FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY IN PAKISTANI HIGHER EDUCATION CLASSROOMS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, AND COPING STRATEGIES

Abstract

The focus of this qualitative exploratory studies is on the genesis, impact, and alleviation of foreign language anxiety among Pakistani college students. Collection of data using focus group and individual semi-structured  interviews as well as the corresponding thematic analyses of the results is an example of this.  The findings point towards the existence of primary anxiety stemming from communication, a centerpiece of test, and the feared negative evaluation which then gets compounded through the lens of the sociolinguistic hierarchy of English in Pakistan.  The Anxiety impacts the students’ ability to speak and results in students’ poor performance, low self-esteem, a confining sense of professional aspirations, and a weak level of confidence.  The variety of tactical avoidance coupled with rote learning to engage in social peer behavior, interaction, preparation, self-associational/anxiety provoking and cultural strategies to positive prayer, and self-constructive language. It is a point of focus, of this study, which seeks to address the issue of minimizing anxiety, it is claimed, such equally important and an issue of equally important pedagogical change at the institutional level.