COMM 100 - Ch 3 (Speaking Confidently)

Myths about Communication Apprehension

1. People who suffer from speaking anxiety are neurotic. - speaking anxiety is a normal reaction 2. Telling a joke or two is always a good way to begin a speech. - It is extremely easy to offend when using humor 3. Imagine the audience is naked. - imagining the audience naked will do nothing to calm your nerves 4. Any mistake means that you have "blown it" - What matters is not whether we make a mistake but how well we recover. 5. Avoid speaking anxiety by writing your speech out word for word and memorizing it. - Memorizing your speech word for word will likely make your apprehension worse rather than better. 6. Audiences are out to get you. - Most face-to-face audiences are interested in your material, not in your image. 7. You will look to the audience as nervous as you feel. - Empirical research has shown that audiences do not perceive the level of nervousness that speakers report feeling. 8. A little nervousness helps you give a better speech. - This "myth" is true! Professional speakers, actors, and other performers consistently rely on the heightened arousal of nervousness to channel extra energy into their performance.

Any conscious emotional state such as anxiety or excitement consists of two components:

1. primary reaction of the central nervous system 2. an intellectual interpretation of these physiological responses

Reducing Nervousness during Delivery

Anticipate the Reactions of Your Body - Deep breathing will help to counteract the effects of excess adrenaline. - You can place symbols in your notes, like "slow down" or ☺, that remind you to pause and breathe during points in your speech. - pause a moment before you get started to set an appropriate pace from the onset. - move around the front of the room rather than remaining imprisoned behind the lectern or gripping it for dear life (avoid pacing nervously from side to side, however). - Vocal warm-ups - Before you speak use isometric exercises Focus on the Audience, Not on Yourself - make a point of establishing direct eye contact with your audience members. Maintain Your Sense of Humor - No matter how well we plan, unexpected things happen, laugh, and move on. Stress Management Techniques - Two general techniques for managing stress are positive visualization and systematic desensitization.

Adapt Your Language to the Oral Mode

Appropriate oral style is more concrete and vivid than written style. Don't be afraid to use personal pronouns freely, frequently saying "I" and "me"—or better yet, "us" and "we." Rhetorical questions, questions that do not require a verbal answer, invite the audience to participate with your material by thinking about the implications of the question and how it might be answered.

Audience Anxiety

Audience anxiety describes communication apprehension prompted by specific audience characteristics. These characteristics include similarity, subordinate status, audience size, and familiarity.

Cognitive restructuring

Cognitive restructuring is simply changing how you label the physiological responses you will experience.

Communication Apprehension

Communication apprehension refers to the fear or anxiety people experience at the thought of being evaluated by others. aka, speaking anxiety communication apprehension is a psychological response to the evaluation. Our bodies cannot distinguish between psychological and physical threats, so, we react in fight or flight

Context Anxiety

Context anxiety refers to anxiety prompted by specific communication contexts. Some of the major context factors that can heighten this form of anxiety are: 1. Formality - Individuals who can be perfectly composed when talking at a meeting or in a small group; yet when faced with a more formal public speaking setting, they become intimidated and nervous. 2. Uncertainty - fear of the unknown/ not being able to predict and control the flow of information. 3. Novelty - Lack of experience in high-tension communication settings

Clearly Organize Your Ideas

Create an outline for your speech. It may be a good idea to reinforce this organization through visual aids. When it comes to managing anxiety, visual aids have the added benefit of taking attention off the speaker.

Reducing Anxiety through Preparation

Every speaker can and should prepare so that the "unknowns" of the speech event are kept to a minimum. You can do this by gaining as much knowledge as possible about whom you will be addressing, what you will say, how you will say it, and where the speech will take place.

Systematic Desensitization

Gradually exposing an individual to the object of fear until it can be tolerated.

isometric exercise

Isometric exercises that involve momentarily tensing and then relaxing specific muscle groups are an effective way to keep your muscles from becoming stiff.

Analyze Your Audience

It is helpful to open the speech with a technique to prompt an audience response. You might try posing a question, asking for a show of hands, or sharing a story that you know is relevant to your listeners' experience. When you see the audience responding to you by nodding, smiling, or answering questions, you will have directed the focus of attention from yourself to the audience.

Technical Difficulties

It is important to always have a backup plan, developed in advance, in case of technical difficulties with your presentation materials. As you develop your speech and visual aids, think through what you will do if you cannot show a particular graph or if your presentation slides are hopelessly garbled.

Speech Content Issues

Nearly every experienced speaker has gotten to the middle of a presentation and realized that a key notecard is missing or that he or she skipped important information from the beginning of the speech. When encountering these difficulties, a good strategy is to pause for a moment to think through what you want to do next. Is it important to include the missing information, or can it be omitted without hurting the audience's ability to understand the rest of your speech? If it needs to be included, do you want to add the information now, or will it fit better later in the speech? It is often difficult to remain silent when you encounter this situation, but pausing for a few seconds will help you to figure out what to do and may be less distracting to the audience than sputtering through a few "ums" and "uhs."

Practice in Conditions Similar to Those You Will Face When Speaking

Practice delivering your speech out loud while standing on your feet. If you make a mistake, do not stop to correct it but continue all the way through your speech; Use a clock to time your speech, being aware that most novice speakers speak too fast, not too slowly. Use a mirror to gauge how well you are maintaining eye contact with your audience; it will allow you to check that you are looking up from your notes. It will also help you build the habit of using appropriate facial expressions to convey the emotions in your speech.

Speech-Related Considerations

The flow of anxiety levels at four stages in the delivery of a speech: 1. anticipation (the minute prior to starting the speech), 2. confrontation (the first minute of the speech), 3. adaptation (the last minute of the speech), and 4. release (the minute immediately following the end of the speech). researchers found that anxiety typically peaked at the anticipatory stage. As we progress through our speech, our level of anxiety is likely to decline. Planning your speech to incorporate techniques for managing your nervousness at different times will help you decrease the overall level of stress you experience.

Physiological Symptoms of Communication Apprehension

The physiological changes produced in the body at critical moments are designed to contribute to the efficient use of muscles and expand available energy. (Circulation and breathing become more rapid so that additional oxygen can reach the muscles. Increased circulation causes us to sweat. Adrenaline rushes through our body, instructing the body to speed up its movements. If we stay immobile behind a lectern, this hormonal urge to speed up may produce shaking and trembling. Additionally, digestive processes are inhibited so we will not lapse into the relaxed, sleepy state that is typical after eating. Instead of feeling sleepy, we feel butterflies in the pit of our stomach.)

Think Positively

To prepare yourself mentally for a successful speaking experience, use a technique called cognitive restructuring Practice positive self-talk rather than negative self-talk.

Watch What You Eat

While you should eat normally, you should avoid caffeinated drinks because they can make your shaking hands worse. Carbohydrates operate as natural sedatives, so you may want to eat carbohydrates to help slow down your metabolism and to avoid fried or very spicy foods that may upset your stomach.

External Distractions

You're likely to encounter an audience member who walks in late, a ringing cell phone, or even a car alarm going off outside your classroom. Pause and wait so that you can regain the audience's attention and be heard. Your most important job as a speaker is to maintain your composure.

Trait Anxiety

apprehension about communicating with others in any situation those with high trait anxiety are more likely to avoid exposure to public speaking situations, so their nervousness might be compounded by lack of experience or skill. People who experience trait anxiety may never like public speaking, but through preparation and practice, they can learn to give effective public speeches when they need to do so.

Situational Anxiety

communication apprehension created by the specific combination of audience, time, and setting Further context: Each communication event involves several dimensions: physical, temporal, social-psychological, and cultural. These dimensions combine to create a unique communication situation that is different from any previous communication event. The situation created by a given audience, in a given time, and in a given context can coalesce into situational anxiety.

Positive Visualization

positive visualization involves using the imagination to create images of relaxation or ultimate success. Essentially, you imagine in great detail the goal for which you are striving.

Physical reactions to stress create the uncomfortable feelings of unease called speech anxiety and may include:

sweaty palms, shaking, butterflies in the stomach, and dry mouth.