Addressing English-speaking anxiety in Vietnamese initial teacher education: beyond coping strategies

Abstract In the context of a global reliance on the English language for communication and commerce, Vietnam’s national foreign languages project seeks to improve graduates’ English competencies, with a key focus on improving initial teacher education for future English teachers. While English-speaking anxiety among Vietnamese pre-service English teachers (PSETs) has been recognised, there is limited qualitative research exploring this anxiety in depth. The following qualitative case-study investigates the causes of Vietnamese PSETs’ English-speaking anxiety and reports on some of the strategies used to manage this anxiety. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with five Vietnamese pre-service English teachers from a Hanoi-based university. The findings highlight linguistic challenges, such as limited vocabulary, pronunciation difficulties, and reliance on L1 translation, as key contributors. Sociocultural factors, including fear of negative evaluation and classroom dynamics, further compounded the issue, while personal factors like low self-confidence and unrealistic expectations of linguistic perfection heightened speaking anxiety. Participants reported employing strategies such as thorough preparation, peer support, and positive thinking to manage their speaking anxiety. The study underscrores the need to adapt existing theoretical frameworks related to foreign language speaking anxiety to account for context-specific cultural and societal pressures while recommending that initial teacher education programs integrate strategies to mitigate English-speaking anxiety and foster supportive classroom environments to enhance language teaching effectiveness.