The Speech That Wasn’t
Speech Anxiety — Get your anxiety butterflies to fly in formation
“He’s nervous, but on the surface, he looks calm and ready
To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgetting
What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud
He opens his mouth, but the words won’t come out
He’s choking, how? Everybody’s joking now
The clock’s run out, time’s up, over — blaow!”
The movie 8-mile, Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith Jr. is a young and frustrated blue-collar factory worker, who doesn’t want to give up on his dream of becoming a rapper. He seems to have stagnated in progress, as he chokes in the middle of a rap battle and gets booed off the stage. But he doesn’t let this incident get him down. He decides to make his dream come true through relentless practice and hard work. He wrote and rewrote his songs till he got the right syllables at the right places. Today, he is known by the name Eminem, one of the greatest rappers of all time; his name considered synonymous to articulation. Taking the journey of this kid who once had difficulties in enunciating, to becoming a global rapping legend, I’ll be moving on to some lengths over the problems related to speech, which also engulf most of us, for us to understand, accept and counter the anxieties of this predicament.
What is Speech Anxiety?
Rhetoric is the art of using language as a tool of persuasion through discourse and argumentation. But before the formulation of an argument, comes speaking itself along with some anxiety wrapped around it. Speech anxiety is pretty common even if at times you feel that you’re the only one feeling the nerves. Everyone feels it at some point in their lives, they just learn to handle their anxiety and use it to enhance their performance. Because it is such a common phenomenon, many researchers have given their own definitions to speech anxiety. Karen Kangas Dwyer uses the term “communication apprehension” to describe this condition and define it as “the fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated communication with others”. Communication apprehension and Speech anxiety are terms used interchangeably to describe similar (if not the same) phenomena. According to Brydon and Scott “speech anxiety refers to the feelings of discomfort that people experience before or during speaking in public”. Whereas DeVito describes communication apprehension as a “feeling of fear or anxiety about a situation in which one must communicate,” especially when the communication act takes place in a public forum.
“Courage is not the absence of fear but the awareness that something else is more important.” — Stephen Covey
The fight-or-flight response (also called hyperarousal/acute stress response) is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival. When man lived in caves in the stone, this reaction was invoked only then threat to life was perceived. But in today’s age, as mankind has evolved, speech anxiety also invokes this response. The extent that a person sees public speaking as a threatening situation, they will experience the fight-or-flight reactions which are seen as anxiety (Alm). Has the thought of addressing an audience made you feel uncomfortable? Ever felt those feelings manifest into physical reactions such as sweating, stuttering, flushness, and dizziness? Have you forgotten what we were going to say, feel unprepared and unsure, and just want the experience to end? I am here to tell you, that you are not alone, we are all in this together.
You are not alone!
Chapman University Survey on American Fears reported the fear of public speaking at the top of the list. Our fear of addressing an audience is so great, that we fear it more than death itself. Everyone experiences apprehension in speaking at some point in their lives. Interviewing a Public Speaking trainer herself, I realised that she herself also faces speech anxiety at multiple instances of her life. Be it an unexpectedly smart or experienced audience, or dealing with standards set by her own training in the past, or comparison with a new trainer are a few situations that made her face this kind of anxiety. When her students felt anxious while talking to a senior, a principal, a trainer, or anyone above in the hierarchy. In her experience, this is caused by a lack of confidence due to lack of knowledge and an “impressive personality”. As a trainer, she coaches them to start working on themselves on the outside, starting with dressing well, looking smart, improving grooming and body language, which gives inherent confidence. She says, “when you come across people who are confident speakers, you find that their appearance is generally very impressive. Before the speaker opens his mouth, the audience already forms a positive impression of him. Secondly, they speak very well. Then comes the knowledge of the subject being spoken about”. This knowledge does not necessarily give the confidence to speak. That confidence comes by knowing the language in which you are going to communicate.
Speech anxiety is not just faced in the public domain. It is also faced while having one-on-one conversations sometimes. We often face situations where we feel compelled to converse but cannot or are unable to because of a variety of factors. Some people feel conscious when they think their audience has better command over language, or when they think that they are underqualified to make an argument.
Little by little, technology has become an integral part of the way that people communicate with each other and has increasingly taken the place of face-to-face communication. Research on early detection of social anxiety and loneliness have shown that smartphone usage can be used as an indicator of different levels of social anxiety or loneliness with people. Often people avoid human communication, by hiding behind tiny 6 inches screens, avoiding face-to-face conversations whenever they can. Nowadays, WhatsApp groups are such a big thing, that the butler need not announce dinner, he should just put it on the WhatsApp group! Humans have started creating relationships with their mobile devices. Their relationship with WhatsApp is stronger than their relationship with the person on the other side of the chat box. Just for an instant imagine this person peeping into your phone when you are messaging someone. It would mean the end of ages old friendship, where you once shared everything with each other. People’s relationship with tinder is stronger than their relationship with the person on the other side of tinder. The obsession is more with swiping right and finding more matches, which provides more validation any other human interaction could. Point being, humans try their level best to save themselves from getting into conversations face to face, as they feel that they are scrutinised and judged, causing them to feel anxious. Technology seems to be an easier option without the constant scrutiny of the human gaze, as it serves as a mask or a shield.
Myths about speaking
1. A common misconception for complex cognitive and communicative processes is that they require innate talent or abilities that are outside of our control. In truth, these skills can be developed, trained, or improved.
2. “Nervousness will make my performance worse”. Only if you let it be. Nervousness is the anxious energy building up inside you, which when tamed, and enormously enhance your performance.
3. “Everyone will see how nervous I am.” Most of your anxiety is not visible to the audience. You may feel like you are shaking uncontrollably but people in the audience probably cannot even tell. Gain confidence from the fact that you are the only one who knows how nervous you are.
4. “You have to be an excellent speaker”. Who says so? The belief that you have to be “excellent” is often hindered effective public speaking because it confuses polish for true communication. When you speak to people, your job is to connect with them and give them something of value. Your task isn’t to be slick, charismatic, or a stand-up comic; unless you’re a motivational speaker. Then you better be good. Your livelihood depends on it.
5. “The people in the audience are extremely critical and are waiting for me to fail”. The audience is full of good people who want you to succeed! Think about situations where you have been an audience member. Did you ever want the speaker to fail? Probably not, in fact, we are usually quite supportive of speakers and may even feel bad for them if they stumble over a word or lose their train of thought. Most audiences you will address (especially as a student) are rooting for you.
6. The British home remedy. Take seven pieces of almond and black pepper, make a fine paste by grinding them. Add a small quantity of sugar candy in this paste and lick it. By using this method daily in the early morning with empty stomach, you’ll get relief from the problem of stammering or stuttering. Use it frequently at least for one month. Take it or leave it.
Research on the relationships among growth mindset for public speaking and beliefs about the nature of public speaking carried out in the University of Memphis by Craig O. Stewart in a general education public speaking course, claims that public speaking is a skill that can be grown through practice and effort rather than innate talent. Encouraging students to believe that public speaking will help them develop new ideas and better understand their own thoughts and opinions may reduce apprehension and improve self-confidence in public speaking. Likewise, helping students recognize the need to orient to and adapt to their audience may also lead to greater reductions in Public Speaking Anxiety. But this belief has to be coupled with early on practice, that reduces anxiety rather than increasing apprehension. For example, focus on practising delivery rather than remembering exact words.
How to tame Anxiety Butterflies
Everyone has butterflies in their stomach when compelled to converse in certain circumstances that put them outside their comfort zone. But there are ways to get your anxiety butterflies to fly in formation.
- Build your own model of Speech. When we think of speaking, we often think of a “perfect model” of speech in which we try to fit our words. For one to be an effective communicator, there is no such “model” of speech. Communication takes place not just through words, but also body language and gestures. A person doesn’t have to be a linguist to be a good communicator. So instead, build your own model of speech, specific to you, which brings out your strengths, which is what Donald Trump does. Donald Trump jumps sentences and thoughts faster than a frog jumps out of hot water. Yet he grabs his audience’s attention and is able to connect with them.
2. Think of Public speaking as multiple one-on-one communications. Most people feel comfortable with communication opportunities when one-on-one or in small groups. The feeling of comfort changes to nervousness when communicating with multiple people. Think of it as one-on-one communication, however, just with multiple ones.
3. Picturing your audience naked will help you feel more comfortable. Be careful of embarrassing yourself, especially if you are faced with an audience of the opposite gender.
I hope after this, speaking to an audience is not the nightmare that it seems to be.
List of sources referred to:
Alm, Per A. Stuttering, emotions, and heart rate during anticipatory anxiety: a critical review. Lund, Sweden: Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Division of Psychiatry, 2004.
The University of Tenessee, Knoxville, School of Communication Studies https://cmst.cci.utk.edu/content/speech-anxiety
