Revue des recherches universitaires sur Toastmasters International

Since 1905, Toastmasters International has been the world’s best-known organization for the practice of voluntary speaking. At Toastmasters, members learn by studying their manual, doing hands-on exercises, and helping each other. This manual offers ten projects: each of them aims to develop an aspect of oral communication following a well-defined progression. Since there is little academic research regarding the use of the Toastmasters method, we want to present in this article a review of the existing research. The studies described below constitute the most important academic literature as far as Toastmasters International is concerned. The authors’ research on Toastmasters encompasses three main themes: (1) Toastmasters International as an educational program, (2) social ease among members, or (3) public speaking anxiety. We will present them in chronological order.