GENDER INTERACTION BETWEEN COVARIATES IN MANAGING ANXIETY VIA VLOGS

Background and Purpose: ESL learners found themselves engulfed with extreme anxiety when it comes to speaking in public. This study investigated the use of vlogs in managing anxiety between male and female undergraduate students and examined whether there is an interaction exists between both genders during the intervention that may influence the outcomes.   Methodology: This study employed a quasi-experimental design with a total of N=53 (15 males, 38 females) ESL participants from one public university in Malaysia. Before and after the intervention, a set of 'Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) questionnaires were administered. A 2x2 between subjects factorial ANCOVA (or two-way ANCOVA) was computed by controlling the pre-test scores. After controlling for the pre-test as covariate, the two-way ANCOVA was performed to see if there was an interaction impact between gender (male vs female) and treatments (with and without vlogs) in terms of anxiety level scores.   Findings: In comparison to the control group, the experimental group performed better with F(1, 48)=6.695, p<.05, which showed that undergraduate students in the experimental group displayed less anxiety when using vlogs as compared to the treatment group. However, there was no significant difference of gender influence on the effectiveness of vlogs on learners’ anxiety with F(1, 48)=1.552, p>.05, Eta-squared = .03 when using vlogs. Nonetheless, there was a significant interaction between treatment groups and gender with F(1,48)=5.22, p<.05 which indicated that the relationship between the covariate and the dependent variable is different for each treatment group.   Contributions: This study is hoped not only to encourage ESL educators to make use of vlogs in their teaching and learning, but also to inform researchers with similar interest to consider the existence of covariates of the participants that might have impacted the research outcomes.   Keywords: Speaking, anxiety, covariates interaction, gender differences, vlogs.   Cite as: Shukor, S. S., & Madzlan, N. A. (2022). Gender interaction between covariates in managing anxiety via vlogs.  Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(2), 1-20. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss2pp1-20