An Assessment and Reflection of My Public Speaking Experience

An Assessment and Reflection of My Public Speaking Experience

Public speaking fear is common to everyone; even professionals struggle with excellent public speaking skills. It is, therefore, crucial for students to learn this skill early in life from schools through universities to help them in their professional careers later on in life. This reflective essay focuses on my experience in public speaking while in high school. Through this experience, I seek to answer some questions. These are what I have learned about myself as a result of going through the experience? If and how I have developed because of it, and the positive or negative impact the experience has caused in my life. I will also shed light on what I would have done differently and why I made the choices that I made and if they were the right ones. Finally, I will share my thoughts on the experience regarding if it was useful or not and the perspectives and skills that I acquired through this experience.

Introduction

Most people are not born public speakers; they, therefore, find themselves expressing fear and anxiety when placed in such situations. This fear makes people avoid public speaking in general. When someone is anxious, they are in a state of uneasiness and in awe of something they perceive as threatening. Anxiety can stop one from fulfilling their intended goals. In today’s time and age, excellent communication skills are essential because they greatly influence one’s career. Professionals are expected to carry out presentations to both small and large audiences at different points in their careers. However, 80 out of 100 people experience public speaking anxiety, while 4 out of 10 people have ranked public speaking as their top 10 fears (Raja, 2017). It is, therefore, necessary that skills on how to overcome anxiety during public speaking are included in the curriculum to empower students to become better professionals. One way of dealing with the fear of public speaking is by using the desensitization approach. The approach encourages the minimization of anxiety by continuous exposure of an individual to the situation, causing the stress. It emphasizes the idea that practice yields better results. Another way of overcoming fear is by presenters interacting with the audience by asking them questions, other ways to connect with the audience includes being passionate about your topic, and listening to the audience. When the audience becomes interested in the speech, the speaker will also become comfortable. Sometimes presenters speak fast, causing the audience not to grasp what they are saying entirely. This rush may be due to the adrenalin rush, which is solved by introducing pauses in your speech. With enough practice, public speaking skills can significantly be improved upon (Dusen, 2011).

Reflective Essay on My Public Speaking Experience

During my last year in high school, I gave a class presentation on a chemistry topic. Our chemistry teacher divided us into groups of four such that the whole class comprised of four groups. Each group was given a topic to do research on and present in class as part of revision. The topic assigned to my group was ‘Structure and Bonding.’ In the group, we divided the subtopics amongst ourselves such that each member had their portion to present. The idea was not to lay all burden on one person. Every member practiced their parts of the presentation individually while at home and as a group while in school. During free time in school, each group member would carry out their presentation to the other group members who would correct the presenter on their mistakes and make a recommendation for improvement at the end of the presentation. We carried with this routine for one week, adjusting and improving on one another. Finding the time to carry out this exercise in school was, however, difficult as there were other subjects to study for because we were in our final year of high school, making efforts to join higher institutions of learning. Due to lack of time, most of these ‘internal’ presentations were done in haste, and some mistakes were overlooked. The discussion environment also took a casual approach by taking breaks to catch up on our social lives instead of entirely focusing on the task at hand. At home, group members worked on mastering and understanding the content of the topic.

In my case, I experienced many distractions, especially from TV and social media. I consistently took breaks for these kinds of entertainment. My attention was also directed to assignments in other disciplines, which also reduced my time to practice on the class presentation; this made me unprepared for the presentation. On the day of the class presentations, each group was given a chance to present their topic. Each member had an opportunity to speak. My group was the first, and I was third in my group to present as two students completed their presentations. On approaching the front of the class, my throat went dry, my knees were weak, and my fingers shook a little. I felt terrified; the audience was much larger than the four familiar faces I was used to. I suddenly forgot some information, not knowing where to begin. I set my presentation notes on the desk before me and connected with the audience through a greeting and a quick introduction of what I planned to present, encouraging them to ask questions anytime during the presentation. My voice started shaking, but I gained confidence as I continued. I referred to my presentation notes on the points that I had forgotten. After my presentation, the teacher commented that I was too fast in speech, and I depended too much on my notes, thus failing to capture the attention of the audience.

Conclusion

What I learned about myself as a result of this experience is that I possess insufficient skills in public speaking and that more time should be dedicated to practicing the same. The experience exposed me to a fear/weakness I never knew I had, therefore, the next time that I face a similar situation, I will perform better because I will work on correcting my previous mistake before the presentation. The experience has, therefore, positively impacted my life by making me aware of the skills needed in public speaking. Looking back, I should have taken more time to master the content of the topic and to practice the presentation with a broader audience other than the four group members, probably family members, and friends from the neighborhood. The decision to allow distractions such as the TV and social media, and talking about our social lives during group discussions was wrong as it negatively impacted my performance in public speaking. The experience was eye-opening, I realized that public speaking is not as easy as it seems and the practice of it needs to be taken seriously to achieve intended results.

References

Dusen, C. (2011). How to Become a (Better) Public Speaker. Walden University. Retrieved from https:www.waldenu.edu/connect/newsroom/publications/articles/2011/07-better-public-speaker

Raja, F. (2017). Anxiety Level of Students of Public Speaking: Causes and Remedies. Journal of Education and Educational Development, 4(1), 94-100. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1161521.pdf