Students’ Perceptions of their English Language Anxiety and its Role on their Classroom Participation: An Exploration of EFL Anxiety in Urban and Peripheral Contexts of Bangladesh

Abstract

This study investigates Bangladeshi students’ perceptions of their EFL anxiety and its effects on their classroom participation in the contexts of two public universities, one situated in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh and the other in Jashore, a periphery of the country. Emphasising on four possible sources of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety, namely communication apprehension, test anxiety, fear of getting negative evaluation and EFL environment-oriented behavioral anxiety, the study collects data through a modified version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) questionnaire. Students’ perceptions of their classroom participation have been studied through a separate questionnaire devised by the researcher herself. 126 English Department students of the above-mentioned universities were the participants of this research and they were selected through simple random probability sampling. The study identifies a parallel relationship between the urban and the peripheral groups’ perceptions of their EFL anxiety. However, it recognizes a negative correlation between students’ EFL anxiety and classroom participation, indicating that if students’ anxiety level becomes high, the rate of their classroom participation decreases. Finally, the study recommends that to reduce learners’ anxiety and thus increase their active participation in classroom, a flexible, humanistic and convivial learning environment should be ensured.