The use of video in addressing anxiety prior to viva voce exams

Online is checked for eligibility for copyright before being made available in the live archive. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to from other web pages. Enquiries If you have any enquiries about any aspect of City Research Online, or if you wish to make contact with the author(s) of this paper, please email the team at [email protected]. Introduction Traditionally viva voce or oral exams are used as a complement to written exams in a wide range of disciplines. Whilst vivas are acknowledged as giving a unique insight ito studets aailities, they tend to give rise to a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty for students. Although Davis and Karunathilake (2005) note that there is no evidence concerning whether vivas are more stressful than other types of exam, studies across disciplines suggest that vivas are indeed anxiety provoking. For example Ardnt et al. (1986, 277), investigating medical vivas, found a disproportioatel high degree of anxiety in candidates, the level being substantially higher than a typical selection iterie. Similarly, Pearce and Lee (2009), discussing vivas in marketing education, found that many students noted pre-viva anxiety concerns, as did Sayce (2007) for business students. Ardnt et al. (1986) discuss the aspects of vivas which make candidates anxious, using Grays (1982) neuropsychological theories. They note that people are anxious when in a situation where they might be punished or not rewarded, for example by not performing well enough to pass. New stimuli are also anxiety provoking, and students cannot prepare for the particular material presented in the viva. Furthermore situations involving social interactions-including face-to-face interaction in a viva-are innately fear or anxiety inducing. Although the relationship between anxiety and academic performance is complex (see discussion in Mellanby and Zimdars, 2011), if anxiety levels are too high, learning will not be facilitated (Ashcroft and Foreman-Peck, 2002). Tinkler and Jackson (2002) note that anxiety levels for PhD vivas can be reduced by preparing students through careful guidelines and mock-vivas, whilst Sayce (2007) notes that a role-play was useful in helping students overcome their fear. Here we investigate if a video of a mock phonetics viva (acting as a symbolic model, in the terms of Bandura, 1977) can reduce student anxiety. We compare the video to strategies used in previous years: written information and a group practice session. Method We filmed a video of a successful mock–viva in phonetics, featuring an …