Because students with stage fright are numerous, different from their college peers, and capable of being helped, the University of Illinois has created stage fright sections within the basic speech course. To meet the behavioral objectives of the course, the student should be able to define stage fright and recognize its common symptoms, describe…

A study tested a delivery skills method of instruction for reducing public speaking anxiety. Subjects were 59 male and 71 female undergraduates (ranging in age from 17-49) enrolled in a basic public speaking course at a midwestern university during the 1986-87 academic year. The Personal Report of Public Speaking Apprehension (PRPSA) which…

Research indicates that about 40% of the population fear public speaking. There is a wide variety of possible causes for this unwillingness to communicate: a lack of skills, social introversion, alienation, lack of fluency in English, and communication apprehension. Despite the fact that evidence indicates everyone may have some difficulty with…

The University of Tennessee (Knoxville) offers as a special section of the public speaking curriculum, a "speech anxiety" program, taught by faculty and graduate students from the speech and theatre and educational psychology departments and staff from the counseling services center. The students spend the first few weeks of the special…

The community services department of an eastern community college offers a noncredit course called Overcoming Speech Anxiety. The students range from those who avoid conversation with most people to those who speak publicly often but with a great deal of discomfort. Their reasons for taking such a class suggest that most people suffer situational…

A free response self-evaluation instrument to determine the existence of communication apprehension or anxiety has been used at Pennsylvania State University and Mansfield State College in Pennsylvania as part of their programs to identify reticent and communication apprehensive students. The instrument is administered as an assignment on the…

This paper begins by pointing out that approximately 15-20% of college students suffer from a fear of public speaking, and that a 1993 study of 369 students at Northern Kentucky University revealed high levels of speech apprehension (SA) at the beginning of the semester in the introductory speech course. The paper reports that although…

Describes the use of the Communication Anxiety Graph (CAG) to help students trace the pattern of their anxiety when making a speech. Also reports the results of a study using the CAG. Provides advice for student speakers based on when their anxiety peak may occur. (PD)

Prompted by data from a national survey indicating that communication apprehension (CA) was higher among pharmacy students than among the general population, West Virginia University developed a communication course especially to meet the needs of these students. The course was later modified by Auburn University. A study investigated the…

Noting that one model for providing programs and individualized support to at-risk students is the oral communication laboratory, this paper describes the research and development of pilot programs within the laboratory setting for students at-risk at a four-year academic institution. The paper begins with a brief review of literature, a…

Acknowledging that one of the most difficult challenges postsecondary educators must face is the maintenance of adequate student enrollment, this paper describes the creation of a speech communication laboratory as one component of a university-wide effort to maximize student retention. The paper first discusses several suggestions researchers…