Prospective English teachers' in-class speaking anxiety and their use of oral communication strategies

Speaking is a fundamental activity of both daily life and education. It is one of the most vital skills that must be acquired in language learning. However, speaking is also the skill that is the most liable to be impaired by anxiety. The feeling of anxiety may have a negative impact on both students and teachers. As a result, they may not want to use communicative activities in their classes. Using strategies in foreign language learning facilitates learning and helps learners to overcome difficulties and anxiety. In terms of speaking, using oral communication strategies helps speakers to have a meaningful and understandable communication. It is also important to know what kind of strategies prospective English teachers use during oral communication. The purpose of this thesis is to describe the prevalence of prospective English teachers' in-class speaking anxiety and their use of verbal communication strategies, as well as to discover the relations among language anxiety, spoken communication strategies, gender, grade and perceived language proficiency. The study was conducted with the participation of 98 pre-service teachers who were selected through cluster random sampling. Data were collected by means of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (OCSI) during 2017-2018 Spring Semester. In order to analyse data, the Statistic Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 was employed. Results indicated that participants had a moderate degree of anxiety and the intensity of their anxiety does not change depending on grade and gender. Most of the participants reported high levels of oral communication strategy use to cope with speaking problems. They used negotiation of meaning strategy the most and message reduction and alteration strategy the least. There was a weak negative relationship between speaking anxiety and oral communication strategy utilisation. Moreover, there was a moderate correlation between students' perceived oral proficiency and in-class speaking anxiety. Similarly, there was moderate correlation between perceived oral proficiency and oral communication strategy use of the participants.