An Overview of the Development of Research on Public Speaking Course from 2004 to 2013

Abstract

AbstractThis research explores the studies published in English from 2004 to 2013 on the Public Speaking (PS) course to provide a preliminary framework of the research paradigm and identify its major themes and sub-themes in this field. A majority of the studies were from the communication literature, with the remaining studies coming from the disciplines of linguistics, education and psychology, which indicates research on PS is multidisciplinary. In the literature, the years 2004 and 2005 saw a peak of studies from native-speaking countries while the years 2011 and 2012 began to see an increase of the research from non-native speaking countries. Nearly half of the studies fell into the non-empirical category. With the method of content analysis and based on the research agenda in the public speaking proposed by Lucas (2011), seven themes were identified, including public speaking anxiety, goals of the public speaking course and pedagogical strategies, pedagogical content, course assessment, technology and integrative methods as pedagogy, PS textbooks, and adaptation of the course to non-native speakers. It is hoped that the findings here can contribute to refining research on PS course in China and providing insights for Chinese practitioners.