CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
An important component of effective communication, particularly in public speaking, is self-
assurance. Fluency and confidence are both necessary while speaking in front of an audience. Many
people are empowered by their positive attitude and sense of self-confidence to tackle our environment
and other situations with ease. According to Lauster, confidence is believing in one’s abilities and self-
evaluation of the task, as well as having a practical approach.
Over the past 50 years, the self-esteem movement has swept through western culture, with
parents and educators alike reiterating the notion that boosting children’s self-assurance will result in
better performance and a more successful life overall (Baskin, 2011). How we see and regard ourselves
is a measure of our self-esteem. The ideas of self-acceptance, self-love, and most importantly self-
confidence are all built on the concept of self-worth.
According to Harar, A. et al. (2010), self-confidence has a very significant impact on both
expressing yourself during interpersonal relations and building relationships with others. Acting without
self-confidence may lead to the isolation or withdrawal of an individual from society. As a result,
therapists have been very concerned about self-confidence. Many people have difficulty asserting their
rights because they lack self-confidence. In this context, self-confidence education consists of modeling
confident people, acting to show that you are confident enough, and reacting instantly.
Spencer, I. (2021) stated that “public speaking” is a presentation that’s given live before an
audience. Public speeches can cover a wide variety of topics. The goal of the speech is to educate,
entertain, or influence the listeners.
Professionals are expected to regularly improve their communication skills. Verderber,
Sellnow, and Verderber (2011) state, “Public speaking, a sustained formal presentation by a speaker to
an audience, is simply one form of human communication.” “So learning to be an effective public
speaker will help you be more effective in other communication settings as well.” A change in their
confidence, speaking style, intonation pattern, and the rest can result in a positive change in their
professionalism and personality. As per the viewpoint of healthcare professionals, Tacheva (2013)
asserts that “the verbal register, intonation, articulation, pronunciation, tone, rhythm, and dialect define
the character of the communicative impact as positive or negative depending on whether they facilitate
or hinder the achievement of communicative purposes.” People can overcome this problem by
practicing with small groups of peers and then moving on to larger audiences. Many people are shy or
afraid of speaking in front of their peers or familiar people, and this can be overcome by practicing in
front of unfamiliar audiences.
According to the article by Nadiah et al. (2019), the self-confidence that has been owned by
people can let people achieve their goals. Many people do not have self-confidence. For example,
students lack confidence when presenting in class; they feel afraid to speak in front of friends. Through
in the pre-observation, the reason is lack of practice, not mastering the material well, a lack of
vocabulary, and feeling afraid when they speak in public.
The advantage of self-confidence is the ability to convey messages easily. The students who
have self-confidence will be able to overcome fears or negative thoughts, so they will be easy to
communicate with, especially in the oral presentation in front of the class. Students who can
communicate fluently and confidently have a good impact on high self-confidence in that they can
increase their academic achievement in the speaking course because they fulfill the criteria of the
assessment on speaking skills (Salim, 2015).
The study was conducted at the Dingras National High School and investigated the effect of
public speaking on the level of confidence as perceived by the Humanities and Social Sciences Strand
students in the school. Since no previous research had been conducted in this field with Humanities and
Social Sciences Strand students as the respondents, the researchers believed that the findings would be
useful to evaluate the level of confidence of the Humanities and Social Sciences Strand students. The
study would also be useful to support and refute the findings of other studies on the topic.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Good public speaking skills would help an individual advance in certain circumstances, such
as academics and professionalism. Especially for students at all levels, they are always encouraged to
improve their public speaking skills inside the classroom. Because they do a lot of presentations, they
also practice their public speaking skills. For students, the importance of good presentation skills not
only benefits them inside the classroom but also carries over when they graduate since many
occupations now demand very good communication skills, both oral and written, and one of them is
presentation skills. Thus, by participating in presentation activities in class, the students are also
sharpening their communication skills to prepare themselves for the job world. Moreover, to improve
individual quality in terms of academic and professional scope, good public speaking skills are needed. In
addition to that, according to Fallows and Steven (2000), in today’s challenging economic environment,
it is no longer practical for a new graduate to know the school’s curriculum; students need to gain those
skill sets that would improve their employment prospects.
This study aimed to determine and observe the factors affecting the fear of public speaking
among the selected Grade 12 Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) Strand students at Dingras
National High School. This study sought to determine the factors that affect the fear of public speaking,
the problem, and its solution. In this study, the authors used a quantitative descriptive method of
research to gather information about the present existing condition and describe the factors that affect
the fear of public speaking among the selected Grade 11 and 12 HUMSS Strand students in Dingras
National High School. The researchers randomly selected the respondents and also used a survey
questionnaire to gather all the necessary data. The results of the study showed that many students had
a fear of public speaking. The study also revealed that males have a higher tendency to experience the
fear of public speaking than females. Judgment was the main reason why they suffered from the fear of
public speaking, thereby leading the students to lose their confidence and affecting their communication
skills. The results showed that preparedness prevented mental blocks for the students. The researchers
also found the solution to overcoming the fear of public speaking by learning how to speak confidently.
The study also discussed different factors that affect the students’ public speaking skills. Lastly, it
includes recommendations that can help the students overcome their fear of public speaking.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This study aimed to determine the effect of public speaking to the level of confidence as
perceived by the HUMSS Students on Dingras National High School of Dingras.
Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions:
1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of:
1.1 age;
1.2 sex; and
1.3 grade and section?
2. What are the effects of public speaking to the level of confidence of HUMSS students in terms of:
2.1 class participation; and
2.2 speaking skills?
3. What causes you to have a fear in public speaking?
HYPOTHESIS
The researcher formulates the null hypothesis (HO) and alternative hypothesis (HA). The null
indicates that public speaking does not have an impact on students’ level of confidence at Dingras
National High School. Meanwhile, the alternative hypothesis states that public speaking has an impact
on students’ level of confidence at Dingras National High School.
RECOMMENDATION
The following are the recommendations given by the researchers regarding the effect of public
speaking on HUMSS students’ level of confidence.
1. The HUMSS students may use the method “talk to the mirror” or simply record themselves.
Speaking in front of the mirror or a video can help you watch your actions and keep an eye on
your body language. It gives you a feel for what your audience will see when you’re giving a
speech.
2. Focus on one person in the class when you are speaking; this allows you to feel more confident
and convey ideas more intimately.
3. Practice the 3 Ps of public speaking: prepare, practice, and perform. This can help you overcome
your fear of giving a public speech and boost your confidence.
SCOPE AND DELIMITATION
The scope of this study aims to assess the capabilities of the senior high students, mainly the
HUMSS students at Dingras National High School for the academic year 2022-2023, on how they handle
their fear and level of confidence in public speaking. We conduct this study to benefit the students of
senior high school in a given strand by fostering a positive mindset that leads to better self-esteem in
them.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
According to Nunan (1991), speaking is described as an activity as the ability to consider
oneself in situations or activities to report an action or situation with the right words or the ability to
communicate or express the classifications of ideas. In progress. Students feel shy when they try to
speak a foreign language in class; they are inhibited by their lack of self-confidence, likely as students of
the English education department who have been bothered before developing their speaking abilities
and inhibited by their apprehension.
Brown (2000), stated that speaking performance is thought to be highly correlated with
people’s self-confidence and cannot be achieved comfortably without some degree of self-confidence.
Han (2007) concludes that one of the necessary obstacles to English-foreign language students’
academic success is their oral skills and speaking performance for class participation. Self-confidence is
crucial when speaking in public. Confidence shows in the way you carry yourself. Not every individual is
comfortable standing in front of a large audience, making eye contact with them, and delivering his
content. A positive attitude plays an important role. Some people have the habit of infringing on
everything.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Figure 1. IPO Model
INPUT
Due to the lack of
confidence, students may
feel that they won’t be able
to give the speech or
perform well in the PROCESS
presentation even before
beginning the task. Negative OUTPUT
thoughts of failure and The study used quantitative
rejection start creeping in. as a research method.
Performance anxiety is very Questionnaires and survey
Ways/method to improve
common among students are the instrument used in
their public speaking to
who have stage fights. The collecting data. The
boost their confidence of
effect of public speaking to researchers choose HUMSS
HUMSS students with the
the level of confidence of students as the respondents.
help of this study.
HUMSS students. At this study continues, the
researchers used references
from different studies.
Public Speaking Problems:
1. Lack of vocabulary
2. Fear of making
mistakes
3. Fear of embarrassment
Figure 1. shows the input, process and output to make the whole research study elaborated and
now this research study would affect their performance of HUMSS students during their public speeches
as the researchers aim to study about the situation. The researchers used questionnaires and survey
process in order to acquire data that can be analyzed for an accurate output for this study. By that, this
study aims to provide ways/method to improve the public speaking of HUMSS students with the help of
this research.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The results of this study would be a great benefit to the following:
Students. The results of this study will be expected to generate students to have a higher
motivation in speaking in public and to encourage them to be more intentional in their speech
preparation. Students that are afraid of speaking can use it as input and ideas in improving their
speaking skills.
Teacher. The results of this study would give teachers an idea of how they can handle and be aware
of the situation of their pupils. This can also be a way of giving them more experience in expressing
themselves, and encouraging them to be more confident in their speeches.
Future Researcher. The results would provide future researchers with knowledge regarding the
impact of having a stage fight of students. The study contains the effectiveness of public speaking that
allows the researchers provide more information about the research
DEFINITION OF TERMS
For a better understanding to this study of following terms are defined in the context of the
research.
Academic. Things that relate to work done in schools which involves studying or education.
Apprehension. A fear or anxiety experienced by a person. You feel anxious communicating with
others.
Failure. A lack of success in delivering your speech well.
Fear. Afraid of someone or something as likely to be in a crowded or public places.
Level of confidence. The measurement of the frequency of you being confident to yourself.
Public Speaking. The act or process of making speeches in public.
Self-confidence. An attitude about your skills and abilities. You know your strengths and weakness
well, and have a positive view of yourself.
