of males and female participants.

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Results and Discussion

The thirty-three items in the questionnaire had questions about different

domains of anxiety like communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation
and test anxiety. All these domains were hypothesized to affect speaking proficiency
of the students. The following table shows the results for the specific domain of
language anxiety communication apprehension for the first thirteen questions in
questionnaire.
Table 1
Descriptive statistics of communication apprehension domain
Items Mean Std.
I feel tense and nervous while participating in English class. 3.07 1.117
I feel afraid to express my opinion in front of my classmates. 2.87 1.214
While speaking English, I get so nervous; I forget things I really know. 3.30 1.042
I feel frightened when the teacher asks me to answer questions in English
3.04 1.058
class.
I never feel quite sure of myself when I am speaking in English class. 2.88 1.043
I feel afraid when I don’t understand what the teacher is saying in English
2.83 1.212
class.
I feel nervous when I have to speak in English class without preparation. 3.44 1.078
I get depressed when the teacher corrects my answers in English class. 2.73 1.185
I feel shy when I speak English in front of the class. 3.13 1.176
I feel shy when I speak English in front of the classmates. 3.16 1.060
My heart beats faster when the teacher asks me to answer in English class. 3.18 1.133
I feel afraid that the other students will laugh at me when I speak in English
2.92 1.136
class.
Even if I know the answer; I can’t express myself in English class. 3.15 1.168

The means in the above table for each question were higher than 2.50 for all
questions showing that most of the students had anxiety for specific domain of
communication apprehension. The anxiety is more when the students speak in
English class without preparation. It means that preparation before class reduces
anxiety and students if not anxious do not forget what they have learnt. They do not
feel shy in the class and feel normal and could perform better even if they are asked
by teachers in front of the class. With preparation, they become able to face the
teachers and classmates and so, their speaking anxiety reduces and they perform
better. The overall mean in the following table also shows the mean of means which
is higher than 3 showing anxiety for communication apprehension.

Table 2
The overall descriptive statistics of communication apprehension
Domain N Mean Std. Deviation
Communication apprehension
200 3.0535 .57704
domain

The mean of the means above is over 3 suggesting that as a whole, the students
feel anxiety in communication apprehension and would affect their speaking
proficiency. Similarly, the following table shows the results for the second domain of
language anxiety, i.e., fear of negative evaluation in thirteen questions of the
questionnaire.
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Table 3
Descriptive statistics of fear of negative evaluation domain
Std.
Items Mean
Deviation
I feel worried about making mistakes in English class. 3.41 1.028
I feel worried when my classmates correct my answers in
2.75 1.194
English class.
I always feel that my classmates speak English better than me. 3.15 1.185
I feel worried when I make grammatical mistakes while
3.12 1.172
speaking in English class.
I always feel that my classmates will laugh at me when I speak
2.75 1.184
in English class.
I always make pronunciation errors while speaking in English
2.80 1.004
class.
I feel afraid that my classmates will criticize me during group
2.72 1.228
discussion because of my English.
I am worried about English teacher who might have negative
2.55 1.074
feelings about me due to my bad performance in English class.
I forget the answers while speaking English if students and
2.93 1.126
teacher keep looking at me.
I feel nervous when the teacher asks me questions, I haven’t
3.34 1.068
prepared in advance.
I am worried from the negative feedback I get from my
3.46 3.138
classmates in English class.
I am worried from the negative feedback I get from my teacher
3.21 1.110
in English class.
I feel worry about the impression I leave among my classmates
3.05 1.033
after speaking English.
Like table 1, the means in the above table for each question are higher than
2.50 for all questions showing that most of the students had anxiety of fear of negative
evaluation. Most of the worries here too about lack of preparation and the negative
feedback provided by teachers in the presence of classmates. This anxiety is because
of the fear of making mistakes and not having a positive impression on the classmates.
In such a state of anxiety, even the look of the teacher and classmates and their
corrections of mistakes in minded by students. For this self-perceived supposition of
creating positive impression on other ideally, the performance is influenced and the
students do not perform well in language class. The overall mean in the following
table also shows the mean of means which is higher than 3 showing anxiety of fear of
negative evaluation.

Table 4
Overall descriptive statistics of fear of negative evaluation
Domain N Mean Std. Deviation
Fear of Negative
200 3.0204 .56839
Evaluation

The domain of test anxiety was analyzed showing greater anxiety for
students. The following table shows the results of test anxiety domain of the seven
questions in questionnaire about this domain.

Table 5
Descriptive statistics of test anxiety domain
Items Mean Std. Deviation
I feel nervous before English test. 3.12 1.045

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I feel nervous while I am taking English test. 3.08 1.098

I worry about the consequences of failing English test. 3.42 1.086
I feel my heart beating very fast during English test. 3.02 1.061
During English test, my emotions affect my performance negatively. 3.26 1.160
I feel pressured by time limits during English test. 3.28 1.033
I am worried even when I am well prepared for English test. 3.61 .976

The means in the above table for each question were higher than 3 for all
questions showing that most of the students had test anxiety greater than other types
of anxiety. The test anxiety (because of nature of our tests) is so much that students
in spite of preparation feel anxious for test. This worry is mostly because of the fear
of having bad grades for not performing good in tests. These like emotions affect their
performance negatively. This anxiety is felt before, during and even after the tests.
The overall mean in the following table also shows the mean of means which is higher
than 3.2 showing greater anxiety for test anxiety.

Table 6
Overall descriptive statistics of test anxiety
Domain N Mean Std. Deviation
Test Anxiety 200 3.2543 .59880

The above mean is higher than the mean for other domains of anxiety
suggesting that students are mostly worried about their performance in tests. An
independent sample T-test was applied to calculate the statistically significant gender
differences in anxiety level of the male and female participants. The gender
differences in communication apprehension is given in the following table.

Table 7
Results for Gender differences in communication apprehension
Male Female CI
95%
Variables M SD M SD t(198) P L U
Sources 37.3 8.0 37.5 8.4 -.14 .88 -2.4 2.1
The above table shows that there was no significant difference in the anxiety
of communication apprehension between the male and female participants. The p
value is greater than the significance level (p>0.05) and the null hypothesis is accepted
that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms
of communication apprehension and both the groups have almost the same level of
comprehension apprehension in English speaking. Similarly, the independent t-test
was also applied on the data for gender differences in fear of negative evaluation. The
following table shows the results for this fear.

Table 8
Results for genders differences in fear of negative evaluation
Male Female CI
95%
Variables M SD M SD t(198) P L U

Sources 37.3 7.9 37.6 8.4 1.4 0.1 -0.6 4.0

The above table shows that there was no significant difference in the anxiety
of fear of negative evaluation between the male and female participants. The p value
is greater than the significance level (p>0.05) and the null hypothesis is accepted that
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there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of
fear of negative evaluation and both the groups have almost the same level of fear of
negative evaluation in English speaking. The gender differences for test anxiety was
also calculated by an independent t-test. The following table shows the difference.

Table 9
Results for gender differences in test anxiety
Male Female CI
95%
Variables M SD M SD t(198) P L U

Sources 19.3 5.2 17.6 5.4 2.2 0.02 0.1 3.1

The above table shows that there was significant difference in test anxiety
between the male and female participants. The p value is less than the significance
level (p>0.05) and the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is
accepted that there was statistically significant difference between the two groups in
terms of test anxiety. The mean for male participants is greater than the mean for
female participants indicating that male students have greater test anxiety than
female students. The results show that male participants were more anxious about
English test than female students. The only difference that we found out in the data
was the difference in test anxiety.

The findings reveal that students at the undergraduate level experience

foreign language classroom anxiety due to foreign language speaking activities in the
classroom. The students attributed their English language speaking anxiety due to
the activities in the class and their expected participation therein. The learners were
anxious about speaking English in class because they were fearful about making
grammatical mistakes (Mehmoodzadeh, 2012). Surprisingly, no participants in the
survey stated that they had difficulty in comprehending teachers' directions or that
they were afraid of making mistakes in their learning unlike the findings by
Pappamihiel (2002), where the teacher’s teaching and fear of making mistakes were
among the most repeatedly described causes of foreign language anxiety for learners.
In Afghanistan, the gender difference was noticed unlike the findings by Ahmed,
Pathan, and Khan (2017) in Baluchistan, Pakistan where they found out no significant
difference.

Conclusion

The aim for the current research study was to explore English speaking
anxiety and other aspects of anxiety among undergraduate Afghan learners in private
sector universities in Nangarhar, Afghanistan. Students during their production part
of language, feel more anxiety in speaking than writing being engaged in face to face
interaction and having limited time for thinking and self-adjustment. The neglect of
this skills is another reason for lack of proficiency in this regard. All the three domains
of English language anxiety (communication apprehension, fear of negative
evaluation and test anxiety) were measured showing anxiety in English speaking for
these students. The higher mean of anxiety in all domains can affect students’
performance during speaking in English classes which could lead to nervousness
when they come to class without preparation and they can forget things during
English speaking when the teachers ask them during classroom’s activities. As a
result, their heartbeats may become faster and they may feel shy while speaking
English in front of the class which make them unable to express their ideas properly
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in English due to lack of self-confidence while using this language skill. Both male
and female participants felt almost the same level of communication apprehension
and fear of negative evaluation while speaking English and no statistically significant
difference was found in the data. But when it came to test anxiety, the female students
performed better than male students and were less anxious about their test having
less test anxiety. The findings of this research show that Afghan learners are anxious
as a result of a variety of problems that are essential to be addressed by Afghan higher
authorities so they can be provided with grounds to reduce their nervousness. This
study will also help EFL lecturers in Afghanistan, specifically in Nangarhar province,
to understand the reasons that cause anxiety. The findings may also help Afghan EFL
teachers to design their English courses in the light of the suggestions of the present
study and adopting appropriate teaching techniques to reduce speaking anxiety in
the class. The findings are helpful for researchers in the field of examining
nervousness of students during learning a foreign language.

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