Playing with improv theatre to battle public speaking anxiety
Submitted by:
Jordi Casteleyn
Abstract:
In psychology studies, public speaking anxiety (PSA) is widely recognized as a distinct subtype of social phobia (Blöte et al, 2009), but L1 education and research seem to largely ignore this trait when referring to public speaking, although giving a presentation is a common sight in education. Psychology studies also show that cognitive modification, systematic desensitization and skills training are all successful treatments of PSA. This study aims at lowering the fear of public speaking and increasing the quality of public speaking via an innovative intervention program, which combines all three aforementioned treatments into a well-defined learning environment. In this respect we were inspired by the research design in the study on the teaching of charisma by Antonakis et al. (2011).
Method
In a mixed-design intervention study we assessed the impact of our program with a control group with a pre- and posttest of the personal report of confidence as a speaker (Hook et al., 2008) and videos of a 1-minute public speaking exercise. As a result, we adopted the principles of improv(isational) theatre training, and introduced them into a L1 secondary education classroom in Flanders (Belgium). For four weeks, the L1 course teacher gave a 50-minute session to a group of 18 students (average age=17 years), whereas a similar group followed a business a usual routine. A typical improv(isational) session focused on boosting creativity, learning how to take risks, and speaking without preparation in front of an audience. In short, one class group experienced the improv(isational) intervention, while the other class group attended standard lessons. Comparative judgement (Lesterhuis et al., 2017) by 8 well-experienced higher education lecturers and 5 trainee teachers determined the quality of the public speaking exercises (no misfit judges, Cronbach’s alfa = 0.80).
Results
There is no impact on the self-reported fear of public speaking and the quality of the speaking competence as measured by the speaking exercise. However, the fear of public speaking explains 22% of the variation in the quality of speaking for both groups at the first test moment. Moreover, the speaking competence of the business as usual group at test moment 1 explains 72% of the variation of this competence of this group at test moment 2, but this result cannot be retrieved for the experimental condition. Does this outcome hint at a possibly more long-term impact of the intervention, which cannot be immediately detected? Does training in improv skills disturb the status quo of education in speaking? Furthermore, qualitative analysis of the feedback produced by the comparative judgment showed a predominance of comments focussing on body language, fluency, and use of voice, although the intervention program does not explicitly refer to this. To incorporate these topics, a second study will be organized in February 2018. In collaboration with the first-year university courses ‘Proficiency: English and Dutch’ (University of Antwerp), we will now focus on undergraduate students. This paper will also discuss the preliminary results of this second study.
References
Antonakis, J., Fenley, M., & Liechti, S. (2011). Can charisma be taught? Tests of two interventions. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 10(3), 374-396.
Blöte, A.W., Kint, M.J., Miers, A.C., & Westenberg, P.M. (2009). The relation between public speaking anxiety and social anxiety: A review. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23, 305-313 .
Hook, J.N., Smith, C.A.,& Valentiner, D.P. (2008). A short-form of the personal report of confidence as a speaker. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 1306-1313.
Lesterhuis, M., Verhavert, S., Coertjens, L., Donche, V., & De Maeyer, S. (2017). “Comparative Judgement as a Promising Alternative to Score Competences”. In: Cano, E. & Ion, G. (2017). Innovative Practices for Higher Education Assessment and Measurement. Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Global. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0531-0.ch007