Preeschool teachers' attitudes towards their own ability to speak in public

In this paper, we focused on preschool teachers' views on their public speaking skills. The theoretical part defines public speaking, which is then presented in the context of preschool teachers' work in preschool. In addition, pedagogic discourse is determined and preschool teachers' speech situations and types of texts they have to know how to approach in their line of work are outlined. We go on to present the process of creating monologue texts delivered to the public, focusing on processes of developing public speaking skills of preschool teachers. In the empirical part, we tried to determine preschool teachers' views on public speaking in general and those related to working with children in preschool, how important they deem the preparation for public speaking and in what areas of public speaking they want to improve their practical skills. Our research involved 160 preschool teachers from different preschools across Slovenia. The descriptive research method was used, with the acquired data analysed, and then interpreted, using descriptive statistics, graphs and tables. According to research findings, the surveyed preschool teachers generally perceive public speaking skills as very important for their profession. They agree that correct and effective public speaking presents an opportunity for their professional development and requires special speech training. We determined that, according to the preschool teachers, children look up to their effective public speaking skills, so it is important that they use literary and colloquial language when delivering to children new content. They assess their skills as very good and they deem good and quality preparation for public speaking very important or they always pay to it a lot of attention. In order to improve their practical public speaking skills, they desire the most to familiarise themselves with guidelines for public speaking. Based on the findings of the theoretical and empirical parts, we drew up guidelines for preschool teachers on public speaking in preschool, including instructions on how to prepare and deliver public speeches