Learning to Live With Public-Speaking Anxiety

By PAUL MARTIN LESTER

My students and friends will be surprised by this confession.

As a full professor with tenure, I have given workshops to

colleagues and professionals throughout the world and have

lectured to classes as large as 250 students. I can usually be

counted on to mouth off during a faculty meeting or as an

audience member during a conference presentation. And at a

party, I'm the first one on the dance floor and usually voted

the "Most Likely to Have a Good Time." But about 15 years ago

when I was a student working on my Ph.D., I was anything but

outgoing during graduate seminars.

I was so struck by a form of public-speaking anxiety that I

could hardly get a word out. Luckily, my graduate work focused

on visual communication. As a former newspaper

photojournalist-turned-graduate student, I wasn't expected to

say much. My salvation was that I was able to come up with

interesting angles on standard topics for the many assigned

research papers. Plus, I wrote well. But it frustrated me that

I seemed unable to verbally explain or defend my written

positions to the others in the class, including my professors.

If I even thought about asking a question or contributing to

the debate in any way, my heart would start pounding from a

normal, sitting rate of 60 beats a minute to an alarming rate

of about 150.

When the heart beats that quickly, it is pumping too fast to

deliver blood throughout the body. Consequently, I felt a bit

light-headed and dizzy, almost to the point of worrying

whether I was going to faint. In addition, I started to sweat

and felt nauseated and hot.

Most disturbingly, while I was experiencing these symptoms, I

would convince myself that my question or comment was already

answered, not important enough, or too trivial to bother the

group. But if I overcame what I felt and tried to speak, I was

embarrassed by the quivering quality of my voice and

frustrated by the lack of encouragement from my professors.

And that discouraged me from wanting to speak out again.

Of course, I am not the only academic to suffer such anxiety.

Loret Gnivecki Steinberg, an associate professor of applied

photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology, says: "I

used to be so afraid of speaking up in class that my voice

would shake and I'd pinch the top of my hands to distract me

from being afraid. On a really bad night, my hands would be

bright red as I left the room." Shay Sayre, a professor of

communications at the California State University at

Fullerton, admits to another reason why she rarely spoke in

class. "When I was in grad school," Ms. Sayre says, "I rarely

spoke up for the simple reason of not wanting to look stupid

among my peers." Being the only woman among a group of male

students and professors added to her anxiety.

The frustration that students with public-speaking anxiety

feel is shared by many of their instructors, who are uncertain

how to help them. Marguerite J. Moritz, associate dean of the

journalism school at the University of Colorado at Boulder,

says: "I have a student who cannot respond. If I wait 20 or 30

seconds, it doesn't matter. I hesitate to prompt her because I

don't want her answer to be influenced by me. She is

absolutely unable to say anything. She kind of laughs a

little, and seems to try to form words, but nothing comes out.

Sometimes she can say one or two words like 'yes,' or 'it was

good,' but that's it."

From my experience, there are too many people in academe who

suffer from this condition and don't get help, and too few

professors who know how to help someone overcome it. So I've

assembled some advice for both here. Incidentally, I used many

of the suggestions below to help myself through graduate

school and beyond.

Tips for students and speakers

Take care of your body. Regular exercise reduces your heart

rate. Caffeine and junk food increases it. Excessive smoking

restricts blood flow. Try to eat something healthy before a

class or a presentation so that your blood-sugar level is

normal.

Let your instructor know. Through a face-to-face meeting, on a

sheet of paper, or in an e-mail message, discuss with your

professor your anxiety and suggest ways to work with the

instructor.

Come to class prepared. Make sure you have completed the

readings and assignments for that day's session. Have

potential questions and comments written out ahead of time.

Don't be hesitant to read from a paper or notebook.

Jump ahead of the pack. Be the first to ask a question or make

a comment. Don't give yourself time to change your mind about

speaking out. But if you can't speak, write out your questions

and comments and give them to your instructor right after

class and arrange for a meeting. Hopefully, with positive

feedback, you will gain the confidence you need to speak up in

class.

Get help. Talk to a speech-communication or theater professor

for suggestions. Some books that might help include Coping

With Speech Anxiety (Ablex, 1996) and In the SpotLight:

Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking and Performing (Strong

Books, 2000). Check out the Web for additional information;

you can even find dissertations online about the topic.

Finally, try yoga and other meditation techniques.

Appreciate the feeling. Like anything else, public speaking

can be practiced. The more you try, the easier it gets. But if

nothing seems to work, realize that the blushing, pounding

heart, and quivering voice make you unique. Learn to like that

"buzzed," adrenaline-inspired feeling. And to heck with what

others may think.

Tips for instructors

Take a student's confession seriously. If much of a grade is

based on class participation, ask your students during the

first meeting to contact you if they have a concern about

class participation. If someone comes to you and admits to

having a problem, come up with an agreed upon assessment plan

for the student and be consistent the entire semester. Amy

Fortner, 24, a master's candidate at the University of

Missouri at Columbia, admits that if she thinks of a question

it's like "someone packaged adrenaline and put it right into

my heart." She turns bright red and her voice gets shaky. Ms.

Fortner suggests that instructors not grade participation

relative to everyone else in the class, but consider the extra

effort required to speak up by someone with this condition.

Have students come prepared. MC Santana, an assistant

professor of communication at the University of Central

Florida, uses this technique in class: "For my grad and

undergraduate classes I ask my students to prepare one or two

questions based on the readings. They love it. They are ready

to participate in class, and they don't have the pressure of

coming up with some brilliant observation."

Seek professional guidance. Don't hesitate to admit that you

don't know how to help a student with this problem. Get

information and teaching techniques from your university and

other sources. Most instructors have never taken a class on

how to teach a class. Contact someone from your education

department for tips.

Use alternative discussion methods. Consider having students

communicate through small groups, on paper, e-mail, electronic

mailing lists, discussion boards, and virtual classrooms. Many

instructors have found that students who are hesitant to speak

up in class for whatever reason often blossom through e-mail

communication. And the confidence they learn by expressing

themselves through a discussion group or a virtual classroom

can carry over into the brick-and-mortar classroom.

Encourage students to admit their anxiety. Gerald Grow, a

professor of journalism at Florida A&M University, suggests

teaching students how to acknowledge their embarrassment ("I

feel nervous saying this, but ..." or "I hope not everybody

has as much trouble speaking before a group as I do, but

..."). "The energy behind stage fright can be transformed into

the energy of action, or it can stay unknown and silently

subvert," he says. "So, bring it out. Admit being shy.

Acknowledge awkwardness. And train members of the class to

compassionately assist one another in moving past this

shyness."

Admit your own anxieties. What's wrong with telling your

students that you sometimes feel a little stage fright, and

get anxious before delivering a presentation at some

professional or academic conference? Students need to know

that you're not just a person with all the facts or an arbiter

of grades. You've been in their position, and you've learned

to live with your own limitations.

So after 15 years, do I have any lingering symptoms of

speaking anxiety? Sure. It doesn't happen very often anymore,

but when it does, I keep a little notebook handy so I can

write down questions I want to ask, I rehearse them in my mind

a few times, and I visualize asking the question. I've learned

to enjoy the adrenaline rush. And of course, I pretend I have

no problem and overcompensate by being outgoing.

Right now there's a dean I need to talk to about a class I

want to teach next year. But I keep putting off the call.

Sometimes it's like I'm still in eighth grade calling a girl I

like and leaving my finger in the hole of the last digit of

her phone number in the dial ring (remember, this was many,

many years ago) until courage or fatigue causes me to lift up

my finger. Weird. Maybe I'll just send him an e-mail.

Paul Martin Lester is a professor of communications at

California State University at Fullerton. He is on leave from

Fullerton this year and is a visiting professor at the

University of Montana's Practical Ethics Center. URI Honors

Colloquium used one of his books as a required text.