Students’ strategies in reducing speaking anxiety

Abstract

This study is conducted with the aim to seek out what the students have done to reduce their speaking anxiety in the classrooms. Data collection was done by conducting semi-structured interview with nine students that had the highest rank of anxiety in the classrooms. The findings revealed that avoiding eye contact with the classmates and teacher, and doing physical expressive reactions were the most frequent non-verbal strategies and activities done by the students in reducing their anxiety when speaking English in the classrooms. The study suggests that English teachers should be more sensitive and concerned with the anxiety faced by the students when speaking English in the classrooms.