Challenges and Roles of English Public Speaking Courses for Students at the University
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61672/rw49nx79Keywords:
Role, Challenges, EFL, EPSAbstract
This research examined students’ levels of difficulty and their understanding progress in English Public Speaking, key areas of focus include grammar, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and accent. Data were taken from 45 students of the English Literature Study Program, Persada Bunda Indonesia University, Pekanbaru, Riau. The mixed research used a questionnaire as an instrument of data collection. The qualitative data in this study complemented the quantitative data, providing a deeper understanding of how and why the Public Speaking course affects students' speaking abilities, particularly in terms of their experiences, attitudes, and perceptions. Overall, the findings indicated that prior to taking the Public Speaking course, students experienced a high level of difficulty in all aspects of English public speaking. The overall mean score of 3.55, categorized as Strongly Difficult, shows that grammar, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and accent posed substantial challenges. These results highlight the need for structured public speaking instruction to support students’ English-speaking development. After completing the Public Speaking course, students demonstrated a very high level of understanding across all English public speaking indicators. The overall mean score of 3.63, categorized as Very High, indicates substantial improvement in grammar, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and accent. These findings suggest that the Public Speaking course was effective in enhancing students’ English-speaking competence and overall communicative performance.
References
REFERENCES
Ahmed, W. M. M., Abdalmotalib, M. M., Mohammed, G. T. F., Siddig, M. M. Y., Salih, H. S., Ahmed, A. A. A., & Abdullateef, S. salahEldeen. (2025). Public speaking anxiety and self-efficacy among Sudanese medical students: a cross-sectional study. BMC Psychology, 13(1), 600.
Baccarani, C., & Bonfanti, A. (2015). Effective public speaking: a conceptual framework in the corporate-communication field. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 20(3), 375–390.
Bilgin, R. (2022). A review of public speaking and its components. Canadian Journal of Educational and Social Studies, 2(3), 37–49.
Boonma, N., & Swatevacharkul, R. (2020). The effect of autonomous learning process on learner autonomy of English public speaking students. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(1), 194–205.
Breakey, L. K. (2005). Fear of public speaking-the role of the SLP. Seminars in Speech and Language, 26(02), 107–117.
Brown, H. D. (2003). Language assessment: principles and classroom practices. New York: longman. Kogan Page Publishers.
Brown, H. D. (2010). Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices.
Bui, T. T. N. (2022). Improving public speaking skills for university students: Challenges and solutions. Tra Vinh University Journal of Science, 29–38.
Bylkova, S., Chubova, E., & Kudryashov, I. (2021). Public speaking as a tool for developing students’ communication and speech skills. E3S Web of Conferences, 273, 11030.
Chen, Y. (2024). Effects of technology-enhanced language learning on reducing EFL learners’ public speaking anxiety. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 37(4), 789–813.
Driscoll, D. L., Appiah-Yeboah, A., Salib, P., & Rupert, D. J. (2007). Merging qualitative and quantitative data in mixed methods research: How to and why not.
Jean-Pierre, J., Hassan, S., & Sturge, A. (2023). Enhancing the learning and teaching of public speaking skills. College Teaching, 71(4), 219–226.
Joe, J., Kitchen, C., Chen, L., & Feng, G. (2015). A prototype public speaking skills assessment: An evaluation of human‐scoring quality. ETS Research Report Series, 2015(2), 1–21.
Johnson, J. R., & Szczupakiewicz, N. (1987). The public speaking course: Is it preparing students with work related public speaking skills? Communication Education, 36(2), 131–137.
Kalra, R., & Siribud, S. (2020). Public speaking anxiety in the Thai EFL context. LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network, 13(1), 195–209.
Karnedi, Zaim, M. (2021). Seven C’s Communication Skills Problems in Writing Business Letter of English Major Undergraduate Students.
Karnedi, K., & Utami, S. (2024). Use of Digital Storytelling (DST) in Public Speaking Subject: An Innovation. Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Proficiency, 6(1), 54–72.
Larseingue, M., Sawyer, C. R., & Finn, A. N. (2012). Components of students’ grade expectations for public speaking assignments. Communication Education, 61(4), 428–447.
Marinho, A. C. F., Medeiros, A. M. de, Lima, E. de P., & Teixeira, L. C. (2022). Public speaking assessment and self-assessment instruments: an integrative literature review. Audiology-Communication Research, 27, e2539.
McNatt, D. B. (2019). Enhancing public speaking confidence, skills, and performance: An experiment of service-learning. The International Journal of Management Education, 17(2), 276–285.
Mede, E., & Karaırmak, Ö. (2017). The predictor roles of speaking anxiety and English self efficacy on foreign language speaking anxiety. Journal of Teacher Education and Educators, 6(1), 117–131.
Morreale, S. P. (2013). Public speaking. In Assessing communication education (pp. 219–236). Routledge.
Parvis, L. F. (2001). The importance of communication and public-speaking skills. Journal of Environmental Health, 63(9), 44.
Rowley, J. (2014). Designing and using research questionnaires. Management Research Review, 37(3), 308–330.
Sugiyono. (2011). Sugiyono. (2011). Statistika untuk penelitian. alfabeta Bandung.
Taly, B. C., & Paramasivam, S. (2020). Speaking anxiety among postgraduate international students in the academic context of a university in Malaysia. International Journal of Linguistics, 12(1), 198.
Ward, A. E. (2013). The assessment of public speaking: A pan-european view. 2013 12th International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training (Ithet), 1–5.
Wörtwein, T., Chollet, M., Schauerte, B., Morency, L.-P., Stiefelhagen, R., & Scherer, S. (2015). Multimodal public speaking performance assessment. Proceedings of the 2015 Acm on International Conference on Multimodal Interaction, 43–50.
Zhang, X., Ardasheva, Y., & Austin, B. W. (2020). Self-efficacy and English public speaking performance: A mixed method approach. English for Specific Purposes, 59, 1–16.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Dr. Karnedi, SS, M. Pd, Dr. Lelly Zuyana Asril, SS, M.Pd, Arif Alexander Bastian
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
