An Analysis of the Basis of Public Speaking Anxiety

Glossophobia or public speaking anxiety is a prevalent issue experienced by many students when speaking in front of a large audience. Public Speaking Anxiety (PSA) is common among students, especially when they are required to perform well for the public speaking task. This study aims to find out students’ perception of cognitive basis, behavioural basis, physiological basis and to examine whether there is any relationship between all three bases for public speaking anxiety. A quantitative study was done to analyse the basis of PSA by using the Public Speaking Anxiety Scale (PSAS) by (Bartholomay & Houlihan, 2016) to observe whether one type of anxiety influences the other. Three factors of PSA which are cognitive, behavioural and physiological were studied using a 5-point Likert Scale instrument consisting of 4 sections. Section A has 2 items on demographic profile. Section B has 8 items on Cognitive, section C has 4 items on Behavioural and section D has 5 items on Physiological. A purposive sample of 119 participants from a public university in Malaysia responded to the survey. The findings revealed that there is a strong positive correlation between the cognitive, behavioural and physiological basis of PSA and that each basis influenced the other. Furthermore, this study also found that the behavioural and physiological basis of PSA were noticeably significant during the speech of most students. Thus, it is crucial for higher education institutions to acknowledge and address PSA issues, especially for ESL and EFL learners, as the outcome affects their experiential learning.