Introduction
Speech anxiety or glossophobia is a very common fear in modern society. According to some researches, it is estimated that 75% of all people experience some degree of anxiety/nervousness when public speaking. In the USA glossophobia ranks as a number 1 fear way above spiders, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, death, etc. So it is quite natural that this issue has to be addressed in a school environment as well. We experienced and observed a related situation during our observation period and decided to use it as our case study.
The study case
It happened in 8th grade English class. Students were commanded to make a presentation that spoke of themselves. But this time the task was to make it hand drawn and not digital. We were observing group 3 who was composed of students that are the least efficient in the English language. Everybody in the class had made the poster and it was presented in groups. The strange and interesting part started when two groups of girls refused to present in front of the class and suggested that they will rather do it in private only with the teacher. However, after a little negotiation also four of us were also allowed to assist and observe.
Theoretical support
The innatist perspective
We believe that the innatist perspective has influenced the Danish public school system by its teaching philosophy where everything involves the acquisition and not learning. We have monitored that teachers do not correct students mistakes and do not give feedback since according to theory there is no reason to it because children take statistics and at some point student should figure out the right way to do it on its own if there is enough of properly input. And also that learning grammar is not necessary since it is acquired at a predictable level when the student reaches the right level.
One of the most influential innatist theoretic - Stephen Krashen has developed a monitor model that consists of 5 hypotheses. Most important for this case study will be:
- The affective filter hypothesis: stands that emotional state acts as a filter and can either inspire or block language acquisition.
We can also relate to the other 4, but for this case study, we will only concentrate on the effective filter.
- The natural order hypothesis: grammar is learned in a predictable order.
- The monitor hypothesis: conscious learning only works when a student as an editor is checking the output from what he has already learned.
- The input hypothesis: students tend to learn the best if the input they receive is just one level above their own.
- The acquisition-learning hypothesis: competence occurs only thru acquisition.
John Dewey's learning by doing approach and Vygotsky's scaffolding method can also be seen as a solution to this problem.
Didactical competences
Purpose: We believe that girls were too shy and insecure from public presentation in front of the other classmates because some of them lacked self-confidence and were afraid of public presentation. Another factor was that some of them for different reasons were the least efficient learners and were not able to speak or understand English at all not being able to give a presentation or answer questions on their own.
Implementation, planning: The teacher admitted that it is not the first time that those girls do not feel comfortable in front of the class for above-mentioned reasons. However, he believes that this is a correct way, for the time being, not pushing them towards what makes them afraid for them but allowing doing it in a more safe and relaxed setting.
Evaluation and development of teaching: Evaluation for the girls was carried out in the same manner as for the rest of the class. We think it is positive that teachers are not afraid to be flexible about teaching methods and adjusting them for specific tasks according to each student. Another interesting point is that students have to give their own opinion about how well they did it and what grade they deserve. This might be a good point to start creating confidence in the value of their own opinions.
Classroom management
Organization and development of pupils: As a negative aspect – for the rest of the class it meant that they were left on their own for 15 minutes without any task which should be managed. The teacher believes that girls are progressing this way and will do better from one time to another. Since they do not have to overcome fear from public speaking and potential negative comments or evaluation from the classmates they can focus more on speaking and experiment more with the language. Of course, they will have to come out of the “safe house” at some point when they are ready – maybe they will need encouragement from the teacher and fellow students.
Academic and social learning environment: As a negative aspect can be seen the fact that by separating girls from the rest of the class they are denied input and feedback from their fellow students also creating social tension between them and the rest of the class. As a positive aspect – girls are exposed to just one level above their competence and are more likely to acquire something new.
Relational competences
Relations to pupils: We believe that by letting girls perform in non-threatening environment teacher is gaining more respect and mutual trust in the eyes of these students. However, other students can see this as playing favors for some individuals.
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