Investigating the Level of Anxiety and Coping Strategies among Kurdish EFL learners Speaking Skill

Basta  Nazar Mohammad

doi:10.25098/7.1.9

Authors

Basta Nazar Mohammad Department of General Education, Cihan University of Sulaimaniya, Sulaimaniya, Iraq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25098/7.1.9

Abstract

Anxiety is an uneasy emotion that a person has in any situation. A prevalent issue when speaking a foreign language, especially to learners, is foreign language anxiety. The study's goal was to determine if the EFL learners experience anxiety and what is the level of English language anxiety among undergraduate students who were studying in different universities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Besides this study aimed to find out coping mechanisms employed by EFL (English as a foreign language) Kurdish learners to deal with their anxiety. This research followed a mixed method both quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative data were collected by using a foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS) questionnaire, and qualitative data were collected by interview. Data analysis revealed that students had a moderate level of anxiety. The participants expressed their own coping strategies to deal with their speaking skill anxiety which were divided into two themes Self-produced coping as initiated by the students and Coping methods provided by teachers as learned by students.

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