All eyes on me: : Public speaking skills and performance anxiety

Abstract: This research investigates how pupils perceive performance anxiety and where this trait may originate. Based on the findings from the interviews, it was factors such as lack of studying technique, expectations of a high grade, and pressure from home as well as classmates that were the main reasons to why their performance anxiety arose from the very beginning. In relation to this, the study aims at discussing how rhetoric as a subject in school may reduce performance anxiety amongst pupils. A qualitative method was used to investigate the research question of this essay. The interviews have been done through semi-structured interviews as a primary source. Through these interviews, the work aims to examine performance anxiety amongst students and exploring how public speaking skills and performance anxiety may be influenced by preparation and rhetorical knowledge. Although this study cannot conclusively argue that the teaching of rhetoric would reduce performance anxiety, the results of the interviews suggest that better rhetorical skills would enhance students public speaking skills.”