Drama Techniques Reduce Public Speaking Class Anxiety Among Science Undergraduates

STEM university students are required to communicate their work primarily via technical writing and oral presentations. Recent studies suggest that science students often demonstrate poor communication skills due to a lack of relevant instruction in academia. This results in high levels of public speaking and class anxiety which has been shown to be alleviated by incorporating drama techniques in the K-12 classroom. In this study, in a higher education setting, we assessed Biology university students' concurrent and retrospective emotions in a Biology Department's fourth-year EAP/EScP (English for Academic Purposes/ English for Scientific Purposes) course. The assessments occurred prior- and post-teaching intervention which involved drama instruction with curated activities for regulating expression. Participants completed a questionnaire on EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Public Speaking Class Anxiety, prior- and post-drama intervention. In addition, students were asked to evaluate the experience. Results indicate an alleviation of mild negative academic, class-state emotion towards public speaking and communication in the EFL classroom, with students feeling more confident and less apprehensive towards using their voice and body expressively. The experience is deemed as very positive by students, who suggested that the intervention should be incorporated into their academic curriculum.