Investigating anxiety related problems in oral presentation among engineering student

Abstract

Oral presentation is now becoming a crucial assessment especially at tertiary level, however most of the students could not perform well due to the anxiety level that they have. Therefore, this investigation aims to look at anxiety-related problems among engineering students in doing the oral presentations. In discussing this, this research looked at the factors that enhance the anxiety problems and the symptoms shown. Students own perception was taken into account when discussing the findingsin addition to perceptions revealed by five engineering lecturers to give a clearer picture of the issue. There were 125 students of engineering from three different faculties in UTHM Johor who participated in the survey. Alongside completing a questionnaire, qualitative approaches using observation and interviews instruments were done over fifteen selected students. In order to see the clear evidence of anxiety occurrences, the two observations which were done manage to record a general description of students performed the oral presentation with the existence of anxiety. The interviews were conducted in order to support their findings. The findings revealed that anxiety does exist among engineering students in UTHM Johor. Several factors were identified and highlighted. Among the factors include the types of presentation done, the language and individual nature problem in addition to lack or last minute preparation. The symptoms under a few categories- bodily reactions, expressive reactions and emotional reactions were discussed and related examples of reactions were then identified. The implications of the study were discussed to give these engineering educators some suggestions of ways to tackle the problem. Future research is hoped to implement the suggestions, thus filling the gap that the previous research and the similar kinds have identified.