How does anxiety caused by the use of oral English influence teachers of English as a Foreign Language in Chilean classrooms?

Abstract

There are diverse studies about the relationship between anxiety and the use of oral English; nonetheless, the majority of them are focused on students rather than teachers. The main purpose of this study is to gather information about the perception of anxiety that high school teachers of public schools have regarding the use of oral English. For this reason, the type of study chosen follows the qualitative approach, specifically, a phenomenological study. In order to collect that information, the method used was a written interview with a set of open questions applied using the Delphi online method to public high school teachers currently working. The results show that the level of English spoken by teachers decreases with time because of the few opportunities to practice the language. Moreover, according to our findings in relation to anxiety, teachers do not feel anxious when using oral English; however, they know that anxiety can affect other teachers.