Attitude of the Students Towards the Usage of Group Activities as a Remedy for Speaking Anxiety

Abstract

As literature suggests Second Language (L2) speaking has always been a challenge for students. One of the main issues is the apprehension occurring when a learner is expected to perform in the second language (Gardner and MacIntyre, 1993). As facilitators at the tertiary level, it is vital to create a low-anxiety classroom to aid students with L2 speaking anxiety. This research attempts to investigate the perspective of students towards using group activities to alleviate speaking anxiety in the ESL classroom. The sample group consisted of forty-five Post Advanced Level Students from an intensive course in a private institute. A questionnaire prior to any speaking activity and weekly questionnaires while conducting both group and individual speaking activities were given to this mixed ability group to study their attitude towards L2 speaking for three weeks. The participation, behaviour and responses of the closely monitored sample group were observed and evaluated to meet the intended objectives. Initial questionnaire revealed that majority was afraid of L2 speaking due to several reasons. During the second week there was a slight attitudinal change towards the perception on L2 speaking, but there was a drop in the attendance towards the end of the three weeks. As revealed, group activities have helped the students to make an effort to speak as there were students who did speaking activities for the first time in their life. It was concluded that Group activities can be used effectively to a certain extent, and since students preferred group activities more than individual activities, they can be used to bridge the gap between students and L2 Speaking.