Running head: Communication/Listener anxiety and nonverbal skills 2
Listening anxiety can erupt in any conversation between two or more groups of
people engaging in a communication. I have experienced listening anxiety a number of times
while in class as a result of; lack of clear understanding during the class sessions, failure to
concentrate continuously hence being passed by important points which ought to be noted
down, distraction from fellow colleagues may also lead to listening anxiety since it leads to
distracted concentration. I have also experienced Communication anxiety several times when
addressing an audience whereby am faced by a feeling of nervousness or the fear of being
underrated by the audience I am addressing. In general, the feeling of anxiety is a situation
that most people encounter before they face an audience, during the time they are addressing
the audience of even after addressing their respective audience. It can be literally simple to
overcome communication anxiety for example; use of adequate preparation before the actual
presentation and making sure that I memorise contents of the document to be presented, deep
breaths can also be useful during a conversation to overcome communication anxiety.
I strongly agree with the statement that smiling causes a decrease in direct eye contact
thus people who gaze longer are better liked. In argument, a smile on the face can be used as
a break in a conversation. When one takes a break in a conversation, the eye contact is
limited. A smile can also be used to trigger shyness while communicating to a shy person.
When communicating to someone with whom you are aware they possess the shy character
with them and at the midst of the conversation you use a smile, they will end up shying away
their face by looking sideways. To give an example, it happened one time I was
communicating with a fellow classmate of the opposite sex about life issues “I was
questioning about her view on the dating nature of the current youth.” To my surprise, her
first reaction was putting on a smile on her face even before sharing to me her view, the smile
made me shy away reducing the eye contact between the two of us hence a good prove that a
smile on the face can reduce eye contact.
