EXPLORING SHY STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

Abdullajanova ShahnozaIs’hoqxon

Ibrat Namangan State University of Foreign Languages, student Annotatsiya.

Ushbu maqolada uyatchan o’quvchilarning ingliz tili darslarida so’zlashuv faoliyatiga ishtiroki tadqiq etilgan. Aralash darajali sinflarda 13–16 yoshli o’quvchilar kuzatildi, so’rovnoma va norasmiy suhbatlar o’tkazildi. Tadqiqot natijalari uyatchan o’quvchilarning xato qilishdan qo’rqishi, butun sinf oldida gapirishdan cho’chishi va o’ziga ishonchning pastligi bois so’zlashuv faoliyatida kamroq ishtirok etishlarini ko’rsatadi. Biroq juft va guruh ishlari, o’qituvchining ijobiy fikr-mulohazasi hamda do’stona sinf muhiti bunday o’quvchilarning faolligini sezilarli darajada oshirishi aniqlandi. Maqola uyatchan o’quvchilar uchun inklyuziv ta’lim muhitini yaratishga yo’naltirilgan amaliy tavsiyalarni o’z ichiga oladi.Kalit so’zlar: uyatchan o’quvchilar, so’zlashuv faoliyati, ingliz tili ta’limi, sinf muhiti, juft va guruh ishlari, o’qituvchi fikr-mulohazasi, o’quvchi ishtiroki, aralash darajali sinf.

ИЗУЧЕНИЕ УЧАСТИЯ ЗАСТЕНЧИВЫХ УЧАЩИХСЯ В РЕЧЕВОЙ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ

Аннотация. В данной статье исследуется участие застенчивых учеников в речевой деятельности на уроках английского языка. Были проведены наблюдения за учащимися в возрасте 13–16 лет в разноуровневых классах, а также анкетирование и неформальные беседы. Результаты показывают, что застенчивые ученики реже участвуют в речевой деятельности из-за боязни ошибок, страха говорить перед классом и низкой самооценки. Парная и групповая работа, положительная обратная связь от учителя и доброжелательная атмосфера значительно повышают их активность. Статья содержит практические рекомендации по созданию инклюзивной образовательной среды.Ключевые слова: застенчивые учащиеся, речевая деятельность, обучение английскому языку, атмосфера в классе, парная и групповая работа, обратная связь учителя, участие учащихся, разноуровневый класс.

EXPLORING SHY STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

Abstract. This article investigates shy students’ participation in speaking activities in English language lessons. Drawing on classroom observations, questionnaires, and informal interviews with 13–16 year-old learners in a mixed-ability class, the study identifies key barriers to speaking engagement, including fear of making mistakes, anxiety about speaking in front of the whole class, and low self-confidence.

However, pair and group work formats, positive teacher feedback, and a supportive classroom atmosphere are found to significantly increase shy students’ participation. The article offers practical recommendations for creating an inclusive speaking environment that enables all learners, including shy ones, to develop their oral communication skills.

Key words: shy students, speaking activities, English language teaching, classroom environment, pair and group work, teacher feedback, student participation, mixed-ability classroom.

Introduction

Speaking is widely regarded as one of the most demanding yet essential skills in foreign language learning. While some students eagerly participate in classroom speaking activities, others — particularly shy learners — tend to remain silent, withdraw from interaction, and avoid volunteering answers even when they know the correct response. This pattern of reticence is a common challenge faced by English language teachers across different educational contexts, and it directly affects both the quality of language acquisition and the student’s overall development.

Shyness in the classroom is not simply a personality trait to be accepted or ignored. Research consistently shows that affective factors such as anxiety, low self-esteem, and fear of negative evaluation can serve as significant barriers to language learning (Krashen, 1982; Horwitz et al., 1986). When a student remains silent during speaking activities, they miss out on crucial opportunities for practice, feedback, and genuine communicative interaction — the very elements that research identifies as most important for developing oral fluency.

This study emerged from the author’s own teaching context: a secondary school English class of students aged 13–16, with mixed proficiency levels and varying degrees of confidence. English lessons are held four times a week. While some learners participate actively and eagerly, a visible group of shy students rarely speaks during activities, even in informal pair conversations.

This observation prompted the following exploratory research questions: Why are some students shy during speaking activities? Are they afraid of making mistakes when speaking? How do classroom activities influence shy students’ confidence? What role do pair and group work and teacher feedback play in making shy students feel more comfortable?

The aim of this article is to investigate the causes and manifestations of shyness in speaking activities, to analyze what types of classroom tasks best support shy learners, and to provide evidence-based recommendations for teachers working with such students.

Literature Review and Research Methodology

The relationship between anxiety and foreign language speaking has been extensively studied since the 1980s. Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) developed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), demonstrating that language anxiety — particularly in speaking situations — is a distinct psychological phenomenon with measurable effects on learner performance. Their findings established that anxious students produce less output, take fewer risks, and show lower achievement in oral tasks.

Krashen’s (1982) Affective Filter Hypothesis provides a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon: when a learner’s affective state — including anxiety, low motivation, or poor self-confidence — is elevated, a metaphorical ‘filter’ rises, blocking the acquisition of new language input. This model directly applies to shy students, whose heightened anxiety effectively prevents them from processing and producing language in high-pressure speaking situations.

Tsui (1996) conducted detailed observational research into student reticence in Hong Kong classrooms, identifying the primary causes of silence as fear of making mistakes, concern about peers’ negative evaluation, and uncertainty about the correct answer. Crucially, Tsui found that teacher behavior — particularly the way errors are handled — significantly determines whether shy students feel safe enough to attempt speaking. Negative correction, especially public correction, was found to strongly discourage participation.

More recent research has also highlighted the role of task type in mediating speaking anxiety. Ur (1996) and Nunan (1991) both advocate for task-based and communicative activities — including role plays, information-gap tasks, and collaborative problem-solving — as frameworks that naturally reduce anxiety by shifting focus from accuracy to meaningful communication.

In such tasks, the pressure to be ‘correct’ is reduced, and even shy students may find it easier to participate.This study adopts an action research design, drawing on three data collection tools informed by the research literature: classroom observation, student questionnaires (Yes/No format), and informal interviews with shy students. The research was conducted with 20 students across one semester. Five students identified through observation and peer input as particularly shy were selected for informal individual interviews. The questionnaire was administered to all 20 students to capture broader patterns.

Results and Discussion

Factors Affecting Shy Students’ Participation in Speaking Activities

Classroom observation and questionnaire results revealed several key barriers preventing shy students from participating in speaking activities. The most prevalent factor was fear of making mistakes. Seventy percent of students acknowledged in the questionnaire that they are afraid of making mistakes when speaking English in class. This fear appears to operate as a self-censoring mechanism: rather than risk a publicly visible error, shy students prefer silence.

This finding directly aligns with Horwitz et al.’s (1986) description of communication apprehension and fear of negative evaluation as core components of language anxiety.The second major barrier was anxiety about speaking in front of the whole class. Sixty-five percent of students reported feeling nervous when speaking before the entire group.

Observational data strongly confirmed this pattern: shy students consistently avoided eye contact, looked down, or gave minimal one-word responses when cold-called during whole-class activities. Some visibly tensed when the teacher moved in their direction.The third significant factor was low self-confidence in speaking ability.

Several students expressed in informal interviews that they compare their English to their more fluent peers and feel inadequate. As one student stated: ‘I know the answer but I am scared I will say it wrong, so I stay quiet.’ This quotation powerfully illustrates how the fear of negative comparison can override the student’s actual knowledge.

Table 1.Questionnaire Results: Shy Students’ Responses (Yes / No)QuestionYes (%)No (%)Are you shy when speaking English in class?60%40%Are you afraid of making mistakes when speaking?70%30%Do you feel nervous speaking in front of the whole class?65%35%Do you feel more comfortable in pair or group work?75%25%Does positive teacher feedback help you speak more?80%20%Source: Compiled by the author based on student questionnaire results (2024–2025 academic year)

The Influence of Different Classroom Activities on Shy Students

Observation data revealed notable differences in shy students’ participation across different activity formats. During whole-class speaking activities, shy students’ participation was minimal — typically limited to brief, forced responses when directly addressed. By contrast, pair work and small group tasks prompted noticeably higher levels of engagement. Students who had been completely silent during whole-class discussion were observed speaking, asking questions, and even laughing during pair activities.Role play activities also produced positive results.

As one student explained during an informal interview: ‘When I play a role, it is easier to speak because it is not me talking — it is the character.’ This observation reflects a well-documented phenomenon in language teaching: role play creates psychological distance from the self, temporarily suspending the fear of personal judgment and allowing shy learners to take communicative risks they would otherwise avoid.

Positive teacher feedback emerged as the most powerful single facilitator of shy student participation. Eighty percent of students reported that encouraging feedback from the teacher increases their desire to speak.

Observational data confirmed this: on occasions when the teacher explicitly praised a shy student’s contribution — however minimal — subsequent participation from that student in the same lesson noticeably increased.

Table 2.Shy Students’ Participation Levels Across Different Activity TypesActivity Type

Participation Level

Observation Notes

Whole-class speaking

Low (20–30%)Rarely volunteers; avoids eye contactPair workHigh (75%)Speaks more freely; less self-consciousSmall group workMedium-high (65%)Participates, but may rely on othersRole playHigh (70%)Character distance reduces anxietyCreative project tasksHigh (72%)Motivated to share own ideasSource: Compiled by the author based on classroom observation data (2024–2025 academic year)

The Role of Classroom Environment

A consistent finding across all three data sources was the central importance of classroom atmosphere in determining whether shy students feel safe enough to speak.

Students were clear in their interviews that public correction — especially correction delivered in front of peers — was highly discouraging. As one student stated: ‘If the teacher tells everyone my mistake, I will not try next time. But if she corrects me kindly, I try more.’

This simple yet important insight confirms Tsui’s (1996) finding that the manner in which errors are treated is a key variable in student willingness to participate.

Peer behavior also plays a role. When students observed that a classmate’s errors were met with laughter or mockery — even good-natured — they became more reluctant to speak themselves. This underlines the teacher’s responsibility not only to model respectful attitudes toward mistakes, but to actively establish and maintain classroom norms of mutual encouragement.

Conclusion and Recommendations

This study confirms that shy students’ limited participation in speaking activities is a multifaceted phenomenon rooted in fear of making mistakes, performance anxiety, and low self-confidence. These findings are consistent with the existing research literature and take on particular significance in the context of mixed-ability English classrooms where speaking proficiency varies widely among learners.

Critically, however, the study also demonstrates that shyness is not a fixed barrier. The right pedagogical conditions — appropriate task formats, a supportive classroom atmosphere, and thoughtful teacher behavior — can substantially increase shy students’ speaking participation. This places a significant and meaningful responsibility on the teacher as the architect of the learning environment.

Based on the findings, the following practical recommendations are offered for English language teachers. First, pair work and small group activities should be used as the primary speaking format, particularly in the early stages of a lesson or when introducing new speaking tasks. These formats reduce the social stakes of speaking and create psychologically safer conditions for shy learners.

Second, error correction should be handled with care and sensitivity. Whole-class public correction should be minimized; instead, teachers can use delayed correction, written feedback, or quiet individual feedback to address errors without creating embarrassment.

Third, role play, task-based activities, and creative project work should be regularly incorporated into lessons. These activity types shift the communicative focus from accuracy to meaning and interaction, naturally reducing the anxiety that inhibits shy students.

Fourth, a positive and inclusive classroom culture must be deliberately cultivated. Teachers should model respectful responses to mistakes, actively praise attempts at communication regardless of accuracy, and establish explicit classroom norms around supportive peer interaction.

Fifth, where possible, teachers can prepare shy students in advance — briefly informing them of the topic or question they will be asked to address, allowing them to organize their thoughts before being put on the spot. This simple scaffolding strategy can dramatically reduce in-the-moment anxiety and enable shy students to participate more successfully.

In conclusion, understanding shy students’ speaking difficulties is not merely a pastoral concern — it is a core pedagogical responsibility. When teachers invest in creating an inclusive, low-anxiety speaking environment, they enable all learners, including the quietest voices in the room, to develop the communicative competence they need. This is the foundation of a truly supportive English classroom.

References1. Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125–132.2. Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Pergamon Press.3. Tsui, A. B. M. (1996). Reticence and anxiety in second language learning. In K. M. Bailey & D. Nunan (Eds.), Voices from the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press. pp. 145–167.4. Young, D. J. (1991). Creating a low-anxiety classroom environment: What does language anxiety research suggest? The Modern Language Journal, 75(4), 426–439.5. Nunan, D. (1991). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge University Press.6. Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge University Press.7. Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.8. Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.9. MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1994). The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language. Language Learning, 44(2), 283–305.10. Mirzayev, A. (2021). Implementing communicative approaches in Uzbekistan schools: challenges and opportunities. Uzbek Language and Literature, 4(2), 112–125.

Good morning with good wishes

By

Manik Chakraborty. 

Good morning with good wishes

The colorful morning light,

Let the earth rise with laughter again

Let the blackness be erased.

Flowers will bloom with the song of birds

Bees will run,

Flying in confusion

They will steal the honey from the flowers

The wind will blow, the sky will be colored

With the murmur of the river,

Nature will laugh again

With the song of the fisherman

The Loss Of Words

He kept them once,

in the lining of his coat,

folded like letters never sent,

warm from the friction of thought.

They used to come easy,

like rain that knew his name,

each drop a confession

he could hold without trembling.

Now they rot in the corners

half-formed,

chewed down to bone,

their meanings siphoned off

by something with a quieter hunger.

He trades syllables for silence,

line by line,

until even his voice forgets

how to reach him.

There is a page

always a page

waiting like a witness

that will not intervene.

And somewhere beneath the ruin,

a single word claws upward,

bloated, unrecognizable,

begging to be written

before it dies again.

Windmills

The wind

keeps trying to explain itself

to the same crooked blades

and they nod

like they understand

but all they really do

is turn

grinding the sky

into smaller pieces

until evening

falls apart quietly

behind them

The Affair I Never Had

I remember her
like a place
I never went

a street
with all the lights on
and no one home

we passed once—
or maybe we didn’t

but something in me
kept waving

like a curtain
caught in a window
that was never opened

and even now
there’s a silence
I visit sometimes

where she almost speaks

and I almost answer

Leon Drake is a Toronto based poet whose work has been published in print and online. He lets his writing speak for him. For art is the best side of us.

In the quiet of my restless mind,

Dreams awaken, undefined.

Like shadows dancing on the wall,

They rise, they fade, they softly call.

I walk alone, yet feel no fear,

For hope itself is always near.

A fragile light within my soul,

Reminds me I am still whole.

Though nights are long and skies are grey,

My dreams refuse to drift away.

They whisper gently, calm and deep:

“You were not born to simply sleep.”

How Wonderful The Gift Of Life Seems 

Can you speak or write in the absolute now, or is the now gone in the time it takes for the now to hit your senses and wind its way up our nerves into our brains and then for us to speak or write it on a page?      

Can we overlook the micro-moments between perception and recording on the brain or on paper?     

In this near to now my dog licks his black paw stretched out on the bed. The light streams in a side window into this darkened room onto this notebook page and a dove outside calls. Those nearly nows are receding as my pen moves on the page trying to pin them down.     

The dove still calls. The air filter hums almost silently in this allergy season.     

Now there’s the sound of a page turning as I write more in the nearly now. It is close to quiet in this nearly now. A top drawer in this old brown wooden desk is half open. There is a humming in my ears. I have a taste of tinnitus.      

Here the nearly now is mostly still. Some might call it boring. So busy am I in recording that my thoughts are rare. My body feels a little tired. My sad bad knees are both aching. Should I be sorry this nearly now is not more dramatic?      

Put down your cell phones, kids, and enjoy the silence. Learn to muse and think on your own.    No bombs are falling outside but I know they are falling elsewhere. I hear the quite whir of a plane overheard. Rain is falling, a slow rain outside that my dog and I don’t hear, or maybe Coco dog hears.      

It’s been peaceful to settle into this nearly now. I am content, and now I am thinking in this nearly now, of a thought I had yesterday.     

Is that cheating?     

Is that thought as much of the now as the tinnitus in my ears? You may disagree if you are here with me in the nearly now at a later date.     

Yesterday’s thought is about the story of life’s beginning. I learned in school that life began with the mixing of chemicals in a warm body of water. The constant stirring in currents of the chemicals finally led to life. Perhaps it was a virus kind of life since a virus sits on the edge of life and nonlife.     

 But what if life bloomed in more than one place, here on this planet or elsewhere? What if life had multiple origins? Maybe there are aliens out there and distant planets we cannot travel to in multiple lifetimes. I am thinking of this in the nearly now. Any memory pulled from the past as thought is now in the nearly now.      

And when I am thinking in the nearly now, am I not also thinking a bit in the future in a yearning for the future?     

I’m thinking I may publish this rambling on the nearly now in the future. It is the possibility of sharing my thoughts with others that leads me to write them down. Nearly now thoughts of the future are pulling me forward.    

So perhaps no divides exist between the past, the nearly now, and the future. Time, as the old metaphor said, is a flowing river and cannot be divided.     

My hope is that some souls in the future will read this and the ideas will live again rolling through their nearly nows, and I will kind of live again.    

 It has stopped raining. My spouse is starting to move about, getting ready to check on the backyard garden. I give my love a quick kiss as she heads out the back door. I may feel differently tomorrow—what with the terrible calls coming out of the wider world—but how wonderful the gift of life seems in this nearly now. 

The Legend of Loquat Island

1. You Bring All of Yourself

When the sun has fully turned to summer,

you are still there,

among the indistinct clouds.

You do not come,

do not step on any of the seven strings,

rhythmically stepping out of the unclear clouds.

Nor do I go.

The stop sign is yellow, hidden by pagoda blossoms;

I fear I might lose my way.

The wind runs along the shadows of flowers till noon,

and noon shatters in the sound of the qin.

Flowers are like eyes, gazing at fruits from afar.

Leaves and sails turn brown gradually —

summer is growing old.

For loneliness is a game of Go,

played by the left hand against the right.

In a throat murmur, I paint rust over your name,

walk near the fence, bend with the grapevines and peer.

It is already summer, so much summer.

Soon the flowers will put on yellow jackets.

The last bus always writes ugly novels,

yet cannot write your warm name.

You are my summer.

When you come, summer stays.

Let maple leaves burn themselves out.

As long as you bring all of yourself.

2. Perhaps I Do Not Love You

Perhaps I should not speak this obscure sentence.

Your drizzle is about to damp my swaying steps again.

Your story moves me,

moves the vast seasonal moods in my heart.

A liquid landscape rises on our cheeks, a curved theme.

Your eyelashes, scattered with chinaberry flowers,

take me as your future.

Yet from your small figure, I revisit my past.

In this summer with a mischievous sun,

innocent fruits stir the noise of old days.

It is only that we are too gentle, like water,

fond of waiting and remembering.

All from one moment’s attention

grew into the whole secret of my life.

I love you — the shadow of my childhood in you.

Please love me too — your promised autumn in me.

Let us be two mirrored Z’s,

lyrical on either side of a single sentence.

3. Duet

We walk into a night without a title,

into a bumpy alley.

The moon, a yellowish raven,

holds the burning road behind us.

One easily grows emotional in the dark.

You say it’s nothing — we’re poets,

so I am no longer shy.

I take your hand and walk past the lamps of misunderstanding.

Alley connects to street; the alley is a solo.

We are a bumpy duet,

perhaps all duets are like this.

We laugh secretly, and our laughter turns to flowers on branches.

We cannot turn back; the moon still lingers,

we have lingered too.

That year we both lost love, both looked pale.

It is fate, you say, pressing your lips

and holding me tighter.

I only lift my head and whistle a clumsy tune.

The alley leads to the long street.

We count the stop signs one by one and do not stop.

In every tree shadow, two pairs of eyes catch each other.

The duet behind us spreads into a clear mixed forest.

You imitate my whistle,

then scare yourself away.

On the main street,

we give away our bumpy heartbeats

to all the lingering figures of Pisces.

4. Loquat Island

Loquat Island lies where God does not reach.

Invitations are rejected,

stamps are rejected.

Even the temperamental typhoon

cannot land on Loquat Island.

Loquats on Loquat Island never ripen.

Summer flowers only bloom for crowded music.

All numbers from one to seven love lyricism.

Loquat Island, Loquat Island, far out at sea.

Tender green coconuts are lifted by tides to keep balance.

Drift bottles carry distant questions.

We pass through the typhoon.

We land gently, on each other’s coastal lips.

Since we came, the moon has hidden in the bird’s nest in the tree,

the sun has lost its way in our eyes,

and drizzle always murmurs softly.

Since we came, loquats no longer turn sour.

We occupy the date of waves and rocks,

the date of moon and sun.

We link our hands into a rainbow and claim sovereignty.

With a wave of the sleeve,

we snap the rope of the canoe,

wave away the one-way wind and rain.

Let us stay on Loquat Island —

be two loquat trees growing ten leaves each,

standing in a season where even stones can bloom.

Loquat Island, Loquat Island, abundant in love.

Let us pretend to be mountain spirits,

cloaked in litchi leaves, greedy and playful.

If one day the sea is stuffed full of loquats we shake down,

will you invite the lovelorn typhoon

to come to our Loquat Island

and taste authentic loquat love?

May 24, 1985

 Father’s light 

Father, your warmth is like the sun so bright,

Every word you speak guides me through the night.

When I grow weary, your voice gives me might,

In my heart, you are a beacon of light.

Your soul is vast, like the shoreless sea,

Through you, I found faith and the strength to be.

No hardship can ever discourage me,

For with you by my side, I stand strong and free.

Hardworking, honest, and kind in your way,

None can replace you, come what may.

Your smile is my joy, the light of my day,

May your life be a throne where golden rays play.

With you, our home is filled with grace,

Peace and happiness in every space.

Stay healthy and near us, in love’s embrace,

May joy follow every step you trace.

Gulsanam Mamasiddiqova was born on July 22, 2007, in the Oltiariq district of the Fergana region, Uzbekistan. A 2025 graduate of School No. 25 in Oltiariq, she is currently a first-year student at Andijan State University, majoring in Philology and Language Teaching (English). Gulsanam is passionate about literature and linguistics, seeking to bridge cultures through her creative writing and poetic voice.