Investigating Pre-service EFL Teachers’ Strategies to Overcome Speaking Anxiety during the Shift from Online to Offline Learning in the Post-COVID-19 Era

The shift from online to offline learning during the post-COVID-19 pandemic prevents pre-service EFL teachers from producing spontaneous oral utterances due to speaking anxiety. The article aims to determine the most preferential strategies that effectively cover speaking anxiety and identify a significant variation among the strategies. To meet such objectives, a survey research design was conducted. A Likert-scale questionnaire was distributed to 64 pre-service EFL teachers using online Google Forms. The responses were quantitatively analysed using descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and Tukey post hoc. The findings showed that pre-service EFL teachers favoured using cognitive strategies to overcome speaking anxiety. Additional results reveal that cognitive and metacognitive strategies were impactful in reducing anxiety; meanwhile, a combination of compensatory, affective, and social strategies also demonstrates slight effectiveness. Therefore, providing pre-service EFL teachers with training to develop cognitive and metacognitive strategies for coping with speaking anxiety is recommended.