The effect of anxiety on oral communication skills

This paper investigates the impact of interaction with native speaker (NS) on the development of anxiety and oral communication skills when the foreign language (FL) learner has an opportunity to interact regularly with NS in the community. Forty subjects, who were studying Japanese at an intermediate level at Griffith University, participated in the study. Each subject had a matched NS partner and met for ten hours during a semester outside the classroom. The subjects completed questionnaires on anxiety measures and took speaking and listening tests before and after the ten-hour interaction. The effect of interaction with NS was examined by comparing the scores on the pre-, post-tests and questionnaires and written journals, which were collected after each meeting. The results showed that interaction with NS had a positive impact on reducing anxiety and improving oral communication skills. The present study has implications for FL teaching especially in developing oral communication skills.