BREAKING THE SILENCE: COMMUNICATION ANXIETY IN THE HIGHER SECONDARY ESL CLASSROOM

Abstract

This research investigates the multifaceted phenomenon of communication anxiety among Higher Secondary English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. The research aims to identify the level of communication anxiety among the ESL students and to explore how the personal, classroom, and cultural-linguistic factors contribute to communication anxiety self-confidence, introversion, social anxiety, accent and first language; likewise, it also investigate the effect of anxiety on the ESL classroom participation of ESL students and academic performance, and to elaborate whether there were gender differences in communication anxiety. The research is quantitative in nature, and the population comprises higher secondary schools of the district Khairpur, Sindh.   The sample size comprises two hundred students, equally distributed between both genders from four higher secondary schools of the district Khairpur. The statistical data collected were analyzed through SPSS, the latest version, using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, multiple regression analysis, and t-tests. The results showed that a moderate to high level of communication anxiety was found in 78.5% of the ESL students.