The New York Times reports that over 50 percent of people in the world suffer from chronic shyness, and public speaking has long been an American’s foremost fear in the “Book of Lists.”
At a glance, the patrons of The University of Memphis seem to buck the national trend as the masses are seen piping hot air into cell phones and cliques of students huddle from Southern to Central Ave. every 20 yards to soak up the latest juicy gossip of the day.
But there are two words that can quickly turn some of those flapping lips into a quivering display of agitation.
Semester after semester, the mere utterance of “Oral Communication” seems to strike fear into the hearts of some of the most ardent conversationalists.
While it is a small step in a student’s general education requirements, it is a step that continues to throw a rather mammoth-sized monkey wrench into some students’ educational agendas.
“It scared the hell out of me,” said Brian Houck, a U of M student who delayed taking the course until his last semester as a college student. “But we are all in the same boat, so it turned out pretty good.
“Speech class digs up every insecurity you never knew you had,” Houck said.
David Acey, a professor of communications at The U of M, knows of students putting off the class their entire collegiate career in hopes the dreaded class may suddenly vanish from The U of M’s curriculum.
“It’s like lining up to walk the plank,” Houck said. “Even if you’re at the end of the line you’re going to have to jump.”
The glaring eyes of an auditorium can surgically remove every bit of confidence from some unfortunate souls at the podium, and shortly thereafter, the previously chatty student can be reduced to stony “deer in headlights” at the hands of he or she who summons them.
It’s no secret public speaking mortifies.
Sweat drips, tears fall, stomachs cave and in every leading second, the tension mounts like a ton of note cards.
This leaves plenty of room for erratic behavior on the part of the nervy presenter.
Matthew Doggett, a communications professor at The U of M, has seen the tears and heard the sighs and gasps, but has also witnessed the spontaneous infliction of dead silence as some students suddenly become muted along with the occasional mumbling mess.
Acey said students will stand up and, before you can even notice, they’re sitting back down again. He said the weirdest thing is when they walk up to the front, open their mouths and literally nothing comes out.
“They put it off so long that they develop such a fear and can’t speak at all,” Acey said.
Assistant professor of communications Ahlam Muhtaseb can’t figure out how to tune out the rhythmic beating of desks with pencils and fists.
Doggett said students often resort to a click of a pen for distraction, but things get out of hand when the clicking starts sounding like a machine gun.
“I’ve seen someone grip the desk so hard I could see their knuckles turn white,” Doggett said. “I’ve seen people look like they were about to pass out.”
And is line dancing a defense mechanism?
Doggett recalls a student frantically stepping back foot over front continuously — to the point it almost looked like a one-man line dance.
“We could almost even get into the rhythm,” Doggett said.
However, Doggett doesn’t equate the odd quirks of nervousness to the haunting eyes of the audience. He said speech audiences tend to sit in a sort of unsure pause until a professor elicits a response.
A crowd may find it hard to resist oohing and ahhing a female striptease demo or a male exotic dancing display. Maybe it’s that sense of creative escape that actually frees the nerves or that the critical eye becomes a very interested eye in this instance.
How might you react to a step-by-step approach to heroine use or how to roll and smoke a marijuana cigarette? Or how about a speaker who wants to pass out mixed drinks?
Acey said professors try to keep students comfortable with topics because they understand the fears of speech, but when students try to fire up the real herb and start pouring up rum, it gets a little wild.
Administration may not be too keen on the idea of the student body doing shots and lighting up to ease the pressures of speech class, but when you’re dealing with one of the greatest hindrances to social and career mobility today, fear of public speaking, something’s got to give.
