Keywords
Communication apprehension, communication anxiety, reading comprehension
Abstract
The goal of this research was to determine whether communication apprehension impacted reading comprehension in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students and to examine the impact of family socio-economic status. Many studies have demonstrated the negative relationship between communication apprehension and academic achievement, however, studies of elementary and middle school students have been conspicuously missing from this research. Findings of this study indicated that the levels of communication apprehension rose slightly as grade level increased. Results showed that females in the study had higher levels of communication apprehension than males. The study also found that those students receiving free and reduced lunch had slightly higher levels of communication apprehension. Finally, nonminority status students had higher levels of communication apprehension than minority students. A review of previous studies found that children, exposed to high language input from their parents, know more words than those who are exposed to lower levels of input. Researchers have found that students who do not talk much in the classroom are evaluated less positively by their teachers, achieve less on teacher-made and standardized tests, and develop less positive affect toward school in general. Results of this study suggest that effort should be made to identify communication anxiety in children. The iii development of an age and grade appropriate instrument is warranted for early identification.
Notes
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Graduation Date
2012
Semester
Summer
Advisor
Murray, Barbara A.
Degree
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
College
College of Education and Human Performance
Department
Educational and Human Sciences
Degree Program
Educational Leadership
Format
application/pdf
Identifier
CFE0004368
URL
http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0004368
Language
English
Release Date
August 2013
Length of Campus-only Access
1 year
Access Status
Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)
Subjects
Dissertations, Academic -- Education, Education -- Dissertations, Academic
STARS Citation
Davis, Tami Mullens, "An Analysis Of Communication Anxiety And Reading Comprehension In Sixth, Seventh And Eighth Grade Students" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2471.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/2471