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1 – 10 of over 4000Philip Kwaku Kankam and Samuel Osarfo Boateng
The anxiety that usually comes with a speaking performance is said to be both personal and situational. Researchers have over the years sought to understand how the combined…
Abstract
Purpose
The anxiety that usually comes with a speaking performance is said to be both personal and situational. Researchers have over the years sought to understand how the combined effects of personal traits of an individual and situational conditions such as the nature of the speaking environment, the size of the audience and negative perception over the outcome of a speech, affects a person’s ability to effectively communicate. While studies on speech-related anxiety in the academic environment is not new (Basic, 2011; Behnke et al., 2006), the attention of many of these studies has focused on students rather than lectures/instructors. While this study is not the first to focus on the role of lecturers in reducing the incidence of speech anxiety, the purpose of this paper is to stress the role of lecturers in reducing speech-related anxieties and its attendant effects on the academic and professional performances of students. It was found out that most speech-related anxiety is largely situational, rather than personal. The study found that out of fear of being negatively evaluated, students became highly apprehensive when asked to perform a speech-related task in the classroom. This, the study found, can potentially have adverse effects on the academic and professional performance of students. Most importantly, the study established the significant role of lecturers in managing a friendly and pleasant environment that facilitate speaking and positive learning outcomes. As Varron (2011) asserts: “the teacher is the one that facilitates the whole process of leaning and create favorable environment, where there is a smooth flow of communication.”
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 40 respondents from the School of Communications of the African University College of Communications were sampled for the study. The selection of only communication students was premised on the study’s quest to unravel the irony inherent in the fact that those communication students that are by their training required to be voluble, tend to be apprehensive, especially under the classroom situation. Doing this was to inevitably help to find out whether or not there is a relationship between an individual’s career choice and the behavioral tendencies such a person is likely to exhibit. Again, the fact that communication students are more competent to speak on issues regarding any subject on communication makes them an ideal choice for this study. A stratified probability sampling method was used to group the sample into various layers (levels). The study using stratified sampling grouped the various respondents into their various levels (strata) and sampled ten respondents from each level. This was to help the study ascertain whether or not any relationship existed between a student’s level and the level of their speaking apprehension. A questionnaire, close and open ended, was employed as the study’s principal instrument for data. Each respondent was given a questionnaire each to respond to. A “descriptive statistical measure was used to describe the characteristics of the sample, whereupon conclusions were generalized for the entire study population.” In addition, graphs, charts, and frequency tabulation made from the coded data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, after which the corresponding interpretation was assigned. To ensure accuracy, data were coded, entered, and cleaned. Tables and figures from the SPSS helped in making the results of the study easier to interpret and understandable.
Findings
The outcome of the administered questionnaire indicated that negative evaluation was caused by lack of adequate preparation, inferiority complex, fear of derision and needless comparisons among students. In respect of how fear of derision causes anxiety, it was found that fear of derision stifles students’ desire to be heard, makes students timid and prevents class participation. On the issue of why some student were deficient in the use of English language, it was found that poor reading habits, overuse of vernacular, obsession with the use of pidgin and apprehension following from the fear of making mistakes were the major causes.
Originality/value
The authors consider the proposed study original both in conceptualisation and design. The main question being interrogated stems from identified gaps in the literature and the study intends to fill these knowledge gaps. The study’s originality stems from the fact that there is paucity of information on the subject of study in the context of Ghana.
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Bee Choo Yee, Abdullah Mohd Nawi and Tina Abdullah
The sudden pandemic of COVID-19 has caused disruptive innovation in all areas of business including education. Despite the educators’ and students’ acceptance and readiness in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The sudden pandemic of COVID-19 has caused disruptive innovation in all areas of business including education. Despite the educators’ and students’ acceptance and readiness in the new normal, the traditional face-to-face (FTF) public speaking has been shifted to online courses to suit the current needs. This study aims to examine whether there were differences between online and FTF pubic speaking in the students’ anxiety level, speech performance, as well as their perceptions of the challenges in the implementation of online public speaking courses as a potential to disruptive innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This pilot study was a mixed method research that involved a purposive sampling of two groups of 39 students in higher education. The instruments used were questionnaires of self-report anxiety, speech performance test and observation.
Findings
The findings show that the students preferred the traditional FTF rather than the online mode for public speaking courses. The challenges of internet connection and the lack of a live audience were their main concerns in online public speaking. It also provides a potential for disruptive innovation that could take into consideration of a live audience in university online courses.
Originality/value
This study provides the potential of public speaking course as a disruptive innovation. This brings implications for the innovators, marketers and educators to think of the online courses/programmes that can be best implemented while embracing the changes and the new normal of COVID-19 brings for student learning.
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Kathleen A. Simons and Tracey J. Riley
Accounting practitioners and educators agree that effective oral and written communication skills are essential to success in the accounting profession. Despite numerous…
Abstract
Accounting practitioners and educators agree that effective oral and written communication skills are essential to success in the accounting profession. Despite numerous initiatives to improve accounting majors’ communication skills, many students remain deficient in this area. Communication literature suggests that one factor rendering these initiatives ineffective is communication apprehension (CA). There is general agreement that accounting students around the globe have higher levels of CA than other majors. Therefore, accounting educators interested in improving students’ communication skills need to be aware of the dimensions and implications of CA. This chapter provides a review of the relevant literature on CA, with a focus on CA in accounting majors. It also presents intervention techniques for use in the classroom and makes suggestions for future research.
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Debora Jeske, Kenneth S. Shultz and Sarah Owen
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of interviewee anxiety as a predictor of perceived hireability (Study 1, n=82) and job suitability (Study 2, n=74).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of interviewee anxiety as a predictor of perceived hireability (Study 1, n=82) and job suitability (Study 2, n=74).
Design/methodology/approach
Using an experimental design, participants were randomly allocated to one of two conditions (an audio recording of either a confident or anxious job candidate with identical scripts) and asked to take the role of an interviewer.
Findings
The anxious interviewee (played by an actor) was consistently rated as less hireable (in a combined sample based on Studies and 2), less suitable to the job and received less favorable hiring recommendations (as assessed in Study 2) than the confident interviewee (played by the same actor).
Research limitations/implications
The study was conducted with students who may have less interview experience than experienced interviewers.
Practical implications
The results suggest that anxiety has a negative biasing effect on perceived hireability and job suitability ratings. In other words, the behavioral manipulation of anxiety affects hireability ratings, independent of any subjective assessment of anxiety.
Originality/value
The findings provide evidence of an anxiety bias in telephone interview settings. The results highlight the importance of considering anxiety cues when training employment interviewers.
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Leyland F. Pitt, B. Ramaseshan and Deon Nel
Groups and group dynamics have been areas which have received considerable attention not only in Social Psychology and Sociology, but in the last thirty years, also in the field…
Abstract
Groups and group dynamics have been areas which have received considerable attention not only in Social Psychology and Sociology, but in the last thirty years, also in the field of managerial decision‐making. Many activities within organisations are performed in a group context. Budgets are compiled by committees, new products are evaluated by marketing teams and strategic plans constructed by top management team members. Much of the confidence in the use of groups in management decision‐making has its origins in the belief that “two heads are better than one” and from early research which in fact indicates that this is so.
There is an old adage which points out “it's not what you say, it's the way that you say it”. Of all the various types of “body language” that are currently being toted as…
Abstract
There is an old adage which points out “it's not what you say, it's the way that you say it”. Of all the various types of “body language” that are currently being toted as conveying up to 75 per cent of the “real” meaning of any communication, paralinguistics have received the least attention. And yet, in Western European languages at any rate, the non‐verbal aspects of speech play an immensely important part in conveying to the listener what is really on a speaker's mind or what his “reality map” is like. Paralinguistics, or the way we say what is on our mind, can be divided into any number of headings but for simplicity's sake I have come up with seven categories — timing, emotional tone/inflection, speech errors, national or regional accent, choice of words/sentence structure, verbal “tics” and tonic accent. I will discuss each of these paralinguistic categories in turn giving examples and quoting research studies.
There is more to what we say than the actual words we use; managers should make sure they are familiar with basic paralinguistics.
Leyland F. Pitt, Pierre R. Berthon and Matthew J. Robson
While the effect of communication apprehension on a multitude of psychological and performance variables has been studied in many other disciplines, it has not been extensively…
Abstract
While the effect of communication apprehension on a multitude of psychological and performance variables has been studied in many other disciplines, it has not been extensively examined by sales researchers. This article considers communication in the sales transaction from the perspective of communication apprehension, and investigates the role of communication apprehension as an indicator of a salesperson’s performance. Using ordinal logistic regression, an attempt is made to predict a salesperson’s performance based on the four contexts of communication apprehension, in a multicultural sample. The results show a small but significant effect of communication apprehension on the performance of salespersons, and some contexts of communication apprehension are found to be better predictors than others. The findings also indicate that the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension‐24 scale is valid and reliable when used to establish international principles.
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Priyanka Bhowmik, Mousumi Padhi and Subhra Pattnaik
Extant literature indicates the influence of anxiety on job insecurity (JI). However, the effect of financial anxiety (FA) on JI has received lesser attention. Further, there is a…
Abstract
Purpose
Extant literature indicates the influence of anxiety on job insecurity (JI). However, the effect of financial anxiety (FA) on JI has received lesser attention. Further, there is a dearth of literature on this relationship during a global crisis, such as COVID-19, and more so in the Indian context. This study attempts to empirically explore the relationship between FA and JI in presence of moderators, such as gender, tenure and individual annual income.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 584 employees engaged in remote working in the information technology (IT) sector in India during the COVID-19 crisis. The data were analysed using SPSS 25 and AMOS 24. A hierarchical regression method was followed to test the hypothesis. In step 1, JI was regressed on FA in presence of control variables. In step 2, moderators, such as gender, tenure and individual annual income, were entered along with interaction terms.
Findings
Findings revealed a significant positive relation between FA and JI. The moderating effects of gender, tenure and annual income on the relationship between FA and JI were significant and interesting.
Originality/value
The paper empirically studies the role of FA on JI of Indian IT employees during COVID- 19. It is a response to researchers' call to integrate the effect of different moderators on the relationship between FA and JI during a crisis that has direct impacts on both. The influence of moderators on JI was interesting in the reversal effects produced.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate and understand academic English language-related challenges in listening and speaking faced by English as a foreign language (EFL…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate and understand academic English language-related challenges in listening and speaking faced by English as a foreign language (EFL) international Master students enrolled in various taught Master programs in a Malaysian university from the viewpoint/lens of 16 lecturers teaching the students.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative research relied upon 16 in-depth one-to-one interview sessions with 16 lecturers teaching the taught Master programs at a higher education (HE) institution in Malaysia for data collection. Data collected were coded and categorized according to themes via qualitative analysis software, NVivo.
Findings
It was found that academic English language-related challenges in listening and speaking from the viewpoint of the 16 lecturers are such as lack of discipline content knowledge to communicate, lack of confidence in communicating orally, difficulty in understanding lectures and other oral activities in the classroom, and coping with differences in learning culture.
Research limitations/implications
This study suggests policies and programs to equip lecturers and university administrators to overcome the challenges faced by the students in their academic English language practices especially in listening and speaking to ensure meaningful academic adaptation in the current context.
Originality/value
The uniqueness of this study is that it is a retrospection of the lecturers teaching EFL and English as a second language (ESL) international Master students in taught Master programs in a Southeast Asian country. The focus of the retrospection is on academic English language-related challenges in listening and speaking faced by EFL international Master students who are currently pursuing their Master education at a HE institution in Malaysia.
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