Exploring The Level and Primary Causes of Public Speaking Anxiety Among English Department Students
Exploring The Level and Primary Causes of Public Speaking Anxiety Among English Department Students
Exploring The Level and Primary Causes of Public Speaking Anxiety Among English Department Students
kenti.sugiyati48@gmail.com
indriani@untidar.ac.id
Abstract
English public speaking anxiety is a crucial issue experienced by students and it needs to be
coped with acknowledging the importance of public speaking proficiency concerning today's
demands. As EFL students, many studies have found that they encountered a considerable level
of public speaking anxiety in which significantly affects their speaking quality. Therefore,
measuring students' public speaking anxiety is essential since it can help both the students and
teachers to know the level and primary causes of public speaking anxiety so that effective
strategies can be designed to overcome this particular issue. Hence, the researchers attempt to
investigate the level and primary causes of EFL students' public speaking anxiety. This present
study participated by 34 third-semester students of the English Department at Universitas Tidar.
In collecting the data regarding the public speaking anxiety level, the researchers used the Public
Speaking Class Anxiety Scale (PSCAS) proposed by Yaikhong & Usaha (2012). Furthermore,
the results from the questionnaire are delineated to explore the causes of public speaking anxiety.
The study found that 58.8% of students experienced a medium level of public speaking anxiety.
In addition, most of the students agreed that fear of negative evaluation becomes the major
anxiety-provoking factor following by communication apprehension and test anxiety—lastly,
only almost half of the students’ experience comfort in speaking English.
Keywords: anxiety level, anxiety-provoking factors, EFL students, public speaking class anxiety
INTRODUCTION
Public speaking refers to a type of communication addressed in front of many people and usually in the
form of a lecture or speech. It proposes to deliver information, influence, or entertain the audiences. Astuti
(2011) revealed that public speaking is an approach to transferring a message or idea to people to build their
understanding of the information or change the audiences' point of view or opinion. Moreover, Beebe and Susan
J. Beebe (2013) pointed out that public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people with a unique
point of view. Being able to master the art of public speaking and public appearances will differentiate and bring
the speaker above the average individuals whose ideas, quality, and features are rarely concerned and rearranged
by society as potential, which deserves their attention (Novaković & Teodosijević, 2017). It implies that public
speaking can help the speakers improve their quality and facilitate them to transform their ideas, which may
benefit others. Its importance is in line with Baccarani & Bonfanti (2015) study, which claimed that public
speaking is a persistent and vital activity in today's workplace. Public speaking abilities can support an
individual's career, and successful speakers are often recognized as leaders (Rowh, 2009). Therefore, it can be
viewed that public speaking is an essential ability to master, considering today's demands in many kinds of
fields.
As public speaking requires the speaker to stay in front of people whose focus of their eyes and
attention are on the speaker; thus, it can drive the speaker to experience pressure either before or during giving
the speech. Consequently, this pressure leads the speaker to feel like they shouldn't make any mistakes, which
makes them tense and experience anxiety. Sadiq (2017) affirmed that anxiety was considered a comprehensively
measured aspect in foreign language context for the past few decades. Suleimenova (2012) discovered that
speaking anxiety occurs among the Kazakh second-year university students, and students who have higher
anxiety encountered obstacles to make a better performance. Furthermore, public speaking anxiety can be one of
the critical constraints people have to deal with when they feel anxious about speaking. They prefer to evade
57
Journal of Research on Language Education (JoRLE), Vol: 2, No: 1, 56-66
situations where they have to perform. Still, when they face such situations, they endure extreme stress and
anxiety (Hidayoza et al., 2019). When the speaker encounters speaking anxiety in their public speech, it will
affect their speaking quality, leading them to feel embarrassed if they make mistakes and further drive them to
eliminate the chance to do a public speaking activity. As stated by Davidson (2002), public speaking customarily
constructs the top 10 lists of things people would tend to avoid. Generally, people negatively evaluate and
appraise those who display their fears concerning public speaking and unable to create a strong image through
convinced gestures (Katz, 2000).
Considering the importance of public speaking for students both for educational purposes and future
careers, therefore, they are expected to have excellent public speaking ability. Bodie (2010), public speaking is a
crucial part of leadership communication, an essential workplace skill, and the ability to make good
presentations is frequently becomes a substantial part of work responsibilities. Therefore, many universities
include the Public Speaking course as one of the compulsory subjects that students must enroll in, such as in the
English Education Study Program at Universitas Tidar. This course facilitates the third-semester students to learn
the nature of public speaking and the opportunities to speak in front of the class. However, as EFL students, they
might experience a more challenging situation when required to deliver their speech in front of others. This often
leads to what is called anxiety; in this case, it is specifically called Public Speaking Anxiety (PSA). Students
who experienced a low level of anxiety can perform better and actively participate in the classroom (Bashosh et
al., 2013). Nevertheless, Tiyas et al. (2020) stated that students try to avoid public speaking as much as possible
since they feel that factors forced them to avoid public speaking. Spijck (2011) found out almost eighty out of
every hundred people encountered public speaking anxiety at a small or large scale. Public speaking is such a
commonplace encounter by several people, including students in a specific case, and becomes one of the barriers
that students experience in their academic process (Pratama, 2018). Therefore, they cannot actively share their
ideas and opinions loudly due to factors such as fear of making mistakes, negative evaluation, and minimum
preparation.
EFL students’ public speaking anxiety can be derived from several factors. Hortwiz, et al (1986) stated
that three different situations arouse foreign language anxiety, those are communication apprehension (CA), fear
of negative evaluation (FNE), and test anxiety (TA). First, communication apprehension is a type of anxiety that
evokes speakers’ fear of making a communication transaction (DeVito, 1986; Horwitz et al., 1986). In
communication apprehension, the students feel uncomfortable, shy, and fear when they have to engage in real
communication with other people (Horwitz et al., 1986). Several cases of communication apprehension influence
the students’ difficulty not only in speaking with others but also in listening to or learning the spoken messages
(Horwitz et al., 1986). The level of communication apprehension (CA) is based on EFL students’ levels of
proficiency. Thus, it can be said that CA may be the major source of anxiety for EFL low proficiency students.
In contrast, it is not the major source of anxiety for high proficiency students (Aydin, 2016). Furthermore,
Horwitz et al., (1986), fear of negative evaluation deals with students’ apprehension of others’ evaluation. It
emerges them to avoid evaluation situations and build the expectation that others would evaluate them
negatively. This type of anxiety is not limited to test-taking situations; instead, it may occur in any social,
evaluative situation, including an interview for a job or speaking in a second or foreign language class. Lastly,
test anxiety refers to the students’ fear of failure in a test. It arises since the students have thoughts that the only
acceptable performance in a test is when they can do it perfectly. Test anxiety holds an important role in
affecting students learning outcomes, several feelings such as fear of failure or unpleasant experience are forms
of test anxiety that happens in students’ minds (Horwitz et al., 1986).
Measuring the level of students' public speaking is highly recommended as it can help the students to
know how the degree of their anxiety and what are the major causes influenced their anxiety. It can also provide
the teacher with information to design effective strategies to overcome students' public speaking anxiety. As the
study executed by Sikandar (2017) found that the public anxiety faced by students is mostly caused by the fear of
speaking in front of others, it is seen by 75% of the students who agree with the statement whether or not they
experience fear of public speaking. Furthermore, Hidayoza et al. (2019), in their study entitled "Level of Public
Speaking Anxiety and Coping Strategy used by English Debaters at Unit Kegiatan Bahasa Asing in dealing with
English Debate," discovered that English department debaters, Unit Kegiatan Bahasa Asing, Universitas
Negeri Padang, experienced a medium level of public speaking anxiety. It is counted by 50% of the respondents
who claimed that they experienced public speaking anxiety, particularly when joining debates. Sulastiani (2017),
in her study, found that 82.5 % of students experienced a medium level of fear and anxiety when they speak
English in public speaking class. This study revealed that students' anxiety had negative impacts on their
performance in public speaking class, such as forgetting their speech and disarrange their speech preparation,
feeling confused, and often break off their speech, also make them uncomfortable to speak English in public
speaking class. Pratiwi et al. (2017), in their study, showed that 52% of the third-semester students of the
English Education Study Program at Sriwijaya University (52%) experienced a medium level of speaking
58
Journal of Research on Language Education (JoRLE), Vol: 2, No: 1, 56-66
anxiety. It demonstrates that most of the students face a considerable level of public speaking anxiety in which it
needs to be kept being evaluated whether strategies implemented are prevalent to cope with their anxiety in
public speaking.
Determining the importance of measuring students' level of public speaking anxiety motivated the
researchers to investigate English public speaking anxiety faced by the third-semester students of the English
Department at Universitas Tidar. This present study also aims to explore the major causes that influenced their
public speaking class anxiety. By knowing the level and major caused of students' public speaking class anxiety,
it is expected that the next research conducted will investigate the strategies that can effectively help students to
reduce their problem with public speaking anxiety. Hence, this current study intended to answer the following
research questions.
1. What are the levels of public speaking class anxiety (PSCA) experienced by the third-semester students
of the English Department at Universitas Tidar?
2. What are the primary factors that influence the public speaking class anxiety (PSCA) among third-
semester students of the English Department at Universitas Tidar?
RESEARCH METHOD
This present study aims to expose the level and the major factors influencing students' public speaking
class anxiety. Therefore, a quantitative descriptive method was utilized in this study since the data were
presented in numerical and descriptive form. Aliaga and Gunderson (2002) elaborated quantitative research as an
inquiry into a social problem that reveals phenomena by collecting numerical data identified using
mathematically based methods, for instance, particular statistics. Sugiyono (2005), a descriptive method is an
approach that is designed to elaborate or analyze research findings but is not used to make broader.
The participants of this study consist of 34 third-semester students of the Education Study Program
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education at Universitas Tidar. Furthermore, the final version of the Public
Speaking Class Anxiety Scale (PSCAS) proposed by Yaikhong and Usaha (2012) was used to collect the data
regarding students' level of public speaking anxiety. Yaikhong and Usaha (2012) stated that the PSCAS can
provide a respectable preliminary internal consistency at .84 after being piloted with 76 participants. It showed a
construct composition around the speaking component in a public speaking class setting. This type of
questionnaire consists of 17 items with positive and negative statements to determine students' public speaking
class anxiety levels. Every item was remarked on a five-point Likert Scale. For the positive statement items, the
scale is ranging from 5 “Strongly Agree” to 1 “Strongly Disagree.” There are four positive statement items in
PSCAS Questionnaire (item 4, 8, 10, and 12), and to adjust the scores for those items, Liu and Jackson in
Yahikong and Usaha (2012) offered to adjust the values assigned to different alternatives from “Strongly
Disagree” to “Strongly Agree” so that the response “Strongly Disagree” received a score of 5 instead of 1 and
vice versa. Additionally, to identify the causes of students’ public anxiety, the results reported from the
questionnaire will be static explained since it contains four major causes of anxiety, namely communication
apprehension (CA), test anxiety (TA), fear of negative evaluation (FNE), and comfort in speaking English
(CNE).
Table 1. The Scoring Scale of PSCAS
Positive Attitude Statement Score Negative Attitude Statement Score
1 Strongly Agree 5
2 Agree 4
3 Undecided 3
4 Disagree 2
5 Strongly Disagree 1
The scoring interval was cited in PSCAS (Public Speaking Class Anxiety Scale) by Yaikhong and
Usaha (2012) to examine the level of anxiety.
Table 2. The Scoring Interval
Interval score Category
>68 High anxiety
50-68 Medium anxiety
<50 Low Anxiety
59
Journal of Research on Language Education (JoRLE), Vol: 2, No: 1, 56-66
60
Journal of Research on Language Education (JoRLE), Vol: 2, No: 1, 56-66
From the table above, the data showed that the third-semester students experienced communication
apprehension with an average frequency of 20.25of the responses agreeing to items 2, 3, 5, and 15 in which those
are classified into communication apprehension factor. The highest percentage among the items is showed with
the percentage of 82.5: item 2, which stated that most students agree that they start to panic when they have to
speak English without preparation in advance. It demonstrates that in terms of speaking English without
preparation, most students experienced anxiety. It is in line with Mak's (2011) claims that speaking in front of
the class without preparation was an anxiety-provoking factor. Moreover, the researchers argued that the
students’ inability to communicate in English without preparation in advance is related to the lack of
communicative practice; thus, they do not have alternative sources of speaking materials. Following this, 70.5%
of the students agree that in a speaking class, they can get so nervous when they forget things they know: item 2.
It may be derived from forgetting terms or vocabulary intent to express the ideas. MacIntyre and Gardner (1994)
draw parallels between anxious students and the vocabulary learning process. They emphasized that anxious
students frequently forget the vocabulary of the target language in-class activities and in oral communications.
Furthermore, 58.7% of students agree that they get nervous and confused when they are speaking
English, as in item 5. Lastly, 26.8% of students dislike using their voice and body expressively while speaking
English, item 15. It demonstrates that while speaking English, students feel less confident about their voice and
how they express their body language. Thus, as communication apprehension related to the fear of
communication with others (Horwitz et al., 1986), it is not surprising that learners consider speaking in front of
other people one of the most common sources of anxiety, especially if proficiency in the foreign language is
perceived as limited (Young, 1999).
61
Journal of Research on Language Education (JoRLE), Vol: 2, No: 1, 56-66
difficulty to move some part of their body expressively, for instance, head or hand movement (Kurniawanti,
2017).
can perform English public speaking confidently. Hence, to increase student's oral achievement in English and
decrease the negative feelings, teachers should create a natural classroom atmosphere, as the sources of language
anxiety are involved in and be a part of the impacts of unnatural classrooms (Young, 1991). Furthermore,
Boonkit (2010) conducted a study on the factors promoting the development of students’ speaking skills. The
results showed that the implementation of relevant activities for speaking skills can be an effective strategy to
avelliate speakers’ anxiety. His finding also mentioned that the freedom of topic choice urged the participants to
feel comfortable, convinced to speak English, and elevated EFL students speaking confidence.
CONCLUSION
From the overall finding and discussion presented, this current study concluded that the third-semester
students of the English Department at Universitas Tidar experienced a medium level of public speaking anxiety.
The level of anxiety among students surveyed in this research is 58.8%. Furthermore, the data regarding factors
of anxiety experienced by students are further analyzed from the PSCAS questionnaire proposed by Yaikhong
and Usaha in which is initially used to examine students’ level of anxiety. From the four components of factor
analysis, the researchers viewed the three components as the anxiety-provoking factors while the rest as
students’ perspectives on English speaking. The finding shows that from the three components of anxiety factors,
fear of negative evaluation (FNE) ranked in the highest level of the causes of anxiety. It is calculated that the
average percentage of FNE is 20.83 of students who agree with the items on this factor. Following this, the
communication apprehension (CA) was placed in the second rank with an average percentage of 20.25 students
who responded of agreement with the items. Besides, test anxiety (TA) is positioned in the third rank of anxiety-
provoking factor, with an average percentage of 17.7 of students agreeing with the items. Lastly, in the
component of comfort in speaking English (CNE), only 49% of students agree that they feel comfortable in
speaking English. From this study, the researchers expected that there are effective strategies designed to help
students alleviate their anxiety so that they can perform better in public speaking skills both in and outside the
classroom.
REFERENCES
Aliaga, M., & Gunderson, B. (2002). Interactive Statistics. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Astuti, K. N. (2011). Jurus Kilat Jago Public Speaking Secara Otodidak,. Laskar Aksara.
Aydin, S. (2016). A Qualitative Research on Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety. The Qualitative Report, 21(4), 629–642.
Baccarani, C., & Bonfanti, A. (2015). Effective public speaking: A conceptual framework in the corporate-communication
field. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 20(3), 375–390.
Bashosh, S., Nejad, M. A., Rastegar, M., & Marzban, A. (2013). The relationship between shyness, foreign language
classroom anxiety, willingness to communicate, gender, and EFL proficiency. Theory and Practice in Language
Studies, 3(11), 2098–2106. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.3.11.2098-2106
Beebe, S. A., & Beebe, S. J. (2013). Public Speaking Handbook (4th Edition). Pearson.
Bodie, G. (2010). A racing heart, rattling knees, and ruminative thoughts: Defining, explaining, and treating public speaking
anxiety. Communication Education, 59(1), 70–105.
Boonkit, K. (2010). Enhancing the Development of Speaking Skills for Non-Native Speakers of English. Procedia Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 2(2010), 1305–1309.
Davidson, J. (2002). The Complete Guide to Public Speaking. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
DeVito, J. A. (1986). The Interpersonal Communication Book (4th ed.). Harper and Row Publishers.
Gregersen, T., & Horwitz, E. K. (2002). Language learning and perfectionism: Anxious and non-anxious language learners’
reactions to their own oral performance. Modern Language Journal, 86(4), 562–570.
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4781.00161
Hanna, M. S., & Gibson, J. W. (1992). Public speaking for personal success (3rd ed). William C. Brown.
Hidayoza, P., Amri, Z., & Wahyuni, D. (2019). Level of Public Speaking Anxiety and Coping Strategy used by English
Debaters at Unit Kegiatan Bahasa Asing in dealing with English Debate. 8(1).
Horwitz, E. K., & Young, D. (1991). Language Learning Anxiety: From Theory and Research to Classroom Implications.
Prentice-Hall.
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety. In Source: The Modern Language
Journal (Vol. 70, Issue 2).
Katz, L. (2000). Public Speaking Anxiety. In UTM Counseling and Career Services (Vol. 1). University of Tennessee.
http://sp.myconcorde.edu/sites/Portland-OR/LRC/Shared Documents/Public Speaking.pdf
Kurniawanti, B. St. (2017). A Study of Anxiety in Speaking Class of the Second Semester Students in English Education
Department at UIN Alauddin Makassar. Undergraduate (S1) thesis, Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar.
Leong, L. M., & Ahmadi, S. M. (2017). An analysis of factors influencing learners’ English speaking skill. International
Journal of Research in English Education, 2(1), 34–4.
MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1994). The Subtle Effects of Language Anxiety on Cognitive Processing in the Second
Language. Language Learning, 44(2), 283–305. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1994.tb01103.x
Mak, B. (2011). An exploration of speaking-in-class anxiety with Chinese ESL learners. System, 39(2), 202–214.
Melouah, A. (2013). Foreign language anxiety in EFL speaking classrooms: A case study of first-year LMD students of
63
Journal of Research on Language Education (JoRLE), Vol: 2, No: 1, 56-66
English at Saad Dahlab University of Blida, Algeria. Arab World English Journal, 4(1), 64–76.
Novaković, N., & Teodosijević, B. (2017). Basics of public speaking. Bizinfo Blace, 8(2), 33–46.
https://doi.org/10.5937/bizinfo1702033n
Park, H., & Lee, A. R. (2005). L2 learners’ anxiety, self-confidence and oral performance. The 10th Conference of Pan-
Pacific Asso-Ciation of Applied Linguistics, Japan.
Peplau, H. E. (1989). Anxiety, Self, and Hallucination. In Interpersonal theory in Nursing Practice. Springer.
Pratama, R. (2018). A Student ’s strategies to overcome Speaking Anxiety in Public Speaking Class.
Pratiwi, I. A., Mirizon, S., & Zuraida. (2017). An analysis on students’ perception toward their speaking anxiety of English
Education Study Program at Sriwijaya University. 2007, 334–342.
Rachmawati, D. I., & Jurianto, J. (2020). Investigating English Department Students’ Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety: a
Case Study in Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia. Social Sciences, Humanities and Education Journal (SHE Journal),
1(2), 22. https://doi.org/10.25273/she.v1i2.6624
Rowh, M. (2009). Speak out! Everyone can benefit from public speaking skills. Career World, a Weekly Reader Publication,
38(3), 6-9.
Sadiq, J. M. (2017). Anxiety in English Language Learning: A Case Study of English Language Learners in Saudi Arabia.
English Language Teaching, 10(7), 1. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v10n7p1
Sikandar, A. (2017). Anxiety Level in Students of Public Speaking: Causes and Remedies. Journal of Education and
Educational Development, 4(1), 94–110.
Spijck, B. V. (2011). Overcoming fear of public speaking. https://coachcampus.com/coach-portfolios/research-
papers/%0Ajoana-reis-an-approach-for-coaches/
Sugiyono. (2005). Memahami Penelitian Kualitatif. Alfabeta.
Sulastiani. (2017). Students’ perception toward Psychological Problems faced in Public Speaking Class of English
Department. Muhammadiyah University of Makassar.
Suleimenova, Z. (2012). Speaking anxiety in a Kazakhstani foreign language classroom. Sino-US English Teaching, 9(12),
1766–1774.
Tiyas, A., Nurhidayah, Y., & Herdiawan., R. D. (2020). “Why I can’t speak up?”: Students’ Anxiety in Public Speaking.
Journal of English Language Learning (JELL), 103.
Toubot, A. M., Hock Seng, G., & Binti Atan Abdullah, A. (2018). Examining Levels and Factors of Speaking Anxiety
among EFL Libyan English Undergraduate Students. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English
Literature, 7(5), 47. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.7n.5p.47
Yaikhong, K., & Usaha, S. (2012). A Measure of EFL Public Speaking Class Anxiety : Scale Development and Preliminary
Validation and Reliability. 5(12), 23–35. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n12p23
Young, D. J. (1991). Creating a low‐ anxiety classroom environment: What does language Anxiety Research Suggest? The
Modern Language Journal, 75(4), 426–437.
Young, Dolly J. (1999). A Perspective on foreign language learning: From body to mind to emotion. In Affect in foreign
language and second language learning (Young, D.). McGraw-Hill.
Zia, Z., & Norrihan, S. (2015). EFL learners’ levels of class -room performance anxieties and their causes in class-room
speaking activities in Afghanistan. International Journal of English and Education, 4(1), 239–249.
64
Journal of Research on Language Education (JoRLE), Vol: 2, No: 1, 56-66
APPENDIX
65
Journal of Research on Language Education (JoRLE), Vol: 2, No: 1, 56-66
BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS
Kenti Sugiyati is undergraduate student of English Department, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Universitas
Tidar. Her interest is on TEFL and Linguistics.
Lilia Indriani, M.Pd is a lecturer in English Department, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Universitas Tidar. Her
interest is on technology enhanced language learning and TEFL.
66