Understanding Communication Apprehension

This study investigated whether or not the respondents in the study experience communication apprehension (CA) in public speaking. The set up of the research design is the respondents will deliver a public speech in front of an audience and their speech will be videotaped. Their videotaped speech will then be analyzed by a rater who will give a score based on a set of criteria prepared for public speaking. The criteria for public speaking are modeled after McCroskey's (1977) PRCA construct for public speaking categor17. They are: I'm afraid to speak up in conversations. I have no fear of giving a speech. Certain parts of my body feel very tense and rigid while giving a speech. I feel relaxed while giving a speech. My thoughts become confused and jumbled when I am giving a speech. I face the prospect of giving a speech with confidence While giving a speech, I get nervous that I forget facts I really know. For this study. the categories are further developed by the researcher for the rater to use in order to give a score for each presentation. If the respondents obtain 15 marks and above, it indicates that the respondents do not experience CA. Twenty first-year Bachelor of Fiqh and Fatwa students of USIM participated in the study. The topics given to the respondents were sports, tourist spot in Malaysia, space exploration, water treatment and the disabled in Malaysia.The following are the research questions for the study: (1) How many respondents experience CA public speaking? (2) Which categories of public speaking cause the most apprehension among the respondents? From the results, it was found that only two respondents experienced CA in public speaking, It was also found that reading from the text, lacking eye contact, not providing aims of the talk, not providing summary, not providing examples for the talk, not providing overall structure of the talk, displaying distracting mannerisms and not inviting questions were all signs of respondents displaying elements of CA.