Helping students to cope with their communication apprehension / Francis Xavier A.S. Rajoo and Wan Zulkipli Wan Salleh

One of the fundamental skills required of students when they are in transition
to the professional world is proficiency in English language communication.
However, many students have yet to reach a reasonable level of
competence in their communicative skills. It is not surprising to find
students who still find it difficult to express themselves fluently even at
tertiary level. Their weaknesses are often coupled with feelings of fear and
anxiety that intensify when these students are engaged in conversations
with people from different cultures. Such fear and anxiety is termed communication
apprehension and it can be measured. One way to help students
to cope with their shortcomings is to encourage them to make selfassessments
of their communication apprehension. In this limited study, a
self-report inventory, the ‘Personal Report of Intercultural Communication
Apprehension’ questionnaire was administered to selected undergraduate
students at a private institution of higher learning in order to identify their
communication apprehension level. The data collected was analyzed using
descriptive statistics. Factor analysis was used to determine the dominant
comment(s) pertaining to communication with respect to communication
apprehension level, namely low, moderate and high. This self-report inventory
could act as a useful guide for the students to develop coping mechanisms
to overcome their fear and anxiety.