At this stage of the interview, I wanted to know what kinds of strategies, if any, teachers used to reduce their students’ anxiety and make them feel relaxed in the classroom and so I asked question eight: “Are there any strategies you apply to make your students feel less anxious in the class?”. Responses to this question varied between those who actively used strategies to help reduce FLA and those who talked of what I would label ‘inappropriate strategies”. T1, for instance, said:
Yes. I usually ask my students to prepare before the next class - this strategy makes them feel more confident of themselves. But if any student makes a mistake I often use strong words as punishment. I also, during practice sessions, prefer not to stand on the stage of the class, I go between desks to make them feel relaxed. Participation in conversations also makes students familiar with each other and less frightened of speaking.
After T1 finished answering the question, I continued the conversation and asked the next question in order to ensure that I had understood what T1 meant by ‘strong words’ as a strategy to develop learning. I asked, “Do you not think that strong words and a harsh
manner might make your students feel anxious and have negative effects on their performance and achievement?”. I was surprised by T1’s answer: “No. No. I use this strategy in order to make them think twice before they pronounce the word. My students will thank me in the future because I taught them well”.
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T2 uses different techniques to reduce students’ anxiety and he said:
Well, one of the strategies which I believe is very effective is telling my students ‘I will never select one of you to give an answer unless you put your hand up’ and ‘You must speak English inside the classroom but you still can use Arabic when needed or your conversations are interrupted’. In addition, keeping in touch with your students and giving them time to express what makes them anxious more possibly makes them feel relaxed. I think these strategies work well with my students, they trust me and they feel secure in my class. I noticed that they start feeling more confident of themselves and encouraged to speak.
T2, as the extract suggests, has considered the affective side of student learning, so he attempts to create a secure warm atmosphere in order to lessen anxiety and increase self- confidence to encourage his students to speak in the classroom. This teacher seems to know well that reducing anxiety and trying to understand students can be useful and this may well depend on the teacher’s personality, as noted by students earlier in this Chapter. Some students said that some teachers are tough and have a harsh manner and that this generates anxiety and fear. Some students also said that other teachers have a ‘good’ personality and get on well with them and then they feel less anxiety when they participate in speaking activities during their classes. T3 suggested:
I personally believe that given the large uptake of role-play activities, the use of portable players for oral English conversation, a series of informal, talkback radio-style audio clips, delivered in a timely fashion through podcasting, can help alleviate some of the pre- class anxiety and allay student concerns about issues such as assessment, and do so more flexibly and effectively than the traditional methods of using subject textbooks and printed handouts.
While T3 referred to ways of teaching and resources, T4 said that he explains to his students that anxiety is a normal feeling in learning:
I try to explain to them that it is just normal to feel that way, and at the same time,
encourage them to do their best to reduce it [anxiety] to the minimal level they could, so it will not have powerful control over their language learning process.
Another strategy was used by T5 and T6 in order to reduce their students’ anxiety. T5 said,
I personally try to be more friendly with students who are anxious in order to approach them by sitting near to their desks and I may tell a joke in order to help them calm down and feel relaxed - after that I can ask them my questions.
T6 also referred to the teacher-learner relationship, saying:
For me, informality makes students feel less anxious. My relationship with my students is informal - I treat them as friends to make them feel relaxed when they speak both inside and outside the room. I also never evaluate my students negatively or embarrass them in the class.
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T7, in addition, believes that the teacher’s personality is a key factor in reducing anxiety, saying:
Yes. Of course I do. I used to teach listening and speaking, and I think the personality of the teacher plays a major role in decreasing high levels of anxiety. I myself dislike
embarrassing my students when they make grammatical or pronunciation errors. I used to give my feedback privately, and I keep telling my students that making mistakes is part of learning. One of the good strategies I use is encouraging them to speak by making them work in pairs or small groups to help each other, and I don’t usually correct all the
mistakes. I focus only on the most important ones when I give my feedback - it is important not to evaluate your students negatively or discourage them.
Finally, T8 also referred to groupwork and types of activities which can be used to make students feel less anxiety.
Yes. During the practice time I always divide the class into small groups in order to feel safe and secure, and I use cards, playing language games such as guessing or acting - these strategies make the learning process less serious and more relaxed.
Different strategies have been revealed from teachers’ responses that show they use a variety of ways to reduce students’ anxieties. These include using anxiety reducing techniques, activities, pair work, small groups, informality, ‘appropriate’ evaluation and error correction, telling jokes, and using the students’ first language. Some teachers, as comments showed, seemed to understand FLA and take active steps to ensure it can be reduced. However, it is necessary to know that each student is an individual who will react differently. What reduces one student’s FLA might increase another’s or, at least, have no positive effect. In the students’ interview analysis, I showed that a number of learners in this study have negative attitudes towards mixed-sex classrooms because they consider these anxiety provoking and so I will now outline the teachers’ perspectives towards gender and the influence of mixed-sex classroom on language learning.