From Being a Trainee to Being a Trainer: Helping Peers Improve their Public Speaking Skills // De ser entrenado a ser entrenador: cómo ayudar a otros iguales en la mejora de las competencias para hablar en público

Abstract

Although public speaking anxiety is present at all stages, the university period is specially critical since student's lack of oral communication skills may prevent them from accomplishing their required educational goals. Since in-class instruction by teachers is time-consuming, the objective of this study was to test if in-class previously trained Psychology students could train other undergraduates to use public speaking skills effectively by means of a peer collaborative learning methodology. The results revealed that training Psychology students resulted in their peers' improvement of their oral communication skills and reduction of their speech anxiety after having received the tutoring program.