Abstract:
Speaking anxiety is a specific manifestation of foreign language anxiety that emerges when learners are required to communicate orally in a target language, often triggered by fear of negative evaluation, communication apprehension, and self-consciousness about linguistic performance (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986. Among the four language skills, speaking has been identified as particularly susceptible to this form of anxiety, as it demands spontaneous, real-time performance in front of an audience, distinguishing it from the anxiety experienced in other skill domains such as writing (Cheng, Horwitz, & Schallert, 1999). This anxiety becomes especially pronounced for pre-service teachers, who must simultaneously function as language users and classroom instructors, facing compounded pressure from supervisor evaluation, unfamiliar teaching environments, and the demand to model target-language proficiency for their own students. This study explores speaking anxiety experienced by third year English Education students during pre-service teaching practice. The purpose of this research is to identify the factors that contribute to speaking anxiety and to analyze their influence on students' speaking performance during teaching practicum. This study employed a qualitative case study design because it aimed to obtain an in-depth understanding of the participants' lived experiences in a specific context. The participants of this study were five third-year students of the English Education Program who had completed their pre-service teaching practice. The data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire and non participant observation of teaching videos. The data were analyzed thematically by identifying recurring patterns related to the sources and behavioral manifestations of speaking anxiety, such as code-switching, prolonged pausing, and avoidance of student interaction. The findings of this study are expected to provide a clearer understanding of how speaking anxiety, as a dimension of foreign language anxiety, emerges in teaching practice and how it influences students' speaking performance. The study is also expected to contribute to the development of strategies for reducing anxiety in pre-service teachers and improving their teaching confidence during practicum. In addition, this research is expected to offer theoretical and practical contributions to English language teaching, particularly by extending the application of foreign language anxiety theory to the pre-service teacher practicum context.
