Betsy,
My students have been giving speeches this whole last week on great physicists. I agree whole heartedly that they fear public speaking more than anything else. I had one student almost throw up and another student break into tears. The only way for them to get over their fear of public speaking is to keep practicing, which many of them have not had that much experience with. This is an asset that will help them relate to other people in the future and maybe we don't allow them to practice this skill as much as we should.