are accounting undergraduates apprehensive about oral cow...

Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 6(2): 91 - \00 (\998) ISSN: 0\28-7702© Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

Are Accounting Undergraduates ApprehensiveAbout Oral Cow.munication?

BADRIYAH MINAI and ARFAH SALLEH*Department of Accounting and FinanceFaculty of Economics and Management

Universiti Putm Malaysia43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darnl Ehsan, Malaysia

'''(no seniority to authorship assigned)

Keywords: communication apprehension, gender, participation, seating position

ABSTRAK

Komunikasi telah dikenal pasti sebagai salah satu kemahiran yang diperlukan untuk menjadiakauntan profesional yang berjaya (IFAC, 1994; AAA, 1990). Terdapat kajian yang menunjukkanbahawa kebolehan untuk berkomunikasi dengan berkesan terjejas akibat perasaan bimbanguntuk berkomunikasi (McCroskey, 1977a; Freimuth, 1976). Penyelidikan ini bertujuan untukmengkaji sejauh mana terdapat kebimbangan berkomunikasi secara lisan di kalangan pelajarperakaunan di Universiti Putra Malaysia. Dalam kajian ini, perbandingan tahap kebimbanganberkomunikasi dibuat di segi jan tina, pilihan tempat duduk dalam kelas dan penyertaan dalamaktiviti kokurikular.

Tahap kebimbangan berkomunikasi secara lisan diukur dengan menggunakan Laporan PeribadiKebimbangan Berkomunikasi, satu instrumen yang dihasilkan oleh McCroskey (1984). Ujian-tmenunjukkan tiada perbezaan ketara paras kebimbangan berkomunikasi di antara pelajar lelakidan perempuan. Dari segi pemilihan tempat duduk, kajian ini mendapati bahawa respondenyang mengutamakan tempat di depan dan di tengah kelas menunjukkan tahap kebimbanganberkomunikasi yang lebih rendah dalam konteks kumpulan sahaja berbanding dengan merekayang memilih tempat duduk di tepi dan belakang kelas. Secara keseluruhan, tiada perbezaanketara paras kebimbangan berkomunikasi antara pelajar mengikut pilihan tempat duduk. Kajianjuga menunjukkan bahawa tahap kebimbangan berkomunikasi didapati berbeza di antara pelajaryang melibatkan diri dalam aktiviti ko-kurikular di peringkat universiti dengan mereka yang tidakmenyertai akitiviti tersebut.

ABSTRACT

Communication has been identified as one of the skills required to become successful professionalaccountants (IFAC 1994; AAA 1990). Studies have shown that the ability to communicateeffectively has been hampered by the level of oral communication apprehension (OCA)(McCroskey, 1977a; Freimuth, 1976). This study investigates the incidence of OCA amongstaccounting students at Universiti Putra Malaysia. It compares OCA level in terms of gender,seating position and participation in co-curricular activities.

OCA level is operationalized using Personal Report of Communication Apprehension developedby McCroskey (1984). Adopting the t-test to determine differences in OCA level between groups,it is found that males do not differ significantly from females. In terms of seating position, it isobserved that respondents who prefer the front and middle seats are significantly less apprehensiveabout communicating in group context only than those who choose the seats on the side andback of the classroom. Overall, there is no difference between OCA level of students accordingto seating position. The results also reveal that significant difference exists between undergraduateswho participate in co-curricular activities at university level and those who do not.

Badriyah Minai and Arfah Salleh

INTRODUCTION

Communication has been identified as one ofthe skills required to become successfulprofessional accountants both by professionalbodies (International Federation of Accountants,IFAC 1996; American Accounting Association,AAA 1990) as well as accounting academicresearchers (Estees 1979 Ingram and Frazier1980). Given that communication skills enablethe professional accoun tan t to receive andtransmit information, form reasoned judgements,and make decisions effectively (IFAC 1996) it isnot surprising that communication skills arereported to be an important determinant forinterview selection (Hultz 1988). The importanceof oral and written communication skills placedby employers in hiring and promotion decisionsis also reported in other business educationresearch such as by Maes et al. (1997) andRebele (1985). However, a survey of humanresource directors of accounting firms to

determine skills, abilities and qualities mostdesired of prospective accountants reveals thatoral and written communication skills are citedas areas of needed improvement (LaFrancois1990). Accounting professionals generally alsoperceive that newly hired employees lack theskill to articulate conceptual ideas (Andrews andKoester 1979). Andrews and Sigband (1984)and Kullberg et at. (1989) confirm the deficiencyin communication skills among accountingstudents. Although May and May (1989) reportthat accoun ting faculties are attempting toimprove students' communication skills inrecognition of the importance of communicationskills, there is yet to see agreement on thestrategies to overcome such deficiencies. Forinstance, both IFAC (1996) and AAA (1990),though highlighting the need to improveundergraduates' communication skills, do notprovide suggestion as to how to achieve suchfeats.

Prior studies show that ability tocommunicate effectively can be hampered bypoor skills or by communication apprehension(CA) or both (Daly 1978; McCroskey 1984).Stanga and Ladd (1990) stress the need tocarefully differentiate between communicationskills and communication apprehension beforeadvising students who need to improve theiroral communication. CA, they assert, is cognitivein nature and persons with high levels of CA donot feel good about their oral communication

and therefore avoid it whenever possible. Incontrast, communication skills are behaviouralin nature. Elias (1999) believes that it may beCA that is hindering efforts to improve students'communication skills.

CA refers to an individual's level of fear oranxiety associated with either real or anticipatedcommunication with another person or persons(McCroskey, 1977a). McCroskey develops aninstrument, the Personal Report ofCommunication Apprehension (PRCA)consisting of 24 items!statements to measurethe presence of oral communicationapprehension (OCA) a component of CA Thehigher the score, the higher the apprehensionlevel, vice versa. It is this instrument that hasbeen used in studies on OCA involvingaccounting and business students (such as byStanga and Ladd (1990); Simons et al. (1995)and Elias (1999)). According to McCroskey(1977b), persons with high OCA are likely toavoid communication or experience significanthigh anxiety while communicating. This isbrought about by their negative feelings aboutcommunicating outweighing their perceivedbenefits of communicating. Using McCroskey'sPRCA, Stanga and Ladd (1990) establish a UnitedStates (US) average norm of 65.6 for accountingstudents. Elias (1999) more recen tly and usingMcCroskey's PRCA, found his subjects to havean average score of 66.37, higher than the USnorm.

Literature shows that research on OCA issuesin other disciplines is abundant. Despite so,empirical investigation in accounting educationreporting this phenomenon remains limitedalthough the accounting profession hasrecognized that communication skills areessential to perform the job of an accountanteffectively. Published local studies on this issueare non-existent.

It is against this backdrop that this study istaken up. This study is hoped to contributetowards the dearth of literature on this issue inaccounting education, more so, within the localsetting. As its main aim, this study examines theextent of OCA incidence among accountingstudents in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).OCA score functions as an indicator of anindividual's apprehensiveness of his or her abilityto communicate orally. Given that OCA isreported as able to promote an individual'sunwillingness to take part in oral communication

82 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 6 No.2 1998

Are Accounting Undergraduates Apprehensive about Oral Communication?

due to their negative perception of their ability,a relatively low score for example, would implythat whatever deficiency in UPM accountingstudents' communication skills is not due largelyto their negative perception of their oralcommunication ability. This should becomeuseful information in developing strategies tofurther improve their oral communication skills.Remedial efforts could then be more focussedon behavioural rather than the cognitive aspectsof oral communication.

OCA has been shown to be associated witha number of variables such as occupationalpreference (Daly and McCroskey 1975); seatingposition in classroom (Daly and Suite 1982);academic achievement (McCroskey andAndersen 1976) and some personality attributeslike self-esteem, self-disclosure and others(McCroskey et al. 1976). Although essentially,comparison of OCA scores for as many attributesas possible that appear to contribute towardsOCA will be useful, being exploratory, this studyprovides analysis of only selected few namelygender, classroom seating position andparticipation in co-curricular or extracurricularactivities. While the association of gender andseating positions to OCA has been investigatedin other studies, participation in co-curricularactivities has not. Rationale for inclusion isprovided in the proceeding section to be followedby a description of the method and the finalsection on results and discussions.

Prior Research

Many studies on oral communication have beenconducted since the last five decades. Most ofthem focus on the effects of OCA on a person'sbehaviour and OCA correlates such as academicperformance and seating position. The resultsof these studies have consistently indicated thatsome people are more apprehensive orally thanothers. This apprehension has a negative impacton their communication behaviour as well asother aspects of their lives.

Freimuth (1976) conducted a study on listenersto examine the extent to which communicationapprehension of sender influences his/hercommunication effectiveness as perceived by thereceiver. Individuals who reported highapprehension are observed to experience morefrequent gaps of silence in their speech andreceived low ratings on language facility, vocalcharacteristics and general effectiveness.

Hamilton (1972) found that people withhigh level of OCA talk less in small group settingthan people with low level of OCA in order toavoid communication. When individuals withhigh OCA participated in a discussion, theircomments were likely to be irrelevant to theongoing discussion (Wells 1970; Weiner 1973).

McCroskey and Sheahan (1976) observedthat students with low level of OCA preferred tochoose the seats in front and centre of theclassroom with the arrangement of straight-rowseating while students with high OCA avoidedthese seats and instead chose seats on theperiphery of the room, on the sides and at theback. McCroskey and McVetta (1977) extendedthis research and found that both courseattractiveness and students' OCA level didinfluence seating preferences.

Although significant relationship betweenOCA and academic performance have not beendetected in the Stanga and Ladd (1990) study,such relationship is depicted in McCroskey's(1977b). Where the instructional system permitsstudent-initiated interaction with the teacher,significant difference was noted in the academicachievement between the high and lowapprehensives (McCroskey and Andersen 1976).On the contrary, the difference in academicperformance was not observed in acommunication-restricted system. As such, theyconclude that students with high OCA wouldprefer large lecture classes to small classes whichrequire extensive participation on the part ofthe students while the preference pattern forstudents with lower CA would be reversed.

With regard to the occupational choice,Daly and McCroskey (1975) found that highlyapprehensive individuals indicated a clearpreference for occupations with lowcommunication requirements while lowlyapprehensive individuals indicated oppositepreferences. It is interesting to note from theirstudy that in fact, accounting related occupationhas been identified as one of the occupationsperceived to require low communication. Onthis score, Stanga and Ladd (1990) theorise thatbecause accounting is perceived to be a lowcommunication demanding profession, studentswho choose to major in accounting tend to behighly apprehensive. The findings of theirexploratory study suggest that beginningaccounting majors have above average OCA andare found to be significantly more apprehensive

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 6 No.2 1998 83


about speaking in meetings than in othercommunication settings. When tested forgender, the study does not find any significantdifference in OCA level between males andfemales. Stanga and Ladd's (1990) finding ongender issue appears similar to Daly andStafford's (1984) findings where no significantdifference was observed. However, unlike Stangaand Ladd's (1990) and Daly and Stafford's (1984)results, McCroskey (1984) found that femaleshad higher OCA than males.

Recognising the need to determine whetherstudents are deficient in communication skillsor whether they are communicationapprehensives, Simons et at. (1995) carried out astudy to determine the profile of CA inundergraduate business students focusingspecially on accounting majors. Their researchdiffers from the earlier study of Stanga andLadd (1990) in that they also studied anotherform of CA, that is, written apprehension besideOCA. Using one-way ANOVA to test for gendereffects, the results unlike Stanga and Ladd's(1990) indicate a significant difference betweenmale and female. Like McCroskey (1984) whofound that females had higher OCA than males,females majoring in accounting or managementwere also found to be more apprehensive aboutoral communication than males within the twomajors by Simons et at. Females also reporthigher apprehension in meetings and in publicspeaking situations than male in those majors.

A more recent study by Beatty et at. (1998)reports a shift in emphasis from researchfocussing on correlates and consequencestowards those explaining the factors that causedCA. Briefly, they view that CA representsindividual's expression of inborn biologicalfunctioning independent of social learningprocesses. Drawing from the work of psychobiologist and CA researchers, they suggest thatCA is an inherited trait genetically related.Individual differences in CA are mostly traceableto differences in biological functioning and donot depend primarily on learning processes.Hence a theory of CA based on the prillciples ofpsychobiology is proposed.

As mentioned in preceding sect JUIl. apartfrom investigating the level of OCA amongaccounting students in UPM, this exploratorystudy also compares students' OCA scores bygender, seating position and participation in cocurricular activities. From earlier discussion of

the relevant literature, studies on gender issueshave exhibited conflicting results. Given suchinconclusiveness, it is interesting to find out howgender is associated to OCA among accountingstudents in UPM although it is hypothesisedhere that the level of OCA is not significantlydifferen t between male and female students.Thus gender is included as one of the attributeson how OCA scores are compared in this studywhereHI: Male students' OCA is not significantly

different from those of female students.

Although no conflicting reports are observedwith respect to OCA in terms of choice of seatsin classroom as depicted by both McCroskey andSheahan's (1976) and McCroskey and McVetta's(1977) studies, seating position is anotherattribute investigated in this study. An observablephenomenon within the accounting classroomsetting as experienced by the researchersthroughout their teaching at UPM is thetendency of students to occupy the middle, backand side seats (also referred to as periphery)with the front rows usually left unoccupied.Inclusion of tllis variable in this study can providean indication of whether students' choice ofclassroom seating position is in fact contributedto their OCA level. McCroskey and Sheahan(1976) and McCroskey and McVetta (1977)theorise that it is fear of being called toparticipate in classroom discussion that leadsstudents with high OCA to choose seats on theperiphery of the room, on the sides and at backinstead of front row seats. Although it ishypothesised here that the choice of seatingposition is not affected by students' OCA,confirmation of the presence of thisphenomenon would be useful for suchknowledge would in turn, allow educators to restrategize the way they select students forclassroom participation. Hence the secondhypothesis for this study isH2: There is no significant difference between

OCA score of students who choose thefront and middle classroom seats and thosewho choose the back and side seats.

While gender and seat position have beenstudied by many researchers in relation to OCA(Daly and McCroskey 1975; McCroskey andSheahan, 1976; Stanga and Ladd, 1990),participation in co-curricular activities has not.



Peculiar to Malaysian universities, students arestrongly encouraged to participate in cocurricular or extracurricular activities such asbeing member of uniformed units, academicand non-academic societies. Studies that focusedon determining the effect of student participationin extracurricular activities on personalachievement and socialisation almost all showthat participation in extracurricular activities haspositive bearing on personal and socialdevelopment. For example, Haensly et al. (1986)in studying the role of extracurricular activitiesin relation to personal and social development,and to academic achievement, conclude thatextracurricular activities provide an importantcontext for social, emotional and academicdevelopment. Likewise, Carter and Neason(1984) found a positive relationship betweenstudent participation in extracurricular activitiesand personal development. Of more directrelation to this study is the work by Collins(1977) which indicates that students whoparticipated in various extracurricular activities,more specifically student organisations, oftenhad higher self-esteem than those who did not.McCroskey et al. (1976) earlier found thatstudents with high self-esteem tend to be lowapprehensives. Hence, it is interesting to observethe OCA level of UPM accounting students whoparticipate in co-curricular activities and compareit with OCA level of those who do not. With thefindings of McCroskey et al. (1976) indicatingthe tendency of students with high self-esteemhaving low OCA while the findings of Collins(1977) indicating that students who participatein co-curricular activities tend to have high selfesteem, following their argument, it appearsthat students who participate in co-curricularactivities can be expected to have low OCA. Onthe level of OCA in relation to participation inco-curricular activities, the third hypothesis testedin this study isH3: There is no significant difference betweenthe OCA score between students who participatein co-curricular activities and those who do not.

METHODOLOGY

The PRCA developed by McCroskey (1984) wasadministered to 90 randomly selected first yearaccounting students at UPM. As earliermentioned, PRCA was selected for this studybecause it has been employed extensively inprevious research concerning OCA. More

importantly too, it has consistently producedrelatively high internal reliability estimates ofabove 0.90 and test re-test reliability of above0.80 (McCroskey, 19.84). In this study, theCronbach alpha value is 0.8930, thus indicatingthat the instrument is a reliable measure of OCAin the Malaysian context.

In essence, the McCroskey PRCA thatmeasures OCA elicits an individual's personalfeelings for communication. The instrumentconsists of six items in four differentcommunication settings: public speaking,meetings, group discussions and talking in dyads.Respondents were required to indicate thedegree of agreement with each of the statementon a 5-point Likert scale, with 1 representingstrongly agree and 5 indicating strongly-disagreestatus. To ensure full understanding of thestatements, a pretested, translated version of theinstrument was used whenever required byrespondents. A qualified translator carried outthe translation. To ensure mutual translatabilityof the two language versions, the Malay languagetranslated version was retranslated into Englishlanguage and compared with the originalinstrument.

In addition to the PRCA, students'background data such as gender, participationin co-curricular activities and preferred classroomseating position were also collected. T-test wasemployed to these data to determine whethersignificant difference at OCA level exists betweenthe groups (male versus female; preference forfront and middle row seats versus back andperipheral seats; and participation versus nonparticipation) .

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

An overall PRCA score and a score on each ofthe four subscales (public speaking, meeting,group, dyad) were computed for eachrespondent. The mean overall PRCA score was63.09 with a standard deviation of 12.39. Table1 shows the frequency distribution of the PCRAoverall scores for the respondents in the study.In the absence of a Malaysian nation-wide meanscore, the overall mean score of the study wascompared to the US national average score(Stanga and Ladd, 1990) and the score computedby Elias (1999). The average PRCA score of thisstudy is lower than the US average score of 65.6and the score established by Elias (1999) of66.37. McCroskey (1984) used scores that equal



or exceed one standard deviation above themean as a cut off point to identify students whohave high level of OCA. This means that astudent, whose overall PRCA score equals orexceeds 75.5, has high OCA. Similarly, onewhose score is 50.7 or lower is considered as lowapprehensive. Using this cut off point, it isobserved that 12.2% and 23% of the sample arehigh and low apprehensives respectively.

TABLE 1Frequency distribution of PRCA overall scores of

accoun ting students

PRCA Score Frequency Percentage

25-34 2 2.235-44 3 3.345-54 16 17.855-64 23 25.665-74 35 38.975-84 8 8.985-94 3 3.3

90 100

High 94.00 Low 28.00

Mean 63.09 StandardDeviation 12.39

The mean PRCA score is highest for publicspeaking and lowest for communicating in group(refer table 2). The results imply that accountingstudents are more apprehensive speaking in publicand meeting than in group or dyad setting. Similarresults are also evidenced in the Stanga and Ladd's(1990) study. This confirms the results of thesurvey by Bruskin Associates (1973) that the mostfrequently reported fear is speaking in public.

Table 2Summary of PRCA results

(n=90)

PRCA Scale Mean Standard Max. Min.Deviation

Overall 63.09 12.39 94 24Group 12.61 3.65 26 6Meeting 17.20 5.03 28 6Dyad 13.24 3.59 24 6Public 20.02 4.86 28 6Speaking

A comparison of OCA level between maleand female students does not indicate anysignificant difference (refer Table 3) although

female subscale scores are higher than males inall communication settings. Hence, HI in thisstudy is accepted. The finding differs fromprevious studies (McCroskey, 1984 and Simonset at. 1995) where females were found to have asignificantly higher OCA level than males.Perhaps, the higher number of females makingup the population of accounting students inUPM may have reduced some degree ofapprehensiveness among the female students.Chances of being called upon in the classroomshould be equal if not more for the femalestudents unlike Bogart's study (1981) whichreports that male students were called on moreoften than female students and female students'contribution was viewed as less important. Toconclude with certainty as to why there is nosignificant difference between male and femalestudents' score of PRCA will require furtherstudy.

TABLE 3Oral communication apprehension by gender

PRCA Scale Male Female T-value 2-TailSig.

Overall 61.39 63.66 -0.79 .437Group 12.26 12.73 -0.57 .570Meeting 16.43 17.46 -0.83 .411Dyad 13.04 13.3 1 -0.31 .756Public 19.65 20.15 -0.42 .678

Speaking

In terms of seating position, the results revealthat the overall scores ofrespondents who preferthe front and middle seats are not significantlydifferent from those who choose the seats at theback and periphery of the classroom (Table 4).H2 in this study is thus accepted. A furtherexamination of the subscale scores howeverindicates that the former is less significantlyapprehensive only in group-communicationsetting, compared to the latter. Both groupsappear more apprehensive in public speakingand meeting than in other communicationcontext.

A cross-tabulation of seating position by OCAlevel (Table 5) indicates that all of the lowapprehensives prefer the front and middle seatswhile majority of the high apprehensives choosesthe seats in the middle and peripherals of theclassroom. A plausible explanation is that, thisphenomenon could be the result of the strategyadopted by the students with high apprehension



TABLE 6Oral communication apprehension by

participation in co-curricular

Overall 61.36 68.09 -2.19 0.036*Group 11.81 14.96 -3.25 0.003Meeting 17.03 13.70 -0.59 0.557Dyad 12.64 15.00 -2.45 0.020*Public 19.88 20.43 -0.53 0.600

Speaking

The present study investigates the incidence ofOCA among first year accounting students inUPM and subsequently compares OCA levelaccording to gender, preferred seating positionin the classroom and participation in cocurricular activities. The findings indicate thatthe average OCA level of accounting students inUPM is lower than the USA national norm(Stanga and Ladd 1990) and the average scoreas found by Elias (1999). Generally, accounting

tend to have high self-esteem. Following onfrom their arguments, it appears that UPMaccounting students who participate in cocurricular activities may have low OCA becausethey are high-esteemed individuals in the firstplace.

A comparison of subscale scores betweenparticipation and non-participation groups foundthat the participation group was significantly lessapprehensive than the non participants in groupand dyad setting. Non-participation groupcharacterised by high CA would be expected tobe more apprehensive about communicating ina circumstance where participation cannot beavoided. In dyad situation for instance, onedoes not have any choice but to respond whentalked to. Indeed, a significant difference in CAlevel between those who participated and didnot participate in co-curricular activities atuniversity level does exist for group and dyadcontext (refer Table 6). But, in public speakingand meeting situations, even the group thatparticipated in co-curricular activities did notdiffer significantly in their CA scores from thenon-participants.

2-Tailsig.

CONCLUSION

*Significance at 0.05 level

ActivitiesPRCA Participation Non- T-valueScore participation

Seating Position CA Level

Low Medium High

Front 9(69.2%) 27(40.3%) 1(10%)

Centre 4(30.8%) 32(47.7%) 6(60%)

Side 4(6.0%) 3(30%)

Back 4(6.0%)Total 13(100%) 67(100%) 10(100%)

TABLE 4Oral communication apprehension by

seating position

PRCA Scale Seating Position T-value 2-Tailsig.

Front & Side &Centre Back

Overall 62.34 68.36 -1.75 0.102Group 12.23 15.36 -2.25 0.045*Meeting 16.96 18.91 -1.14 0.274

Dyad 13.33 12.64 1.00 0.325Public 19.82 21.45 -1.28 0.220Speaking

When t-test is carried out to compare overallOCA level between students who participated inco-curricular activities at university level and thosewho did not, a significant difference is observedat 0.05 level. Students who participated in cocurricular activities at university level are foundto be less apprehensive about oral communication than those who did not. Therefore H3 isrejected.

Participation in co-curricular activities inuniversity is voluntary, hence high apprehensivesmight not participate in order to avoidcommunication encounters. As a consequence,those who participate in co-curricular activitiestend to be made up of those with low OCA level,vice-versa. Another possibility is that ashighlighted in earlier section. McCroskey et al.(1976) observe that students with high self-esteemtend to have low OCA while the findings ofCollins (1977) indicate among others, thatstudents who participate in co-curricular activities

TABLE 5Seating position by oral communication

apprehension level

*Significance at 0.05 level

to avoid communication encounters withinstructors.



students are found to be more apprehensiveabout communicating in public and meetingsthan in dyad and group discussions.

No significant difference is found betweenmale and female students for all communicationsettings. In terms of seating position preference,overall, the OCA of students does not differsignificantly. Nevertheless, accounting studentswho prefer front and middle row seating aregenerally less apprehensive than those who preferthe back and periphery seats in group context.For participation in co-curricular activities,accounting students who participate appear tohave lower OCA level than those who do not.

The above results confirm that fear oranxiety about one's ability to communicate wellin various communication context, does existamong accounting students in UPM. This impliesthat any lack of communication on the part ofthese students need not necessarily be caused bytheir inability or lack of skill to communicateorally, effectively. Rather, lack of oralcommunication may be the result of their fearor negative perception of not being able tocommunicate well. Although male and femalestudents do not appear to have significantlydifferent level of OCA, students who prefer theback and periphery seats in classroom seem to

do so out of fear about their oral communicationskills when communicating in group. This pieceof information should be helpful to instructorsin strategizing the way to encourage classparticipation. As theorised by McCroskey andSheahan (1976) and McCroskey and McVetta(1977), students tend to perceive the back andperiphery seats as "safe" seats from being calledout by instructors. Perhaps, one way to minimisestudents' fear is to increase class group activitiesthat require oral communication. Such activitiesshould be aimed more for students who aremost apprehensive, in this case, from the backand periphery seats. Eventually, with practice,the level of fear or negative perception abouttheir oral communication skill among studentswith high OCA can be reduced. On the issue ofparticipation in co-curricular activities, studentswith high OCA should be encouraged toparticipate in co-curricular activities. As shownby Haensly et at. (1986) and Carter and Neason(1984), participation in co-curricular activitiescan be beneficial towards improving one's selfesteem and personal development. Hence oneway of addressing the problem of fear to

communicate is to encourage parUCIpation inactivities that promote communication. Again, itis hoped that through frequent practice of oralcommunication as required through participationin co-curricular activities, the fear to communicate(as denoted by the high PRCA score of those whodo not participate) can at least be minimised, ifnot totally avoided, so that gradually, the highapprehensives will become low apprehensives.With such findings, policies to encourage higherparticipation in co-curricular activities should bedesigned due to the benefits that can be derivedfrom co-curricular participation.

Thus, this study as rationalised in the firstsection bears implications on the way educatorscan help improve students communication skills.Given that students in UPM are found to beapprehensive about their oral communicationability, strategies can be designed to address thecognitive aspect of communication in additionto the behavioural elements. With such findingsas above, some specific measures with respect tominimising students OCA can be developed.

It is also hopeful that this study can providethe impetus for future research in the area.Obviously further work involving a larger samplesize and other variables such as prior workingexperience, choice of academic programmes andcovering all universities in Malaysia is needed toobtain a better picture of CA among accountingstudents. A comparative study of OCA betweenaccounting and non-accounting students can alsobe carried out to investigate whether accountingstudents' choice of programme is due to theirperception of low communication requirementof the discipline. Comparison of first and finalyear accounting students should also be insightfulin understanding the state of the phenomenon.To encompass a more comprehensive coverageof students' communication skills, perhaps a studyon written communication apprehension amongstudents in addition to OCA can be conducted.

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(Received: 31 Janumy 2000)

90 PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 6 TO. 2 1998

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