Find in Library

Although most people acknowledge the importance of interactions in class, it is commonly seensome students still rarely actively participate in face-to-face interactions, especially those from a Confucian cultural background. Previous research focused on many factors to understand this phenomenon, yet social anxiousness has not been given enough attention as a possible reason. This correlational study on 93 Chinese undergraduates attempted to investigate the influences of social anxiousness on students’ interactions in class, using Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS) by Leary (1983), and a self-reported measure of students’ interaction in class developed by the researchers. Results indicated that both students’ social anxiousness and negative attitudes toward the needs of interactions in class significantly influenced their classroom interactions.