<![CDATA[This study addresses the role of affective factors in shaping learners’ oral communication in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts, where psychological barriers often hinder speaking performance. Drawing on Second Language Acquisition perspectives that emphasize the interplay among affective variables, reticence, anxiety, and self-perceptions in language learning, this study examines the structural relationships among L2 reticence, pronunciation anxiety, and L2 speaking confidence, with a particular focus on the mediating role of pronunciation anxiety. A quantitative correlational design was employed involving 141 university-level EFL learners from three higher education institutions in Indonesia. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling with SmartPLS 4. The results indicate that L2 reticence significantly predicts pronunciation anxiety, confirming a strong positive association between learners’ reluctance to communicate and pronunciation-related anxiety. However, the direct effects of pronunciation anxiety and reticence on L2 speaking confidence were not statistically significant, and the mediating role of pronunciation anxiety was not supported. These findings indicate that the proposed direct and indirect pathways linking reticence and pronunciation anxiety to speaking confidence were not statistically supported in the present sample. The study contributes to the growing body of research on affective factors in Second Language Acquisition by providing empirical evidence from the Indonesian EFL context and highlighting the need for further investigation into the factors associated with learners’ speaking confidence.]]>
