Remote Presentations: Making L2 Presentations Less Stressful

Abstract

This explanatory-sequential mixed-method study was conducted to find out if the affordances of computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments help alleviate L2 public speaking anxiety when giving presentations remotely. Participants were 57 young adult EFL Arabic-speaking learners enrolled in an intermediate listening/speaking class in a preparatory 1 year program at a Saudi public university. Data were collected towards the end of the spring 2021 semester, and the study was conducted in a fully remote learning environment. Two speaking anxiety scales were administered: the Public Speaking Class Anxiety Scale (PSCAS), which measures in-person presentation anxiety, and the Remote Presentation Anxiety Scale (RPAS), an adapted version of PSCAS measuring remote presentation anxiety created and validated by this study. Online follow-up semistructured interviews were then conducted with 10 participants to explain and contextualize the results from the scales. Results of the PSCAS and RPAS analyses indicate that students had medium anxiety for in-person presentations, whereas they experienced low anxiety levels during remote presentations (RPs). Qualitative analyses of the interviews revealed that students preferred RPs over in-person presentations mainly due to its lower anxiety environment. Participants underscored several sociopsychological benefits of presenting remotely such as less stress, less confusion, high self-confidence, comfort, calmness, and relaxation. Implications for research and language teaching are discussed.