ORAL COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION AMONG FRESHMEN: A CASE IN THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE

Abstract

It is integral that future medical practitioners are adept with high communicative competence as they will be required to provide high levels of communication services to their profession. There are various factors that influence the development of oral communicative competence. One of the factors that hinder the development is oral communication apprehension (OCA). Although globally there is a wealth of research in the field of OCA, no studies have yet been conducted on the oral communication apprehension of medical undergraduates in the context of Sri Lanka. Therefore, this first ever study in Sri Lanka attempts to identify if oral communication apprehension exists among freshmen in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna. The study was conducted via a random selection of 24 freshmen (23% of the population) from the Faculty of Medicine. Based on a mixed method approach, a scale- Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) as well as semi structured interviews were employed to collect data. Findings reveal that OCA exists at a moderate level.  Further, the study also indicates that OCA is higher among females in comparison to males and among Tamil L1 participants compared to Sinhala L1 participants. The findings would provide English language instructors with an understanding on how to design the curriculum, develop the freshmen’s confidence in oral communication and reduce their OCA.

Keywords: oral communication apprehension, communicative competence, freshmen, medical undergraduates, pedagogical intervention