An Exploration of How Anxiety and Working Memory Affect International Students’ English Oral Communication

Abstract

Anxiety can have detrimental impacts on international students’ language production and
may be exacerbated if the interlocutor is a native speaker. According to the Attentional Control
Theory, anxiety impacts performance through the disruption of working memory resources, as
anxious thoughts distract the speaker from fluid speech production. This thesis examines the
impact of the presence of native speaker interlocutors in inducing international students’ anxiety,
and how anxiety impacts oral fluency through the disruption of working memory. In Study 1,
participants partook in a speaking task online in the perceived presence of a native speaker
audience or without an audience. Results indicated no differences in self-reported anxiety
between conditions, nor a relationship between anxiety and working memory. Participants in
Study 2 partook in an online speaking task across three conditions where a native speaker
audience displayed either positive, neutral, or negative non-verbal behavior. Heart rate was
measured as a physiological indicator of anxiety. Upon completion, participants reviewed a video
of themselves partaking in the task, rated their moment-to-moment anxiety throughout, and were
interviewed regarding their reasons and explanations for events that exacerbated or ameliorated
anxiety. Overall, participants in the negative condition experienced higher self-reported anxiety
compared to those in the positive condition, with no differences between the neutral and negative,
and neutral and positive conditions. There were no differences in physiological anxiety as
measured by heart rate between conditions. Importantly, participants in the negative condition
displayed a higher percentage of utterance disfluencies compared to both the neutral and positive
conditions. Interview data suggests that international students enter communication events with
assumptions regarding whether their interlocutor will understand or judge their language abilities.
The results of both studies in this thesis provide valuable insights for educators in understanding
the impacts of international student anxiety on oral communication.

Date of Award	18 Mar 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Melissa Allen (Supervisor), Ioanna Bakopoulou (Supervisor) & Philippa L Howard (Supervisor)