Best Online Public Speaking Courses for Non-Native English Speakers
Speaking confidently in a second language is a different challenge than most public speaking advice makes it out to be. The standard advice, while often helpful, is designed with the assumption that the speaker’s primary language is the one they are presenting in. The speaker has to worry not only about the standard challenges of public speaking but also about language-specific pitfalls such as mispronunciations, grammatical errors, and misunderstandings. This can leave even the most confident professional feeling apprehensive about speaking up in meetings, let alone giving a formal presentation.
Online courses designed with non-native English speakers in mind tend to differ significantly from public speaking courses designed for native English speakers. Understanding the differences can help the non-native English speaker make better choices about which course to invest time and money in.
What Most Courses Fail to Address
Most public speaking courses are designed and taught by native English speakers, and it shows. They often provide advice on presentation techniques that presuppose a certain level of comfort with the English language on the part of the speaker that non-native English speakers may not have yet. They also often fail to address language-specific challenges such as mispronunciations and grammatical errors.
The challenges non-native English speakers face in public speaking often differ from those native English speakers face. A native English speaker’s presentation may suffer from a lack of organisation, while a non-native English speaker’s presentation may suffer from an overabundance of it. A native English speaker may find it challenging to keep an audience engaged.
This is where training can fall short – a non-native English speaker likely faces more challenges in holding an audience’s attention, on top of struggles with confidence and fear. Proper training should be tailored to the specific challenges of speaking English as an additional language, rather than a generalisation of how to speak in general.
What to Look For in a Course Designed for Non-Native English Speakers
Courses designed for non-native English speakers tend to focus less on general presentation advice and more on language-specific presentation advice, and vice versa, than courses designed for native English speakers do. They often provide more detailed instruction on pronunciation and pacing, since speaking more slowly and deliberately can often help a non-native English speaker sound more confident, as well as general presentation advice that applies to native and non-native English speakers alike.
Courses designed for non-native English speakers also tend to provide more detailed and specific feedback than courses designed for native English speakers, whether that feedback is automated or provided by a human instructor. Generic feedback, or feedback that is too vague to be useful, will fail to address many of the specific challenges non-native English speakers face.
Confidence and Competence Go Hand in Hand
Confidence and competence are closely linked in public speaking for non-native English speakers, in ways they tend not to be for native English speakers. A competent but unconfident non-native English speaker is likely to sound less competent than a competent but unconfident native English speaker, simply because of the additional challenges of pronunciation, pacing, and grammar. Effective training for non-native English speakers should take this into account and address confidence-building techniques alongside competence-building techniques, rather than assuming that competence will build confidence on its own.
Confidence can be built in several ways, but one of the most effective for a non-native English speaker to build confidence in public speaking is to practise in small, safe environments. This could take the form of short recorded practice speeches that can be viewed and critiqued later, or small-group discussions.
Choosing a Course Designed for Non-Native English Speakers
There are a few red flags and a few good indicators to look for when choosing a course designed for non-native English speakers. Courses with instructors who have experience working with non-native English speakers, rather than just general public speaking experience, tend to be more effective, as do courses that provide specific rather than generic feedback. Courses that provide practice opportunities that build confidence, rather than assuming competence will build confidence on its own, are also more likely to be effective.
Courses that provide advice on pronunciation and pacing alongside general presentation advice tend to be more effective than courses that treat pronunciation and pacing as separate issues. Courses that treat the question-and-answer portion of a presentation as a skill to be practised, rather than an exercise in improvisation, tend to be more effective than those that fail to provide specific guidance on handling audience questions.
Final Words
Courses that treat accent as a non-issue tend to be more effective than courses that seek to eliminate accent, as confidence and competence tend to be more important to an effective presentation than an unnoticeable accent. This is especially true for non-native English speakers, for whom accent is frequently an unavoidable part of public speaking. The confidence and competence that come with effective training will often be sufficient to prevent an accent from being an issue, even if it is not eliminated.
For professionals looking for an online public speaking course that addresses the specific challenges non-native English speakers face, rather than just generic public speaking advice that may or may not apply to non-native English speakers, OPG Coaching offers courses designed to help non-native English speakers build the competence and confidence they need to speak effectively in any professional setting.