Public speaking in a University environment can evoke a range of emotions from students, the most dominating feeling being a type of nerves. These feelings are still increasingly common in tertiary students with 18% of a student population rating public speaking in front of their peers as more fearful than death (Dwyer K. & Davidson K. 2012). However, interpersonal communication is inevitable in the classroom, with many assessments focusing on building essential presentation skills to prepare students for employment. Competence in oral communication constitutes a prerequisite to academic, personal, and professional success (LeFebvre L. 2018 p. 348), with a 2014 study finding that 70% of respondents to a Forbes survey believe that presentation skills are critical for career success (Wolverton CC. & Tanner J. 2019). This poses the question of if such a large number of students are being emotionally impacted by such a fundamental life skill, how does University improve these abilities throughout studies overtime?
Through my two surveys conducted for this topic, I have been able to identify the most frequent emotional responses to public speaking, the settings they are most likely to come from and the growth overtime for the BCM212 cohort. The combined reach of both surveys was a total sample size of 47, making this on the smaller scale of research populations. It is important to recognise the potential limitations this sample size has on findings and the following data presented.
The feelings of nervousness (58.3%), anxiety (52.8%) and awkwardness (38.9%) were selected the most from respondents when asked which words best describe how they feel when public speaking at Uni. Only 8.3% of students who completed my first survey said they felt prepared, however when asked in the second survey if they try to prepare before public speaking, 81.8% said yes. An overwhelming number of BCM212 students when asked to rank how much feeling prepared helped ease their nerves, 100% of respondents chose 4 or 5 out of 5. With preparation being such a significant technique used for nerves, it is interesting that so few students actually resonate with the feeling of being prepared for public speaking.
Public speaking anxiety is seen as a subcomponent of a more general issue with communication in several contexts including group discussions, meetings, dyads, and public speaking (Quinn, S. & Goody, A. 2019). It is crucial to understand the external environments that cause the most uncomfortability in order to improve abilities for the future. The 2 highest ranking answers to which settings students found the most nerve-wrecking were; being called on individually to answer a question (63.9%) and ice breakers (58.3%). Small group discussions were the least nerve-wrecking scenario with only a 5.6% response rate, showing that situations with a larger audience and not having time to prepare can be more distressing, reiterating the above numbers of the importance of preparation.
The first survey gave prewritten feeling descriptors to choose from, so in the second survey respondents were asked to describe their feelings pre-public speaking and post-public speaking in their own words. Similar to the first survey, 72.27% of respondents used variations of the words nervous and anxious to illustrate their mental state before speaking. For post-public speaking, 54.54% used the word relieved, with one person stating that they feel “Calm, noticeably less on edge”. The relief of completing the task replaces the initial nerves, however, 36.36% of students based their post public speaking feelings off how they thought their performance went. A response from a participant was “After talking I’m either happy or very ashamed/disappointed, depending on how well I feel I went”, other answers also detailed that if they thought they performed poorly, a negative feeling would arise. In a 2020 study, it was shown that the recitation of a repeated, positive, self-talk statement before speaking can reduce public speaking anxiety among students (Shadinger, D. et al 2020). It is interesting that performance was mentioned in the post-public speaking section and is used as time to reflect, while for the pre-speaking question the respondents were not nervous about performance specifically, but just the completion of the task.
A key component of my research area is if and how students’ public skills progress throughout their degree. University as an institution is used to prepare students for their future careers, so it is imperative that students leave feeling confident in their abilities. BCM212 students are at a minimum second year students, with 80.6% of participants being in their second year and the remaining 19.4% ranging from 3rd, 4th and 5th years. When asked if they have noticed any improvements in their public speaking ability, 38.9% said somewhat, 27.8% said yes, 22.2% said a little bit and 11.1% said no. It can be difficult to gauge the improvement of a skill in itself, so although the above answers are a little bit grey, the explanation of what has improved shows the recognition of personal growth. The most recognised changes were increased comfortability at University (52.9%), increased confidence (50%), better understanding of University processes (47.1%) and placing less importance on the outcome of public speaking (41.2%). This question focuses more on what the students have learned from their personal education experiences and not directly from University resources in their course work, however the intake of that knowledge is a component of the University experience.
In the second survey, students were asked “What advice would you give to a first-year student, or your younger self, to help their public speaking experience at University?”, majority of respondents shared that they should just relax, ease the nerves and prepare. There was a mention of an audience in 45.45% of answers to this question, this can be linked to the above fact that larger settings cause the most nerves. The idea of the audience being nervous too for their own presentation and that “everyone is in the same boat” can be comforting for participants. It is clear that the progression of studies for BCM212 students has allowed them to build on interpersonal skills, with the increased comfortability at University being a key component of this. Using this group as an example, it can be understood that course work itself may not be the most fundamental contribution to improved public speaking skills at University, but the personal lessons and realisations learned over time.
References
Dwyer, K. K., & Davidson, M. M. (2012). Is public speaking really more feared than death? Communication Research Reports, 2, 99–107.
LeFebvre, L, LeFebvre, LE & Allen, M 2018, ‘Training the butterflies to fly in formation: Cataloguing student fears about public speaking’, Communication Education, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 348–362.
Quinn, S. and Goody, A. (2019) ‘An Evaluation of a Course Aimed at Reducing Public Speaking Anxiety among University Students’, International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, 31(3), pp. 503–511.
Shadinger, D, Katsion, J, Myllykangas, S & Case, D 2020, ‘The Impact of a Positive, Self-Talk Statement on Public Speaking Anxiety’, College Teaching, vol. 68, no. 1, p. 5.
Wolverton, CC & Tanner, J 2019, ‘Teaching Public Speaking to Business Students in the Digital Age: Updating our Methods’, International Journal of Education & Development using Information & Communication Technology, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 22–33.
PAIGE SUTTON 
Leave a comment