EFL Learners’ Self-made Psychological Barriers in Speaking Acquisition

Subject Areas : Journal of Teaching English Language Studies

Shiva Ghorbani ¹ , Shahram Afraz ² , Farhad Fahandej Saadi ³

1 - Ph.D. Candidate in TEFL, Department of English Language, Qeshm Branch,Islamic Azad University, Qeshm, Iran.
2 - Assistant Professor of TEFL, Department of English Language, Qeshm Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qeshm, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor of TEFL, Department of English Language, Badar Lenge Branch, Islamic Azad University, Badar Lenge, Iran

Received: 2024-12-01 Accepted : 2024-01-05 Published : 2024-04-07

Keywords: Psychological Barriers, Speaking, Inhibition, EFL Context,

Abstract :

Hindering factors in the language classes are of various types ranging from teaching context, teacher-provoking factors, error correction procedures, tests impact, and finally the factors that are imposed by the learners themselves (Horwitz, 2001). The goal of this paper was to explore the factors that are suggested into the learning situation by the learners themselves in the teaching-learning context called self-made hindering factors. To his goal, 52 EFL learners establish the participants of the study. The learners belonged to the pre-intermediate level with the age range of 16 to 24. Two instruments were used to collect the data. The first was using a questionnaire to discover the self-made inhibiting factors that the learners were normally exposed to in the speaking class. It was a pre-designed questionnaire consisted of 30 statements that was used before by Yaseen (2018) in a study with EFL learners in Jordan. The other instrument was using PET standard speaking test that would tap the speaking level of the participants of the study. Teachers’ role was introduced as the main factor of inhibition provocation and the second self-made source was the affective factor such as the level of motivation and the anxiety of the learners and the last category was the context and instructional environment. Moreover, a relationship could be explored between apprehension and the three levels. The results were significant and revealed some differences between the three levels and their inhibition sources.

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