An Analysis of English-Speaking Anxiety of University Students in Nangarhar, Afghanistan

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.