Abstract
The purpose of this research project was to investigate if students today still report a fear of public speaking more often than death and if after completing a public speaking their fears change. Participants in a multi-section public speaking course (N = 374) completed a pre- and post-course survey asking them to select their fears and also complete public speaking anxiety questions. The results showed that pre-course public speaking was chosen more often than death and all other fears except for family tragedy, but after completing the course, the fear of public speaking was no longer selected more than death and was not even among the top five fears students listed. The review of literature also addresses why students should enroll in a basic public speaking course and conquer their fear or anxiety about public speaking while still in college.
Highlights
College students often find public speaking to be too humiliating or too demanding, and they do not want to waste their time taking a speech class
Data showed that pre-course public speaking students chose to speak before a group (N = 179) more often than they chose death (N = 160), a McNemar’s chi-square for binomial distribution was employed to test consistency in responses across two variables and calculated comparing the frequency of students selecting the fear of public speaking and the fear of death
Post-course that percentage dropped significantly. It appears that completing a general education public speaking course can make a difference in what students fear
Summary
College students often find public speaking to be too humiliating or too demanding, and they do not want to waste their time taking a speech class. One reason why college students may not value a public speaking course is the growth of technological advances in communication including social media that enable students to voice their opinion without speaking face-to-face. This dependence on technology is happening at a time when some in higher education are recommending cuts in many of the required general education classes, even up to half of the courses (Marquez, 2017)
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