Communication Comfort

Figure 2.1

Public Speaking, Eighth Edition, by Michael Osborn, Suzanne Osborn and Randall Osborn. Published by Allyn & Bacon.

Copyright © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 2 Managing Your Fear of Speaking 27

Surprised? Still think that everyone else is more confident

than you are? The late Edward R. Murrow, a famous

radio and television commentator, once said:

The best speakers know enough to be scared. . . . The

only difference between the pros and the novices is that

the pros have trained the butterflies to fly in formation.

The first step in controlling communication apprehension

is understanding it. In this chapter, we first discuss

the nature of this fear and then tell you some things

you can do to manage it. Our goal is not to rid you of communication

anxiety but to help you train your butterflies

to fly in formation.

Understanding

Communication Anxiety

Y ou may have noticed that earlier in this chapter we

put the words stage fright in quotation marks to indicate

our reservations about using these words to

describe public speaking fears. Stage suggests theater, and

theater suggests performance. However, a public speech is

not a performance but an interactive, dynamic communication

event.6 If you think of your speeches as performances,

you cast yourself as an actor and your messages

become soliloquies rather than authentic attempts to communicate.

You may also see the audience as critics you

must please.

A better way to discuss this problem is to call it

communication anxiety. Communication anxiety encompasses

the range of unpleasant sensations you may experience before or during a

presentation. The fears associated with public speaking are rooted in the risks

involved in true communication: In public speaking, you open your hearts and

minds to the scrutiny of others. This experience can result in personal growth and

self-enhancement. But it also involves risk which can cause anxiety. When you open

your hearts and minds to others, you subject yourself to criticism. We begin by examining

the symptoms of communication anxiety, the reasons you might feel anxious

when you stand up to speak, and the specific things people are concerned about.

Symptoms of Communication Anxiety

It s the night before your first speech. You go to bed, but instead of going to

sleep, you toss and turn. You try reciting the alphabet backward. That doesn t

work, so you just lie in bed worrying. The more you think about your speech,

the more tense and irritable you feel. You hear music, so you get up, tramp

down the hall, burst into the room, and yell, Will you turn that down! I ve

got to give a speech tomorrow, so I have to have a good night s sleep!

Finally, morning dawns. You re in class waiting for your turn. You don t really

listen to the speeches before yours because you feel miserable. You hear your

name called. Your stomach drops. Your hands begin to sweat. Your heart races.

Pro golfer Annika Sorenstam once avoided press conferences

because she suffered from communication anxiety.

communication anxiety The range

of unpleasant sensations and fears you

may experience before or during a

presentation.

ESL: Meet with your ESL students

separately or in a small group.

Have them identify their specific

public speaking fears. Customize

a program to help them

overcome these fears.

Public Speaking, Eighth Edition, by Michael Osborn, Suzanne Osborn and Randall Osborn. Published by Allyn & Bacon.

Copyright © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Your ears feel hot. Your mouth feels dry. You plod to

the podium and look up at the audience. Your knees

start to shake. You grab hold of the lectern for support.

Any of these symptoms sound familiar? What you are

experiencing is a natural adrenaline rush. It s the same

type of reaction you might have if you suddenly encountered

a bear in the woods or a mugger on a dark street.

These are the physical symptoms you usually associate with

fear. They make up the fight-or-flight readiness that can

help you cope with a difficult situation. But when it s your

turn to speak, neither fight nor flight is appropriate. You

can t punch your instructor and you can t run out the door.

You have to give that speech.

Most likely, you won t have all of these symptoms of

communication anxiety, but you may well have some of

them. If you didn t, you wouldn t be normal. Moreover, a

little bit of communication anxiety is a good thing. It can

psych you up for your presentation. However, too much

nervousness can be paralyzing and is a cause for real

concern.

You may be surprised to learn that a little bit of communication

anxiety is a good thing. Why is this true? The

absence of any nervousness may suggest that you don t care

about your audience or your message. We recently taught a

student who announced to the class that she never had any

stage fright because she had won many high school

speech contests and was used to performing (her words).

She didn t understand why she had to take this course. She

was indifferent to learning what the course had to offer. She never really listened

when others were speaking, because she didn t think she could learn anything from

her classmates. She also didn t listen to her instructors, because she felt she already

knew all she needed to know about public performances. After all, she had the trophies

to prove how good she was! Perhaps because of this attitude, her classroom

speeches sounded as though they had been dredged up from her high school files.

They didn t really fit her audience or the assignment. Although her delivery was

smooth, she never connected in any meaningful way with her audience. She never

truly communicated with them.

Where do you stand in terms of your personal communication anxiety? One

way to estimate how much communication anxiety you have is to complete the

questionnaire in Figure 2.2. You may be surprised to find that you didn t score as

high on this scale as you thought you might. If your score is higher than 120, you

should arrange a meeting with your instructor to discuss the problem.

Why Public Speaking Can Be Frightening

Right about now you may be thinking, Well, perhaps Im not alone, but Im still

pretty uptight about giving a speech. Im afraid I ll do or say something stupid. Or,

I ll forget something important. Or, my classmates will make fun of me. These are

very common concerns, so let s investigate why speaking before a group can be

frightening. As we cover these concerns, we ll do some reality testing.

If your class seems especially

anxious, use icebreaker exercises

from the IRM to get them used

to interacting with one another.

28 Part One The Foundations of Public Speaking

Visible signs of communication anxiety can be controlled

using the techniques described in this chapter.

Public Speaking, Eighth Edition, by Michael Osborn, Suzanne Osborn and Randall Osborn. Published by Allyn & Bacon.

Copyright © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 2 Managing Your Fear of Speaking 29

Directions: Assume that you have to give a speech within the next few weeks. For

each of the statements below, indicate the degree to which the statement applies to you

within the context of giving a future speech. Mark whether you strongly agree (SA),

agree (A), are undecided (U), disagree (D), or strongly disagree (SD) with each statement.

Circle your SA, A, U, D, or SD choices. Do not write in the blanks next to the questions.

Work quickly: just record your first impression.

___ 1. While preparing for the speech, I would

feel uncomfortably tense and nervous.

___ 2. I feel uncomfortably tense at the very

thought of giving a speech in the near future.

___ 3. My thoughts would become confused and

jumbled when I was giving a speech.

___ 4. Right after giving the speech I would feel

that I d had a pleasant experience.

___ 5. I would get anxious when thinking about

the speech coming up.

___ 6. I would have no fear of giving the speech.

___ 7. Although I would be nervous just before

starting the speech, after starting it I would

soon settle down and feel calm and comfortable.

___ 8. I would look forward to giving the speech.

___ 9. As soon as I knew that I would have to

give the speech, I would feel myself

getting tense.

___ 10. My hands would tremble when I was

giving the speech.

___ 11. I would feel relaxed while giving the speech.

___ 12. I would enjoy preparing for the speech.

___ 13. I would be in constant fear of forgetting

what I had prepared to say.

___ 14. I would get uncomfortably anxious if

someone asked me something that I did

not know about my topic.

___ 15. I would face the prospect of giving the

speech with confidence.

SA5 A4 U3 D2 SD1

SA5 A4 U3 D2 SD1

SA5 A4 U3 D2 SD1

SA1 A2 U3 D4 SD5

SA5 A4 U3 D2 SD1

SA1 A2 U3 D4 SD5

SA1 A2 U3 D4 SD5

SA1 A2 U3 D4 SD5

SA5 A4 U3 D2 SD1

SA5 A4 U3 D2 SD1

SA1 A2 U3 D4 SD5

SA1 A2 U3 D4 SD5

SA5 A4 U3 D2 SD1

SA5 A4 U3 D2 SD1

SA1 A2 U3 D4 SD5

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