Communication Apprehendion

ERIC Identifier: ED284315
Publication Date: 1987-00-00
Author: Holbrook, Hilary Taylor
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills Urbana IL.
Communication Apprehension: The Quiet Student in Your Classroom. ERIC Digest.
Communication apprehension is far more than the first stage fright frequently found in speech classrooms, school assemblies, and drama productions. It is apattern of anxiety, established often in the elementary grades, which can profoundly affect much or all of a student's oral communication, social skills, and self-esteem. This digest examines some causes and consequences of communication apprehension and ways in which it can be diminished.
WHAT IS COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION?
Communication apprehension (CA) has been defined as an "individuallevel of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons" (McCroskey, 1977). This anxiety is a significant problem at the elementary school level. Research reveals that at least 11 percent of the elementary students experience severe CA, and an additional 20 percent may experience enough anxiety to warrant some sort of intervention (Harris,1980; Garrison and Garrison, 1979; Wheeless, 1971).
Communication anxiety can be situational rather than pervasive in a child's behavior. "A tendency to be anxious when communicating may be specific to only a few settings (e.g., public speaking) or may exist in most everyday communication situations, or may even be part of a general anxiety trait that arises in many facets of an individual's life"(Friedman, 1980). Much research has dealt with CA in terms of a personality trait, but more recently the ideal of CA has expanded to include both trait and situation views (McCroskey, 1977).
WHAT CAUSES COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION?
General personality traits such as quietness, shyness, and reticence frequently precipitate CA. According to Friedman (1980), when the ability and desire to participatein discussion are present, but the process of verbalizing is inhibited, shyness or reticence is occurring. The degree of shyness, or range of situations that it affects, varies greatly from individual to individual.
Seven factors which could result in a quiet child have been identified (McCroskey, 1980; Bond, 1984):
1. low intellectual skills 2. speech skill deficiencies 3. voluntary socialintroversion 4. social alienation 5. communication anxiety 6. low social self-esteem 7. ethnic/cultural divergence in communication norms
While CA is but one of these factors, the others can lead to CA. At the same time, their presence should not necessarily be interpreted as CA.
Another widely accepted explanation for CA is the Negative Cognitive Appraisal Model (Glaser, 1981). The model assumesthat the quiet child was criticized for his or her early language performance. As a result, the child learned to expect negative reactions and subsequently learned to avoid them by keeping quiet. Even if teachers, parents, or other children merely appear to be reacting negatively to such a child's talk, the child will perform poorly and avoid oral communication situations (Bond, 1984).
WHAT ARE THECONSEQUENCES OF COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION?
The consequences of CA are emotional, educational, and social. Shyness and reticence affect the social skills necessary for children to make friends. Shy students tend to confine their career aspirations to vocations that require little oral communication. They seem to have a higher need to avoid failure, and they have less achievement or successmotivation than other students.
In the classroom, the teacher may regard quiet students as "perfect" in that they are not discipline problems. But often the CA students' lack of response or participation has a negative, spiraling affect--they are perceived as less capable, and are thus called on less frequently in class discussion. Their lack of enthusiasm tends to limit teachers' attention to them,...