We Need to Teach Public Speaking

When I joined my Health Science master’s program in August of 2024, it quickly became apparent to me that I had entered an academic environment quite unlike anything I had experienced before — and not simply because of the increase in rigor. Rather, I was caught off guard by the expectation that we as students were to become the leaders and the teachers in the classroom. And one fundamental skill that we were expected to aptly exercise in this process was none other than public speaking.

Just saying the words “public speaking” to students can incite severe anxiety. One might be interested to know that the fear of public speaking—known officially in psychology as glossophobia—affects up to 40 percent of individuals and is ranked as the number one phobia in the world. It has outranked heights, small spaces, snakes, spiders, and even death itself!

This becomes incredibly problematic when graduate education and the workforce require individuals to communicate with one another, with experts, and with the lay public in different settings and often regardless of field. Scientists and doctors must present findings at research conferences, lawyers must defend clients, and businessmen must market products. Even in a more stereotypically introverted field like computer science, professionals give technical conference talks and product demos.