Abstract:
Psychologists, educators, and sociologists have long been emphasizing the importance of
learners’ emotional side to the academic growth. In that context, the present study aims at
focusing on learners’ attention to the significance of what happens inside them, singling out
anxiety, and risk-taking as strategies for enhancing their speaking fluency level and exploring
possible relationships between the two variables. It is hypothesized that if teachers can
encourage students to take risk in speaking and not to be anxious, then their oral fluency level
would improve consistently. Thus, the less learners are anxious and the more they are risktakers, the more they will become fluent in the EFL speaking. The methods used in this
research are both quantitative and qualitative ones. Accordingly, three groups (90 students) of
English at Constantine University are selected, and after conducting an interview with the
researcher, are divided into anxious and non-anxious, this is being the result of their answers
to the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, and as being risk- takers and non-risk
takers after exploring their answers to the risk- taking questionnaire. Learners̕ obtained marks
from the scales are correlated with their marks of a story narration task, and their exam
measuring oral fluency by calculating the coefficient of correlation. Besides, a questionnaire
is delivered to Algerian teachers of Oral Expression of English at University of Constantine,
Department of English. The inquiry highlights that there is a positive relation between
learners’ risk- taking and their oral fluency level, but a high negative relation between anxiety
and their speaking fluency. Analysis and interpretation of data suggest some implications for
language pedagogy, for EFL teachers to pay more attention to their learners’ affective side, and
for students to raise their awareness to be risk- takers and to become less anxious to speak
English fluently.
