Reducing speaking anxiety thanks to the implementation of audio journal activities

Resumen

For many adolescent EFL learners, the thought of speaking English aloud triggers a constellation of physical and emotional responses that have little to do with what they actually know and everything to do with how exposed they feel. This qualitative case study explored how an eight-week audio journal intervention shaped the speaking anxiety of nineteen B1-level eighth-grade students at Unidad Educativa Atenas in Ambato, Ecuador. Drawing on Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis, Bandura's self-efficacy theory, and Horwitz et al.'s framework of foreign language anxiety, the researcher analyzed 152 audio journal recordings and post-intervention interviews through reflexive thematic analysis. Four interrelated sources of speaking anxiety emerged from the data: fear of peer evaluation, linguistic self-doubt, evaluative classroom pressure, and a persistent lack of authentic oral production opportunities. The audio journal addressed all four by removing the social audience and corrective grading, building gradual mastery experiences, and inviting genuine metacognitive self-reflection. Over the eight weeks, students reported fewer physical and mental anxiety symptoms, a growing willingness to speak, and a clearer sense of their own progress. These findings suggest that audio journals, when used as a regular, non-evaluative, content-focused weekly practice, offer a theoretically grounded and practically accessible path toward stronger speaking self-efficacy in secondary EFL classrooms in Ecuador.