Abstract :
[en] Background. Public speaking is one of the most feared activities, with approximately two-thirds of undergraduates afraid to speak in public (Ferreira Marinho et al., 2017). This form of anxiety has consequences on communication performance (King & Finn, 2017), particularly on speech fluency (Goberman et al., 2011), and quality of speech can influence a speaker’s career success (Wörtwein et al., 2015). While the literature highlights the benefits of public speaking training on communication performance (Goberman et al., 2011), its implementation is complex. Therefore, virtual reality (VR) seems to be an innovative and relevant tool for clinicians.
Aims. This study aims to validate the use of a virtual audience for public speaking by assessing its capacity to elicit emotional (i.e. anxiety) and behavioral (i.e. disfluencies) responses confirming its ecological validity.
Methodology. Eight participants made an oral presentation in front of a virtual audience. Their speech disfluencies and anxiety were analyzed. They also completed questionnaires assessing the quality of VR based on the feeling of presence and side effects (i.e. cybersickness).
Results. The emotional (anxiety) and behavioral responses (speech disfluencies), the sufficient feeling of presence, and the absence of cybersickness suggest that this virtual audience can be a relevant tool for public speaking training and rehabilitation.
Conclusions. This pilot study is the first step in a long-term project. It highlights the positive points of a virtual audience as well as those requiring improvement. Further studies are needed to enhance this virtual environment and statistically confirm its ecological validity.
References:
- Ferreira Marinho, A. C., Mesquita de Medeiros, A., Côrtes Gama, A. C., & Caldas Teixeira, L. (2017). Fear of Public Speaking: Perception of College Students and Correlates. Journal of Voice, 31(1), 7-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2015.12.012
- Goberman, A. M., Hughes, S., & Haydock, T. (2011). Acoustic characteristics of public speaking: Anxiety and practice effects. Speech Communication, 53(6), 867–876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2011.02.005
- King, P. E., & Finn, A. N. (2017). A test of attention control theory in public speaking: cognitive load influences the relationship between state anxiety and verbal production. Communication Education, 66(2), 168–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2016.1272128
- Wörtwein, T., Chollet, M., Schauerte, B., Morency, L.-P., Stiefelhagen, R., & Scherer, S. (2015). Multimodal Public Speaking Performance Assessment. International Conference on Multimodal Interaction, 43–50. https://doi.org/10.1145/2818346.2820762
