| Abstract | The topic of this thesis is foreign language anxiety, more precisely speaking anxiety
(communication apprehension) in English among undergraduate and graduate students of
English language and literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb.
Foreign language anxiety is almost always present to some degree among students learning a
new language, and speaking anxiety often appears during oral communication.
175 students participated in the research conducted during May and June of 2019. An
online questionnaire was drafted and sent to students by e-mail at student-svima@ffzg.hr,
published on the Facebook page dedicated to English majors “Klub studenata anglistike X.a.”,
and posted in closed Facebook groups “FFZG Anglistika 2015./16.” and “FFZG Anglistika
2017./2018.” The questionnaire was divided into five parts. The first part contained general
questions (sex, year of study, average grade in English in high school, average grade in English
on the final exam, last grade in language course), as well as a question on the existence of
classroom anxiety during high school, or lack thereof. The second part contained the Foreign
Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz, 1983), the third part the Personal
Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) (McCroskey and Beatty, 1984), the fourth
part the Shyness Scale (McCroskey, 1997), and the fifth part contained questions on the
participant’s satisfaction with the language course, the teaching methods of the lecturers and
the general atmosphere in class.
The objective of the research was to determine whether there were any undergraduate
and graduate students of English Language and Literature experiencing foreign language
anxiety, to what extent and what were the possible causes. Of particular interest was whether
speaking anxiety can be found in English majors, to what degree it is manifested and in which
FLCAS statements it is most evident. |
