Page 41 - 2_studijní opora - modul 8ANG

(actually, otherwise they would just waste their own time), so have a positive
attitude too.

Also, the audience isn´t an anonymous sea of faces, but they are real people.
So, take it as talking with people, a two-way communication, even if the other
side doesn´t respond verbally. There´s still a range of means of body language
the listeners can use: they may nod in agreement, or frown in disagreement, they
may seem confused or tired. (The last mentioned can display as falling asleep -
a nightmare of all presenters!).

To get rid of stage fright, you should know that most people are afraid of
speaking in front of audience; it is not only you who suffers from this. Public
speaking is actually considered to be the most common phobia. You certainly
have the experience that your body starts behaving strangely if you are to talk
to a crowd of people. When you are to stand up and face a sea of people who
hope to learn something new from you, moreover, in an interesting way, your
hands may start sweating, knees shaking and the mouth goes dry. You have
butterflies in your stomach and the heart is beating loudly. Other symptoms you
may know are ruined voice, body language and spontaneity. The voice
becomes unnatural as the throat tenses. Shoulders may tighten up, while the legs,
in extreme, start to shake and cause unsteadiness. When this happens, most
people just want to run away or die, or in a better case, to be ready with the
presentation as quickly as possible. Or they stick to the notes and start to read
directly from them, which makes the presentation very boring.

The pre-presentation fright may have several reasons (with the details depending
on the type of personality you are). You may think that:

 You will never be as good as the others.
 The people will think you are stupid.
 You might make mistakes, get nervous and lose your way during the talk.
Thus, you may feel like a fool.
 The audience will not understand the message you want to
communicate.
 The audience will not like you.
 …

To cope with this, try not to fight nerves, but welcome them. It´ll enable you to
get on with the presentation instead of focusing on being nervous. A presenter is
like an actor, so use their strategies. Actors recognize the value of nerves and use
them to add to the value of the performance. This is because adrenaline, which
can be purposefully used to become better. You have two choices – fight or
flight. If you let your nerves win, then you go into the flight mode, which means
you give up, you want to run away. When you feel tension or anxiety, remember

41
From the beginner to the mentor (Supporting strategies of education of teachers in Zlin region)
Fund of Educational Policy project, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports