High Achievement, Low Confidence: Linguistic Insecurity among Advanced EFL Learners

Research reveals that university students learning EFL demonstrate linguistic insecurity. The current study was conducted with the objective of exploring the nature and causes of linguistic insecurity in high-achieving EFL students of a state university in Uzbekistan. In this qualitative study, based on a multiple case study design, the data were collected with the help of individual in-depth interviews and short written reflections from 15 criterion-purposively selected participants, all of whom demonstrated high academic achievements in the use of EFL and linguistic insecurity in EFL use. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze the data, based on Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework. Five themes were found to dominate the data. These themes were fluency without confidence, a contradictory linguistic self-concept; perfectionism and fear of sounding unintelligent; social comparison and peer gaze; accent anxiety and politics of pronunciation; and strategic silence. The findings of the current study reveal that academic achievements do not alleviate, and may even enhance, linguistic insecurity in EFL use.

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