Utilization of affective strategies by domestic and international students in english speaking classes of Turkish universities

Accompanied by the newly emerging circumstances and rapidly increasing requirements of a globalizing world, language learning and teaching has always been in the limelight. It is a field in which there is great amount of research to help students and teachers overcome hardships and foster their experiences in language. Compared to other skills, speaking in another language is most challenging for students, which deserves much attention. Along with cognitive, personal and social elements, affective factors like motivation, confidence, attitude and anxiety also play a significant role in performing speaking. Individuals learn a language if they receive intelligible input and if their affective filter is low enough to permit them to do so. In studies made in this area, learners state that their speaking performances are hindered because a mental block prevents them from speaking fluently and accurately when they feel unmotivated, anxious or insecure. It is therefore important to come up with strategies to facilitate the process for both students and teachers. This study aims at finding affective variables faced by intermediate level domestic – Turkish – and international students in the classes of intensive English program at universities in Turkey in speaking English in class and thus explore different affective strategies that they use in lowering their affective filter, with its correlation to their achievement through their speaking grades. The study also highlights the difference between domestic – Turkish – and international English teachers in using affective strategies to help students combat negative feelings in learning and speaking English. In this way, it intends to help students and teachers from both sides see what other strategies are employed by those from a different background, society, culture and nationality for the promotion of speaking, and give insight into their implementations. As a result, the study, which was carried out with intermediate level 30 domestic – Turkish – and 30 international students, along with 15 domestic – Turkish – and 15 international English language teachers, shows that the international students have higher values in affective factors like self-confidence, motivation, and attitude in speaking English in class than the domestic students. Likewise, their speaking scores and affective strategy use are ahead of those of Turkish students. As for the teachers' part, it concludes that the international teachers are more frequent users of affective strategies than the domestic teachers. Keywords: English speaking skill, affective filter, affective factors, affective strategies