When Manashvi Vats first stood in her public speaking class, her words tumbled out in a nervous rush. The computer science major who speaks four languages struggled to control her speed and her carefully prepared speech turned into a rapid delivery.
“I was very fast,” Vats recalled.
But her professor noticed and provided resources to help Vats. “She helped us, like especially me, to work on my pronunciations and become a more confident speaker,” Vats said. By the end of the semester Vats said she had transformed into a composed speaker with improved posture, tone, articulation, and speed.
Vats’s experience reflects a larger reality at MCCC, where multilingual students face unique challenges in public speaking classes.
A survey conducted by the VOICE of 30 multilingual students in MCCC’s public speaking classes revealed that while 93% feel supported by instructors, several challenges persist in their ability to express themselves. Fear of judgment topped concerns at 36%, followed by pronunciation (29%) and organizing ideas in English (21%).
Several strategies and campus resources are helping these students overcome their anxiety.
Dr. Katie Carnevale, assistant professor of communication, typically has 15% to 20% multilingual students in each class.
“One of the things that I emphasize early on in the semester is, let’s create a really comfortable atmosphere in the classroom,” Carnevale said. “No matter what your challenges are, maybe English isn’t your first language, maybe you have some learning differences, we’re going to create an atmosphere where everybody feels comfortable.”
She continued, “It’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay to mess up. I do it sometimes when I’m teaching. We’re all human beings.”
Additionally, Carnevale offers individual rehearsal sessions and encourages students to form practice groups. “I really like when students connect with each other in the class, and then they serve as little mini audiences for each other,” she said.
Bibi Bakhtawar, a second-year biology student, credits her professor’s availability. “She has office hours so that we can come in and practice with her and do whatever we need.”
For Bakhtawar, the biggest struggle was eye contact. “My professor really requested that we have to look at people while we’re talking. We can’t just look at paper and read it off. We need to talk from our hearts.”
At first, surprise speaking exercises terrified her. “It was just really hard for me at first, but then I got used to it.”
Outside the college’s mainstream course offerings, MCCC’s ESL program serves more than 300 students each semester, offering courses in speaking, writing, and reading. It’s where many multilingual students build confidence and foundational skills before stepping into classes such as public speaking.
Professor Wan-Ning Yeh, ESL coordinator in her fifth year at Mercer, said the program offers students options at enrollment: They can take an ESL placement exam or the Next Gen exam to go directly into English 101.
“Some students prefer to take ESL courses first because they want to build up their confidence,” Yeh said. “Especially for those who finished high school with ESL, they might go directly to 101. But others want that foundation first.”
Yeh designs her speaking classes to prepare students for exactly the challenges they’ll face in public speaking courses, but in a safer environment.
“I use a lot of impromptu speech topics in my class, but I start with low stakes,” Yeh said. “They get to talk to each other first, and then they present their ideas to the whole class.”
She gradually increases the difficulty of the exercises. Eventually, students face on-the-spot speaking exercises with minimal preparation time. “I’ll give them 30 seconds to a minute to prepare for it and then speak up,” Yeh adds.
For Bakhtawar, that support made a difference. Asked how she felt about the class that once terrified her, she said, “I had fun in it.”
