Anxiety in Public Speaking and how to reduce it?

Anxiety is defined as a state of uneasiness and apprehension or fear caused by the anticipation of something threatening. Public speaking anxiety is very common among both college students and the general population. Persons with public speaking anxiety often avoid anxiety-producing social or performance situations, but when unavoidable, these situations are endured with feeling of intense anxiety and distress. Also, anticipatory anxiety frequently occurs as an individual imagines the situation in advance of the actual experience (e.g., worrying each day about a presentation to be given in a class several weeks in the future). Although individuals with these types of anxious responses often recognize that their fear is excessive and/or unreasonable, they are unable, without assistance, to change their responses in these situations.

Individuals with public speaking anxiety most often experience a variety of symptoms in a public speaking situation, including palpitations, sweating, gastrointestinal discomfort, diarrhea, muscle tension, and confusion. (North & Rives; 2001)  Burnley et al.(1993) states that, “Approximately 85 percent of the general population report experiencing some level of anxiety about speaking in public.”  Rossi and Seiler (1989) indicate that, “Public speaking or stage fright has been investigated and studied since the mid-1930’s.

Many people who speak for a living, including actors, business people, and politicians, experience public speaking anxiety.  In fact, some of these experienced public speakers feel that a little nervousness before a performance or speaking engagement gives them the ability to perform at their best.  However, for some people the anxiety becomes so intense that it interferes with the ability to perform at all.

 In the case of students, this may lead to avoiding certain courses or even majors where oral presentations are required, never speaking in class, or deciding against certain careers because they would require occasional speaking before a group.  Students who are very anxious about public speaking in class may sometimes also avoid social events they would like to attend or may not talk to classmates they would like to get to know.   

Foreign language anxiety has been said by many researchers to influence language learning. Whereas facilitating anxiety produces positive effects on learners' performance, too much anxiety may cause a poor performance (Scovel, 1991). Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1991) have found that anxiety typically centers on listening and speaking. Speaking in class is most frequently difficult for anxious students even though they are pretty good at responding to a drill or giving prepared speeches. Anxious students may also have difficulties in discriminating sounds and structures or in catching their meaning.

Price (1991) investigated by asking questions about what made students most anxious in foreign language class. All of the subjects answered that having to speak a foreign language in front of other students resulted in the most anxiety. According Beatty, 1988; Beatty, Balfantz & Kuwabara, 1989; Beatty & Frieland, 1990 public speaking anxiety may stem from numerous sources, such as public speaking skills, fluency in a foreign language, emotional predispositions towards public speaking, and characteristics of the public speaking situation itself.

Fear of public speaking is a very common form of social phobia. Individuals who fear speaking in public may find their career choices limited and avenues for promotion closed to them, resulting in considerable personal distress, frustration, and depression.These individuals may underachieve at work or at school because of anxiety and often avoid speaking in classroom situations. In more severe cases, they may drop out of school rather than face a feared situation, such as a class with mandated oral reports that constitute a significant proportion of the final course grade.

A study indicate that the students experienced significantly less anxiety after they had been taught how to manage their distress, by means of affective strategies. Anxiety is typically understood as a physiological response. We can’t make it go away, but we can help it work for us instead of against us. According to results a great number of our students were able to change their perception of their anxiety level by the end of the course.