ELC-ECAC WRITE-UP: Workshop for Developing Confidence in Presentation

Prepared by ELC student ambassadors: Cathy Shen Hanqi and Caroline Liu Meng

Presentation is very common in the university courses, but many students have reported that speaking makes them very nervous.  In order to help students relieve their anxiety and improve their confidence to perform better in public speaking, the ELC English Co-Curricular Activities Committee (ELC-ECAC) hosted a workshop on “Developing Confidence in Presentation” presented by Ms. Miranda Gao, ELC Teaching Fellow.

Participants were first given two minutes to prepare an impromptu one-minute self-introduction. This was designed to simulate the anxiety students usually feel when they are about to make a presentation.  Students were then introduced to different types of common physical reactions caused by anxiety which helped in identifying the factors and extent of their fears during presentations.  After that, students were guided to explore positive thoughts that could help them control the negative reactions.

In the workshop, Ms. Gao shared some ways how to relieve the mental fear and tension through relaxation techniques such as the famous Lamaze breathing method, holding something in hand, high power poses, and others.  Students were invited to practice the techniques together and participated in a highly interactive series of activities to allow them to experience handling their fears and develop their confidence when making presentations in the future.

The workshop was attended by students from the graduate and undergraduate programmes. 

Best Regards,

English Language Centre