SARAH LORICO CCT-SNA-2
The Public Speaker
Understanding and Overcoming Anxiety
UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC SPEAKING ANXIETY
Questions to Ponder
 When delivering a speech, do you:
 Sweat too much?
 Go red?
 Tend to freeze
 When talking in public, does your:
 Mouth dry up?
 Voice become weak?
 Body start shaking?
 Heart thump rapidly?
Glossophobia
 The fear of public speaking
 Comes from the Greek glōssa, meaning tongue, and phobos, fear or dread.
 People who are glossophobic tend to freeze in front of any audience, even a couple of people. They find their mouth dries up, their voice is weak and their body starts shaking. They may even sweat, go red and feel their heart thumping rapidly.
Quick Fact
Public speaking is considered the greatest fear a person can have, even greater than the fear of death. As many as 75% people have glossophobia. - www.glossophobia.com
Dr. Nick Morgan, a prominent American communication theorist and coach, says that “even the best of the best get nervous”.
General Methods
 Communication Orientation Motivation (COM)
- adopt a “communication” rather than “performance” orientation
- focus on getting your message across to your audience rather than on your audience’s impressions
 Visualization
- a method of reducing apprehension by helping you develop a mental picture of yourself giving a masterful speech
 Systematic Desensitization
- a method of reducing anxiety by gradually having people visualize increasingly more frightening events
- you learn procedures for relaxation and apply these to each anxiety-producing events that you visualize
 Public Speaking Skills in Training
- the systematic teaching of the skill associated with the process involved in preparing and delivering an effective public speech with the intention of improving

SARAH LORICO CCT-SNA-2
speaking competence as a means of reducing public speaking anxiety
 Specific TechniquesAllow sufficient time to prepare
 Practice your speech aloud
 Choose an appropriate time to speak
 Use positive self-talk
 Face the audience
 Focus on sharing your ideas
ACTIVITY
Identifying your Fears
Select 5 among the probable reasons why you have public speaking anxiety. Rank the reasons from 1 to 5; 1 being the reason that causes you the most anxiety.
• I’ll forget what I want to say.
• I’m afraid no one will be interested in my topic.
• The audience is too large.
• I don’t know anyone in the audience.
• I don’t speak well in public.
• Everyone will see how nervous I am.
• Listeners won’t understand me.
• I might not be prepared enough.
• My English isn’t very good.
• The audience won’t like me; they will reject me.
Replacing your Fears with Positive Thoughts
Substitute at least two positive thoughts for each fear you identified.
Examples:
Fear
I’ll forget what I want to say.
Positive Beliefs
I’ll have adlibs in case I forget something.
The audience will never know in case I forget something.
Fear
My English isn’t very good.
Positive Beliefs
My confidence will prevail over my grammatical and phonetic mistakes.
I’ll use hand gestures and other non-verbal channels to help in presenting the message that I want to convey.