Public Speaking Apprehension (PSA), Motivation, and Affect among Accounting

ABSTRACT: The importance of public speaking (PS) skills to professional accounting success motivates improving students ’ self-perceptions of these skills. In addition, ev-idence of higher levels of public speaking apprehension (PSA) among accounting ma-jors makes understanding and working with students ’ affective (emotive) reactions to PS critical to their future success. In three studies, we design and implement an inter-vention based on principles from self-determination theory (SDT) and motivational in-terviewing (MI). Its purpose is to improve students ’ PSA and PS motivation; it includes substantive PS instruction, dialogues, nonjudgmental feedback, and interpersonal sup-port. The results of the three ‘‘proof-of-concept’ ’ interventions (Study 1, n 23; Study 2, n 14; Study 3, n 36) suggest improvements in students ’ perceptions of their PS cognition, motivation, and affect. Despite the limitations of self-reported measures and exclusively graduate participants, the results suggest that (1) the interventions, described in appendices, may merit replication and extension, and (2) SDT- and MI-based interventions may prove useful in addressing aspects of accountancy pedagogy that induce student apprehension