Speech Anxiety in the Communication Classroom During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Supporting Student Success

Abstract

A wealth of literature clearly supports the presence of speech anxiety in the communication classroom, especially in those classes with a focus on public speaking and/or presentations. Over the years, much work has been done on intentional approaches to empowering students to effectively manage their speech anxiety in face-to-face, hybrid, and online communication courses. These research-based findings have led to best practices and strong pedagogical approaches that create a supportive classroom culture and foster engaged learning. Then COVID-19 appeared, and things changed. In an effort to keep campuses safe and save the spring semester, everyone jumped online. Many instructors and students were experiencing online education for the first time and, understandably, anxiety exploded. Between the uncertainty of a global pandemic, the unchartered territory of a midterm pivot to fully online education, and the unknown effects of the situation on our educational system, our stress levels grew. Public speaking and presentations took on new meaning with Zoom sessions and webcams and our speech anxiety, undoubtedly, grew, as well. Reflecting upon the scholarship of the past with an appreciation of our present situation and looking toward the future, we will curate a list of best practices to prepare students to effectively manage their speech anxiety with agency, ability, and confidence.

Moderating Effects of Self-Esteem on the Relationship between Communication Anxiety and Academic Performance among Female Health College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…On the second sub-theme of communication patterns after the pandemic, four participants shared that they had been experiencing various communication problems, including initiating speech, nervousness, and lack of confidence in resuming back to regular classes. Previous studies have also confirmed the adverse impact of COVID-19 pandemic on communication skills [ 5 ]. Only two participants reported improved communication and social skills.…”

“…Studies have found that among university students, speech anxiety and various other psychological issues could be raised due to students’ limited engagement with their instructors and classmates through virtual classes during the pandemic [ 3 , 4 ]. Within this context, previous studies show an existing relationship between speech anxiety and student outcomes [ 5 , 6 ], as the former has been identified as a common pitfall to student success in learning [ 7 , 8 ].…”

Modeling the impact of L2 grit on EFL learners’ core of self-assessment and foreign language anxiety

“…From another viewpoint, skill-based anxiety and its role in language learning were explored in recent studies. As an example, the listening anxiety (Zhang, 2013 ), speaking anxiety (Çağatay, 2015 ; Prentiss, 2021 ), reading anxiety (Hamada & Takaki, 2021a , 2021b ), and writing anxiety (Zhang, 2019 ) were the target of these studies. According to the outcomes of the abovementioned studies, listening, speaking, reading, and writing anxiety were the major causes of students’ demotivation and failure.…”

Teaching Procedures in Speaking for Social Intercultural Communication during Covid-19 Pandemic

“…It was in line with Wulandari, Widowati, and Fikri (2020) stated the student's problems in learning English speaking through online learning were limited vocabulary, pronunciation trouble, internet connection, students feel boring, and students less of practicing. Prentiss (2021) argued many instructors and students were experiencing online education for the first time and, understandably, anxiety exploded. Public speaking and presentations took on new meaning with Zoom sessions and webcams and our speech anxiety, undoubtedly, grew, as well.…”