REDUCING ORAL APPREHENSION IN LIBYAN EFL CONTEXT USING SCHEMA THEORY: AN INPUT FOR LANGUAGE SKILLS COURSE ENHANCEMENT

Building contacts with people is not always a rewarding experience that may lower one’s self esteem leading to anxiety. This anxiety results in communication apprehension which McCroskey (1984) defined as the individual's level of anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons. Several studies have justified the occurrences of communication apprehension. However, none has been conducted in the Libyan EFL context, or at least in the locale of this study. This paper focused on identifying the students' level of oral apprehension and seeks to describe students' oral apprehension towards the following contexts: group discussion, meetings, dyads, and public speaking. Using the PRCA, it was found out that both male (69.24%) and female (74.36%) respondents were moderately apprehensive. Moreover, it can be said that there is no significant relationship existing between gender and apprehension. A deeper understanding of its causes was elicited through the participants’ schemata. Through a semi-structured interview, public speaking activities were found to be the main source of apprehension because these expose the students to the opposite sex. Findings from these procedures may be used in enhancing the Language Skills courses in the university that may reduce students’ oral apprehension.