CHENNAI: American author and humourist Mark Twain once said, “There are two types of speakers — those that are nervous and those that are liars.” It is true. Almost all speakers experience nervousness in public speaking, but successful speakers admit it. They do not allow their anxiety to overcome them; they defeat it with confidence. An alternative term for public speaking nervousness is speech anxiety. It is a sense of fear that overtakes a person when they are called upon to speak in public.
I teach communication skills to engineering students. They are required to speak about a topic of their choice for three minutes in front of their classmates. A week ago, I asked a group of students to do the same and give reasons for selecting that topic. One of the students selected the topic “Unemployment Among Engineering Graduates” and said that students who had their education in regional languages lack communication skills in English and therefore are considered unemployable. One of his classmates retorted that even students who are proficient in English are at times rejected in the campus recruitment process. Yes, over 25 per cent of the students experience some level of communication anxiety irrespective of their level of proficiency in the language.
People are reluctant to speak in public for various reasons. Recently, I asked a group of students unwilling to deliver their speeches why they did not want to do so. Here are a few of the reasons given by them:
1. I am not fluent in English. If I make mistakes, my classmates will laugh at me.
2. I studied in a Tamil-medium school. My English is bad. I can’t give a speech in English.
3. I have stage fright.
4. I’m shy. I’m not comfortable facing the audience.
5. Though I can speak fluently and without grammatical errors, I have stage fright.
6. My written English is good, but my spoken language is bad. I can’t speak fluently.
Yes, one can experience speech anxiety if their proficiency in the language is low. But many researches prove that even those who are proficient in a particular language have stage fright and thus experience speech anxiety. Recently, I came in contact with a successful public speaker who had all his education in Tamil but later learnt English and mastered it. When I asked him to share his success story, he gave the following tips:
1. Think positive and focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses.
2. Boost your confidence by telling yourself that you can deliver a speech in public.
3. No one is perfect. Making grammatical mistakes or stumbling while giving a speech is quite natural.
4. Don’t feel discouraged when someone laughs at you . Challenge yourself by saying that you will do better next time.
5. Be open minded. Learn from others. When someone points out your mistakes, consider it an opportunity to grow.
Confidence leads to competence and that leads to success. Confident learners of English can become competent and successful users of the language.
— rayanal@yahoo.co.uk
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