Metaphor use in describing English public speaking anxiety by Chinese university EFL learners

Abstract

This study aims to explore English public speaking (EPS) anxiety among Chinese university students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) through mixed methods of analyzing elicited metaphors. Eight participants were invited to produce metaphors that presented their EPS anxiety in different speech types through journals and semi-structured interviews during one semester. Categorical data analysis and discourse analytic methods were employed to examine the relationships between the three-component construct of EPS anxiety, emotional valence, and speech types in participants’ metaphorical representations of EPS anxiety. There was no three-way interaction, but all three probable bivariate relationships between the three-component construct of EPS anxiety, emotional valence, and speech types were found to have possible significant correlations with corresponding effect sizes. The results indicated dynamic changes in the physiology, cognition, and behavior of students with EPS anxiety, reflecting varying attitudes towards EPS anxiety. It was found that students were more likely to describe their physiological experience by using metaphors in their first informative speech; they were more prone to employ metaphors to depict their cognitions in the following persuasive and commemorative speeches; descriptions of positive cognitions occurred more frequently than expected, and those with negative physiological depictions were overused. The study concludes with implications for improving the teaching of EPS courses in similar contexts.