Communication Apprehension in L1 and L2 of Engineering Students in a Unique Program in Thailand

Abstract

As in any other subjects at university, students in English classes must engage in face-to-face communication with teachers, friends, university staff members and many others in order to acquire knowledge and information, as well as to help them reach their goal of educational success. However, according to McCroskey (1977), high levels of communication apprehension (CA) may prevent students from achieving their goals or make it more difficult. In this study, CA of first-year students was investigated by distributing the PRCA-24 (McCroskey, 1977) to 90 students in a special engineering program in a leading public university in Thailand. Moreover, t-tests were applied to compare the CA levels when students use Thai to their CA levels when they use the English language. The results reveal that CA in L1 was higher than CA in L2 when the students anticipated or imagined that they had to communicate in a meeting.