Exploring Fear of Oral Presentation: A Look at The Origin and Strategies for Reduction

Abstract

In a language learning course, there are four skills that students must master, and communication is one of the essential skills. Lately, with the adaption of alternative assessment, an oral presentation has been a favourite assessment tool for educators to evaluate students. The main reason for students’ inability to succeed in this assessment is the fear or anxiety faced in the evaluation. Educators should educate students on ways or methods to overcome these negative feelings, as oral presentation is an essential skill that students should acquire before entering the working world. The research aims to investigate whether 1) The origins of fear influence students’ oral presentation. 2) Fear reduction strategies influents learners’ oral presentation. 3) The relationship between origins of oral presentation and fear reduction strategies. The quantitative study was contacted in several faculties in a Malaysian public university. One hundred seventy-six respondents were involved in answering a five-Likert scale survey of three sections designed to facilitate the research findings. The findings show that students’ oral presentations do influent by internal and external factors of fear. Students do implement strategies to overcome their fear of oral presentation. However, the relationship between the origins of oral presentation and fear reduction strategies was weak. The reduction strategies applied by the students did not overcome the fear of oral presentation. This study found that other issues might be the course of the fear of oral presentation.