PUBLIC SPEAKING ANXIETY IN STUDENTS: A SURVEY

INTRODUCTION

The fear of public speaking is the most common phobia ahead of death, spiders, or

heights. Whenever they find themselves in a situation where they become the center of attention

as they have to present a speech in front of a big crowd, they tend to experience emotions like fear

and anxiety, leading to nausea, excessive sweating and uncontrolled trembling of hands and feet.

The feeling of receiving harsh judgment or negative evaluation by others. In The Challenge

of Effective Speaking (2012), R.F. Verderber et al. report that "as many as 76%

of experienced public speakers feel fearful before presenting a speech." Most of them try to

avoid situations where they have to perform or speak in public, but unavoidable, such situations

are endured by distress. According to Lucas (2011) ¸ “Many people who converse easily in all kinds

of everyday situations become frightened at the idea of standing up before a group to make a

speech.” (p.9). These people need to realize that they are not alone, that they are not the only ones

who are going through these emotions; in fact, almost every speaker feels the same. It is important

that people realize that there are more anxious public speakers in the world than those who are not.

Anxiety is a state of uneasiness and apprehension of fear caused by the anticipation of

something threatening Some speakers are more comfortable in larger groups, and some are

more comfortable speaking to smaller groups. The concept of Public Speaking Anxiety

comes from the students fear of embarrassment if they speak in front of different crowds

of people. Students have a fear of making mistakes or messing up or just being judged in

general by their audience. Most of the anxiety that students have of speaking publicly stems

from a previous experience that ended with them making a mistake or being judged by
their audience or their audience not being as interested in the topic as the speaker thought

they would be. According to Kirkwood and Melton (2002), anxiety disorders are the most

common mental disorders encountered by public speakers. People who are nervous when speaking

in front of the public tend to avoid situations where they have to perform, but when they suffer such

situations, they suffer from intense distress and anxiety. According to Kant (2000), people in

general, negatively assess and appraise those who demonstrate their fears towards public speaking

and fail to make a strong intuition through confident motions. These difficulties can act as obstacles

in achieving one’s goals and could be both personal and professional. Hence speakers need to

develop strong public speaking skills to enable them to become more confident.

In today’s time and age, good communication skills are essential to almost all levels.

According to Raja (2013), “Communication has become one of the markers of social solidarity,

social ranking and professional capabilities and most of the components of the language are learnt

through this medium.’ (p.154). According to Pertaub, Slater and Baker (2001), professionals are

expected to present numerous talks to both small and large groups of audience at different intervals

of their professional lives and if they suffer from public speaking anxiety, they face a backlash and

this kind of anxiety can have an extreme effect on their career. Their research also describes the

results, which illustrate that social anxiety persuade in people is directly proportional to the

variation of response received from the audience. They explained that this creates a powerful

impact on the confidence of individuals and it translates significantly into their public addresses.
 Moreover, the purpose of this study is to discover and identify the reasons behind the

anxiety of public speaking and to present ways on how to handle it. This includes all the important

details, information of results and findings of this research.