Identification of Affective Factors InfluencingStudents’ Low Participation in University EFL OralClasses: An Iranian Case Study

Undoubtedly, Asian students’ low participation when performing oral tasks inclassrooms has been one of the topics frequently addressed and evidenced in recentresearch studies and many factors such as sociocultural, affective, pedagogical andetc, have been explored. Consequently, this research was conducted to find out the keyaffective factors triggering students’ low participation in Iranian university EFL oralclasses. An informal Likert-scale questionnaire and a semi-structured interview wereused to collect data. A qualitative-quantitative method is used to describe the results ofthis research. Iranian students’ participation, as well as the teachers’ reflections andunderstandings and the underlying factors of the students’ behavior patterns wereinvestigated. In addition, this research looked at the theory and practice behindacquiring a second/foreign language. Finally, the results of this research showed thatfive main factors such as lack of confidence, shyness, anxiety, afraid of makingmistakes and afraid of being despised are the most prohibiting affective factors amongIranian university students . in EFL classes

Keywords:

Affective factors , participation , EFL , oral classes