Influencing anxiety in English oral presentation through technology among the undergraduates

Abstract

Speaking in English often causes anxiety among the students whose mother tongue is not English. This study investigated the use of technology to support the undergraduates in their English oral presentation. The design was a mixed method research and the participants were two groups of students from two different options in an institute of teacher education in Malaysia. One group was from Design and Technology or Reka Bentuk dan Teknologi (RBT) which consisted of 14 Malay-speaking students and another group was from Remedial Education or Pendidikan Pemulihan (PP) which consisted of 23 Chinese-speaking students. The instruments used were pre- and post-speaking anxiety surveys and interviews. The results of the quantitative data showed that the students had less anxiety level after their oral presentation. During the interview, the participants informed that they preferred the use of technology tool such as PowerPoint together with other strategies to aid them in oral presentation so as to reduce their anxiety when speaking in English. This study provides implications for future teacher education to integrate technology in the English speaking courses.