“The factors that cause anxiety in learning English speaking skills among high school students” (Case study: High School “KadriKusari” in Gjakova)”

Abstract

It has been generally recognized that many high school students faces difficulties in learning and speaking English language. Anxiety is one of them. The tendency of the this research is to investigate the factors that cause anxiety in learning English speaking skills among students of the high school “KadriKusari” in Gjakove, and to develop strategies for reducing the effect of language anxiety. The researcher carried out the study by conducting Google form questionaries’ with 92 students and interviews with four English teachers from the respective school. Also open discussions on the topic of the research are carried out by the five teachers with their students during English classes. The findings from questionaries’ and interviews showed that the students felt anxious of making mistakes and about teachers correcting their mistakes in the classes; they felt nervousness about failing the exams; some of the identified factors of anxiety were associated with learner’s own sense of ‘self ’ and language classroom environment, self-perceptions, strict and formal classroom environment, presentation in the classroom, fear of making mistakes and apprehension about others’ evaluation, as well as their primary school education in particular English language teaching and learning. The study derived several recommendations and the most important is that a low- anxiety and supportive learning environment should be created inside the classrooms