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Understanding Glossophobia and Anxiety

This document reviews literature related to glossophobia, which is the fear of public speaking. It affects approximately 75% of the population and is one of the most common fears. The research aims to investigate whether females experience higher levels of anxiety than males when speaking publicly, if students are more anxious speaking in front of the opposite gender, and if psycho-physiological strategies can help reduce public speaking fear in students. Anxiety is defined as a state of apprehension or vague fear that can arise from threatening situations according to an individual's perspective. It exists at both a global trait level for some individuals as well as a local, situational level in response to specific acts like giving a speech.

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Syra Mea Castillo
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12 views1 page

Understanding Glossophobia and Anxiety

This document reviews literature related to glossophobia, which is the fear of public speaking. It affects approximately 75% of the population and is one of the most common fears. The research aims to investigate whether females experience higher levels of anxiety than males when speaking publicly, if students are more anxious speaking in front of the opposite gender, and if psycho-physiological strategies can help reduce public speaking fear in students. Anxiety is defined as a state of apprehension or vague fear that can arise from threatening situations according to an individual's perspective. It exists at both a global trait level for some individuals as well as a local, situational level in response to specific acts like giving a speech.

Uploaded by

Syra Mea Castillo
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Chapter II

Review of Related Literature


Glossophobia is the fear of public speaking (Hancock et al., 2010) and comes from the Greek glōssa, meaning tongue,
and phobos, fear or dread. It is one of the most prevalent world fears, affecting approximately 75% of the population.
Statistically, more people claim a fear of public speaking than a fear of death (Glossophobia, 2001). Fear of public
speaking affects the speaker physiologically, for instance, dry mouth, increased blood pressure, blushing, sweating,
irregular.

Individuals who have fear speaking publically suffer from strong fear in social performance situations and
social sphere. This research aims to investigate (a) if the level of anxiety is higher in females then males while
speaking publically. (b) if students tend to be more anxious while speaking in-front of opposite gender (c) if
there is an association between reduction in public speaking fear in students and adaptation of effective
psycho-physiological strategies for language learning.
Anxiety is a physiological response and generally defined as "a state of apprehension, a vague fear" (Scovel, 1978, p.
134). It seems difficult to describe in a simple and exhaustive manner, as it arises from many kinds of sources often
associated with particular contexts or situations that individuals perceive threatening according to their unique frame of
reference (Eharman, 1996). Previous anxiety research suggests that there are roughly two types that can be experienced
at different psychological levels (Spielberger, 1983; Levitt, 1980; Schwarzer, 1986).

At a global level, anxiety is viewed as a permanent trait, as some people are predisposed to be anxious. At a more local
or situational level, anxiety can be experienced in response to a particular situation or act (Brown, 1994), for instance, in
giving a speech. However, the question of how these constructs relate to second language learning contexts is still under
debate, although several interpretations of language anxiety are offered in terms of situational nature of anxiety
(MacIntyre and Gardner, 1991a).

According to Tobias (1979, 1980,1986), anxiety may work as a mental block to cognitive performance at all three
cognitive stages: Input, Processing, and Output. In other words, anxiety arousal, which is typically associated with self-
deprecating thoughts, fear of failure, or worry over performance procedures, may compete for cognitive resources that
normal cognitive processing will demand.

Social phobia is a common and debilitating disorder marked by intensively negative self-perceptions regarding social
performance) (Moscovitch & Hofmann, 2006). Furthermore, a striking aspect of social phobia is the persistence of self-
doubt about social performance, despite repeated exposures to social situations that do not go badly (Wells et al.,
1995).

According to Pappamihiel (2002: 330), “anxiety is a complex concept, dependent upon not only one’s feelings of self-
efficacy but also appraisals concerning the potential and perceived threats inherent in certain situations”. People who
experience anxiety often have low self-esteem and even low confidence level. Thus, several different types of anxiety
have been categorised by psychologists (Cattell & Schier, 1963 in MacIntyre, 1999). They are “trait anxiety”, “state
anxiety” and “situation-specific anxiety”.

Anxiety is defined as a state of uneasiness and apprehension or fear caused by the anticipation of something
threatening.10 For anxiety concerning English speaking, in their research, Yaikhong-Usaha affirmed that the
communication anxiety of the Basic Signal Officers in the English classroom at the Signal School was caused by the
inadequate chance for students to contribute in classroom communication, lack of confidence when communicating
English in the classroom, and also by affective factors like interpersonal evaluation, classroom activities and methods, as
well as selfesteem.

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