A Mixed-Methods Study of Speech Anxiety among Malaysian Primary ESL Pupils

Speech anxiety, or communication apprehension, is a widespread phenomenon among pre-students with debilitating effects on classroom participation, self-concept, and achievement. The current study focused on the incidence and predictors of speech anxiety in Malaysian primary school students within a public-school context. Informed by Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis and grounded in socio-cultural theories of learning, this study assumes a lagged sequential explanatory mixed-methods design. The study recruited 132 students as the main data source via a mixed-methods research design that included questionnaires, classroom observation, and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed via descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data were analyzed via thematic analysis. The study findings demonstrated moderate to high levels of speech anxiety due to several factors, such as fear of negative judgment, comparison, and language proficiency. The study contributes to the understanding of how speech anxiety is manifested in Malaysian multilingual and multicultural primary school classrooms. Practice implications recommend that teachers implement confidence-building strategies, offer positive learning environments, and include oral communication lessons according to students' language needs. To address speech anxiety at its initial levels of schooling, the study promotes the building of positive communication competence towards greater overall student development.