Unlocking the Key Factors behind Speaking Anxiety in English for Foreign Language Students at University

Abstract

Speaking is a skill that can help the students to communicate and express their feelings and ideas in a direct way. However, it is difficult for students to master it because of many problems. One of those problems is speaking anxiety. Speaking anxiety is a problem that occurs in the learning process and causes shyness and nervousness. This research is intented to find out the contributing factors of speaking anxiety of English Language Education Study Program students batch 2019 in Basic Speaking at Lambung Mangkurat University. This research used qualitative method. The subjects of this research were the Basic Speaking students batch 2019. The data was gained by observation, interview and documentation.In analyzing the data, the researcher used descriptive explanation. The result showed that there were several factors of speaking anxiety in Basic Speaking. In conclusion, the contributing factors of speaking anxiety of English Language Education Study Program students batch 2019 in Basic Speaking at Lambung Mangkurat University were speaking activities in front of the class, being nervous, being shy, having negative thoughts of lecturer’s correction of their performence, having trouble with grammar skill, having trouble with vocabulary skill, not having a good fluency in speaking English, afraid of making mistakes, and lack of preparation about the material. For the students, they need to respect each other and be more aware that speaking anxiety only limits their speaking English abilities. For other researchers, the researcher expected that the findings of this research would be used as the references for the part that have not been contrived.