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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HCMC UNIVERISTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES GRADUATION PAPER ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOME SOLUTIONS TO OVERCOME THE FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILL FOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Instructor: Ms Quan Vu Ngoc Lien (M.A) Student: Nguyen Kim Tien Student ID: 15DH710578 Major: English Study Ho Chi Minh City, June 18th, 2019 TABLE OF CONTENT Content Page DECLARATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v ABBREVIATION LIST vi ABSTRACT vii INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background 1.2 HUFLITers’ Pubic Speaking Anxiety 1.3 Objectives 1.4 Organization 1.5 The research question(s) 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The definition of Public Speaking Skill 2.2 The importance of Public Speaking Skill 2.3 The theory and different symptoms of Public Speaking Anxiety 2.4 Some possible reasons 2.5 Some suggested solutions METHODS 3.1 Overview 3.2 Description of the Subjects & Setting 3.3 Procedures of Data Collection 3.4 Statistical Treatment 10 RESULTS 11 4.1 The groups of age of learners participating in PS in the total of three classes 11 4.2 The gender of learners in the total three PS classes 12 ii 4.3 The learners’ attitude towards PS 13 4.4 The reason why learners studied PS 14 4.5 Whether students find it difficult to give a speech due to fear or not 15 4.6 The learners’ attitudes towards minimizing PSA by using some useful strategies and seeking some professional help 16 4.7 The most effective strategies for reducing PSA selected by students 17 4.8 Students’ comments on the effectiveness of applying the chosen ways 19 DISCUSSION 24 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 33 6.1 Purpose of the Study 33 6.2 Findings and Explanation 33 6.3 Limitations 34 6.4 Recommendations 35 Appendix 41 References 45 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The research would not been possible to complete without receiving support, assistance, instruction and contributions of these special people The researcher would like to take this opportunity to express the appreciation to the following: Department of Foreign Languages, HCMC University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology for allowing this research to be recognized Ms Quan Vu Ngoc Lien (M.A), who is an English teacher at HUFLIT and instructor of this research, provided valuable advice, feedback, tips, untiring assistance, direction, encouragement, perceptive comments, suggestions, professional guidance, support, and ideas to finish this research completely HUFLIT’ students, who have taken part in this research as conducting the research questionnaire with the prominent contribution and assistance Mr Tran Thanh Tu (M.A), whose significant support and guidance have aided and facilitated the process of forming this research Friends and family, for great spiritual support and encouragement throughout this research iv DECLARATION I declare that this assignment is original and has not been submitted for assessment elsewhere I declare that this assignment is my own work and does not involve plagiarism or collusion No other’s work or ideas have been used without acknowledgement, except I clearly state that I have used from elsewhere v ABBREVIATION LIST In this research, several long terms were used However, to avoid repetition of words, there will be abbreviations for these terms: HUFLIT: HCMC University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology PS: Public Speaking PSA: Public Speaking Anxiety EFL: English as Foreign Language vi ABSTRACT Public speaking (PS) is considered as one of most important skills at school and work through many generations, but the speech anxiety is still a problem that students in numerous schools have, especially those who are learning foreign languages The objective of this study was to investigate and suggest some possible useful strategies for English major students at HUFLIT to reduce the fear of PS in foreign language setting There were many ways to overcome this fear However, in this paper, the most useful methods would be chosen and voted by 2nd year student Additionally, there would be a survey to figure out how many people considered this problem truly depressing The researcher implemented quantitative methods (questionnaire) on 73 sophomores studying at Ho Chi Minh University of Foreign Language - Information Technology (HUFLIT) in District 10, Ho Chi Minh City They were 59 female and 14 male students aged between 20 and 22 at the time that the survey was conducted in the academic 2018-2019 Research revealed that 78.1% of participants admitted they were terrified of public speaking during their PS courses Likewise, almost 100% of participants indicated they found practicing the speeches several times before giving it in front of audience was the most plausible solution for them to be more and more selfassured Moreover, with the ways consisting of doing exercise (take a deep breathing), watching recordings to detect the errors, or having a backup (note card, cue card) were also assessed highly at about 97%, 96%, and 95% respectively for English major students to defeat public speaking apprehension and possible to face audience irrespective of the quantity of people in performing a presentation Keywords: anxiety, confidence, fear, public speaking vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background: Today, it is known that PS skill is one of the essential skills for many university and college students due to its benefits not only during the time they are studying but also in their long careers Therefore, many universities and colleges including HUFLIT have applied this subject into their education and training system However, almost all students always find it difficult to acquire skills for delivering a good speech; thus, they suffer the nervous status 1.2 HUFLITers’ Pubic Speaking Anxiety: PSA is a common psychological apprehension for university students that affects to learners' ability of emotional expression, especially for English major students at HUFLIT Although many studies have been done on a large number of ways suggested to help them solve this problem and improve their PS skills in universities and colleges, there has been no studies made at HUFLIT until now and almost students still feel some degree of anxiety before giving a presentation because most of HUFLITers have to use the foreign language like English to present in their workshops As a result, students often avoid performing a presentation or activities relating to PS in front of a crowd of people Hence, in this study, the researcher demonstrated to clarify that PS is truly a terrifying and horrible matter for students including English major students as well as paid more attention to the aspects that may be important to help HUFLIT’ students in their PS skills by introducing them some effective strategies, so they can gain a lot of experience and confidence 1.3 Objectives: The purpose of this study was to focus on analyzing as well as providing some several ways of reducing high levels of PSA for students at HUFLIT Moreover, how students' attitudes and thoughts towards suggested solutions for improving their [1] confidence when making presentations in EFL classes were also considered The expressions of agreement in each method were compared while their attitudes and thoughts were employed to support the methods supplementarily 1.4 Organization: A scientific report will be structured in six sections The first section will be an overview introduction about PS and the aim of the study The structure of the report will also be presented in section In section 2, foreign literature will be reviewed including its significance and the signs of PS fear followed by some further ideas that were stated by previous researchers for improving students’ PS skills Literature review will provide the base to formulate the research methodology in section In section 4, the results will be presented, and some effective ways of how to overcome PSA will be pointed out in section Finally, conclusion and recommendations will be proposed in the terminal section 1.5 The research question(s): The following questions will be analyzed to achieve mentioned objectives: Whether English major students of HUFLIT find it difficult to give a speech due to fear or not? What are the most effective strategies/ the approaches for reducing public speaking anxiety selected by students? [2] Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is written for a better understanding of the definition of PS and what learners get from learning PS skills, particularly in this survey, the theory of PSA and some symptoms of that fear in colleges and universities Moreover, some possible causes of PSA are also mentioned to define the brief solutions of previous studies that may be used to deal with anxiety when learning PS The definition of Public Speaking Skill: PS skill (also known as oration) is the process or action of delivering a speech directly to an audience with clarity and confidence for information conveyance The objective of the discourse may be to teach, engage, or impact the audience The speaker performs in front of a group of people that he/she knows (for example, in a family celebration) or a completely alien crowd Laura Spencer (2018) defined that it is fundamentally an introduction that is given live in front of the group of audience PS can cover a wide assortment of diverse subjects Speakers in PS regularly utilize visual aids in the form of an electronic slideshow to supplement the discourse and make the audience more curious The importance of Public Speaking Skill: Over the years, the importance of PS is widely diversified in human daily lives When people can speak well in public, they can absolutely promote their careers, develop their business and form some strong cooperation Many areas of life often require PS skills such as guidance or sales experts Even for jobs that not involve PS skills in job descriptions, candidates will be eye-catching, more highly appreciated, and make a better impression on many employers if they possess this skill Garside (2002) demonstrated the importance of learning PS skills for students for specific reasons Firstly, during the time of the process of preparing the presentation, students not only gain knowledge but also increase their confidence when presenting Confidence always makes the candidates stand out from others and gives them a [3] Chapter 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 6.1 Purpose of the Study: This research attempted to assess the effectiveness of ways of overcoming the fear of PSA efficiently for English students at Ho Chi Minh University of Foreign Languages – Information Technology (HUFLIT) 6.2 Findings and Explanation: The research provided evidence that most of HUFLIT's English students (78.1%) always felt scared when they had to speak in public due to the lack of confidence Furthermore, it was shown that if English major students who have concerns about PSA can find out an appropriate solution to overcome the fear of PS for themselves These findings lead to the possibility of managing anxiety for learners by changing their thought, controlling their emotions, and trying to advance their speech through new useful and professional strategies These results suggested that the following techniques could help students prevent excessive anxiety from interfering with their presentations such as • Practicing the speech several times • Doing some deep breathing before making lectures • Watching recordings to detect errors • Having a backup in case of forgetting what is going to speak next • Talking to themselves in front of the mirror • Choosing a topic that speakers know well • Participating in English clubs like (7sec) • Giving the speech to other people [33] However, there are two ways of reducing speech anxiety that have lower than a half of the percentages of approval These results can be explained by assuming that students were not comfortable with or into the rest of solutions such as • Focusing on a friendly face • Focusing on the material, not audience Another possible reason could be that they may not feel easy and not ready to use these methods Additionally, in the questionnaire, students also expressed the wishes on how their lecturers could help them to overcome anxiety besides applying different effective strategies It would help to eliminate their PSA in the speech or conservation classroom if lecturers can create a nonthreatening and comfortable atmosphere Specially, designing different speaking activities in classroom also helps students forget the stress and pressure On the other hand, based on different speaking and English proficiency levels, teachers should supply students with the suitable and effective strategies to help learners decrease the mood of anxiety However, each solution will be suitable for each person Particularly, what works for one person will not necessarily work for another, so from this research, the researcher has compiled as many strategies and tactics as possible to allow users to select the most helpful approaches 6.3 Limitations: This is the first time the researcher carried out the research on the problem at HUFLIT, so the limitation is unavoidable First of all, the number of group of participants took participant in answering this research is just a small-scale Next, the number of questions in the questionnaire is eight, so it also did not discover completely all features related to the learning PS process Additionally, the researcher just could base on the responses of learners and the researcher’s PS skills to give as many [34] suggestions as possible with the aim of making progress for learners Then, the restriction of this study was surveying with just using quantitative research without experiments that leads to the limit of research design Moreover, the results were just based on the figures or numbers because the participants were surveyed with the particular scope, so some of them sometimes the survey roughly 6.4 Recommendations: It is possible that later studies may have significantly detailed results or even produces entirely different findings The approach outlined in this study should be progressed in many areas for further investigation The content of this research did not cover all solutions of learners It just reflected some common ones, so researchers and educators should conduct more research on the effectiveness of the effective solutions for reducing speech anxiety In addition, larger samples of students should be recruited to increase the authenticity to contribute to the literature Besides, researchers should also make a short conversation between lecturers and learners in order to share things out of sight to find out the solutions together Following the data and information collected from the questionnaire, the researcher found out the most effective solutions for English majored learners to minimize the PSA Therefore, the researcher would like to point out some probable suggestions that those ones maybe help learners improve and get better their PS skills At the first stage, the best effective way for learners to build up confidence is practicing a talk It is noticeable that learners should consider three following main points: • Practicing with speech rate: learners would better speak slowly and carefully with a formal tone in a performance than in casual conversation Hence, they have to pause between different ideas, [35] sentences to help speakers convey their ideas clearly • Practicing proper articulation and pronunciation: When learners practice to pronounce sounds, they can focus on some sounds such as b, d, g, dz, p, t, k, ts, ch, etc Then, learners can practice to enunciate each word to complete sentence That leads speakers to the ability to overcome the apprehension of making mistakes or being evaluated by others • Practicing with the fluency: The 'um's and placeholder words (‘like’) should be eliminated because these words can make audience confused what speakers are talking about and interrupt their speeches, so that speakers should pause for a few seconds to gather thoughts instead of using ‘um’s or ‘like’ Students who suffer the dread of making mistakes or being evaluated by their low English proficiency may have the opportunities to hone their pronunciation and grammar on websites below: [36] For studying pronunciation, learners have to consolidate their knowledge by taking some pronunciation lessons if speakers not make sure how to pronounce difficult words Learners are able to take these kinds of test on the website http://funeasyenglish.com/new-american-english-pronunciation-introduction.htm to practice free pronunciation with many fields In addition, this website also helps learners get free lesson not just about pronunciation Picture 1: The website for learning pronunciation [37] Moreover, temporarily, learners also can be easy to study everything not just only grammar on the Internet There is a range of websites offering exercises on a wide variety of topics that are common and useful Firstly, this web page is created by British Council, so learners can completely believe in the teaching program on the website https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar/personal-pronouns Besides learning and reviewing the grammar for their level, this page has the exercises below for learners to practice and check Picture 2: The website of British Council for learning grammar [38] In addition, students who want to boost the skills of presenting PS can also review and practice deeply their speeches through some samples and tips of successful talks This website is also one of the common websites for learners to access follow to the link https://www.ted.com/talks Picture 3: The website of TED Talks for learning the skills and tips of giving a presentation [39] Finally, preparing an outline or note card is necessary to jog speakers’ memory but note cards should be short without containing the whole sentence, clear thesis, and main points should be included in a note card to help speakers easily inform audience what is going to be presented next Thanks to this way, speakers can quickly review main points and key term to develop a natural flow of speech A typical PS outline of HUFLIT’s English major students might look like as below: For your information Topic: I INTRODUCTION: - Hook: - Thesis statement: Transition: II BODY Transition: Transition: Transition: III CONCLUSION - Restate / Summary: - (Final) Remark: [40] APPENDIX Questionnaire for HUFLIT learners: Assessing the effectiveness of some solutions to overcome the fear of public speaking for English major students at HUFLIT Hello everyone! My name is Nguyen Kim Tien, a fourth year student in Business English Today, I conduct this research in order to survey about effective methods to overcome the fear of Public Speaking Skills (Public Speaking 1.2) for English major students at HUFLIT Please take a few minutes to help me answer the survey I assure that your personal information and opinions are confidential and fully exploited for research purposes Thank you for your time! How old are you? o 20 years old o 21 years old o 22 years old What is your gender? o Male o Female How you feel about learning Public Speaking? o Interesting o Useful and helpfulness o Difficult and boring Why you decide to learn Public Speaking? o It is a compulsory subject o It is exciting o It is beneficial [41] o It improves PS skills Do you find it difficult when you study Public Speaking 1/2 because of lack of confidence? o Yes o No Will you minimize your Public Speaking anxiety and improve your speech if you can be introduced and found out some useful strategies and professional help? o Agree o Disagree o No ideas What are the most effective strategies/ the approaches for reducing public speaking anxiety selected by students? Methods Strongly Agree agree Practice your speech before you give it Have a backup, note cards, or cue cards in case of forgetting what you want to say Watch recordings of your speeches to detect errors [42] Disagree Strongly disagree Give your speech to another person Lightly exercise before speaking (do some deep breathing) Focus on a friendly face (good interaction) Choose a topic that you know well Talk to yourself in front of the mirror Focus on the material, not the audience Participate in public speaking activities/ English clubs [43] (7sec) Having lecturers’ help What will be improved when you apply these chosen ways?(Write the name of the methods selected before giving the explanation and reasons for choosing them) _ _ [44] REFERENCES Adams, S (2012) Why Public Speaking Scares You And How To Overcome Your 23 Fear Forbes.Com, 82 Beatty, M J (1988) Public Speaking Apprehension, Decision-Making Errors in the Selection of Speech Introduction Strategies and Adherence to Strategy Communication Education, 37, 297-311 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03634528809378731 Beatty, M., & Friedland, M (1990) Public Speaking State Anxiety as a Function of Selected Situational and Predispositional Variables Communication Education, 39, 142-147 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03634529009378796 Bippus, A M., & Daly, J A (1999) What people think causes stage fright?: Naive attributions about the reasons for public speaking anxiety Communication Education, 48(1), 63-72 doi:10.1080/03634529909379153 Craig N Sawchuk, Ph.D, L P (2016) Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder in the American Indian Community, US Naional Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, 48: 6-12 doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2016.10.004 Creswell, J W (1994) Research design: Qualitative & quantitative approaches London: SAGE Publications Garside, C (2002) Seeing the forest through the trees: A challenge facing communication across the curriculum programs Communication Education, 51(1), 51-64 [45] Gutgold, N D., & Grodziak, E M (2013) Making Smart Use of Smart Phones to Improve Public Speaking Journal Of Technology Integration In The Classroom, 5(1), 13-16 Retrieved from https://www.arcjournals.org/pdfs/ijsell/v2-i11/16.pdf Hackman, M Z & Johnson, C E (2004) Leadership: A Communication Perspective, 6th edition, Illinois: Waveland Press Horwitz, E K., Horwitz, M B., & Cope, J (1986) Foreign language classroom anxiety The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125-132 Kelly, W E (2002) Anxiety and the prediction of task duration: A preliminary analysis The Journal of Psychology, 136(1), 53-58 Laura, S (2018) “What Is Public Speaking? & Why Is It Important?” Retrieved June 18, 2018, from https://business.tutsplus.com/tutorials/what-is-public-speaking cms31255 Liu, M (2006) Anxiety in EFL classrooms: Causes and consequences TESL Reporter, 39(1): 23-25 Mark B., & Mandy, G (2018) ways to get over your fear of public speaking, Harvard Business Review Retrieved Feb 23, 2018 from https://hbr.org/2018/02/5ways-to-get-over-your-fear-of-public-speaking Markway, B., Carmin, C N., Pollard, C A., & Flynn, T (1992) Dying of embarrassmment: Help for social anxiety and phobia Oakland, CA: New Harbinger North, M., & Rives, J (2001) Virtual reality therapy in aid of public speaking International Journal of Virtual Reality, 3:2-7 Price, M L (1991) The subjective experience of foreign language anxiety: Interviews with highly anxious students In E K Horwitz & D J Young (Eds.), Language anxiety: From theory and research to classroom implications (pp 101-108) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall [46] Raja, F (2017).Anxiety Level in Students of Public Speaking: Causes and Remedies Journal of Education and Educational Development, 4(1), 94-107 Ron, K (2001) Overcome the Fear of Speaking to Groups, Succeed in Public Speaking Retrieved December 22, 2001 from http://www.efos.unios.hr/prezentacijske-vjestine/wpcontent/uploads/sites/140/2013/04/Zelite-li-znati-vise-10.pdf Seim, R W., Waller, S A., & Spates, C R (2010) A Preliminary Investigation of Continuous and Intermittent Exposures in the Treatment of Public Speaking Anxiety.International Journal Of Behavioral Consultation And Therapy, 6(2), 8494 Spijck, B V (2011) Overcoming fear of public speaking Retrieved from https://coachcampus.com/coach-portfolios/research-papers/joana-reis-an-approachfor-coaches/ Yahya, M (2013) Measuring speaking anxiety among speech communication course students at the Arab American University of Jenin (AAUJ) European Social Sciences Research Journal, 1(3), 229-248 Zdena, K & Gabriela, P (2017) Causes and consequences of foreign language anxiety XLinguae Journal, 10(3):110-122 doi: 10.18355/XL.2017.10.03.09 [47]
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