Anxiety in English Public Speaking Classes

Abstract

English public speaking courses have long been offered to Thai EFL undergraduates; however, student anxiety is still a problem in these courses. This research aimed to investigate the level of anxiety at different stages of public speaking, which were pre-preparation, preparation, pre-performance and performance, among Thai EFL undergraduate students in English public speaking classes. The participants in this study were 208 undergraduate students from both private and governmental universities who completed a questionnaire. It was found that most students had different levels of anxiety in English public speaking courses. Nevertheless, the study results revealed that the highest level of anxiety was found in the performance stage of public speaking.