You're listening to the Learning English Conversations podcast from BBC Learning English.
We'll have another episode of The English We Speak soon, but today we're continuing with our special series Beating Speaking Anxiety a podcast to help you fight your fears of speaking English.
This episode is called I'm Scared of Speaking in Front of People.
Are you nervous to speak in front of other people in English?
My arms and legs start trembling.
My heart pounds as if trying to escape my chest.
It's a full fight or flight response.
It's a performance.
Yeah, it's like a performance.
You are constantly judged and evaluated by others and also by yourself.
But on that platform, they were not afraid to talk.
So technology basically created that safe space.
Today we're talking about public speaking and how technology might help us feel less nervous when speaking.
Hello and welcome to Beating Speaking Anxiety.
In this special podcast we help you feel more confident speaking English.
I'm Hanan.
And I'm Georgie.
Find a transcript of this episode and more resources to help you learn on our website bbclearningenglishcom.
For many people, speaking anxiety can cause a physical reaction.
I feel nervous at I feel like my body starts to hyperventilate.
This is Elisa from Mexico.
Elisa finds speaking in English stressful.
But for her, the thing that's hardest is to speak in front of a group of people.
One of the most nerve-wracking moments was presenting my research project.
Elisa had to present her research project to a room full of people from around the world.
A lot of people will be familiar with the anxiety Elisa felt about the presentation.
It was the most anxious moment I ever felt.
I had a headache and a stomachache.
That moment was terrifying.
We call situations like this, where you have to speak in front of a lot of people, public speaking.
And people can feel nervous to do public speaking, even in their first language.
But doing it in your second language can be even worse.
It also makes me nervous to see people's face in a way.
It makes me feel bullied and judged.
Elisa felt foolish and judged when she had to speak English in front of people.
And this is common.
It's unique, right?
You cannot, just you know, silently study it, or you know you have to present yourself in front of others.
It's a performance.
Yeah, it's like a performance.
This is Han Luo, an expert in language anxiety, who we heard from in the first episode of this series.
Han says that speaking in front of people feels like a performance, which is quite an intense experience.
So you are constantly judged and evaluated by others and also by yourself.
Thinking of speaking a second language as a performance helps us understand why it can make us feel so nervous.
Most people would be nervous to stand on a stage in front of people.
And speaking another language can feel exactly like that, even during small group conversations.
Yeah, I used to feel this fear a lot when I was speaking Spanish in Spain.
Even in a group of friends that I know love me and are kind.
I would start speaking and everyone would look at me and suddenly I forget all the words.
I get really stressed and then I don't say anything and then it's really, really embarrassing.
Yeah.
And what's interesting is that people like you Georgie, who are usually quite confident, can still experience these feelings.
Yes.
And another person like that, who is quite confident but found speaking a new language made them feel stressed and shy, is Regina Kaplan-Rakowski, Professor of Learning Technologies at the University of North Texas.
As a learner and I studied a dozen languages I always felt, like you know, not that comfortable to talk to other people Because I was afraid to make mistakes.
I was afraid that they will not understand me.
Maybe they will make fun of me.
Regina wanted to try and find ways to distract learners from the anxiety they feel when speaking.
So she started working with virtual reality.
This is technology which makes you feel like you're in a different place or situation.
One example was using a virtual world called Second Life to help students studying German relax.
We recreated a Bavarian beer house.
So we took students with big pints of beer.
Well, things like this would not be possible in a real classroom, of course.
But it was extremely interesting for me to see how many students that normally would be super quiet, they would never open their mouth, but on that platform they were not afraid to talk because they were shielded behind avatars.
So technology basically created that safe space.
The technology created an imaginary situation which helps students have fun and forget their nerves.
But Regina also uses virtual reality to create the exact situations that students are afraid of.
Yes, so students can practice talking in front of an audience of virtual people.
They would do different gestures that would maybe make me feel either good or bad.
But that's okay.
The idea is that I need to get used to it.
Because in front of the public, the audience, sometimes you have a lot of people and they do all different things, like playing on their phones or laughing, you know, somewhere at the back
There's always different responses you need to get prepared for.
Wow, I think it's really interesting how technology can be used, on one hand, to distract learners and make them forget about their anxiety, but also to practice in the situations that make them feel stressed.
So it's kind of yeah, this idea of a safe space to build your confidence and skills without the pressure.
You know it's not real, but it still feels kind of real.
But how about people who don't have access to this technology?
What do you think, Georgie, of maybe using a mirror?
And I used to do that myself.
I would stand in front of the mirror and practice.
And I did it for my job as well, not just for the English.
But it helps a lot because you can see yourself.
You see how you pronounce certain words.
What do you think of that technique?
Yeah, I think that's a really good tip.
Georgie.
Are there any other tips you would recommend?
Yes, my favorite one is to um phone someone and go for a walk.
So I actually used to do this and it really helped me.
Um, I spoke for 30 minutes on the phone in Spanish with someone.
Um, and I had my headphones in I was walking so I was distracted.
Um, I didn't have them in front of me so I couldn't see their face judging my mistakes or anything like that.
Um, that's my favorite one.
That's very good, because also you let your nerves go.
You're more relaxed.
Exactly, exactly.
You're in the fresh air.
You're very distracted.
It's a good one.
And if you have a presentation, so real public speaking, think about how you might prepare in your own language.
Put in the time to make sure you've practiced it to someone, including things like taking questions, which can be harder to prepare for.
Technology can help us.
So voice messages and videos are great because you can prepare, make notes about what you want to say.
You can listen back and check your pronunciation.
There are now also some apps using AI where you can speak and get feedback.
Remember, you don't need technology like your idea, Hanan.
So speaking in front of the mirror, the most important thing is that you practice.
Next time, we'll be talking about accents and getting people to understand you in English.
See you then.
Bye-bye.
