Assessing the Influence of Peer Interaction and Language Anxiety on Speaking Skills Performance

Abstract

This study aims to assess the influence of peer interaction and language anxiety on speaking skills from the EFL 4th grade female students' perspectives. The participants were 28 female students from the Department of English (Evening Studies) from the College of Education for Women, University of Anbar. The pilot sample consists of  9 female students who were excluded from the participants who participated in the survey. The design of the study is a survey study. A questionnaire was built to collect the data for the study. The validity and the reliability of the questionnaire were verified. The results revealed that peer interaction has a significant positive influence on reducing students' language-speaking anxiety. Peer interactions have supported students'  confidence during speaking activities, developed their speaking performance, and overcame students'  language anxiety in communication orally, face to face,  tasks inside and outside the classroom, meaning in an authentic context.