An Analysis of The Factors Affecting Students' English Speaking Proficiency
An Analysis of The Factors Affecting Students' English Speaking Proficiency
An Analysis of The Factors Affecting Students' English Speaking Proficiency
Received: December 9, 2024 Accepted: February 28, 2024 Published: March 15, 2025
ABSTRACT
English includes common skills such as listening, reading, speaking, and writing.
Many students focus on speaking skills and complain that English is a difficult
language to use or pronounce. This is not easy when we are born with students whose
everyday language is not English, which can make it difficult for these students.
There are quite a few students today whose ability to speak English is still not good.
Of course, there must be a solution to the problem. Therefore, this research aimed to
find out what factors affect students English speaking proficiency. This research uses
qualitative methods. Among them, in this research the process of identifying,
classifying, and analyzing data according to the data analysis procedures in this study.
There were 24 students sampled in this research. The results of this research are; the
factors affecting students English speaking proficiency. These two factors are
affective factors (risk-taking and motivation) and linguistic factors (grammar and
vocabulary); (2) the oral performance test results of 24 students currently explain that
their oral performance results are at the 5th-grade level or higher with a total average
of 5.0.
INTRODUCTION
English is designated as an international language. This is because English is
considered an easier language to understand than other languages (Aziza, 2020).
English is also the language of the world that is usually gotten by people when they
interact with others who are not their family, like when they interact with their
teacher or peer and with extensive society. Therefore, Indonesians especially students
need to learn English so that can show their existence in front of the world. English is
very important to learn. This is because English can help students solve problems in a
foreign language and retrieve existing information. In a global sense, English is an
international language, whose main function is to communicate sharing ideas and
cultures between two different countries (Amankulova & Seisembieva, 2020).
Therefore, not only the students but everyone in this world including Indonesia
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should also learn it, because we have famous and modern, healthy international
science, knowledge, and business books in English and we also have to pronounce
our ideas and culture into it. So, Indonesians must master English to improve the
quality of education so that Indonesia can become a developed country (Zein et al.,
2020).
The writer sees, that there are some problems with the factors affecting
students' English proficiency. One of them is students' motivation to learn English is
very low. This may be because they receive less support and advice from those
around them. Some negative factors affect students' speaking ability they agree: that
using their mother tongue in the classroom affects students' abilities, the fear of using
English in public, the lack of English in discussion activities, the lack of curriculum
containing speech exercises, the teacher gives no support and time for the students,
and the talking part is less than listening (Ruben, 2019).
In the Indonesian educational context, there is also an emphasis on speaking
while learning. It becomes a daily activity for students. Unfortunately, most students
experience anxiety when speaking English for oral communication (Souisa & Gaite,
2020). Most of them, difficult to speak English, that happens because, when it
produces words they can't think of something that's so dizzy to say something. The
most common activity is used to promote oral fluency and is frequently referred to in
research and has been proven to promote fluency (Guevara & Albuja, 2020). This
study inspired the authors to conduct research about the materi the factors affecting
students’ English speaking proficiency.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Speaking ability is the most important skill when teaching and learning a
language because it forms the basis of communication and is also the most difficult
skill (Oradee, 2019). Thus, in the students' increased ability to speak English, teachers
should have a flower strategy and enjoy an activity to encourage students to
practice the language. Then, the students must habituate themselves to practice
speaking English so that their speaking can be proficient.
Speaking is a productive skill when learning a language. This includes
communication skills and other important factors such as pronunciation, intonation,
grammar, and vocabulary (Andi Intang, Hasnawati Latief, 2023). Instruction should
be in any language so that learners can communicate in the target language. We can
conclude that speaking is the ability to interact or communicate orally with others and
convey one's goals in the form of ideas, thoughts, and emotions.
155
Muhammad Muklas*1, Revina Yuliana*2, Evi Nurkhasanah*3,
Lilis Nur Fahriza*4, and Sefti Zhintia Yulianda*5
AN ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’
ENGLISH SPEAKING PROFICIENCY
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real-world situations and conditions. Therefore, they must master the skills of
speaking, which is an important goal of speaking classes. Oral language proficiency
refers to the characteristics that give language natural and normal qualities, including
pauses, rhythm, intonation, stress, speed, and the use of interjections and interruptions
(Richards & Renandya, 2020). Proficiency refers to the ability to speak at a normal
speed without interruption (Toms et al., 2021).
Presentation skills are considered to be conveying information at a normal
speed, without offensive words, exchanging ideas clearly and understandably, and
using simple words to convey understanding to the audience (Zhang, 2018).
Proficiency in the understanding and consistency of messaging (Jonathan M.
Newton, 2020). From this, the author can conclude that ability refers to the speaker's
ability to convey information naturally and normally and obtain the listener's
understanding, and it is also the ability to speak without interruption when speaking.
157
Muhammad Muklas*1, Revina Yuliana*2, Evi Nurkhasanah*3,
Lilis Nur Fahriza*4, and Sefti Zhintia Yulianda*5
AN ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’
ENGLISH SPEAKING PROFICIENCY
They can be used to improve public speaking fluency or to train students for
specific situations. This is a popular activity in talk or lecture groups, where the group
should practice and try running simulations while taking on completely different roles
and expressing thoughts and feelings as they would in the real world. Role plays are a
great way to encourage authentic communication related to out-of-class experiences.
RESEARCH METHOD
This study used qualitative methods where the writers collected data using
interviews and questionnaires. The population of this study was the eighth-grade
students of SMP Negeri I Belitang Mulya. The eighth grade consists of five classes
with a total of 128 students. The writer used a purposive sampling technique to
choose the students and the teachers to be sampled. The sample was used in class
VIII-3 with a total of 24 students chosen by her as a sample of this study.
Technique for Collecting the Data
a. Interview
When collecting data, the writers used interviews with five interviewees
as the primary data. They are English teachers. The writers asked four questions
to the interviewees during the interview. Interview data are critical in finding
factors that influence English language students' abilities.
In this study, the writers used the interview instrument created for this
study (Abda, 2018), and the interview included a total of four questions.
Table 1
Test Specification of Interview
Num
Total of
Objective Indicators ber of
Items
Items
To know the factors 1. The factors affecting
affecting students’ English students’ wish to speak
speaking proficiency English (cognitive, 2
linguistic, or affective
factors)
2. Students’ reasons have
confidence and
participate or do not have
1
confidence and do not 4
participate in speaking
English
3. The most affecting
factors have the impact
or effect on the student's
3
oral performance
(cognitive, linguistic, or
affective factors)
b. Questionnaire
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159
Muhammad Muklas*1, Revina Yuliana*2, Evi Nurkhasanah*3,
Lilis Nur Fahriza*4, and Sefti Zhintia Yulianda*5
AN ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’
ENGLISH SPEAKING PROFICIENCY
The writer found that some students had different reasons confident and
participative or not confident and not participative in speaking English.
Table 1
The Reasons Why Students Have Self-Confidence and Participate or Didn’t
Have Self-Confidence and Didn’t Participate in Speaking English
Respondents Respondents’ answers Factors
“Students are confident and participate
because they get support from their teachers AF
R1 and parents, and students become less (support/
confident and do not participate when they do motivation)
not get support from the people”.
“They have confidence and participate
because they have a lot of vocabulary and
LF
understand tenses, and they lack confidence
R2 (vocabulary,
and do not participate when they have little
grammar
grammar vocabulary and don’t know about
tenses”.
“They become confident and participate
because they get support from teachers and AF
R3 parents, and they become less confident and (support/
do not participate when they do not get motivation)
support from the people around them”.
“They have self-confidence and participate
because they have the motivation and AF
R4 ambition to be able to speak English and they (motivation,
lack self-confidence and do not participate risk-taking)
when they have no desire to learn English”.
“They have self-confidence and participate
because they have fairly good grammar
LF
R5 knowledge, and they become less confident
(grammar)
and do not participate when they have poor
grammar knowledge”.
Table 1 shows that the respondents said that the students’ reasons have
confidence in participating or not participating in speaking English were because
got the motivation or support from people around them and because they would
not risk-taking in speaking English. The second and fifth respondents said that
the students’ reasons have confidence and participation not were affected by the
linguistic factors that were on the point of vocabulary and grammar.
So, the writer can conclude that the affective factors (motivation or support, risk-
taking) were the factors that dominated the students’ English speaking
proficiency.
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Q : questionnaire
AA : responses almost always
S : responses sometimes
RL : responses rarely
NAA : not at all
To know what are the factors affecting every questionnaire, the writer
showed the table consisting of the main words or the points of every
questionnaire. So, we can conclude what are the factors affecting students’
English speaking proficiency.
Table 2
Coding of the Factors Affecting of Questionnaire
No. Questionnaire Main words factors
1. Q1 Grammar LF
2. Q2 Fear AF
3. Q3 Practice LF
4. Q4 Knowledge CF
5. Q5 Approach CF
6. Q6 Vocabulary LF
7. Q7 Exposure AF
8. Q8 Background experience CF
9. Q9 Motivation AF
10. Q10 Self-confidence AF
11. Q11 Risk-taking AF
From the table above it can be concluded that the highest scale is 45%
(Risk-Taking) and is a student affective factor. Meanwhile, g fear and
motivation which has a score of 42% is also a student affective factor.
161
Muhammad Muklas*1, Revina Yuliana*2, Evi Nurkhasanah*3,
Lilis Nur Fahriza*4, and Sefti Zhintia Yulianda*5
AN ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’
ENGLISH SPEAKING PROFICIENCY
So, we can conclude from the results of the questionnaire that the factors
affecting students’ English speaking proficiency were affective (risk-taking,
anxiety, and motivation).
Discussion
The discussion provided the formulation of the problem in this study that
related to the student’s English-speaking proficiency of the eighth-grade students. The
formulation of the study was “What are the factors affecting students English-
speaking proficiency of eighth-grade students?”.
Based on the findings of the studies from the interviews and questionnaires, it
was found that some factors affected the proficiency of English-speaking students.
The factors that affect this are linguistic factors. Where linguistic factors are
associated with their vocabulary and grammar. While, mood factors, it is about
motivation. Pride, risk, and worry. Thus, we can say that the students needed high
motivation to speak fluent English. Motivation is some kind of interval drive that
pushes someone to do things to achieve something (Harmer, 2018) cited in
(Mattarima & Rahim Hamdan, 2011). The students’ motivation here was the action
had an impact and benefits for them, usually, motivation was come from people
around them, such as family, teacher, and their friends. The students’ spirit to speak
English proficiently was also affected by their bravery to risk-taking in speaking
English, so they were also able to speak English proficiently and without anxiety.
The results also showed that most of the students had high self-confidence
because they had good vocabulary and grammar, so they also felt to had high self-
esteem in front of the public. Most felt that a strong English vocabulary, good
grammar and English skills from their teacher or classmates, active class
participation, and written preparation influenced their confidence in speaking English
(Muamaroh & Prihartanti, 2018). We can conclude that many vocabularies develop
students’ self-confidence.
So, we can conclude that factors (cognitive as they wish to speak English
because they have articulation in speaking English well and they get the motivation to
sing English songs well. Linguistic factors like having confidence because they have
a vocabulary and understand tenses, have good enough knowledge about grammar,
and affective factors students have confidence and participate because they receive
support from their teachers and their parents) that were true can impact their speaking
English proficiency.
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take risks, and fear. So we can say that students need high motivation to speak
English proficiently.
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AN ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’
ENGLISH SPEAKING PROFICIENCY
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