Evolution of speech anxiety in university students. Change predictors throughout the academic year

Speech anxiety is one of the most common problems among university students. The relevance of this fear is that it considerably affects the students participation in class and therefore their learning. This work analyses the evolution of a sample of 427 Teaching and Social Work students from the University of Zaragoza throughout the academic year with the use of a Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker. The results show that students reduce their fear when faced with this situation and that variables such as level of previous speech anxiety, type of studies, small working groups with tasks that require a presentation, the organisation of classes as well as the teacher s behaviour, are all related with change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)