ORAL COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION AMONG POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS

Abstract

The communication apprehension is the anxiety or fear experienced by an individual before or during communicating and is one of the major barriers in communication among youth in their academics and professional growth. Therefore, the present study was conducted to study communication apprehension among postgraduate students of Punjab in English language. Data was collected through questionnaire from 200 postgraduate students drawn from four oldest and well-established universities of Punjab state. It was found that majority of students had moderate level of oral communication apprehension (OCA) in English. Further, it was found that majority of respondents had moderate level followed by low level and high level of apprehension during group discussions, interpersonal conversations and public speaking whereas in meetings most of the students had moderate level followed by high level and low level of apprehension. It was also found that on the average, students were most apprehensive in meetings followed by public speaking, interpersonal conversations and group discussions. As the communication apprehension restricts the overall growth of the studentshence, it is recommended that more communication opportunities should be provided to students and focus should be laid upon the overall development of student's personality in order to decrease their apprehension.