The influence of affective factors : linguistic self-esteem, linguistic anxiety and motivation in oral presentations of female senior high school students from a subsidised school in Santiago, Chile

Abstract

During our period as university students and our practicums, we noticed thatspeaking was the most complicated English ability for students. We experienced thisourselves during the first years of university. Especially during oral presentations infront of other classmates and teachers, where the discomfort due to different affectivefactors was predominant. For this reason, the aim of the following study is to findhow the affective factors of linguistic self-confidence, linguistic anxiety, andmotivation affect the English oral performance of female students from 12thgrade inSara Blinder Dargoltz high school, a subsidised school in Santiago, Chile. To do this,a review of literature about the affective factors, the speaking ability in SLA and thelevel of English in Chilean Classrooms was conducted. Next, this case study used amixed methodology to interview (a) 18 students through convenience sampling, usinga questionnaire that contained both Likert-scale and open-ended questions, and (b)their teacher, using an open-ended interview. The results revealed the following mainideas: (1) all the affective factors studied affect the English oral performance ofstudents (2) students who have a low linguistic self-esteem, suffer from linguisticanxiety, and are not motivated with the English course, and (3) the relationship thatthe students have with their teacher does not allow them to feel confident whenperforming orally inside the classroom. Finally, after discussing these results, aproposal was made, in order to help both teachers and students to address oral abilityin an SLA classroom.Key words:English foreing language, affective factors,speaking, oral presentations.