Metamorphosis of Public Speaking Anxiety: Student Fear Transformation Throughout the Introductory Communication Course

ABSTRACT

Addressing student public speaking anxiety (PSA) through an introductory speaking course is a fundamental pedagogical touchpoint. The current study replicates and extends PSA research by seeking to understand the nature of change in PSA that students experience. Results indicate that students’ fears and anxieties regarding public speaking change before the first speech (Time 1) and after the last speech (Time 2) in the course such that almost half who reported the same fears at Time 1 and Time 2 indicated that the fear had decreased or diminished in intensity. Memory glitches were the most often cited fear at both Time 1 and Time 2. Confirming previous research, student PSA decreased over time. These findings extend previous investigations by highlighting the intensity of change experienced about specific fears identified and establishing a connection between fears and PSA. Training students in an introductory speaking course appears effective (and economical) in reducing levels of PSA. Future research should target the link between specific pedagogical tools and changes in student PSA.

KEYWORDS:

• Speaking fear
• communication apprehension
• public speaking
• basic communication course
• self-efficacy

Notes

1. Each assignment was 10 points; the total credit earned for completing both course assignments was 20 points. The total points possible in the course was a 1000. Thus, this assignment totaled two percentage of the overall grade.

2. The mass lecture about public speaking anxiety and treatment interventions, an optional experience for student attendance, was presented in the third week of the semester.

3. AA was selected because the majority of student fears focus on the audience (see LeFebvre et al., 2018). CAI was selected because the basic course was taught using a team-based learning pedagogical approach and this instrument provided insight into both group interaction anxieties and public speaking anxieties. PRPSA was selected as a result of Richmond and McCroskey’s (1998) impact and prominence in the discipline of communication.

4. Control variables examined the influence of demographic characteristics of the students (i.e., gender, ethnicity, age, major). An examination of difference in scores from Time 1 to 2 using the PRPSA and AA were conducted using repeated measures ANOVA. We used a covariate to control for individual instructor and/or the influence of particular section dynamics. The PRPSA results demonstrated no significant influence of demographics on the size of the change score. The examination of the covariate, particular course section demonstrated no influence. No evidence for nonuniform change effect existed. The AA results demonstrated no significant influence of any demographic characteristics. The covariate, which section was analyzed, demonstrated a significant effect. An examination of mean change scores for each individual section demonstrated a range from a negative average score (−1.08), indicating an increase in audience anxiety to a set of relatively large positive scores (5.31, 4.58, 4.37, 3.89) indicating reduced audience anxiety. The results indicated that the particulars of the individual section create variability in the perception of anxiety produced by the course members serving as an audience for the public speaking presentation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Luke LeFebvre

Luke LeFebvre (Ph.D., Wayne State University) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Director of the Communication Training Center at Texas Tech University.

Leah E. LeFebvre

Leah E. LeFebvre (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama.

Mike Allen

Mike Allen (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Marjorie M. Buckner

Marjorie M. Buckner (Ph.D., University of Kentucky) was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas Tech University at the time the research was conducted.

Darrin Griffin

Darrin J. Griffin (Ph.D., University at Buffalo, State University of New York) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama.