Introduction
Most people are not born public speakers; they are trained
to become one. When they nd themselves in situations where they
become the focus of attention as they have to address an audience,
they experience emotions like fear and anxiety, leading to nausea
and excessive sweating. Most of them try to avoid situations where
they have to perform or speak in public, but when unavoidable,
such situations are endured by distress. According to Lucas (2011),
“Many people who converse easily in all kinds of everyday situations
become frightened at the idea of standing up before a group to make
a speech”(p.9). Such people need to realize that they are not the
only ones who may be going through these emotions; in fact, almost
every speaker feels the same. It is important that people consciously
realize the fact that there are more nervous speakers in the world
than those who are not.
Professionals are expected to regularly keep on improving
their communication skills. Verderber, Sellnow and Verderber
(2011) state, “Public speaking, a sustained formal presentation by a
speaker to an audience, is simply one form of human communication.
So learning to be an eective public speaker will help you to be
more eective in other communication settings as well” (p.2). A
change in their condence, speaking style, intonation pattern and
the rest can result in a positive change in their professionalism
and personality. As per the viewpoint of health care professionals,
Tacheva (2013) asserts that “The verbal register, intonation,
articulation, pronunciation, tone, rhythm, dialect dene the character
of the communicative impact as positive or negative depending on
whether they facilitate or hinder the achievement of communicative
Vol. 4 No. 1 (June 2017) 95
Anxiety Level in Students of Public Speaking