skip to main content

Glossophobia: A Cross-Sectional Assessment of Public Speaking Anxiety among Saudi Nursing Students

Deena Faisal Rayani  -  Faculty of Nursing, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
AlBatool Mohammed Bin Sallman  -  Faculty of Nursing, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
Reem Mohammed Barayan  -  Faculty of Nursing, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
Raghad Ahmed Maghrabi  -  Faculty of Nursing, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
Nahed Mohamed Morsy  -  Department of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, King Abdulaziz University, Egypt
Hala Ahmed Elsayes  -  Department of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, King Abdulaziz University, Egypt
*Alaa Nabil Mahsoon orcid scopus  -  Department of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
Loujain Saud Sharif  -  Department of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
Open Access Copyright (c) 2023 Nurse Media Journal of Nursing
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Citation Format:
Abstract

Background: Public speaking anxiety or glossophobia is common among college students, especially those studying in their non-primary language. Effective public speaking is considered an essential skill for nursing students to grasp as their future roles require it as patient advocates. Little is known about the effects of glossophobia amongst Arab students studying nursing in a second language (English).

Purpose: This study aimed to examine glossophobia and its association with English oral presentations among Saudi nursing students in three academic levels.

Methods: A correlational comparative study with a cross-sectional approach was conducted on a total of 209 baccalaureate level nursing students at a governmental, Saudi university. Convenience sampling was used with a comparison between three levels of student cohorts (second, third and fourth) of a single academic year. The data were collected using an online self-reported questionnaire consisting of three sections: a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), and the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, a one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation tests.

Results: Nursing students had moderate anxiety on the FLCAS and PRPSA scales in all three academic years. There was a significant, moderate, and positive relationship between the two scales (r=0.450, p<0.01).

Conclusions: Glossophobia among nursing students needs to be addressed. This study highlights a gap in current training where there is insufficient support, meaning that levels of anxiety remains unchanged across the trajectory of a nursing training program. Future research should explore culturally tailored strategies to decrease nursing students’ anxiety while building their confidence and self-esteem.

Fulltext View|Download
Keywords: Glossophobia; nursing students; oral presentation; public speaking; speaking anxiety

Article Metrics:

  1. Al-Dossary R. N. (2018). The Saudi Arabian 2030 vision and the nursing profession: the way forward. International Nursing Review, 65(4), 484–490. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12458
  2. Al-Hnifat, M. A., Ab Rashid, R., & Al-Smadi, O. A. (2020). Causes of speaking anxiety among Saudi students: Learners’ problematic attitudes and beliefs. Journal of Qualitative Social Sciences, 2(1), 12–21
  3. Aliyu, M. M., Korau, S. M., & Basiru, A. (2019). Reducing undergraduates speaking anxiety through class interactions and oral presentations. Asian Journal of Contemporary Education, 3(1), 36-43
  4. Aljohani, W., Banakhar, M., Sharif, L., Alsaggaf, F., Felemban, O., & Wright, R. (2021). Sources of stress among Saudi Arabian nursing students: A cross-sectional study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(22), 11958. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182211958
  5. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
  6. Ansari, M. S. (2015). Speaking anxiety in ESL/EFL classrooms: A holistic approach and practical study. International Journal of Education Investigation, 2(4), 38–46
  7. Byram, M., & Wagner, M. (2018). Making a difference: Language teaching for intercultural and international dialogue. Foreign Language Annals, 51(1), 140-151. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12319
  8. Caputo, A. (2017). Social desirability bias in self-reported well-being measures: Evidence from an online survey. Universitas Psychologica, 16(2), 245-255. https://doi.org/10.11144/javeriana.upsy16-2.sdsw
  9. Chou, M. H. (2018). Speaking anxiety and strategy use for learning English as a foreign language in full and partial English‐medium instruction contexts. Tesol Quarterly, 52(3), 611-633. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.455
  10. Dellah, N. F., Zabidin, N., Nordin, N. A., Amanah, F. H., & Atan, M. A. (2020). Glossophobia: Evaluating university students' speaking anxiety in English oral presentations. Jurnal Ilmi, 10(1), 116–126. http://www.unimel.edu.my/journal/index.php/JILMI/article/view/792
  11. Dewaele, J. M., & Alfawzan, M. (2018). Does the effect of enjoyment outweigh that of anxiety in foreign language performance?. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 8(1), 21-45. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2018.8.1.2
  12. Dewaele, J. M., Witney, J., Saito, K., & Dewaele, L. (2018). Foreign language enjoyment and anxiety: The effect of teacher and learner variables. Language Teaching Research, 22(6), 676-697. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168817692161
  13. Dincer, B., Özçelik, S. K., Özer, Z., & Bahcecik, N. (2022). Breathing therapy and emotional freedom techniques on public speaking anxiety in Turkish nursing students: A randomized controlled study. Explore, 18(2), 226-233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2020.11.006
  14. El-Nagar, S. A., Alam, F. H., & Atia, M. M. (2022). Efficiency of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing intervention technique on public speaking anxiety and self-esteem among undergraduate nursing student. Journal of Positive School Psychology, 6(8), 3839-3865. https://journalppw.com/index.php/jpsp/article/view/10517
  15. Gaibani, A., & Elmenfi, F. (2016). Age as an affective factor in influencing public speaking anxiety of English language learners at Omar Al-Mukhtar University. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 7(2), 179-182. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.7n.2p.179
  16. Horwitz, E. K. (1986). Preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of a foreign language anxiety scale. TESOL Quarterly, 20, 559–562. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3586302
  17. Ibrahim, N., Anuar, N. A. K., Mokhtar, M. I., Zakaria, N., Jasman, N. H., & Rasdi, N. N. (2022). Exploring fear of public speaking through social cognitive theory. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(1), 135–154. http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v12-i1/11320
  18. Jiang, Y., & Dewaele, J. M. (2019). How unique is the foreign language classroom enjoyment and anxiety of Chinese EFL learners?. System, 82, 13-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2019.02.017
  19. Khan, F., Ismail, S., Shafique, M. S., Ghous, K., & Ali, S. A. (2015). Glossophobia among undergraduate students of government medical colleges in Karachi. International Journal of Research, 2(1), 109–115. https://journals.pen2print.org/index.php/ijr/article/view/1297
  20. Lin, S. S. P., Yeo, J. Y., & Lau, K. Y. L. (2020). English language speaking anxiety among students from two public universities in Sarawak. International Journal of Service Management and Sustainability, 5, 107–122. http://www.ijsmssarawak.com/ijsms_vol_5_1/6.pdf
  21. Logue, N. C. (2017). Evaluating practice-based learning. Journal of Nursing Education, 56(3), 131-138. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20170222-03
  22. McCroskey, J. C. (2013). Personal report of public speaking anxiety (PRPSA). Measurement instrument database for the social science. https://www.midss.org/sites/default/files/prpsa.pdf
  23. Miskam, N. N., & Saidalvi, A. (2019). Investigating English language speaking anxiety among Malaysian undergraduate learners. Asian Social Science, 15(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v15n1p1
  24. Nemati, F., Roohani, A., & Mirzaei, A. (2020). Investigating foreign language enjoyment and public speaking class anxiety in the EFL class: A mixed methods study. Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly, 39(1), 115-152. https://doi.org/10.22099/jtls.2020.37330.2835
  25. Perveen, K., Hasan, Y., & Aleemi, A. R. (2018). Glossophobia: The fear of public speaking in female and male students of University of Karachi. Pakistan Jounral of Gender Studies, 16, 57–70. https://doi.org/10.46568/pjgs.v16i1.115
  26. Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2021). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice. Wolters Kluwer
  27. Raosoft, Inc. (2004) RaoSoft® sample size calculator. http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html [Accessed May 5, 2021]
  28. Sadighi, F., & Dastpak, M. (2017). The sources of foreign language speaking anxiety of Iranian English language learners. International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 5(4), 111-115. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.5n.4p.111
  29. Teimouri, Y., Goetze, J., & Plonsky, L. (2019). Second language anxiety and achievement: A meta-analysis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 41(2), 363-387. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263118000311
  30. Zhang, X. (2019). Foreign language anxiety and foreign language performance: A meta analysis. The Modern Language Journal, 103(4), 763-781. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12590

Last update:

No citation recorded.

Last update: 2024-12-15 03:10:13

No citation recorded.