Mature Age Students

In our study many mature age students revealed that they were particularly worried about standing in front of the class and making fools of themselves. If you are in this situation, the first thing that you need to learn is that you will not make a fool of yourself. Just because you haven't had much practice standing in front of people and speaking in recent years, does not mean that you cannot do it. Your other life experiences may have equipped you for public speaking even without you being aware of it at the time. Standing your ground with a 5 year old who refuses to get in the bath is a good example. In this instance, you use rhetorical strategies to try to persuade him/her to do what you want, you prepare an argument which is thoroughly grounded with evidence (eg if you don't have a bath you will be dirty when we go to grandma's house), and you stand your ground by sticking up for what you believe. Similarly, when talking to a group of colleagues at an office staff meeting, your request for the purchase of a new photocopier was accompanied by statistical evidence pertaining to the unreliability of the existing machine, a confident stylistic approach to the topic, and a rational argument presented in a calm but persuasive manner.

You need to believe that you have the skills required to succeed. Remember, even though your classmates who are fresh from school may have had more recent experience with public speaking, this doesn't mean that they were good at it. Your wide-ranging life experience often puts you in the unenviable position of being able to analyse and synthesise the subject matter of your talk in a manner which is more sophisticated, and probably more intersting, way than your peers who have not been exposed to such a diverse range of experiences.

 

For more helpful hints, follow the link to Fred.