The Relationship between EFL learners’ Speaking Anxiety and Their Metacognitive Strategy Use

Salam Khaliliaqdam ¹ ( Department of English Language, Boukan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Boukan, Iran )

Submited date : 2023-12-04 Accepted date : 2024-10-05

Keywords: EFL learners, Speaking Anxiety, Metacognitive Strategy, Urmia,

Abstract :

Different factors during the speaking process may cause uneasiness, tension, and anxiety for language learners. One solution to this problem could be regulating one’s own learning through the use of metacognitive strategies. The study was an attempt to examine the relationship between EFL learners’ extent of metacongnitive strategy use and level of speaking anxiety. To this end, 85 EFL learners were asked to answer two questionnaires: (a) the English speaking anxiety scale (ESAS), and (b) the Metacognitive strategy use scale (MCS). The participants were studying at several private language institutes in Urmia. They were selected based on convenience sampling method and their availability at the time of data gathering. The results of this study revealed that metacognitive language learning strategies correlated meaningfully and significantly with language anxiety. This correlation was negative (r = - 0.43) which means that the higher use of metacognitive strategies is related to a lower amount of speaking anxiety. In other words, the learners who applied more metacognitive strategies during speaking were found to experience lower levels of anxiety. It is hoped that this study can help teachers to consider their learners’ characteristics in the instruction of suitable metacognitive strategies and learners to become more conscious and self-regulated in their speaking performance.