Silence is Not Golden: Investigating Classroom Participation Anxiety Among University Students

2 Abstract: A phenomenon that prevails in university classrooms, particularly among the undergraduates, is their silent and reticent behaviors during hours. This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that such behaviors can be ascribed to what we have labeled as classroom participation anxiety, a type of situation anxiety not unlike communication apprehension. The population for this study comprised undergraduate students taking courses in for Occupational Purposes in a university in Malaysia. The study investigated whether differences existed in participation anxiety between male and female students; between local and international students; between students from the six bachelor degree programs. In addition, the study also investigated whether predictive relationships existed between perceived oral competence in English, students' motivation to study, teachers' verbal and non-verbal immediacy behaviors with participation anxiety. The findings revealed that statistically significant differences existed between local and international students and between students from the six bachelor degree programs. However, no statistically significant mean differences existed in participation anxiety between male and female students. The results also revealed that only two correlates were significantly predictive of participation anxiety: perceived oral competence in English and teachers' verbal immediacy behaviors.