In practice, there is no one single approach to adopt in all situations. Several factors might play a key role in a learner’s FLA. Therefore, it is important to understand what these factors are in each case before targeting the issue. Nevertheless, there are some general measures a language teacher can take to help students overcome anxiety when speaking the target language.
Detect and understand the fear
What exactly is the student afraid of? Is it fear of failure or fear of being negatively evaluated? You can ask students to reflect on how they feel when a Spanish person makes an effort to speak in English. Students might realise that people tend not to judge others negatively when they are making this kind of effort, so why should it be different in their case?
The desire for perfection
Some students will feel a compelling desire to achieve perfection while speaking in the target language. It seems advisable to make students understand that nobody starts speaking a foreign language fluently without first speaking a broken version of it. It is also very common for learners to aspire to native-like pronunciation. It is the teacher’s task to help them set realistic goals and explain that the goal should be intelligibility and comprehensibility, rather than passing for a native speaker. It is important to make students aware of the fact that they may feel frustrated when they are making mistakes, but mistakes form part of the overall process of acquiring the language. Grammatical and vocabulary mistakes are perfectly normal, as is incorrect pronunciation.
Listening skills
When students are not used to conversing in a foreign language, their brain needs time to process the incoming words, understand them, think of a response and deliver it; not to mention endeavouring to produce the desired sound. All this requires significantly more thought and effort than conversing in their native language.
Are students struggling more with formulating their sentences or with understanding what is being said to them in response? Very often it is the latter, which then has an impact on the former.
In summary
You can decrease students’ anxiety by creating situations in which the use and pronunciation of Spanish are part of the natural process of communication. Insist on the use of Spanish as a necessary tool to achieve communication. Make sure students do not over-estimate the “negative” outcome of making mistakes. Insist on the fact that mistakes are necessary to test their own speech in real situations and address them in order to achieve better results. Always be positive about their output and help them find ways to better pronounce the target language.
References
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B. & Cope, J. (1986) Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70: 125–132.
ESL Stories, [blog]
https://blog.esl-languages.com/blog/learn-languages/afraid-fear-speaking-foreign-language/