Saudi EFL Students' Speaking Anxiety from the Perspective of Their College Instructors

Speaking is considered an essential literacy skill and enjoys a superior status among other language skills. Thus, this current study aims at scrutinizing Saudi EFL trainees' speaking anxiety from their college instructors' perspectives. It adheres to qualitative approach and utilizes face-to-face interviews with four language instructors. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The results showed that EFL instructors at Saudi colleges of technology are aware of their students' speaking anxiety. Thus, they reported several causes that lead to students' foreign language speaking anxiety (FLSA, hereafter) such as fear of making mistakes, the limited exposure to the language, low language proficiency, and fear of receiving negative evaluation from both their instructors and peers. In addition, the results revealed that the instructors use different strategies that help alleviating their students' FLSA such as building good relationships with students, creating positive and friendly atmosphere in the classroom, increasing students' engagement in the class and correcting students' erroneous beliefs about language learning. Encouraging and motivating students to participate in oral tasks was a significant strategy stated by the instructors, which help reduce students' FLSA in the classroom. The study concludes that the type of curriculum and overcrowding classes are factors that significantly affect the instructors' awareness of their students' FLSA.