Foreign Language Anxiety and Oral Performance: Differences Between High- vs. Low-Anxious EFL Students

This study aims to examine the role of FLA (foreign language anxiety) in oral performance in the case of advanced level learners. Hungarian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) majors with high vs. low levels of FLA took part in a semi-formal one-on-one conversation with a native speaker of English. They performed three tasks measuring spontaneous communication, argumentative, and interpretive skills, respectively. Participants’ performance was examined from two different perspectives: (1) that of two independent raters, who assessed students’ output on the basis of audio-recordings of the conversations, and (2) from the perspective of the interlocutor, who gave impression marks for their performance on the spot, accompanied by written personal comments. The paper looks at the differences between high- and low-anxious learners’ speaking performance and discusses how learners with high vs. low levels of FLA are perceived by a native speaker as conversation partners.