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Socially Prescribed Perfectionism
AlKandari, Essa
AlKandari, Essa
Date
2025-04
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Advisor
Type
Thesis
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Description
A Master of Arts thesis in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) by Essa AlKandari entitled, “Socially Prescribed Perfectionism”, submitted in April 2025. Thesis advisor is Dr. Phillip McCarthy and thesis co-advisor is Dr. Maria Eleftheriou. Soft copy is available (Thesis, Completion Certificate, Approval Signatures, and AUS Archives Consent Form).
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and Foreign Language Anxiety, and their effect on the speaking performance of English language learners. Using the SPP subscale of Hewitt and Flett's (1991) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale and the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale by Horwitz et al., (1986), a total of 30 questions were administered to 24 participants from the Achievement Academy Bridge Program at the American University of Sharjah. Structured interviews were conducted with eight students after the surveys were completed to ask them to elaborate on their answers. A correlational approach was used to identify the relationship between perfectionism and anxiety. A cross-validation method was also applied to validate the consistency and generalizability of the findings. Results indicated that perfectionism and anxiety may be related with a moderate influence by the order of questions on this relationship. Interview answers indicated that some students believe that SPP and FLA have an influence on students speaking English inside classroom. These findings contribute to the current literature on both perfectionism and anxiety within a language learning context, supporting previous findings in the literature. The findings also provided various insights into how perfectionism influences speaking anxiety levels in language learners with low L2 proficiency inside the classroom such as the inability to describe what they mean as a result of low L2 proficiency, vocabulary mistakes, and speaking in front of certain audiences.