It’s time to speak in front of the public, you start sweating and heartbeat increases. You get nervous and everything seems to become difficult instantly. If you as a student can also relate to it and think why students are afraid of public speaking, then this is for you.
The fear of public speaking also known as Glossophobia is one of the problems many students are facing these days. One of the most common reasons for fear of public speaking is the lack of confidence in students. However, there are many factors like past experiences and psychological issues that might lead to a student being afraid of public speaking.
According to this study out of 50 students, 75% admitted that they fear to speak in front of the public. 95% agreed that if they receive proper guidance, they’ll be able to overcome and conquer Glossophobia.
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What Causes Fear Of Public Speaking In Students?
There can be various causes behind a student being afraid of public speaking. Let’s discuss the most common causes and fears of public speaking fear among students. It can help you better understand why students find it hard to deal with public speaking anxiety.
We have also included some public speaking tips. If you are a student it will help you better deal with your public speaking phobia.
Fear Of Being Judged By Other Students
This is one of the issues that if you ask students, deep down they admit the fear of being judged by other students.
How their friends will judge them, their professors or teachers will judge them are one of the most common questions that keep hold of their mind before and during their PowerPoint presentations.
As soon as they make that first eye contact with their audience, all these questions just start to pop up in their minds. That makes the whole overcoming the fear of speaking in public seem difficult.
Public speaking skills are not hard to learn or impossible, it’s just the matter of trying to improve your speaking skills with a positive mindset and focus.
Fear Of Being Humiliated By Other Students
It is related to being judged by other student’s issues. Being afraid that if you give your presentation that people might laugh at you.
You might even fear that your audience might get bored with your presentation and might even criticize you.
All these fears or a combination of multiple types of fears along with nervousness can lead to the development of social anxiety among the students.
A Public speaker is also a human being just like us, don’t they feel the fear of being humiliated. You should watch some videos on youtube of public speakers giving speeches and influencing people, you will be able to learn a lot from it.
If you ever feel you are going to have a panic attack, try to monitor your breathing pattern. Breathe in and breathe out slowly, also try some relaxation techniques, it will help you calm down yourself. It will help you control your anxieties.
Confidence Issues
Not having confidence is one of the problems that many students have in common who fear to speak in public. Even if they know that they have prepared well, they might not be able to give a good presentation. It is a confidence issue when students just say that they don’t want to give a presentation. Stage fright can also be caused by a lack of confidence.
Even on general topics like society, their hobbies, some students choose not to participate in the presentation and just give up.
That is one of the sign’s that you lack confidence, you don’t feel confident.
Confidence is something that doesn’t come overnight, it builds within you with time. By doing things that are challenging that you might be a little afraid of like, in this case, public speaking you will slowly start to build confidence within yourself.
Yes, a social anxiety disorder can also be an underlying cause behind this issue. If you as a parent, teacher or professor can identify students who are dealing with social anxiety disorder, then you can help them a lot better by helping them receive proper treatment.
If you are also dealing with confidence issue then you should start to address it. Confidence will help you in your career and future.
Fear of Making A Mistake
Fear of making a mistake is something that we all as human beings have. Some fear about making a mistake in their business decisions, some fear making a mistake in a job. They start to have performance anxiety.
It is human nature, we all make mistakes. But, that doesn’t mean we should start being ignorant and be lazy with our responsibilities.
We all as students must have dealt with this issue before or during a speech or a PowerPoint presentation.
Yes, we do make mistakes but that can be avoided with things like proper preparation and revising your speech or presentation again and again. When you revise it multiple times you will be able to feel confident about speaking in public and will help you deal with performance anxiety.
By making mistakes and learning from them will also help you improve your presentation skills. Presentation skills will benefit you in your career and while you are a student will help you give better presentations which will, of course, result in a better grade.
Now, who doesn’t want that!
Don’t let the fear of making a mistake hold you back as a student. You are a student and your job right now is to learn and making mistakes is just a part of the progress.
Trying To Be A People Pleaser
Some students think that if they can please everybody listening to them that somehow they will be a success.
That is a problem.
Sometimes during your speech or presentation, some people might not agree with you or any of point, that is perfectly normal. You can address them during your speech or presentation and if they still don’t agree then you as a student should not feel bad about yourself.
As there will also be people who will agree with you.
Taking criticism is hard, some people just can’t handle it and then they start to panic. But, if their point is valid on which they disagree with you then instead of fighting them you should think about it.
Not every type of criticism is bad, constructive criticism is your friend.
It will help you improve yourself and can also make you open to different ideas and perspectives.
So, rather than trying to please everybody, focus on yourself and your presentation and use your logic to deal with situations and overcome this fear of speaking in public within you.
Also Read: Face Problems In Your Life – Like A Gentleman
Not Having Sufficient Preparation
This is one of the reasons why students fear speaking in public. Proper preparation will prove to be helpful for you if you do it every time before giving a speech or presentation.
Not having enough preparation is like roaming in complete darkness without any type of guide and light.
Overconfidence and procrastination are some of the common points because of which we don’t prepare our speeches or presentations. If you are making a PowerPoint presentation, you might ignore to review your slides while making your presentation.
Not researching your subject and then trying to make points live on the spot also contributes to the fear of public speaking inside them. When they run out of points or things to say then they start to fumble and students eventually start to lose their confidence and get nervous and then they try to avoid eye contact as much as they can. To avoid that they just start to avoid speaking in public.
That can be fixed easily by just preparing your speech or presentation properly.
So, when the time comes for you to speak in front of the public and the fear starts to kick in then, you can assure yourself that everything will be fine.
Comparing Themselves With Other Students
Comparing yourself to others is a general and small issue that can be easily dealt with. Students tend to compare themselves with their classmates because of which they start to get nervous and be fearful.
Everybody no matter if you are a student or an adult, we all compare ourselves to others. We can use it for our growth. If someone is better than you in your field then rather than criticizing that person we should learn from that person and improve ourselves instead of being fearful of situations.
So, instead of comparing yourself to others and then letting fear control you, you should focus on yourself and how you can be the best version of yourself.
Past Experiences And Issues That Some Students Have
This is for differently-abled students, they might fear being humiliated or being judged. That is a true problem in our society. People are quick to judge based on physical appearances. The way they look, walk, talk and make eye contact is some things based on which people quickly judge others. This can make students feel anxious.
That sometimes instils fear in these students when they try to speak in the public.
Past experiences also contribute to the fear of public speaking in students. Maybe you were laughed at during your presentation or speech, maybe you got criticized or was judged based on your appearance.
Those past experiences along with social anxiety stop students to try to speak in front of the public like in case of giving a speech or a presentation.
This is hard to figure out and tackling them can be sometimes a little bit challenging.
You, should not let your past experiences, appearance, or anything control you and your life. Be positive and keep on improving yourself and your life.
Statistics And Facts On Fear Of Public Speaking
We searched the internet to find some statistics and facts on public speaking. While searching we found some that we would like to share with you. These statistics have been curated from various sources.
Here are some statistics and facts on public speaking,
- Fear of speaking in public cut wages up to 10%
- 74% of the people suffer from speech anxiety
- 8% of the people who have fear of public speaking seek professional help
- Fear of public speaking has a 15% impairment in the promotion to a managerial or leadership position.
According to this publication by Columbia University about social phobia shows that social phobia does impact various aspects of our life and career.
- Public speaking is the number one phobia that people have, even more than death!
The Science Behind It
Let’s talk about the science behind the fear of public speaking. This can help you better understand why students are afraid of speaking in public.
This is what happens behind the scenes,
When you are about to give a speech in front of the public, a response comes from your sympathetic nervous system which results in sweating and increased heart rate. You start feeling a rush of blood towards your face, head, and ear. Sometimes you might even start to feel like the temperature is rising around you and start sweating.
Chemicals also come into play and it triggers our pituitary gland to secrete ATCH (which is a hormone), it also activates other glands due to which your body balance gets upset and you become afraid of speaking in public.
That can explain why students feel anxious and feel difficult to deal with their nervousness during a speech or a presentation.
You read about the science behind it in detail, if you seek to know more about this topic.
Conclusion
There can be various reasons why a student is afraid of public speaking. Some students are shy by nature, that doesn’t mean they have a problem with them. But to detect and deal with the root cause of why the student is afraid of speaking in public can be challenging but will be effective. Even you “can” become a good public speaker.
If you are a student just know that to overcome and conquer this fear is possible, you just need to take a step forward with a positive mindset.