Rädsla för att tala inför folk är ett allmänt känt fenomen som har drabbat oss alla någon gång. Muntliga presentationer är en del av svenska elevers skolgång, och det kan bidra till oro och stress hos vissa elever. Trots detta är det ett krav från Skolverket att muntliga presentationer ska genomföras av alla elever. Den första frågan och syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur mellanstadieelever upplever att göra muntliga redovisningar. Studiens andra fråga och syfte var att studera vilka metoder pedagoger använder för att stödja och förbereda eleverna inför de muntliga presentationerna. Slutligen ställdes frågan hur undervisningen inför muntliga redovisningar visar sig i elevernas upplevelser av presentationerna. För att besvara studiens frågor svarade 84 elever på ett frågeformulär och fyra lärare deltog i semistrukturerade intervjuer om forskningsområdet. Materialet analyserades med stöd av det sociokulturella perspektivet och teorier om stress och coping. Studiens resultat visar att känslorna för presentationerna varierar, även om en majoritet av eleverna uttrycker att de känner någon form av ängslan och stress före och under sin presentation. En del elever behåller känslan av stress efteråt. Intervjuerna visade att lärarna är medvetna om elevernas oro och att de arbetar på olika sätt för att förbereda och stödja dem inför sina muntliga presentationer. Studien visar ett starkt samband mellan mindre ängslan inför muntliga presentationer och en respektfull klassrumsmiljö. Studien visar också att eleverna är öppna för, och har ett behov av, att lära sig mer om retoriska verktyg och att tala inför en grupp. En fortsatt studie med fokus på hur elever upplever sina muntliga presentationer, kan vara av vikt för skolans praktik. Detta för att få en större förståelse för elevernas känslor kring muntliga presentationer, och för utvecklingen av metoder pedagogerna bör använda för att förbereda och stödja eleverna. / Anxiety of speaking in front of people is a commonly known phenomenon that has hit all of us at one time or another. Oral presentations are part of Swedish students' schooling, and it can contribute to anxiety and stress in some students. Despite this, it is a requirement from the Swedish National Agency for Education that oral presentations be conducted by all students. The first question and aim of this study was to investigate how elementary school students experience performing oral presentations. The second question and aim of the study was to study what methods educators use to support and prepare students for the oral presentations. Lastly, the question was asked how lessons in preparation for oral presentations is reflected in students' experiences of them. In order to answer the study's questions, 84 students answered a questionnaire, and four teachers took part in semi-structured interviews about the research area. The material was analysed using the sociocultural perspective and theories of stress and coping. The results of the study show that feelings about the presentations vary, though a majority of the students express feeling some level of distress before and during their presentation. Some students keep the feeling of stress afterwards. The interviews revealed that teachers are aware of students' concerns and that they work in different ways to prepare and support them for their oral presentations. The study shows a strong correlation between less apprehension about oral presentations and a respectful classroom environment. The study also shows that students are open to, and have a need for, learning more about rhetorics and speaking in front of a group. A further study focusing on how students experience their oral presentations, may be of value for school practice. This to gain a greater understanding of students' feelings about oral presentations, and for the development of methods educators should use to prepare and support students.

Cognitive theories postulate that attention toward threatening information and away from neutral cues plays an etiological role in anxiety. The present study examines whether a preconscious attentional bias (AB) toward threatening stimuli exists in individuals with public speaking anxiety. Participants included 61 undergraduates with high and low speech anxiety. AB was measured using a dot-probe paradigm with threatening and neutral words. Reaction times to dot-probes on threatening and neutral trials were compared between the two groups. Results indicated that, contrary to expectations, high and low speech anxious participants did not differ in their mean reaction times to threat words. Thus, AB may not be measurable in individuals with public speaking anxiety using the method that the current study employed. / Master of Science

This study aims to understand how Swedish upper secondary school teachers adapt the teaching for students with speaking anxiety. The questions include which strategies and methods teachers use to help these students, which factors influence students' speaking anxiety, and what teachers believe that students with speaking anxiety need. The results were analyzed through qualitative interviews with teachers. The results show that the teachers use different strategies, but that several of them include common methods. A common strategy is for the students to speak in front of smaller groups and for the teachers to work on creating a sense of security in the classroom. These efforts are considered important to support students' oral presentation and reduce their anxiety about it. By using such strategies, teachers can effectively support students with a desire to speak in the Swedish subject at upper secondary school.

<p>The purpose of this essay is to perform a comparative study of first a pedagogical/rhetorical and then a therapeutic method, to help students overcome their speech anxiety. My choice stayed at focusing on the academic world and the benefits offered to mainly students. I have chosen two institutions with long experience of work with speech anxiety: Instutionen of Swedish, rhetoric and journalism at Södertörns Högskola and Student Health at Uppsala University. I want to find the advantages and disadvantages of the two universities and in no way define what is more favorable.</p>

<p>The present thesis investigated the relationship between rapid facial muscle reactions and emotionally relevant stimuli. In Study I, it was demonstrated that angry faces elicit increased <i>Corrugator supercilii</i> activity, whereas happy faces elicit increased <i>Zygomaticus major</i> activity, as early as within the first second after stimulus onset. In Study II, during the first second of exposure, pictures of snakes elicited more corrugator activity than pictures of flowers. However, this effect was apparent only for female participants. Study III showed that participants high as opposed to low in fear of snakes respond with increased corrugator activity, as well as increased autonomic activity, when exposed to pictures of snakes. In Study IV, participants high as opposed to low in speech anxiety responded with a larger difference in corrugator responding between angry and happy faces, and also with a larger difference in zygomatic responding between happy and angry faces, indicating that people high in speech anxiety have an exaggerated facial responsiveness to social stimuli. In summary, the present results show that the facial EMG technique is sensitive to detecting rapid emotional reactions to different emotionally relevant stimuli (human faces and snakes). Additionally, they demonstrate the existence of differences in rapid facial reactions among groups for which the emotional relevance of the stimuli can be considered to differ.</p>

The present thesis investigated the relationship between rapid facial muscle reactions and emotionally relevant stimuli. In Study I, it was demonstrated that angry faces elicit increased Corrugator supercilii activity, whereas happy faces elicit increased Zygomaticus major activity, as early as within the first second after stimulus onset. In Study II, during the first second of exposure, pictures of snakes elicited more corrugator activity than pictures of flowers. However, this effect was apparent only for female participants. Study III showed that participants high as opposed to low in fear of snakes respond with increased corrugator activity, as well as increased autonomic activity, when exposed to pictures of snakes. In Study IV, participants high as opposed to low in speech anxiety responded with a larger difference in corrugator responding between angry and happy faces, and also with a larger difference in zygomatic responding between happy and angry faces, indicating that people high in speech anxiety have an exaggerated facial responsiveness to social stimuli. In summary, the present results show that the facial EMG technique is sensitive to detecting rapid emotional reactions to different emotionally relevant stimuli (human faces and snakes). Additionally, they demonstrate the existence of differences in rapid facial reactions among groups for which the emotional relevance of the stimuli can be considered to differ.

There is a scarcity of objective criteria upon which to select among the available therapies for those most likely to benefit specific patients. Comparative research has suggested that the outcomes of alternative and competitive therapies are equivalent. There are few facts available concerning which patients benefit most from even the more popular therapies. The purpose of this study was to find a type of patient for which differential improvement could be predicted. Neither therapy decreased checklist scores or increased speaking time significantly more than the other. Repressors and sensitizers responded equally to therapy. When dropout rates were analyzed there were also no significant differences between the therapies or between repressors and sensitizers. When posttherapy scores from both therapies were compared to pretherapy scores, no significant changes were found. The latter finding was important for understanding the absence of support for the hypotheses. Since the subjects did not improve as a result of either desensitization or rational-emotive therapy, there was no opportunity to observe the hypothesized differential changes. Given this hindsight, it was concluded that speech anxiety may not be a desirable disorder with which to study the prediction that repression-sensitization is related to the outcome of rational-emotive therapy and desensitization. It was recommended that future research of this relationship utilize a disorder for which therapeutic effectiveness is more firmly established.

This study is based on teachers' experiences of how they work with speech anxiety pupils inthe classroom in the Swedish subject in 4th grade at verbal presentations and opinions. The purpose is to find out how a teacher understands and supports a speech fear pupil in oral submissions and opinions. The questions that the study will be based on are: What methods and working methods are used to prevent and promote pupils' talents? How does the teacher visualize and supports speech anxiety pupils in the classroom at oral presentations and opinions? In what way is the work of rhetoric benefiting speech anxiety pupils? The study consists of qualitative methods based on observations and interviews. Data has been collected through four observations and three interviews. The result has shown that in the classroom there are between three and five pupils who either suffer from speech anxiety or who are merely silent. Oral presentations are something that most pupils feel discomforted and therefore the teacher adjusts the teachings according to the pupil's needs and prerequisites. The teacher has varied teaching to enable all pupils to feel included, thus creating confidence and self-esteem through different working methods andgroup size. Furthermore, it was found that the teachers work with a good classroom climate for the student's learning and development. To get a functioning classroom and education, the class must work socially. The conclusion is that teachers already at the lower stage work deliberately and actively with oral requests for the pupils to become good talents in the long run. It is essential that a safe classroom environment is created, and that the teacher communicates with pupils who do not speak about their needs. In addition, it's important that speech anxiety and silent pupils get practice in speaking so they can strengthen their speech, become more visible and comfortable with their speech in front of other pupils

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

The purpose of this study was to investigate, firstly, some Swedish upper secondary school students’ attitudes towards speaking in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom and, secondly, how these students suggest that speech anxiety should be dealt with. The participating students were both male and female and attended different school years and English courses. This qualitative study was based on interviews which were later transcribed and analyzed in relation to the research questions. The findings show that the students perceive speech anxiety differently depending on the context. The students also expressed that a way of reducing speech anxiety would be for teachers to communicate with their students to find solutions considering any discomfort and for the students themselves to be more prepared. It has been suggested that it is important to deal with speech anxiety in order to promote proficiency development. Therefore, the most important thing for teachers to do, according to the informants, is to make arrangements in the ESL classroom, together with the students concerned, which could help to make them more willing to communicate. However, the informants also suggest that students’ self-improvement, such as better preparations and reducing negative thoughts, needs to be included in the process to prevent speech anxiety for them to feel more comfortable when speaking in the ESL classroom.