Investigating the Freshmen's Anxiety and Enjoyment through Online Speaking Skills Courses

Abstract

This quantitative research investigated freshmen's Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety (FLSA) through online speaking skills courses in order to promote the quality of online foreign language speaking skills courses by determining hindering and facilitating factors. The present research sample consists of 722 participants from 33 universities' English Language Teacher Education Programs. It was reached that a significant negative correlation was found between FLE and FLSA. In terms of gender, no significant correlation was found between participants' gender and their FLE and FLSA. When the region variable effect on FLE and FLSA was analyzed, a significant correlation was detected between regions where the participants' universities were placed and FLE and FLSA. The analysis also revealed that there was a significant correlation between the degree of plurilingualism and FLE and FLSA. Furthermore, a significant correlation was found between the perceived level of English proficiency and FLE and FLSA which showed that a higher perceived proficiency level was positively correlated with a higher FLE level and vice versa. Moreover, a significant correlation was revealed between speaking skills classroom environment preferences for speaking skills courses and FLE and FLSA; the ones with online classroom preference instead of face-to-face classroom showed higher FLE. In line with the results, pedagogical implications were offered.