To Improve Public Speaking, We Need to... Speak

Ashleigh Gulliver
Nov 5
4 min read

How to grow confidence in public speaking from a young age, and what support we can give as parents and teachers.

New Zealand has a strong oral history, stories passed down from generation to generation, carrying identity, belonging, and lessons. They are powerful retellings of who we are and where we’ve come from.

For many, though, the experience of speeches and public speaking is the annual school speech competition, nervously standing in front of peers, a dreaded memory for most. It often felt like box-ticking: “oral language” done for the year.

Although the importance of oral literacy is widely recognised, how to teach it, what to teach, and how to encourage students to take part, remains a challenge. Our relationship with oral language has too often been one of fear and dread. It’s no surprise that students aren’t rushing to put their hands up to speak.

This post supports a recent podcast conversation I had about building confidence in speaking and oral literacy. If you’d like to listen, follow this link: School Shorts Podcast

In this post, I’ll share strategies to get students talking - at school or at home. While they’re written for teaching, they’re equally useful for anyone wanting to improve their own relationship with speaking aloud.

1. Stake Out the Speaking Location

We’re often quick to ask a confident student to “just stand up” and present a notice or thank a visitor at assembly. But for many, the first time they do this is unbelievably nerve-racking.

If you know you’ll be speaking, whether as a student or adult, visiting your speaking location even ten minutes beforehand can make a huge difference to your nerves. It gives you time to:

Figure out your entry and exit strategy.
Decide where to stand and where to look.
Gauge the size of the space and how much you’ll need to project your voice.

Turning these unknowns into knowns reduces anxiety. You can then focus on what you need to say, rather than worrying about where to stand or where the audience will be.

Let students explore speaking spaces early in the year, even a few walk-throughs help enormously. And if you’re beyond school, try standing in an empty meeting room before a presentation. Picture yourself speaking there. You’ve got this.

2. Hear Your Voice in the Space

When students enter my class and I take the roll, they don’t answer with “yes.” Instead, they answer a question:

Would you rather have a pause or rewind button in your life?
Would you rather live in Hogwarts or Narnia?
Would you rather hold a spider or a cockroach?

This simple practice does three things:

Every student hears their own voice in the room.
Every student speaks within the first five minutes.
Every student shares an opinion safely, out loud, to an audience.

From there, the questions can spark discussion, group by answers, debate choices, or dig deeper into reasoning. You can also link the questions to your subject area.

Hearing your voice in the space grounds you and makes it easier to speak again later.

3. Teach Storytelling

Stories are relatable, memorable, and powerful. We remember stories more than facts and figures.

Teach students to relive the moment, not just retell it - using senses, imagery, and emotion.

Try prompts like:

Tell me a story about where you grew up.
What do you love doing on weekends?
What’s a moment you felt proud or overcame a challenge?
Tell a story from something you did or saw on holiday.
How did you get involved in your sport/hobby?

Alternatively, play One Word Story: Put a list of words on the board - BBQ, fireworks, babysitting, Christmas, sport, board games, mice, cake - and ask students to tell the first story that comes to mind. Then, ask ther audience if they could find a lesson within it, what did that story teach them?: resilience, fun, teamwork, persistence etc.

This builds the idea of a “takeaway story,” where the audience learns something from your experience.

4. Play With Your Voice

Voice is more than volume. Modulation, including tone, pace, and expression, brings words to life. This is vital in public speaking as we learn about core messages from the speaker’s voice and body language. Children’s books are brilliant for developing this skill — The Book With No Pictures, The Wonky Donkey, and others invite playfulness with rhythm and sound.

Reading aloud with exaggeration teaches pitch, pause, and emotion, the same tools that make a speech engaging.

Yes, this one’s for adults too. You’d be surprised how freeing it feels to “be a kid again” and just play with voice.

5. Be Open to Any Speaking Opportunity

The annual speech competition still has value, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Students need a range of options to practise speaking safely. Try alternatives like:

Interviewing a sports team captain and playing it back podcast-style.
Reading a passage from a text aloud.
Writing and performing a short slam poem.
Welcoming or farewelling a student.
Recording an interview about the story behind someone’s name.
Creating a discussion circle with a question/phrase/idea as a starter.
Go for a walk, stop at random points and ask questions. Moving and speaking often feels easier than when standing still.

Speaking doesn’t always mean standing on stage. It can be conversation, storytelling, reading aloud, interviewing, podcasting etc.

Building Confidence to Speak - Embracing Your Nerves

Confidence isn’t about removing nerves; it’s about embracing and managing them.

Alongside giving students opportunities to hear their voices aloud, introduce small grounding strategies to help them manage nerves. What works will be different for everyone. By showing a range of options and encouraging students to try them regularly, they’ll discover what helps most, and begin building a personal toolkit they can draw on for any speaking moment ahead.

Some examples of how to do this are below -

🧘 Deep Breathing - slows your heart rate and centres you.💪 Power Pose - boosts energy and confidence.✋ Pressure Points - grounding techniques like pressing your thumb to your palm.👥 Know Your Audience - clarity reduces fear.🎯 Practice - familiarity builds confidence.