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Voice and Speech Review

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Research on Public Speaking

Ronald C. Scherer & Melissa Volk
Published online: 22 Jul 2013.

To cite this article: Ronald C. Scherer & Melissa Volk (2011) Research on Public Speaking, Voice and Speech Review, 7:1,
287-291, DOI: 10.1080/23268263.2011.10739554
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Essay by Ronald C. Scherer and Melissa Volk

Research on Public Speaking
Research Topics in Public Speaking

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We scoured research data bases for journals (see Appendix

A) and articles and found that most of the research on public speaking centered around anxiety (anxiety, social phobia,
apprehension, stage fright, performance anxiety), followed
by topics such as nonverbal aspects (gestures, facial expression, eye contact), preparation, feedback, instruction methods, attitude change, arousal styles, visual aids, gender and
competence, and 21 other topics (see Appendix B).

Melissa Volk (Maas) received her bachelors degree in

Communication Disorders from Bowling Green State
University in 2008 and her masters degree in Speech
Language Pathology from Bowling Green State University in 2010. Melissa is currently employed as a Speech
Pathologist at MetroHealths Skilled Nursing Facility in
Cleveland, Ohio. Special interests include neurological
rehabilitation, voice, fluency, and bridging the gap for
clinical application between the daily variance of the
swallow function and what is shown on dysphagia evaluations.
Dr. Ron Scherer: See Editorial Column

Introduction
To address the importance of public speaking training and
skills, the Voice Foundation Symposium in 2009 included
a session entitled The Speaking Voice: What You Need to
Know About Speaking in Public organized by Nancy Pearl
Solomon. It featured Diane DiResta, Deborah Rosen, and
Susan MillerFN1, whose professions deal with public speaking training and concerns, and panelists Donna Snow, John
RubinFN2, and myself (RS). I was asked to present the final
short talk to emphasize what research there was on public
speaking and suggest directions for the future. One of our
masters students interested in voice research, Melissa Volk,
the co-author here, was currently a teaching assistant in a
section of our universitys public speaking course, a requirement of most students at BGSU, so I invited her to join
me in this task. It was obvious to me that we would find
research on many topics about how to give good speeches
and be a proficient public speaker, including, of course, appropriate voice and speech production, per se. How wrong
I was about the latter!

Conspicuously missing were topics on voice and speech

production characteristics, respiration, acoustics, aerodynamics, perception, etc., as well as training of voice and
speech characteristics for public speaking. This seemed
rather odd, given that effective public speaking would
appear to require highly audible, intelligible, and interpretational voice and speech production. Obviously members
of VASTA who work with public speaking and other nonmembers train individuals to be highly proficient in these
regards; it is just that there is scant published research.
However, there are numerous areas of research that
indirectly address aspects of effective public speaking
from a voice and speech production point of view. These
include studies in clear speech, where research articles
have been published dealing with speaking rate, speaking
mode, intelligibility, coarticulation, perception, phonetic
invariance, articulation and vowels, etc., usually with an
acoustic methodology. Furthermore, there is a wealth of
studies that do not address public speaking per se, but have
given us much basic information pertinent to the voice
and speech mechanism, especially relative to voice quality,
speakers and actors formants, vocal expression of emotion
and depression, the voice source, expressive speech, voice
disorders, technology, and 28 other primary topics in recent
years (see Appendix C).
Funding Sources Related to Public Speaking
Perhaps the lack of research in voice and speech production in public speaking is due to funding difficulties so that
researchers are not attracted. We therefore attempted to
determine all of the (primarily American) funding agencies
that potentially might fund such research. We came up
with the Axe-Houghton Foundation, the American Society
for Theatre Research, the National Humanities Alliance
NEH, the Voice Foundation, the American Council of
Learned Societies, the National Speakers Association, and
18 other viable sources (see Appendix D). If you are interested in being funded in such research, you might consider
looking into these.

287

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Voice and Speech Science, Vocal Health

Research on Public Speaking by Ronald C. Scherer and Melissa Volk
Dealing with Production Research in Public Speaking

Voice and Speech Production

Public speaking is a complex field. Relative to potential

research into voice and speech production, as well as training, public speaking is or should be highly influenced by
four specific areas, namely, the maintenance of high levels
of health and the science of voice and speech production
pathologies, the borrowing of research designs and goals
from the science of clear speech as well as normal speech,
and the pedagogy of performance voice and speech for the
stage (see Figure 1). Strategies to study effective public
speaking from a sound production point of view need to include methodologies from the research in these four areas,
for public speaking appears to be an integration of them all
that results in a unique identity.

It is within this broad context that we now should consider

a research structure into which studies of voice and speech
production can be imbedded. What would constitute a
useful research orientation? The simplest and quite effective approach would be to determine an important characteristic the audience member requires and a corresponding
plausible production variable of the speaker, and link them
in a study. For example, take a variable such as audibility. We might recognize that audibility on the audience
members part should be highly related to the loudness of
the speaker. So the research design would have the speaker
give a portion or all of his or her speech, and alter the loudness three times so that it was directly altered by technology or perhaps even by the speaker, so that three different
audiences (of reasonable size) each would hear a different
loudness with all other characteristics of the production
(delivery) held as constant as possible. Here, then, loudness
is the variable that is parameterized (three different values)
and audibility is a dependent variable (in that the audibility
rating depends on what the audience member hears). The
audience member would be asked to rate how easy it was
to hear the speaker (audibility). But they might be asked to
rate other factors in addition to audibility such as speaker
credibility, how well the message was understood, how well
they accepted the speaker and the message, etc. In this way,
the research would be on a production variable (loudness)
and the effect of intentionally changing loudness would
give rise to audience reactions relative to basic perception
(audibility) as well as aspects important to the general public speaking situation (speaker credibility and acceptance,
message understanding, etc.). Thus, this is a general and
effective research approach: choose important production
variables, parameterize them into different levels, present each
level to the same or different groups of people, and obtain
reactions (usually ratings of some sort) by the audience
members. These reactions can be relative to a wide assortment of important speaker-audience factors.

Figure 1. Connections to Public Speaking

An Integrative Structure For Public Speaking Research

Both the speaker and the audience member come to a
public speaking talk with needs, expectations, and goals
relative to the talk (see Figure 2). The speaker has the need
to communicate a particular message, and may be motivated
by numerous influences, especially and typically the need to
satisfy some perceived audience desire. The speakers goal
will be to inform, persuade, and/or entertain. The audience
member also comes to the talk with his or her own special
needs, expectations for the potential gain from the talk,
anticipations from the experience of being at the talk, and
in general has the goals of learning, growing, being entertained, and other personal or professional gains.

Another speaker production variable of interest, for

example, is the speakers voice quality. This can be parameterized in steps (varied in logical and reasonable ways) for
the listeners rating of pleasantness, distraction, etc. The
speakers articulation can be parameterized (less specific
to more specific) for the listeners judgment of intelligibility. The speakers use of prosodics (pitch contour, loudness
contour, use of durations and pauses) can be altered in
many ways for the listeners judgment of interest, naturalness, etc. (Figure 3)
Other Categories of Interest

Figure 2. Speaker and audience member

288

This same approach can be used with the more typical categories of known interest in public speaking.

A World of Voice
Voice & Speech Review
For example, one could vary (parameterize) the speakers
message content in specific ways for the listeners rating of
understanding. Indications of the speakers expertise (credentials, knowledge, competence, warmth, honesty, enthusiasm, appearance, confidence) could be parameterized in
specific (logical) steps for the listeners rating of credibility
(trustworthiness, believability, acceptance) (Figure 3).

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could be altered and presented to different groups, and

then each group rate characteristics such as influence and
impact (behavioral, attitudinal, emotional, skill-based,
knowledge-based, and importance).

The overall judgment of a good public talk is the general

effectiveness of the talk (Figure 3). The effectiveness for
the speaker relates to all of the
factors that go into the talk
Needs
Needs
(preparation, delivery) relaMotivations
consis-u Expectations
t
tive to the speakers original
Satisfy Audience Needs
tent? Anticipations
notions of needs, motivation,
Inform, Persuade, Entertain
Learn, Grow, Be entertained
audience satisfaction, and the
desire to inform, persuade,
Speaker
Audience
and entertain. Likewise, the
Loudness
Audibility
general effectiveness for the
Voice Quality
Pleasant, Nondistracting
listener is whether or not the
talk was effective in matching
Articulation
Intelligibility
the listeners original needs,
Prosodics
Interest, Naturalness
expectations, anticipations, and
Message Content
Understanding
desire to learn, grow, or be enExpertise, Confidence
Credibility, Trustworthiness
tertained. The goal in all good
t
u
Speaking Task
Listening Task
public speaking is to match,
or exceed, the effectiveness
Relevance to Group
Influence/Impact
of the speaker relative to the
effectiveness for the listener so
EFFECTIVENESS f consistent? g EFFECTIVENESS
everyone goes away from the
talk highly satisfied.

g
g
g
g
g
g
g

Figure 3. General research design. The speaker variables on the left would be parameterized,
and the audience reactions on the right would be ratings or judgements.

There is an additional speaker-audience connection that

deserves research attention. This could be called the
speaker task associated with the listener task. The speakers
task is to prepare and organize material for the talk (find
supporting sources, prepare strategies for clarity and interest and remembering), apply learning principles, choose
the best words and word structures, deal with performance
anxiety and related physiological responses, prepare visual
and auditory aids, deal with audience interaction strategies,
prepare nonverbal behaviors, and plan the desired speaking
style and delivery methods, as well as (and quite importantly) determine the level of emotional display that would
seem appropriate and the level of ethical concern in dealing
with the message. These could all be parameterized in
meaningful ways. The listeners task would be to judge the
obvious presentation elements in the speakers list (supportive information, choice of how the information is conveyed,
the speakers apparent memory, appropriateness or distractibility of the use of nonverbal gestures, effect of perceived
level of anxiety, etc.) as being appropriate for the talk.
Another primary area of concern that could be parameterized for the speaker and rated by the listener is the relevance of the talk to the audience. The potential relevance

Conclusion
There is a dearth of research in voice and speech production for public speaking. This is surprising given the
economic and cultural importance of professional public
speaking around the world. This short essay highlights a
simple research structure and approach that relates voice
and speech production for public speaking to a variety of
listener response categories. The structure encourages
choosing relevant variables that can be parameterized for
the speaker and evaluated by the listener for levels and
types of effects and influence. It presupposes that inadequate voice and speech production elements are detrimental to the impact and effectiveness of a talk, and that the
study of these factors will bring about better pedagogies
for public speaking training and more satisfying, effective,
and healthy professional and avocational communication
experiences for both the speaker and the audience.
It is recommended that voice and speech trainers and
coaches collaborate with those in the communication
sciences and with voice and speech scientists to carry out
viable and useful research projects that enhance the science
and the art of public speaking.

289

Voice and Speech Science, Vocal Health

Research on Public Speaking by Ronald C. Scherer and Melissa Volk
Acknowledgements

APPENDIX B (continued)

The authors would like to thank Lucille Rubin for a generous early
communication on this topic and Nancy Solomon for helpful suggestions on the manuscript.

Footnotes
FN1:
a. Nancy Pearl Solomon, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Research Speech Pathologist, Army Audiology & Speech Center, Walter Reed Army Medical
Center, Washington, DC
b. Diane DiResta, founder of DiResta Communications, Inc., NYC
c. Deborah Rosen, Ph.D., Director of Healthcare Outreach, Temple
University Health Care System

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d. Susan Miller, Ph.D., founder of Voicetrainer, LLC, Washington, DC,

and Clinical Associate for the George Washington University Voice
Treatment Center, Washington, DC
FN2:
a. Donna Snow, M.F.A., Theatre Department, Temple University
b. John Rubin, M.D., Royal National Throat, Nose & Ear Hospital and
University College, London
APPENDIX A: List of journals that publish public speaking articles:

Journal of Voice
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Journal of Speech, Language, Hearing Research
Speech Communication
Cognition & Emotion
Voice and Speech Review (VASTA)
Communication Education
Communication Quarterly
Communication Research Reports
System
Journal of Language & Social Psychology
Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology
The Volta Review
Sprache-Stimme-Gehor
American Journal of Speech Language Pathology
Language and Speech
Journal of Phonetics
Journal of Medical Speech Language Pathology
Acta Acustica united with Acustica

APPENDIX B. List of topics in public speaking research:

290

Anxiety/apprehension/stage fright/ performance anxiety

Anxiety and/ competence, preparation, type of speech,
habituation (changes in anxiety),
Anticipatory, assumed, audience acceptability (perceptions),
audience perception,
Anxiety reduction, self perceived competence, audience,
treatment
Nonverbals/Gestures/Facial expression/eye contact

Preparation
Feedback
Instructional methods
Attitude change
Arousal styles
Visual aids
Gender and competence
Impact on audience
Presentation skills for different professions
Eloquence
Performance visualization
Media use
Use of humor
Persuasive speaking
Confidence
Retention of information
Listener rate preference
Effects of dialects and accents
Physiological change in speaker
Linguistic stress/variety
Group speech
Content & Delivery
Posture & Speaker Credibility
Stereotypes
Pedagogy on Public Speaking
Audience attention
Audience characteristics
Cultural effects on speaking style

APPENDIX C: Research topics related to speech and voice that do not

address public speaking:

Clear speech
speaking rate; speaking mode; intelligibility; visual; coarticula-
tion; perception; phonetic; invariance; in noise; bilingual; articu-
lation & vowels; language & timing
Voice Quality
sarcasm; adduction and trained subjects; emotion/mood/attitude
Speakers Formant/Actors Formant
Technology
Resonant Voice & therapy
Vocal expression of emotion & depression
Voice source
Expressive speech
Voice disorders
Vocal hygiene
Effects of voice training
Pulmonary function
Production & perception
Vocal warm up
Different professions voices: broadcasters; radio professionals;
voice-over; physicians; nurses; aerobic instructor; actors
Teachers & voice; various measures & conditions; vocal health;
voice training
Perceived voice robustness
Effect of humming
Speech & stress conditions
Speaking style
Speech melody

A World of Voice
Voice & Speech Review
APPENDIX C (continued):

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Speakers ring
Voice range profile
Prosody & training for successful communication
Vocal fatigue/ endurance
Voice therapy
Perception of talker characteristics
Speaker size related to voice
Therapy outcomes for professional voice users
Influence of room acoustics
Vocal loading/ Dosimetry
Phonatory effort
Phonation threshold pressure
Occupational voice
Stress & anxiety
Medical Problems
Dehydration

APPENDIX D: Agencies that may be appropriate funding sources for

public speaking:

Axe-Houghton Foundation
American Society for Theatre Research
National Humanities Alliance-NEH funding
Voice Foundation
American Council of Learned Societies
National Speakers Association
Dispute Resolution Research Center Postdoctoral Fellow
ship
Kellogg Team and Group Research Center Postdoctoral Fellowship
Metcalf Institute Diversity Fellowships in Environmental
Reporting
Multi-Arts Production Fund Grants
White House Fellows Leadership & Public Service Fellowship
Educational Foundation of America Grants
Freedom of Expression Foundation (Institusjonen Fritt
Ord) Grants
Arthur W. Page Center at Penn State College of Communications Page and Johnson
Legacy Scholar Grants
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Greenhouse Fund
Grants
Council for Advancement and Support of Education Alice
L. Beeman Research Awards
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarships
National Science Foundation Perception, Action and Cognition Grants
National Science Foundation Linguistic Grants
National Education Association Foundation Learning and
Leadership Grants
National Institutes of Health/ National Institute on AgingArchiving and Development of
Socialbehavioral Datasets in Aging Related Studies
New York Community Trust Grants
Stanford University John S. Knight Fellowships

291