L2 Learners' Anxiety, Self-Confidence and Oral Performance

This study examined the relationships between L2 learners' anxiety, self-confidence and oral performance. The participants were 132 Korean college students who enrolled the English conversation classes in 2004. Questionnaires related to anxiety and self-confidence were given to the students and their oral performances were assessed in terms of IATEFL's criteria. Factor analysis indicated that communication anxiety, criticism anxiety, examination anxiety were the main components of anxiety, while situational confidence, communication confidence, language potential confidence and language ability confidence were the components of self-confidence for Korean learners of English. The results of the analyses showed that there were significant effects of anxiety and self-confidence on L2 learners' oral performance: The higher anxious the students were about speaking English, the lower scores they gained on their oral performance; The higher confident they were, the higher oral performance they showed. The correlation analysis of anxiety/confidence and the elements of oral performance showed that confidence was more closely correlated with the L2 learner' attitude and interaction including communication strategies and social conversation skills of oral performance, while anxiety was more negatively correlated with the L2 learner's range of oral performance such as vocabulary and grammar.