Table of contents
- Why speaking English remains a challenge after years of instruction
- The four barriers identified by the research
- 1. Psychological barriers — the dominant force
- 2. Social barriers — the classroom environment matters
- 3. Linguistic barriers — real, but not the root cause
- 4. English-only instructional practices — a mismatched approach
- What MacIntyre’s WTC theory tells us
- What educators can do
- Conclusion
Every teacher has seen it: a hand half-raised in class, then quietly lowered. A question left unasked. A student who knows the material but says nothing. For years, educators assumed the problem was vocabulary, grammar, or simple lack of preparation. New research says the real culprit is something far more invisible — and far more powerful.
A peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Intercultural Communication (Vol. 26, No. 2, 2026) finds that language anxiety — not linguistic deficiency — is the primary force keeping low-proficiency ESL undergraduates from speaking in class. The paper, co-authored by Misbah Shahid, Dr. Muhammad Zammad Aslam, Dr. Rabia Mahmood, and Dr. Shaidatul Akma Adi Kasuma, draws on a mixed-methods study conducted at a public university in Pakistan and offers some of the most context-specific, data-rich insights available on this topic.
Read the full open-access study in the Journal of Intercultural Communication →
Why speaking English remains a challenge after years of instruction
Pakistani undergraduates study English from kindergarten through university — more than a decade of formal instruction. Yet many still cannot engage confidently in spoken communication within academic settings. The researchers set out to understand exactly why this persistent gap exists.
Thirty-five low-proficiency ESL students participated in the study: 24 females and 11 males, aged 20–23, all enrolled in the English Department at the University of Kotli, Azad Jammu & Kashmir. All had scored below 50% in their Communication and Presentation Skills course. Twelve were then selected for in-depth semi-structured interviews.
If you have read our earlier piece on why ESL students struggle to speak English, you will recognise some of the landscape. But this study goes further — integrating quantitative survey data with thematic analysis to show how these barriers interact, not just co-exist.
The four barriers identified by the research
1. Psychological barriers — the dominant force
The numbers are striking. Across all nine questionnaire items measuring speaking barriers, psychological factors produced the highest mean scores:
- Fear of making mistakes in front of peers: M = 4.34
- Persistent worry about oral English learning: M = 4.34
- Negative past experiences with speaking English: M = 4.31
- Nervousness during presentations: M = 4.00
Students described anxiety that went beyond discomfort. One participant reported: “Whenever I want to communicate English orally, my fear of making mistakes stops me from speaking in front of my classmates. I observe myself in a shaking condition, and hence my mind goes blank.”
This aligns with Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope’s (1986) foundational Foreign Language Anxiety framework, which identifies fear of negative evaluation, communication apprehension, and test anxiety as the three core affective barriers to oral participation in L2 learning.
2. Social barriers — the classroom environment matters
Large class sizes, teacher-dominated instruction, and limited structured peer interaction all emerged as significant contributors to student silence. Participants from Urdu-medium educational backgrounds reported particular difficulty adjusting to English-language classrooms.
One student observed: “Large classrooms often disrupt and limit speaking practices, reduce speaking opportunities, and leave students hesitant to speak due to distraction.” Another linked overcrowded classrooms directly to reduced participation: with little room for individual attention, anxiety increased and willingness to speak decreased.
3. Linguistic barriers — real, but not the root cause
Insufficient vocabulary (M = 4.29), pronunciation difficulties (M = 4.11), and weak grammatical control were all reported — but the researchers make an important distinction: linguistic barriers rarely operated independently. Instead, they fed directly into anxiety, which suppressed speaking, which limited practice, which deepened linguistic insecurity.
It is a self-reinforcing cycle: linguistic insecurity triggers anxiety; anxiety suppresses speaking; reduced speaking limits practice; limited practice deepens insecurity. Breaking that cycle requires addressing the emotional dimension, not just the grammatical one.
4. English-only instructional practices — a mismatched approach
For low-proficiency learners from Urdu-medium backgrounds, classrooms conducted entirely in English created a comprehension barrier that heightened anxiety rather than building communicative confidence. Students could not follow lessons — and could not ask for clarification without the very skill they were there to develop.
As one participant noted: “The exclusive usage of English by the teacher mostly leads to low self-confidence and complications in comprehending things, thus confining students’ participation and their language improvement.”
What MacIntyre’s WTC theory tells us
The study applies MacIntyre et al.'s (1998) Willingness to Communicate (WTC) framework as its central theoretical lens. WTC theory holds that a learner’s decision to speak at any given moment is shaped not only by language knowledge, but by situational confidence, anxiety levels, and perceived communicative risk.
This study confirms that insight in a specific, data-grounded context: students with adequate basic linguistic knowledge still chose silence when anxiety was high. Speaking is a situational, emotionally mediated decision — and anxiety, when unchecked, tips the scales consistently toward silence.
What educators can do
The implications extend well beyond Pakistan. Any higher education context where English is taught as a second or foreign language — and where large, teacher-centred classrooms are the norm — is likely producing similar patterns.
The researchers recommend:
- Scaffolded speaking exercises that build confidence gradually before high-stakes tasks
- Collaborative and student-centred activities that shift the focus from accuracy to communication
- Constructive, supportive feedback that normalises errors as part of the learning process
- Flexible use of learners’ first language for conceptual clarification in low-proficiency contexts
- Affectively sensitive pedagogy that acknowledges emotional readiness alongside linguistic development
These insights also have direct relevance to how researchers design studies in education. If you are developing a research proposal in language education or higher education studies, building in measures for affective variables like anxiety is no longer optional — it is essential for ecological validity. You may also find it useful to explore how AI is changing literature reviews, and where deep, theory-grounded interpretation still holds a distinct advantage.
Conclusion
Language anxiety is not a minor inconvenience. According to this study, it is the central perceived factor shaping whether ESL undergraduates choose to speak at all. Addressing it requires more than better grammar exercises — it demands a fundamental shift in how we design classrooms, deliver instruction, and respond to student silence.
The full paper is available open-access:
Shahid, M., Aslam, M. Z., Mahmood, R., & Kasuma, S. A. A. (2026). Journal of Intercultural Communication, 26(2), 82–95. DOI: 10.36923/jicc.v26i2.1457