A Study of Academic Oral Presentation Anxiety and Strategy Employment of EFL Graduate Students

A Study of Academic Oral Presentation Anxiety and Strategy Employment Indonesian Journal of EFL and Linguistics Vol. 3 No. 2, 2018 eISSN: 2503-4197, pISSN: 2527-5070 www. indonesian-efl-journal.org A Study of Academic Oral Presentation Anxiety and Strategy Employment of EFL Graduate Students Shiauping Tian National Taiwan University of Science and Technology e-mail: Masykur Mahmud National Taiwan University of Science and Technology e-mail: Abstract: This study investigates the factors contributing to academic oral presentation anxiety, explore the differences between English majors and non-English majors in their strategy employment for academic oral presentations, examine the relationship between academic oral presentation anxiety and strategy employment, and compare the differences in oral communication strategy employment between high-anxiety and low-anxiety students. A total of sixty-one participants participated in this study by answering two questionnaires: Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) (McCroskey, 1970) and Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (OCSI) (Nakatani, 2006), and a follow-up interview was conducted focusing on high and low-anxiety students as defined by the result on PRPSA. Results showed that the three major sources of anxiety related to content of presentation, oral proficiency, and delivery skill. Moreover, a significant difference was found in the use of Social Affective strategies between English majors and non-English majors. Besides, negative significant correlations were found in the use of Message Abandonment strategies and Attempt to Think in English strategies. Furthermore, a statistically significant difference was found in the use of Message Abandonment strategies between high-anxiety and low anxiety-students. Pedagogical implications for reducing anxiety in academic oral communication were discussed. Keywords: Academic oral presentation, anxiety, oral communication strategy Indonesian Journal of EFL and Linguistics, 3(2), 2018 149 A Study of Academic Oral Presentation Anxiety and Strategy Employment 1. INTRODUCTION For the past few decades, oral presentations have been increasingly used for assessment purposes in many language learning classrooms. Students are required to have not only good English command, but also good presentation skills in order to succeed in school. Such is the case in graduate students’ academic life, in which oral presentations are necessary not only as a course requirement, but also for conference presentations, and proposal and thesis defense. However, anxiety has long been an issue within the context of oral presentation where solution to overcoming such issues has not been explored comprehensively, particularly in terms of strategy use to cope with anxiety. Good oral communication is essential in oral presentation. Being able to communicate clearly and effectively contributes significantly to the success of presentation. Communication itself does not only rely upon speaking skills, listening is also involved in which understanding is an important aspect to make the message understood by the receiver or audience. The speaker is likely to hinder the messages upon receivers when pronunciation, intonation, or even nonverbal signs are not used appropriately. Moreover, successful communication not only requires competence in language structures, lexicon, and phonology, but also implies a knowledge of the socio-linguistic norms and conventions of community where the language is spoken (Halliday, 1978, as cited in Busa, 2010). As a result, relevant strategies to help learners cope with anxiety should be learned through practices and training regarding strategy employment. Anxiety has been identified as one of the main factors affecting oral presentation performance, especially for foreign and second language learners. Howirtz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) mentioned that speaking was the skill most affected by foreign language anxiety. Other studies also identified speaking anxiety as an important factor affecting students’ performance in oral presentations (Mak, 2011; Samimy & Tabuse, 1992; Yusoff, 2008; 2010). Since making oral presentations is such an indispensable part of graduate students’ academic life, the current study would make a more in-depth investigation of EFL graduate students’ public speaking anxiety to obtain relevant results for future references on academic presentation training and anxiety coping strategies. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Anxiety and Oral Performance Similar to studies on the effect of anxiety on general language learning performance, a negative relationship has been found between anxiety and oral performance. Anxiety is believed to negatively affect the quality of communication or willingness to communicate (Young, 1991). Hewitt and Stephenson (2012) explored the effect of anxiety on students’ oral exam performance and students’ opinion about the experience of taking an oral exam in a foreign language. In their study, a statistically significant modest negative correlation was found between language anxiety and oral accomplishment in university students from an elective English course. Indonesian Journal of EFL and Linguistics, 3(2), 2018 150 A Study of Academic Oral Presentation Anxiety and Strategy Employment Neff (2007), investigating second-year university students in Japan, reported a similar finding that higher anxiety led to less effective oral presentation delivery. In addition to a significant negative relationship between second language speaking anxiety and oral performance, Woodrow (2006) reported that advanced English students regarded giving an oral presentation and performing in English in front of classmates as the major causes of anxiety. Samimy and Tabuse (1992) also asserted that speaking anxiety was one of the most important factors in determining the oral performance of American university students of Japanese. Mak (2011) supported such view by identifying speaking in class as the most frequently cited concern for anxious second language learners. Yusoff’s (2008; 2010) study on Malyasian engineering students also suggested that although the students are technically sound, they had difficulty with communication skills, especially in oral and presentation skills. 2.2 Sources of Oral Anxiety Although different studies reveal different factors associated with anxiety, some common issues have been identified frequently such as language barrier, proficiency related issue, and class presentation (Amiryousefi & Tavakoli, 2011; Khattak, et al., 2011; Radzuan and Kaur, 2011; Vitasari, et al, 2010). Hashemi (2011) found that a strict and formal classroom environment is believed to be a significant cause of students’ language anxiety, indicating that a formal classroom which demands more correct and clearer use of the target language often leads to anxiety. Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) asserted that certain beliefs about language learning m (...truncated)