PROSIDING SEMINAR NASIONAL SENSASEDA ISBN 978-602-60163-9-3

Volume 1, 2021

ANXIETY ISSUES ON ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASS; THE ANALYSIS

OF STUDENTS' PROBLEMS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION
STUDY PROGRAM
Yulieda Hermaniar (1)
Nursifa Azkiya (2)
1,2
STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin
yuliedahermaniar@stkipbjm.ac.id
3061612056@mhs.stkipbjm.ac.id

Abstract

Anxiety in a common problem faced by foreign language speakers due to the fear of making mistakes or talking
about irrelevant topic. The issue, however, appear in any level of proficiency as it is part of mental activity. The
anxiety may be beneficial since it makes speaker concern about the content of their speaking, but it can also
influence the quality of oral language production and make individuals appear less fluent than they really are.
Therefore, it appears to be important to discuss the factor causing anxiety on English department students in STKIP
PGRI Banjarmasin. As the aim of the study was to carry out what are the factors that usually affect the anxiety in
speaking English, descriptive qualitative was used to find and analyze the factors that usually affect students’
anxiety in speak English. The subject of this study was eighth semester students of English Education Department of
STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin with 28 students. The research data was gathered by distributing questionnaire to confirm
students’ answer. The result of analysis of students’ anxiety in speaking English showed that speaking is very
difficult skill for students who study foreign language even for advanced learner. It was based on three factors
influencing students’ anxiety in speaking English; communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation and test
anxiety.

Key words: Speaking, anxiety, anxiety factors, English Learning.

INTRODUCTION
Feelings of anxiety or nervousness are commonly happened when you want to speak a
foreign language, especially by foreign learners when they want try to speak the language, even
if you a college student. Speaking is believed as a skill that most influential in terms of anxiety.
There are so many things causing during speaking. One of the factors is English not their mother
tongue and English is a foreign language.
According to Koichi Sato (2003:5), there are some factors that makes students can feel the
anxiety when speaking. First, students are afraid of making mistakes and the second is Second is
that the oral activities done in English class are often meaningless and irrelevant to the daily life
of the students.
Some of people believed if you have prepared and practiced well, then you will reduce the
anxiety problem on speaking. Nevertheless, somehow on another people the theory doesn’t
work. Most people feel anxious when they want to speak in front of many people. People with
this concern say one way out of anxiety is being careful preparation and practice. However,
another research say that the fact that anxiety plays an important role in students’ learning, stated
by Horwitz (1991) as cited in Juhana (2012:102). He believes that speaking anxiety a certain
language can affect students’ performance. It can influence the quality of oral language
production and make individuals appear less fluent than they really are.
Those problems above are also experienced by eighth semester students of STKIP PGRI
Banjarmasin. The eighth semester students ideally should be able to speak English fluently and
confidently because they have learned varied expressions and have practiced speaking in at least
4 different speaking courses that make speaking skill should not be an issue. In fact, most

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students of seventh semester admit that they still have anxiety on speaking English, especially
when they have teaching practice and should speak in front of the students.
In speaking English, there are some factors causing anxiety. They are lack of confidence,
lack of vocabulary, lack of grammar, fear of mistake, incorrect pronunciation, feel shy and rarely
talk with English. The anxiety may affect confidence, speaking performance, and somehow
distract their focus in speaking. By finding the cause of anxiety, it would be easier to fix it.
Therefore, the researcher found it important to conduct research about the factor causing anxiety
on English department students in STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin.
The objective of the research is carried out what are the factors that usually affect the
anxiety at eighth semester students in speaking English at eighth semester of English Department
of STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin.
Foreign language contexts are those in which students don’t have ready-made contexts for
communication beyond their classroom. English is increasingly being used as a tool for
interaction among non-native speaker. English has become a tool for international
communication.
Speaking is one of four language skills in English beside listening, reading and writing.
Speaking skill, on the other hand, seems more difficult than any other skills. According to Bailey
(2005:48) that factor can happens because first, unlike reading or writing, speaking happens in
real time, usually the person you are talking to is waiting for you to speak right then. Second,
when you speak, you cannot revise or edit what you wish to say, as if you are writing.
Additionally, Richard said (2008:2) Fluency is a goal for speaking skills and this can be
developed through use assignments that require students to try real communication, even though
the students’ English skills are limited.
Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope (1986) wrote that speaking were main sources of anxiety. Lack
of preparation and free speech can make student feeling anxious. Problem observed by Horwitz
et al. include difficulty in recalling the lessons under anxious conditions (such as examinations),
over studying as a reaction, avoiding the situation as in learned helplessness, and fear of making
mistakes that make student keep silent and not participate. All of these reactions are consistent
with the general literature on anxiety and described some behaviors of anxious students in
language learning context.
Learning anxiety can be attributed into several factors. Horwitz identifies the sources of
foreign language anxiety are communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative
evaluation to provide teachers with the nature of anxiety. As the focus in this study is on
speaking skill, those components will be explained below:

Communication Apprehension
Communication apprehension is a fear or anxiety about actual or anticipated communication
with other individuals, and is a behavioral trait related to the psychological constructs of shyness
and reticence. The inability to express the ideas or to understand another student make students
feel frustration and apprehension.
Students who have trouble speaking in a foreign language class where their performance is
constantly monitored. Fadhillah (2009:17), in his research stated that the communication
apprehension in foreign language learning derives from the personal belief that student has
difficulty in understanding others and making other students understood. Because of this, many
students are silent in a foreign language classroom.

Fear of Negative Evaluation

Because students are not sure of what they are saying, the students may feel anxious about
what other student thinking about. It occurs in students that are over concerned with academic
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and personal evaluations of their performance and competence in the target language. Students
can experience this fear because they cannot present themselves in the target language as well as
they can in their native language. People who experience fear of negative evaluation tend to
minimize the possibility of negative evaluation in their actions. They also tend to avoid or leave
social interactions in which they feel other people evaluating them negatively. Usually they do
not participate in conversations, just smiling and politely nodding, or listening to others talk.
Students with fear of negative evaluation sit passively in the classroom; they do not take a part in
classroom activities that actually could improve their language skills. And students with fear of
negative evaluation may think of avoiding language classroom to avoid anxiety situations
Fadhillah (2009:18).

Test anxiety
Test anxiety, as explain by Horwitz cited in Fadhillah (2009:19), pointed out that test
anxiety as a type of performance anxiety in term of a fear of failure. Test anxious students may
feel that anything less than a perfect test performance is a failure. Students with test anxiety in
foreign language classroom probably experience difficulty during tests and quizzes and even
clever and prepared students often make errors. Test anxious students always feel worried and
uncomfortable when they have to face examination, this feeling can influence their achievement
or performance.

METHOD
This study is qualitative descriptive research. Descriptive is the way the data will be
presented and analyzed, while qualitative deals with the form of the data. Mackey and Gass
(2005:162) stated that the aims of qualitative researchers often involve the provision of careful
and detailed descriptions as opposed to the quantification of data through measurements,
frequencies, scores, and ratings.
The population of this research was the students of English department STKIP PGRI
Banjarmasin and the sample was eighth semester student of English Department.The eighth
semester students divided into two classes, morning classes are 18 people and afternoon classes
are 10 people. The total number of eighth semester student of English department STKIP PGRI
Banjarmasin students are 28 people. Arikunto (2010:112) stated if the subject is less than 100, so
it would be better if research samples should be taken. Since the total number of samples less
than 100, so researcher took all the student as sample of the research.
The data are collected by using the questionnaires that were distributed to twenty-eight
English students at eighth semester of STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin. There will be three type of
anxiety and every type consist 5 questions, so the total number of questions is 15. The
questionnaire was translated into Bahasa Indonesia to make it easy for the populations to
understand. The researcher would use close-form questionnaire, questionnaire will be presented
with several options, they are yes and no.
According to Miles and Huberman (2014:31-32), analysis consist of three plots of activity
which are data condensation, data display and drawing and verifying conclusion.
1) Data condensation: the researcher collecting and selecting theories about anxiety factor of
speaking English. Then after that the fix data will changed in from of question for
questionnaire.
2) Data display: the collected data will be displayed in form of table and afterwards explained
one by one to make it easy to understand.

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3) Drawing and verifying conclusion: after displaying the data, the researchers compared the
factor founded in data display with the theories from experts and explained the differences
between the theories and the research result. Then draw conclusions of the study.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The main objective of this research was to describe the factors influencing students’ anxiety
in speaking English at eighth semester of English Department of STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin. The
researcher conducted this research at eighth semester morning and afternoon class of English
Department STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin in the academic year 2016/2017. The total of students is
28 people because the total number less than 100, so researcher took all the students as sample.
There were fifteen total questions, the question divided into three types and every types it has 5
questions. The questionnaire used closed-form, so it provides two options, there are yes or no.

Communication Apprehension
Communication apprehension is the first of the three types of question. In this part there
are five questions that talked about shyness, reticence, inability to express idea in form of
speaking, difficult to understand what other people said, and difficult to making other people
understand

Table 1. Communication apprehension result.

COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION Yes No
1. Do you feel embarrassed when you speak in English? 13 15
Do you prefer to keep silence when asked to speak in
2. 9 19
English?
Do you find it difficult when you want to say something
3. 24 4
in English?
Do you feel depressed when you cannot understand
4. 15 13
what the other people say in English?
Do you find it difficult to make other people understand
5. 16 12
with what you mean when you speak in English?

Question number 1 talk about shyness, 13 students answered “Yes”, and 15 students
answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more than half of students (around 15
studends) are not embarassed anymore when speak in English.
Question number 2 talk about reticence, 9 students answered “Yes”, and 19 students
answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more than half of students (around 19
studends) are brave to speak up in English when asked to.
Question number 3 talk about inability to express idea in form of speaking, 24 students
answered “Yes”, and 4 students answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more
than half of students (around 24 studends) find it difficult when they want to say something in
English.

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Question number 4 talk about difficult understand another person, 15 students answered
“Yes”, and 13 students answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more than half
of students (around 15 studends) feel depressed when cannot understand what other people say
in English.
Question number 5 talk about difficult for making other people understand, 16 students
answered “Yes”, and 12 students answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more
than half of students (around 16 studends) find it difficult to make other people understand when
speak in English.
Based on table above anxiety factor in speaking english on communication apprehension
are found in questions number 3, 4, and 5. since those three number got most of the ‘Yes’
answer, so it will be the factor anxiety in communication apprehension.

Fear of Negative Evaluation

Fear of negative evaluation is the second of the three types of question. In this part there
are five questions that talked about not sure when speaking, anxious about other people think,
concern about academic evaluation of competent in target language, tend to avoid interaction
prefer smile and nods, and passively in speaking class / not take a part.

Table 2. Fear of negative evaluation result.

FEAR OF NEGATIVE EVALUATION Yes No

1. Do you feel unsure when you want to speak in English? 18 10

Do you dwell on about what people might think with how the
2. 19 9
way you are speaking in English?
Do you feel worried about academic evaluation in your skill
3. 12 16
when speaking English?
When conversation in English happened. Do you prefer to avoid
4. 5 23
it like just smiling and nodding?
Are you one of the students who don’t play an active role in the
5. 10 18
speaking class?

Question number 1 talk about not sure when speaking, 13 students answered “Yes”, and 15
students answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more than half of students
(around 15 studends) are not embarassed anymore when speak in English.
Question number 2 talk about anxious about other people think, 13 students answered
“Yes”, and 15 students answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more than half
of students (around 15 studends) are not embarassed anymore when speak in English.
Question number 3 talk about concern about academic evaluation, 13 students answered
“Yes”, and 15 students answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more than half
of students (around 15 studends) are not embarassed anymore when speak in English.
Question number 4 talk about tend to avoid interaction prefer smile and nods, 13 students
answered “Yes”, and 15 students answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more
than half of students (around 15 studends) are not embarassed anymore when speak in English.

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Question number 5 talk about passively in speaking class, 13 students answered “Yes”, and
15 students answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more than half of students
(around 15 studends) are not embarassed anymore when speak in English.
Based on table above anxiety factor in speaking english on fear of negative evaluation are
found in questions number 1 and 2. since those two numbers got most of the ‘Yes’ answer, so it
will be the factor anxiety in fear of negative evaluation.

Test Anxiety
Test anxiety is the third or last of the three types of question. In this part there are five
questions that talked about worrying about speaking test, fear of failure, speaking performance
not perfect means failure, worrying when face speaking test, and feeling difficulty during
speaking test

Table 3. Test anxiety result.

TEST ANXIETY Yes No

Do you feel worried thinking about the examination in

1. 17 11
speaking class?
Do you have any fear of failing when you do the
2. 18 10
examination in a speaking class?
Do you feel if your speaking English performance is not
3. 21 7
perfect it means you are failed?
Do you feel worried when you need to face an exam in
4. 20 8
speaking class?
Do you find it difficult during an exam in speaking
5. 15 13
class?

Question number 1 talk about worrying about speaking test, 17 students answered “Yes”,
and 11 students answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more than half of
students (around 17 studends) feel worried thinking about the examination in speaking class.
Question number 2 talk about fear of failure, 18 students answered “Yes”, and 10 students
answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more than half of students (around 18
studends) have any fear of failing when you do the examination.
Question number 3 talk about anxious about speaking performance not perfect means
failure, 21 students answered “Yes”, and 7 students answered “No”. From this result, it can be
concluded that more than half of students (around 21 studends) feel if their speaking English
performance is not perfect it means they are failed.
Question number 4 talk about worrying when face speaking test, 20 students answered
“Yes”, and 8 students answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more than half
of students (around 20 studends) feel worried when they need to face an exam in speaking class.
Question number 5 talk about feeling difficulty during speaking test, 15 students answered
“Yes”, and 13 students answered “No”. From this result, it can be concluded that more than half
of students (around 15 studends) find it difficult during an exam in speaking class.
Based on table above anxiety factor in speaking english on test anxiety are found in all
numbers. since all numbers got most of the ‘Yes’ answer, so it will be the factor anxiety in test
anxiety.

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According to Horwitz et al in Fadhillah (2009:17) three factors found on communication

apprehension can happens because derives from the students’ personal belief that they’re has
difficulty in understanding others and making other students understood.
According to Aida in Fadhillah (2009:18) two factors found on fear of negative evaluation
can happens because the students worry of the others people negative evaluation and the
assumption that other people will evaluate theem negatively.
According to Horwitz et al in Fadhillah (2009) five factors found on test anxiety can happen
because most foreign language students view foreign language production as a test situation
rather than as an opportunity for communication. the students probably experience difficulty
during test and quizzes and then daily evaluation of speaking skill in classroom are often done,
so they feel uncomfortable when they have face examination, this feeling can influence the
students’ achievement and performance. even clever and prepared the students often making
error, students may suffer stress and anxiety if they making mistakes occurs frequently and it can
be problem that will affect their performance and future improvement. also statement by Aida in
Fadhillah (2009) test anxiety can happens because students don’t know how to process or
organize the lesson.

CONCLUSION
The purpose of the study was to carry out the factors influencing students’ anxiety in
speaking English at eighth semester of English Department of STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin. Based
on the data analysis result, the researcher founded ten factor influencing students’ anxiety in
speaking English. They were inability to express idea in form of speaking, speaking performance
not perfect means failure, worrying when face speaking test, anxious about other people think,
not sure when speaking, fear of failure, worrying about speaking test, difficult to making other
people understand, difficult to understand what other people said, and feeling difficulty during
speaking test.

SUGGESTION
1. The teacher/lecturer should prepare their students to know the importance of communication
skill and put a good strategy to teach them, it will train their speaking skill. the lecturer also
need to ask for the students to be brave to speak in English during classes.
2. The students need to train their speaking skill even at home intensively in order to help them
overcome their problems in speaking. . The students can ask another friend to talk with
English in the phone or just searching for speaking video practice in the internet.

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