The-confident-speaker-2007.pdf

International Journal of English Learning and Teaching Skills, 2019

We all are aware of two commonly used terms “Anxiety” & “Communication”, the term “Anxiety”, can be defined as a feeling of worry, nervousness or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. And the term “Communication” can be defined as the imparting or exchanging of information by writing, speaking or using some other medium. With respect to Communication, there is a type of Anxiety known as “Speech Anxiety” which is faced by an individual while delivering a speech on a public platform. “Speech Anxiety” can also be termed as “Communication apprehension”, “Fear of Public Speaking”, or just “Plain Fear” which is faced by the majority of people when speaking to a group of people in a formal setting. Sometimes just the thought of giving a speech makes one feel uncomfortable and those feelings manifest into physical reactions such as sweating, stuttering, flushness, and dizziness. The person often forgets what he/she is going to deliver and feels unprepared; wanting the experience to end. Vividly we have divided these groups of people into three categories namely “Good”, “Average” and “Poor” based on their hold of the particular language, self-confidence and speaking skills. One can reduce these experiences and deliver an effective speech with vivid information, enough self-confidence, and manage the anxiety often associated with public speaking so that he/she can improve the content and the process of delivering the speech.

Communication Education, 2010

Considered by many to be the foundation upon which our discipline was built, the study of public speaking has evolved from its humble beginnings into a vast literature of experimental and expositional studies. The focus of research on public speaking has primarily been to discover the antecedents, causes, and consequences of anxiety associated with anticipating or presenting a public speech in order to prescribe treatment. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature on public speaking anxiety (PSA) to serve as a foundation for future theory building and practice. Toward this end, PSA is defined and a typology of PSA constructs is developed. Then, using these constructs, research exploring the etiology of PSA is reviewed. A third section reviews techniques used to reduce PSA.

Communication Education, 2009

With the goal of identifying the characteristics or traits students bring to the classroom that predispose them to panic when faced with the threat of presenting in front of an audience, this study introduced a subtype of public-speaking state anxiety*anxious arousal. Specifically, this study examined the extent to which trait anxiety and physiological reactivity predicted anxious arousal during a public-speaking presentation. When combined with trait anxiety, physiological reactivity accounted for 73.3% of anxious arousal. Suggestions for pedagogical and therapeutic practice are included.

Biological Psychology, 2009

Quarterly Journal of Speech, 2007

Journal of Education and Educational Development, 2017

Despite being competent in their field of work, professional's worldwide struggle due to lack of good public speaking skills. Their assessments and appraisals are often not depictive of their professional competitiveness; therefore, it is important for students to overcome public speaking anxiety before they transit from academic life to professional life. The purpose of this study is to analyze the reasons behind the anxiety level in undergraduate students of a public speaking class and recommend strategies to overcome this fear. This study was entailed quantitative research paradigm on a sample of 50 students using convenience sampling technique from a reputable private sector business school in Karachi. The findings showed that students who fear public speaking can perform well if they use certain strategies to fight their fears. 75% participants admitted their fear of public speaking and 95% participants agreed that if proper counseling, instruction and coaching is provided, this fear can be overcome. Research revealed that exposure to virtual environment can facilitate student confidence and enables themto face audience irrespective of the size.

2007

This article outlines a series of short oral assignments designed to help alleviate some of the anxiety that many students face when giving public presentations. The assignments consist of: giving an impromptu speech, giving a spoken performance of a song or poem of their choice, and a short reading from a children’s book. Each of these assignments are seen as building blocks, methods for reducing nervousness, methods for building confidence, while concurrently developing peer support as students are working towards a more formal presentation later in the semester. There should be a class debriefing/discussion after all three assignments have been completed. Here, students share their personal experiences and provide ideas to each other for successfully presenting their final speeches.

Communication Education , 2018

This study catalogues student (N = 828) self-described fears related to public speaking. Specifically, this investigation adds to the knowledge of public speaking anxiety through an initial inductive analysis of students’ fears about public speaking and a second analysis (of different data) to authenticate emergent categories. Resulting categories included both internal and external fears about public speaking, providing meaningful implications for teaching and learning within the introductory communication course.

This paper provides a practical deconstruction of the act of public speaking into some of its most salient linguistic and behavioral aspects. Seven specific features are addressed, namely, pause, stress, pace, enunciation, stance, engagement, and authority. The paper also provides a number of concrete pedagogical implementations of these features. The ultimate goal is to provide teachers with a set of tangible resources with which to improve the instruction of presentation skills. Public speaking is a skill, a learned ability that develops over time through practice and experience. Public speaking is also a skill that is rarely addressed and hardly ever mastered. The outcome is that most people are simply unable to speak in public and consequently perceive public speaking as being a very challenging activity. Public speaking in a foreign language is understandably harder and, for simplicity, it can be said that the degree of additio nal difficulty is inversely proportional to the degree of fluency attained. Capable orators have the option to continue applying their knowledge of public speaking regardless of the language they use and they will do so more or less successfully. Yet, those that have not learned to speak in public in their first languages find that the intrinsic difficulties of partial fluency in a foreign language only serves to make a challenging activity even more complex, demanding, and daunting. It is also important to remark that, within the context of language learning, the absence of public s peaking skills has deleterious effects on the learning process itself. Clearly, it is possible to learn a language without the ability to speak in public. Outside of naturalistic settings, however, language instruction generally takes place in one-to-many learning environments (classrooms) where there is a very real need for open, public practice. Students that shy away from speaking up in class are students that deprive themselves of precious practice time. Furthermore, and directly arising from this absence of skill, feelings of anxiety about speaking in public are commonplace an d, in fact, the very idea of addressing an audience is often a cause for discomfort. In the field of psychology, Beck (2010) explains that insecure speakers tend to mistakenly perceive themselves, rather than the subject of their discourse, as the target of scrutiny. Pollard and Henderson (2008) observe that even individuals who do not experience anxiety in other social situations can experience feelings of anxiety when it comes to having to speak in public. I posit that this negative self-perception is often caused by lack of competence in public speaking, rather than originating elsewhere, and can be mitigated indirectly through adequate training in the skill itself. The components of the deconstruction Pause Simply put, pause refers to the absence of speech. When untrained speakers (e.g. students) are asked to think of communication, the role pause plays in delivery and processing is not usually consciously acknowledged. However, it is an aspect of performance that is easy to identify and manipulate, that helps organize discourse, and that allows listeners to better process the narrative aimed at them. Pause has a concrete function as a discourse organizer. It is used to group ideas and thoughts together in order to help signal the relationship between ideas and phrases. These thought groups, or chunks, identify sequences of words that form 'a semantically and grammatically coherent segment of discourse' (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996, p. 175). In the absence of pause, listeners must break up speech into thought groups on their own rather than as intended by the speakers. This opens the possibility that they will give a different interpretation to what is said. In short, pause is a key element i n the decoding of the speech stream. Without pauses, it is increasingly likely that some of content will be lost because the listener's processing resources will be diverted to surplus guesswork. Pause can also make speech more expressive and engaging. In English, the terms 'dramatic pause' and 'pregnant pause' are used to refer to those occasions when pause is used to build suspense and anticipation in the mind of the listener. We often rely on dramatic pauses when telling jokes and stories. Effective public speakers use pause to package their message into easily processible segments, often repeating these chunks throughout their speech to reinforce key ideas. 'I have a dream', 'Let freedom ring'...Some 60 years later, the words of Martin Luther King Jr. are still widely recognizable in part due to his oratorical skill. Pause can be used to make a talk more meaningful to all involved.