The effect of public speaking training on students’ speaking anxiety and skill

Abstract

Regardless its importance, speaking always becomes a demanding task to teach. It is a complex skill since it requires not only the language ability, but also related to psychological conditions, such as confidence, especially when it comes to public speaking. This paper elaborates what happened in the public speaking training classes conducted by Language Development and Service Centers at University of Muhammadiyah Banjaramasin. This research employs pre-experimental research design to measure the effect of the training on students’ speaking anxiety and skill. It invites 40 students from the writers’ classes to join the research. A Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) questionnaire and speaking test are two main instruments to collect the data. In addition, result observation also becomes additional data collection to enrich the findings. Finally, this research is expected to give a valid statistical data support as well as ideas for teachers who are interested in planning a public speaking training for their students.