96 42. The Impact of Gender on Speaking Anxiety among Malaysian Tertiary ESL Learners Siew Pei Hwa Faculty of Creative Industries, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia siewph@utar.edu.my ABSTRACT This research aims to determine the level of tertiary ESL (English as a second language) students’ anxiety in speaking in English in ESL classrooms. It also investigates the impact of gender on the speaking anxiety among these ESL learners. The speaking anxiety constructs include psychological anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, social-environmental factor, English classroom language anxiety, and perception factor. Responses from 237 undergraduate students at a Malaysian university were collected using a structured questionnaire that modified from the Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope’s (1986) FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale). The participants of this survey were asked to rate each of the statement in the 32-item questionnaire using a five-point Likert-type scale in which 1 refers to strongly disagree, 2 as disagree, 3 as neutral, 4 as agree, and 5 as strongly agree. Results from the research show that tertiary ESL students experienced moderate level of speaking anxiety. The research also examines the key influential factor on speaking anxiety among tertiary ESL (English as a Second Language) learners. The findings reveal that the three major contributory factors of the ESL speaking anxiety are perception factor, English classroom speaking anxiety, and psychological anxiety. This research has corroborated the hypothesis that female tertiary ESL students displayed a higher level of speaking anxiety than their male peers. Keywords: speaking anxiety, language anxiety, gender, ESL learners, FLCAS Introduction The role of a language is very crucial in today’s world. Learning a foreign language as a second language has become a necessary tool to broaden the cultural horizons. Richards, Platt and Platt (1992 as cited in Wilson, 2006) provide a definition of “second language”’ used in Britain, in the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics which is “a language which is not a native language in a country but is widely used as a medium of communication (e.g., in education and in government) and is usually used alongside another language or languages” (p.33). In Malaysia, the national and official language is Malay language; however, Malaysian government has accorded English as a second language status as stated in Article 152 (Jalaluddin, Mat Awal and Abu Bakar, 2008, p. 106). As an officially recognized important second language in Malaysia, English plays a vital role in social, economic, science, technology and educational development. English is also widely used in diplomatic services as well as local and international businesses. David and Govindasamy (2005) noted that in order to stay competitive, employers in developing countries such as Malaysia are interested in employing graduates with both professional and English language skills. Mehar Singh and Chuah (2012) also claimed that proficiency in English language skills among graduates is preferred by prospective employers as one of the main criteria for employability. Citing Dayal, Mehar Singh and Chuah (2012) affirmed that graduates are expected to possess excellent communication skills apart from knowledge and expertise in their respective technical fields. According to Pandian (2006 as cited in Mehar Singh and Chuah, 2012), employees will not be able to participate effectively at the workplace if they do not master the English language. Therefore, it is very crucial to equip Malaysian students with the ability to communicate in English. However, Malaysian graduates are reported to have serious lacking in their English language proficiency. According to Mehar Singh and Chuah, the results from the studies that have been carried out on the issue of graduates’ language proficiency at the workplace revealed that Malaysian manufacturing industry employers perceived that the graduates are not fully equipped with English