Lose Your Fear of Speaking

In this lesson we’ll start by explaining that fear of speaking a foreign language is common. We’ll explore the typical ways this fear is experienced: in the body, thoughts and emotions and how this fear affects what we do…or don’t do, as avoidance is a common aspect of fear of speaking. We’ll look briefly at how both speaking a foreign language and fear place a load on the brain. You’ll have the chance to think about how YOUR fear manifests and the cost this poses to you and your company. We’ll also ask you to imagine how it might feel to reduce this fear and build confidence – our aim as we work through this course together.

In this lesson we’ll dive into the idea of speaking a foreign language as a threat. We’ll look at what happens in our brains when we detect a threat: you’ve probably heard of the fight-flight-freeze response and experienced first-hand some of the ways we react when we are facing danger. We’ll explore why we need to be able to react like this – for example, if there’s a fire in the building – but that fight-flight-freeze is not designed for many aspects of modern social life, including speaking foreign languages in front of others. We’ll see how anxiety can be self-maintaining, and you’ll have the chance to work out your own fear of speaking cycle.

Here we’ll explore why speaking in a foreign language trips the threat switch in our brain and why our perception of our own performance is often worse than it really is. We’ll acknowledge that we are social animals, who care about how we perform in front of other people. When we feel fear, we hyperfocus on the negatives and filter out the positives. Our brain gives more weight and worry time to potential dangers and how to avoid them: it’s better to be safe than sorry! You’ll be able to examine your own negative thinking styles and also take time to consider your past experiences of learning languages… perhaps they haven’t helped you develop a sense of confidence.

Now we’ll turn to practical strategies for dealing with our fears. We’ll start by looking at how to acknowledge our fear without reacting to it, for example, by avoiding speaking situations. Our course guide will take you through a simple breathing exercise aimed at slowing the breath and lowering our level of stress. Simple mindfulness exercises and strategies for working with negative thinking patterns will help you to approach speaking opportunities with a different attitude: as chances to build a new relationship with your target language.

In our final lesson, we’ll focus on the communicative approach to language and decide what effective language use is…and isn’t. You’ll be asked to look at what your job really is: to speak a foreign language perfectly or to use your full skill set to get the job done.  We’ll move away from looking at mistakes through a magnifying glass and instead, identify what REALLY makes someone an effective speaker in a foreign language. We’ll also look at the idea of the flow state and identify factors which will help you learn and perform optimally.