A Quantitative Study on Fear of Public Speaking Among Selected Grade-12 Students in

ACLC College of Ormoc

A Research Proposal

Presented to the Faculty of the

ACLC COLLEGE OF ORMOC

Ormoc City, Philippines

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for

Practical Research 2

By

APUYA, REYMARK.

ASMA, JASHTIN L.

BATE, ANGELO M.

CASUNGGAY, NASH T.

HERMOSO, JOHN ROY S.

December, 2022
 Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

Most people are not born public speakers; they are trained to become one. When they

find themselves in situations where they become the focus of attention as they have to address an

audience, they experience emotions like fear and anxiety, leading to nausea and excessive

sweating. Most of them try to avoid situations where they have to perform or speak in public, but

when unavoidable, such situations are endured by distress. According to Lucas (2011), “Many

people who converse easily in all kinds of everyday situations become frightened at the idea of

standing up before a group to make a speech” (p.9). Such people need to realize that they are not

the only ones who may be going through these emotions; in fact, almost every speaker feels the

same. It is important that people consciously realize the fact that there are more nervous speakers

in the world than those who are not.

Anxiety is an entirely normal, reflexive, and useful response when we face a difficult or

dangerous situation. It’s what makes us highly alert and reactive to threats. When it comes to

public speaking, too much can be debilitating, while the right amount can be useful. The first

step in reducing and managing fear is to discover why you are afraid. Everyone develops,

experiences, and manifests fear differently. Overcoming fear of public speaking is largely an

individual approach. Fear of public speaking can develop from how you think about yourself,

your material, the speaking situation you are in, or your audience – or any combination of

factors. Perhaps you have some underlying predispositions that make you more susceptible to

anxiety. Maybe fear has set in because of a well-intentioned, but ultimately harmful critique that

made you doubt your authentic self.

some fear of public speaking. It’s not necessarily everyone’s top fear — nor is it more feared

than death – but it is the most common fear. For some people, their public speaking anxiety may

be associated with a broader social anxiety disorder. Some researchers believe that type of

speaking anxiety is prevalent in 15 to 30 percent of the general population. One survey of nearly

500 respondents in Canada found that a third of the respondents reported excessive anxiety when

speaking before a large audience. Among their top worries was “saying something

embarrassing,” forgetting what they wanted to say, and struggling to speak. The majority of

those who expressed fear said their anxiety around audiences began before the age of 20.

Fear of public speaking can prevent you from taking risks to share your ideas, to speak

about your work, and to present your solutions to problems that affect many people—and as a

result, it can affect how much you grow personally and professionally, and how much impact

you can have. The findings of this study may be useful in helping those who have fear of public

speaking to evaluate their fear and learn how to manage or cope with it in the hopes that it would

eventually no longer be an impediment to them.

In order to have a more thorough understanding of this particular issue, the researchers

have decided to probe into this subject, specifically in the perspective of students, to learn more

about what evokes it in them and how it affects them as well. The researchers intend to acquire

data to be used in the study through means of conducting surveys among selected grade-12

students in ACLC College of Ormoc.

Public speaking is a common activity for people. Lucas (2009) explains that public

speaking, as its name implies, is a way of making your ideas public—of sharing them with other

people and of influencing other people. Most people have done public speaking. Public speaking

itself is an activity that requires people to speak in front of the public in order to deliver the main

ideas of their speech.

The ability to effectively speak in front of an audience is one of the most important

abilities to have in the modern world. It will help a person grow in areas like academics and their

profession. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that public speaking anxiety, or

glossophobia, affects about 73% of the population. The underlying fear is judgment or negative

evaluation by others. Public speaking anxiety is considered a social anxiety disorder.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to determine the factors that contribute to fear of public speaking.

It specifically seeks to answer the following questions:

1. How frequently do the selected grade-12 Students from ACLC College of Ormoc encounter

public speaking?

2. What is the percentage of the selected grade-12 Students in ACLC College of Ormoc that

have fear of public speaking?

3. What are the top three factors that contribute in the fear of public speaking of the selected

grade-12 Students from ACLC College of Ormoc?

grade-12 Students from ACLC College of Ormoc?

5. What are the three most effective ways in which the selected grade-12 Students from ACLC

College of Ormoc cope with fear of public speaking?

Theoretical Framework

Speaking is one of the most important aspects of language learning that students should

master. It is necessary to express what the speaker intends to say as effectively as possible in

order to convey the message to the listeners; however, if someone intends to say something, they

should be aware of how to construct the meaning in order to obtain an understanding from the

listener and to avoid misunderstanding between the speaker and the listener. In a brief, speaking

is the ability to apply linguistic knowledge in actual oral communication.

There are several definitions of speaking. According to Matthew (1994, p. 45) says

speaking is any process in which people share information, ideas and feeling. It involves all of

body language mannerism and styles anything that adds meaning to a message. In other words,

the result, the listener can receive and understand what the speaker means. In line with Harmer

(2001, p.37) states speaking happens when two people are engaged in talking to each other. In

addition, Cameron (2001, p. 40) states that speaking is the active use of language to express

meanings so that other people can make sense of them. A speaker needs to find the most

appropriate words and the correct grammar to convey meaning accurately and precisely, and

needs to organize the discourse so that the listener will understand. Here, they are conducting
speaking for more proper reasons, such as information sharing, asking or giving something, and

other communication purpose.

Luoma (2004, p. 2) define speaking as interactive process of constructing meaning that

involves producing, receiving and process information. Its form and meaning are dependent on

the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, the physical environment,

and the purposes for speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving.

In summary, speaking is a productive language skill in which the activity includes two or

more people having interaction in order to deliver or get message through the use of verbal and

non-verbal languages. Furthermore, a speaker needs to use the most appropriate words and the

correct grammar to convey meaning accurately and precisely, and needs to organize the

discourse so that the listeners will understand.

In speaking anxiety, speaking may affect the learners negatively which make them

nervous to speak in the target language. According to Basic (2011, p. 4) states, speaking anxiety

creates a low self-confidence which makes students remain quiet in all situations, even if they

have capacity to express themselves and knowledge that is worth hearing. It means students with

speaking anxiety experience failure he or she will rather remain quiet than take the risk of failing

again. It is frequently suggested that children who have not been encourage to speak from an

early stage also contributes to limited opportunities to practice oral skills.

continue to be quite throughout their years in school. Students who have speaking anxiety are

often very calm and passive. They believe that only correct English must be spoken and

comparing their skills with native speakers of the target language. They fear that their

pronunciation is not good enough. The lack of opportunity to participate in classroom activities

also contributes to less learning even if they are no less intelligent than other students in class.

This situation also contributes to the quiet students being seen as less intelligent since they rarely

demonstrate their knowledge. Horwitz et.al (1986, p. 125) states that speaking anxiety refers to

the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, and worry adjoined with autonomic nervous

system. Students who are overly concerned about their speaking may become so anxious when

they make errors.

Furthermore, Horwitz, et.al (1986, p. 127) studied three types of speaking anxiety which

are communication apprehension (the fear of communicating with other people), fear of negative

evaluation (worry about how others view the speaker), and test anxiety (fear of exams, quizzes,

and other assignments used to evaluate students’ performance). Communication apprehension is

a type of shyness which characterize by fear of or anxiety that occurs when somebody

communicates with others. Then, fear of negative evaluation is avoidance of evaluative situation

and expectation that others will evaluate them negatively. In test anxiety, students are covering

by fear of failure in a test while do speaking performance.

So, based on the explanations of the experts above, the writer believes that speaking

anxiety is the difficulty of speaking in a group or in pairs. Students with speaking anxiety remain
silent in all situations, even if they have the ability to express themselves and knowledge that is

worth hearing. It is characterized by communication anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, and

nervousness.

Conceptual Framework

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework

Based on Figure 1, the following are the independent variables in the study: the factors

that contribute to fear of public speaking, namely fear of humiliation or rejection, worry of poor

preparation, concern for one’s physical appearance, regard for rigid rules or standards, one’s own
personality trait, pressure of keeping the audience’s interest, nervousness caused by lack of

experience, fear of making mistakes, and fear of receiving negative results; and the ways on how

to cope with it, such preparing one’s self prior to the presentation of one’s speech, familiarizing

one’s self with the topic, understanding the contents of one’s speech, practicing the speech

several times, taking one’s time while presenting the speech, and engaging the audience.

Meanwhile, the dependent variable is the fear of public speaking among the students.

Assumptions of the Study

The research study is predicated on the idea that respondents will be truthful in answering

the questionnaires and that the data acquired by the researchers will be accurate and dependable

for correlation. Furthermore, the research study is thought to be timely relevant to the

respondents, resulting in an outcome offering a basis of knowledge to the question.

Specific predictions were as follows: To the degree that social anxiety falls in the middle

of the fear-distress continuum, positive correlations would be found between social anxiety and

both trait fearfulness (measured here as Sensitivity to Punishment) and depression measures.

However, public speaking fear would be specifically associated with fearfulness. This would be

further verified by the association between public speaking fear and other “fearful” anxiety

symptoms, and between social anxiety with both “distress” and “fearful” symptoms.

The study is conducted based on the following assumptions:

questionnaires.

2. The researchers assumed that this study will help future researchers in obtaining reference

and relevant knowledge.

3. That the students who do public speaking experience difficulties and nervousness for

various reasons.

4. The researchers assumed that by conducting this study, we would better know the reasons

for nervousness in public speaking and we would know better what should be done to cope

up with it.

Scope and Delimitations

In this research project, the main objective was for the researchers to discover

quantitative knowledge about the respondents' fear of public speaking. The researchers gathered

data by means of conducting a survey about the topic among the students. This study was

conducted within the ACLC College of Ormoc premises during the month of December this

year.

Limitations of the Study

The current study has limitations that should be considered when evaluating the results.

Students from the ACLC College of Ormoc were chosen for this study. The researcher focuses

on the internal elements that contribute to public speaking anxiety because these factors may be
controlled and managed by individuals. The study looks at approaches for overcoming public

speaking fear in order to identify relevant speaking strategies.

Surveys that are distributed with time constraints were noted by Delva, Kirby, Knapper,

and Birtwhistle (2002) as problematic in that people who struggle with real- or perceived-time

constraints are less likely to respond to surveys because these possible respondents feel

overworked, they just do not have the time to complete the survey. Surveys often also suffer the

limitation of forcing respondents into particular response categories, thereby limiting the range

of responses. Unlike an interview, where respondents can ask clarifying questions, respondents

are usually limited to the text in the survey itself for direction about how to complete it and

where to respond.

Although the research met its objectives, there were some inherent limits. First, because

to time constraints, this study was limited to a small population size. As a result, in order to

generalize the findings, the study should have included more individuals at various levels for

larger groups. Second, the students' projects and activities are inconvenient because, to some

extent, they would alter the link between the students' motivation in learning to write English and

their writing performance because they were compelled to participate in many studies at the

same time. Finally, the speed of the network and the unavailability of research equipment can

interfere with and prevent students from participating in peer feedback activities.

Significance of the Study

The results accumulated from this study can be beneficial to the following:
 To Society. The results of this study can help the society in raising awareness about

people who have fear of public speaking. Through this, those certain people who harbor this

particular fear will be able to gain more knowledge on how to conquer it.

To Teachers. The findings of this study will help faculty members at the ACLC College

of Ormoc handle difficult situations, and they may also help students who are afraid of public

speaking. 

To Students. The results from this study would be of significant help to the students in

the ACLC College of Ormoc in conquering their fear of speaking in public. Knowing what they

will do lessen it and be able to gain knowledge from it.

To Researchers. This study will provide the researchers with more insight into the areas

surrounding public speaking anxiety, which they too feel occasionally. They will be able to

obtain a better understanding of what may cause it as well as determine which methods of coping

are most beneficial.

To Future Researchers. This study can be used as a reference for individuals interested

in researching the same subject. They may also discover a connection between the data or

outcomes in this study and the material mentioned in their own research project and include this

in their associated publications.

Definition of Terms

 Public Speaking.
 Conceptually, it is an oral presentation in which a speaker addresses an audience (Richard

Nordquist, 2018). Public speaking is expressing your ideas and knowledge to public and

delivering your speech in front of people.

 Public Speaking Anxiety.

Conceptually, it is the fear experienced by a person when delivering (or preparing to

deliver) a speech to an audience (Richard Nordquist, 2018). In this study, it is the main issue that

the researchers would like to conduct a study on.

 Audience.

Conceptually, it refers to the listeners or spectators at a speech or performance, or the

intended readership for a piece of writing (Richard Nordquist, 2018). The listeners and students

of the speaker comprise the audience. They are also known as the judgementals because they

sometimes criticize a speaker.

 Coping.

Conceptually, it means constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage

specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing (Susan Folkman & Richard

Lazarus, 1984). In this study, the researchers identified the many ways in which the selected

respondents cope with their fear of public speaking.

Conceptually, it is a sensible reaction to a potentially scary situation (Laura Nott,2012).

In this study, the researchers discovered that nervousness plays a minor role in evoking the fear

of public speaking.
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