FINDING AND DISCUSSION
1. Respondents’ level of speech anxiety
Chart 1: the feeling of 2nd BE–NEU students when speaking in public.
In the survey, 65 students were asked; “How do you feel when speaking in public?”.
Their answer can represent their level of speaking anxiety: “confident”– low level; “a bit
nervousness before the speech” – moderately low level; “feeling nervous throughout the
speech, but still can manage” – moderate level; “Feeling nervous throughout the speech,
hard to manage” – moderately high level; “panic, cannot start a speech” – high level.
According to the chart, almost half of the students (46.2%) felt nervous while
speaking in public, even though they still could manage, and approximately one third
(27.7%) had a bit nervousness before speaking. Quite similar to the second group, a little
more than 20% (23.1%) respondents had a moderately high level of speech anxiety.
Only one respondent felt panic and couldn’t even start the speech. Panic is another
level of public speaking anxiety. Public speakers tend to have panic when they are too
nervous. Csoti (2003) indicates panic may come when someone is anxious and he or she
46.2%
27.7%
23.1%
1.5% 1.5%
Confident
A bit nervousness before the
speech
Feeling nervous throughout the
speech, but still can manage
Feeling nervous throughout the
speech, hard to manage
Panic, can’t start a speech
cannot escape it or in situations where help is not immediately available. Previous
psychological researchhas linked panic attacks with physiological hyperarousal and
anxiety sensitivity(Barlow, Brown, & Caske, 1994; Longley, Watson, Noyes, & Yoder,
2005; Reiss,Peterson, Gurskey, & McNally, 1986).
The rest were students who found themselves confident in public speaking. Angelis
(2003) argued that confidence is a belief in one’s soul that any life challenge must be
faced with doing something. Confidence is an attitude or feeling of confidence that a
person has to his own abilities, so that he will not be affected by others (Lauster, 2006).
Students who have confidence in speaking in public are students who know that they
have good skills in how to express their opinions in a straightforward manner and with
good sentences. With the existence of confidence in the ability to speak, he is able to
speak in public well. According to Grapsy (2011), effective public speaking is not
implying about learning what to say, but about developing the confidence to say it.
Thus, the majority of them were found to be unconfident or afraid of speaking in
