ABSTRACT
The prospect of speaking to an audience is often the source of great anxiety. From time to time, survey organizations reveal research findings indicating that speaking in public is high on the “fear” list. Situational anxiety is an anxiety created by a new, different, or unexpected situation. Some contemporary scholars have embraced the communibiological perspective in studying why some people are predisposed to anxiety about communicating. For most people, some level of nervousness serves a positive purpose because it facilitates performance. This chapter introduces several techniques that public speakers have found to be beneficial in managing their natural anxiety. One way to increase speaker confidence is through skills training, which involves setting reasonable speaking goals, learning the necessary skills needed to reach those goals, and judging the success of the speaking goals.
