Teamwork Equals Dreamwork : A Survey-based Study of Second-language Students’ Speaking Anxiety in Upper Secondary School

Abstract: This survey-based study aimed to find out how to reduce speaking anxiety amongst second-language students attending two different upper secondary schools in Halmstad, Sweden. The survey participants were in their first and second years of upper secondary school and attending English 5 and 6 courses. The survey participants were asked to complete two online-surveys. The first survey dealt with measuring if the participants felt anxious while speaking English in class and what they considered was the most conducive way to alleviate anxiety when working with communicative exercises. After compiling the data from the first survey, it was found that the survey participants thought that working in groups would alleviate speaking anxiety the most. Following this, lessons were created where the classroom furniture was rearranged in order to promote group discussions. Subsequently, the survey participants completed the second survey, the purpose of which was to measure how they felt the group discussions went, and if they thought it helped them reduce their speaking anxiety. The results showed that the majority of the survey participants felt that group discussions made them less apprehensive about how their peers would perceive their speaking abilities. Interestingly, the results also showed that even though most of the survey participants felt that they had good English skills, they were still concerned about not being able to perform communicative tasks without inhibition. The results demonstrated that when the furniture was rearranged to suit classroom group-work, students were less worried about how they were being perceived as English speakers, leading them to feel more secure. Additionally, they became more motivated to speak English.