2022 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Public Speaking Phobia Reduction for Japanese University Students through Virtual Reality-based Training and Exposure to Simulated Audiences
| Project/Area Number |
19K13266
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| Research Institution | Aichi Prefectural University |
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Principal Investigator |
ブルノティ ジョシュ 愛知県立大学, 外国語学部, 講師 (50816105)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | public speaking anxiety / Exposure therapy / Presentation skills / Mindfulness / EFL education |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
During 2022, all the data from my study until this point were analyzed and the project scope was expanded upon by the inclusion of a control group to compare the participants who joined my public speaking anxiety reduction course against. The results show that compared to the control, the experimental group participants reduced their public speaking anxiety to significant degrees across all three years of data collection, and regardless of format (in person or online), across multiple measurements of anxiety (self assessments and standardized instruments). This shows my project to be a success, and I have shared these results through an accepted publication in an international journal, as well as the submission of an additional paper describing the study as a whole. Being able to implement this program over multiple years has helped me to build a growing body of evidence that short-term programs utilizing therapy-based methods, as well as presentation skills development methods, can have an impact on the anxiety levels of students in Japan, especially those enrolled in foreign language education courses.
My goal from this program is to recommend to fellow educators the best practices for implementing similar programs at their institutions, whether inside or outside the scope of university courses. My program found evidence that in as little as one month of intensive training (both within guided discussion/explanation sessions as a group and as home practice for individual students) Japanese university students can positively affect their presentation anxiety.
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