i

LEARNERS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD THE CAUSES

OF ANXIETY IN SPEAKING

THESIS

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan

VIOLITA CHRISTY AGISTA

NIM: 112015054

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS

UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA

SALATIGA

2019

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pernyataan tidak plagiat

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pernyataan persetujuan akses

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Publication agreement declaration

v

Approval page

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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or

accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my

knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other

person accept where due reference is made in the text.

Copyright@2019. Violita Christy Agista and Elisabet Titik Murtisari, M.Trans.Stud., Ph.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the permission

of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Language Education Program, Faculty of

Language and Arts, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Salatiga.

Violita Christy Agista.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

COVER .......................................................................................................................................i

PERNYATAAN TIDAK PLAGIAT .......................................................................................... ii

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN AKSES ............................................................................... iii

PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION ................................................................... iv

APPROVAL PAGE ....................................................................................................................v

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT .................................................................................................... vi

TABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................................................... vii

ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................................1

I. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...............................................................................................3

a. Definition of Perception ...................................................................................................3

b. Definition of Anxiety........................................................................................................4

c. Foreign Language Anxiety ...............................................................................................5

d. Foreign Language Anxiety and Speaking Skill .................................................................6

e. Review of Previous Studies ..............................................................................................7

III. THE STUDY ....................................................................................................................8

a. Context of the Study .........................................................................................................9

b. Participants of the Study ...................................................................................................9

c. Research Methodology ................................................................................................... 10

d. Data Collecting Procedure .............................................................................................. 11

e. Data Analysis Procedure ................................................................................................. 11

IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .................................................................................... 11

A. Internal Causes ............................................................................................................... 12

a. Not Confident with Their Pronunciation ...................................................................... 12

b. Not Confident with Their Fluency ............................................................................... 14

c. Limited Vocabulary Competence ................................................................................ 15

d. Limited Grammar Competence ................................................................................... 16

e. Lack of Practice and Lack of Preparation .................................................................... 17

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f. Afraid of Making Mistakes ......................................................................................... 18

B. External Causes .............................................................................................................. 19

a. Recipients’ Failure to Understand ............................................................................... 19

b. Negative Learning Environment .................................................................................. 20

c. Speaking Activities ..................................................................................................... 22

V. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 23

REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 26

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................................................... 28

APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................... 30

1

LEARNERS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD

THE CAUSES OF ANXIETY IN SPEAKING

Violita Christy Agista

112015054

Abstract

Speaking anxiety is one of the problems that commonly happens in foreign

language learning. It could obstruct learners to reach their goal in mastering

foreign language (Tanveer, 2007). This study conducted to analyze the causes of English speaking anxiety which happen to Senior High School

students. This study expected to solve the problem in foreign language

learning. Data collection involved a questionnaire about speaking anxiety scale to find anxious learners. Then, ten anxious Senior High School

learners in Salatiga who experience speaking anxiety had been chosen and

interviewed. The findings revealed that the learners have been affected by

internal and external factors to make them experienced speaking anxiety. The conclusion pointed out that external factors could be the most common

factors that obstructed learners speaking learning and made them anxious.

One of the external factors include other people’s judgment. It included their classmates and English teacher’s judgment toward learners’ speaking skill.

The main factor from external causes which affect the rest factors is the

negative learning environment.

Keywords: Speaking Anxiety, Foreign Language Anxiety, Internal Causes,

External Causes.

I. INTRODUCTION

Indonesia needs to improve its human resources with English skills especially

in speaking. This skill enables them to communicate with people worldwide and help

IndonesianS to make interactions broadly. Some people may believe that speaking is

one of the important skills in EFL learning. Speaking also plays the important role in

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communication. Because of that, the main goal that English learners should achieve is

the ability to use English effectively, especially in communication. As Brown (2001)

stated, English learning aims to enable learners to participate actively in short

conversation, ask and answer questions, find the way to express their thoughts, and

collect information from others. Unfortunately, some learners tend to be quiet,

especially in their classroom when they are required to speak. It leads to an assumption

that some of the learners may have problem. It could be having anxiety to speak in

English.

American Psychological Association (2015) defines anxiety as an emotion

characterized by feeling of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes. Anxiety

could be one of the reasons why some learners are unwilling to speak in the classroom.

The learners may have fears in making mistakes while speaking English. This may lead

the learners to be unconfident. According to Oxford (1999) in Ay (2010), learners may

experience state anxiety when they are asked to speak in classroom. These phenomena

may interfere learners’ learning process especially in speaking.

In Indonesia, most learners are considerably better in passive rather than active

English skill. They often feel nervous and anxious when they have to speak English,

especially in the classroom. To overcome the above problem, the Indonesian

government has been trying to find a solution. One of the solutions is the establishment

of Pilot International Standard School (PISS) through the Department of National

Education. PISS makes the government and local governments to organize at least a

unit of education at all levels of education to be developed further as a unit having

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international standards of education. Haryana (2007) also stated that PISS program is

expected to help Indonesia improve the English communication skills and not be left

behind by other developed countries. Indeed, speaking competence, especially dealing

with learners’ anxiety has become a major concern in ELT in Indonesia. From here,

psychological factors should be identified early before affecting their learning process.

Some learners may know what they have to say but they cannot show it due to anxiety.

This situation may affect the performance of the teacher and other learners. For the

teacher, some learners do not want to speak at all while the teacher instructs to speak.

For the other learners in the classroom, the presence of some anxious learners may

obstruct their progress due to a less competitive atmosphere in the classroom. This

condition makes anxiety in speaking important to be investigated. This research aims

to answer a question: What are learners’ perceptions toward the causes of speaking

anxiety in classroom? Hopefully, this research will help Indonesian learners to solve

the problem and give solutions to overcome anxiety in speaking. Also, it will help the

teachers to find the appropriate teaching strategy while helping the learners to weaken

their anxiety.

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

a. Definition of Perception

As Lindsay and Norman (1977) stated, perception is a process when people

interpret something about the world. People tried to express and produce something

meaningful about how they feel and what they think about something. It could be said

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that perception is related to thoughts and opinion about something. It could be what

other people think about something and then relate it to their prior experiences. It is

worth noting that people’s interpretation may be different from their reality because it

is affected by their past experiences (Pickens, 2005). According to Sherif and Cantril

(1945) in Pickens (2005) selecting perception happened when a person is more

selective in processing the external stimulation by interpreting what he or she sees

based on beliefs, experience, or attitudes. In any case, many people might be selective

and prefer to filter the information before taking actions. Talking about perception, the

perceiver has a certain characteristic that influences his or her perceptions. Randolph

and Blackburn (1989) in Lewis (2001) found three characteristic of the perceiver that

could modify his or her perceptions It could be anything that has been learned

previously, the perceiver’s motivation, and even the personality of the perceiver.

b. Definition of Anxiety

Each normal person sometimes feels anxious or depressed in several situations.

Anxiety is described as a state of apprehension towards an object (Hilgard, Atkinson,

& Atkinson, 1971 cited in Ay, 2010). However, having anxiety might affect a person’s

daily activities and the process of achieving the goals. Anxiety is a normal reaction to

stress although it might sound terrifying for some people. People might experience

anxiety because of the thoughts of being judged. According to Horwitz (2001), anxiety

as a personality trait is different from transient anxiety. Type of transient anxiety

brought on by situations involving threat is called state anxiety. It considered as a

normal feeling. Another type of anxiety is called trait anxiety. It constantly felt by some

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individuals regardless of threats generated within their environment and requires

therapy (Ay, 2010). MacIntyre and Gardner (1994) found three anxiety, input anxiety,

processing anxiety, and output anxiety which usually happen in language learning

situations. Input anxiety refers to the anxiety which experienced when taking in

information in foreign language. Processing anxiety refers to the anxiety which

experienced when learning and thinking in foreign language. Last, output anxiety refers

to the anxiety which experienced when speaking or writing in foreign language. They

found that there were negative correlations between grades and each anxiety.

c. Foreign Language Anxiety

Horwitz (2001) found that some researchers, language teachers, and language

learners are curious about the possibility of the anxiety of obstructing language

learning. Anxiety in the learners’ learning process commonly appears in a foreign

language class. “Language anxiety can be defined as the feeling of tension and

apprehension specifically associated with second Language contexts, including

speaking, listening, and learning” (MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994, p. 284). Foreign

language anxiety could appear because of the complexity of the learning process.

Foreign language anxiety is also situation-specific anxiety that relates to foreign

language learning environments (MacIntyre, 1999 cited in Ay, 2010). Horwitz,

Horwitz and Cope (1986) stated that some learners could not express their thoughts

and communicate with others by using foreign language easily. This situation may lead

to foreign language anxiety. However, foreign language anxiety is different from the

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general anxiety, hence, obstructing the learners to reach their academic goals (Horwitz,

2001).

Many types of language anxiety may happen to learners while speaking in

English. It includes trait anxiety, state anxiety, and situation-specific anxiety (Horwitz,

2001). First, trait anxiety is a personality characteristic which relatively stable

(Horwitz, 2001) while state anxiety is a response to a particular anxiety-provoking

stimulus (Spielberger, 1983 cited in Horwitz, 2001). MacIntyre (1999) in Ay (2010)

suggested a type of anxiety called situation-specific anxiety that could be relatable to

the anxiety possibility in language learning. In this type of anxiety, public speaking

anxiety is viewed to be in this category (Horwitz, 2001). Second, one of the common

types of anxiety has been found by Horwitz and Young (1991) in Abu-Rabia, Peleg,

and Shakkour (2014) which is the fear of negative evaluations. According to them,

learners tend to avoid evaluative situations because some of them may believe to be

evaluated negatively by others.

d. Foreign Language Anxiety and Speaking Skill

Many factors may cause anxiety in speaking. First, foreign language learners

tend to have difficulty in speaking. It usually when they need to comprehend messages

from others (Horwitz et al., 1986). This may lead the learners to have difficulty and

fears in communicating. Second, learners who experience anxiety may think that their

peers’ speaking skill is better than theirs (Young, 1991). This situation might lead the

learners to prohibit their chances in learning foreign language speaking. MacIntyre and

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Gardner (1991) added that most people often feel anxious when they meet oral/aural

situations. This could happen because people usually feel anxious about showing their

ability to function in a foreign language. That is why Kitano (2001) added that learners

who often fear negative evaluation could experience anxiety in a foreign language

classroom. Third, the other situation is the formal and informal language classroom

environment. Learners might not experience foreign language anxiety if the language

classroom environment could be less formal and be more friendly (Hashemi & Abbasi,

2013 cited in Şenel, 2016).

e. Review of Previous Studies

Many researchers researched learners’ speaking anxiety in the classroom. Ay

(2010) is one of the researchers who researched foreign language anxiety in a different

level of language skill. The participants of this study were 11-13-year-old students in

Ankara University Development Foundation Primary School, Turkey. This study

concentrated on the relationship between anxiety, language skills, and level of

instruction. Ay (2010) found that seventh-grade students are more anxious than sixth

and fifth grades. Also, learners’ anxiety occurred most when they were required to

speak without having prepared in advance. This leads to the assumption that young

children may not experience language anxiety in the same way that adults do. It

contrasts with this present study which focuses on senior high school learners and not

young learners.

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The other researchers who study foreign language anxiety are William and

Andrade (2008). The participants of this study were 243 students at six private

universities in Japan. This study used an abbreviated version of the questionnaire

Matsumoto et al. (1988) to compare differences in emotional responses between

Japanese and Americans. Williams and Andrade (2008) found that most learners may

fear to receive negative evaluation associated with the inability to express their

thoughts clearly. This study is more focused in emotional responses between two

nasionality university students, Japanese and Americans, while this study focuses on

Indonesian senior high school students.

One of the other researchers who study foreign language anxiety is Herwanto

(2013). He focused on anxiety in speaking performance. This study conducted in SMP

Negeri 4 Pakem, Yogyakarta and decided to research five classes of 7th grade who

joining in English Speaking Club. Herwanto (2013) found that whenever the learners

were exposing their weakness while speaking, this could make them anxious. This

leads to an assumption that most learners were anxious when they need to show their

imperfections at speaking English. It has similar aims with this study which focus on

speaking anxiety in Indonesians students. However, this present study focuses on

senior high school students and does not focus on English club but English subject.

III. THE STUDY

This study is led by the research question: “What are the learners’ perceptions

about the causes of anxiety in speaking English?”. This study aims to investigate the

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learners’ views about the causes of anxiety in learning speaking. This study has

answered the question of why senior high school students often face anxiety while

learning speaking and how the students should overcome anxiety.

a. Context of the Study

This study was conducted to answer the question related to the causes of

learners’ anxiety in learning to speak. It is conducted in a Senior High School in

Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. The school has English as a required subject for the

learners. Eventhough both the teacher and the learners were required to speak in

English, they often use L1 to avoid misunderstandings and making mistakes. The

school uses K13 as their curriculum that used more practical method than theoritical.

The learners were required to speak in English whenever they were doing speaking

activities. The learners often face the same problem when they are required to speak

English in the classroom. Although from the studies presented in the review of

literature some of the causes of learners’ anxiety have been found, learners’ anxiety

may be depending on the learners’ language skills and the level of instructions.

b. Participants of the Study

One hundred senior high school students in Salatiga participated to answer a

questionnaire based on Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). It

discovers whether or not they have anxiety. Then, ten students have been selected based

on the result of the questionnaire to be interviewed. All ten students are female students.

Four students are grade twelve, and the rest are grade ten. These ten senior high school

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students have been selected because of their experiences in having anxiety while

speaking English in the classroom. They have been selected from the result of the

highest anxiety scale. This study used pseudonyms for the participants. Each

participant is mentioned as L1(learner 1), L2, until L10.

c. Research Methodology

This study was conducted with a qualitative method. Qualitative methods are

participant observation, in-depth interviews, and focus group. This study used in-depth

interview to do the research. It interviewed ten senior high school students about their

perceptions toward the causes of anxiety in learning speaking. The data collection

method is by using a semi-structured interview and have been done in a face-to-face

interview with each student. The interviews are conducted and recorded for

approximately 20 minutes. The data collected in the form of audio recording. They

have been analyzed in the data analysis stage.

First, one hundred students had been asked to answer the questionnaire. This

questionnaire used Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) designed by

Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) (see Appendix 1). The questionnaire shows

whether or not they have anxiety. Ten learners with the highest score of anxiety were

chosen as the interview participants

For the interview, each student has been asked the same questions with the

potential follow-up questions that not be addressed in the original questions. The output

anxiety category has been chosen from MacIntye and Gardner (1994) because speaking

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is in this category. That is why the interview focuses more on the output category. The

interview questions can be seen in Appendix 2.

d. Data Collecting Procedure

This study had done piloting process before the researcher distributed the

questionnaire and did the interview. The piloting had been done to two senior high

school students and they were not included as the research participants. Then, the

researcher asked a permission to divide the anxiety scale questionnaire to the school.

Based on the questionnaire results, the researcher interviewed ten students of the school

site. All participants agreed to do the interview outside the school’s hour.

e. Data Analysis Procedure

After dividing the anxiety scale questionnaire to the learners, the results of the

questionnaire were calculated to find the anxious learners to be interviewed. Then, after

interviewing the anxious learners, the results of the interview were transcribed into

several themes. The categorization is based on Herwanto’s (2013) study which has

similar research, findings, and themes with this study. Finally, conclusions were drawn

on the majority of each possible causes in learners’ speaking anxiety.

IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This section discusses all the factors identified in the interviews from the ten

chosen learners. In this study, the research question is: “What are learners’ perceptions

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toward the causes of anxiety in speaking English?” Interview data analysis identified

two themes in line with the problem in this research: (a) Internal Factors; (b) External

Factors. These findings have similar results and the categorization was adapted from

Herwanto’s study (2013).

In general, from the interview results, the learners who had been interviewed

were experiencing anxiety while speaking English. The learners believed that

experiencing anxiety in speaking English will obstruct their learning speaking process.

The learners viewed speaking as an important skill in English learning due to make

them achieve their goals in learning English. However, several cases identified why

learners could experience anxiety while speaking English. The results are discussed

further below.

A. Internal Causes

Based on the interview results, internal causes might come from the learners

themselves. The internal causes contain the learners were not confident in their

pronunciation and their fluency in speaking English, limited vocabulary competence,

limited grammar competence, and lack of preparation and practice.

a. Not Confident with Their Pronunciation

From the results, 8 out of 10 learners said that they were not confident with

their pronunciation and it made them anxious. Learner 5 said that pronunciation

was an important aspect of English. She believed that it could increase her

confidence while speaking because it may demonstrate one’s English speaking

skill level and make her a prestigious English speaker. This phenomenon could

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make learners anxious because of the thought of being great all the time to get

good impressions will give more tension to the learners. Learner 5 believed that

by not being accustomed to speaking English, it would make her anxious and

afraid to give wrong information due to mispronounce words as shown in

Excerpt 1.

Excerpt 1

L5: “pandangan orang lain kalau liat kita salah itu jadi gimana gitu.

Makanya kan aku jadi takut salah ngomong, entah itu salah arti atau salah

pengucapan.”

Others’ perceptions while seeing us making mistakes are odd. So I am

afraid I will misspoken, whether making mistakes in the meaning or

mispronounce.

As shown in Excerpt 1, the learner was afraid of other people’s judgements

toward their misspronounced words. She was afraid that if she misspronounced

some words, it would change the meaning and creating several

missunderstandings. As Williams and Andrade (2008) stated, learners may

experience speaking anxiety whenever they receive negative evaluation

associated with their inability to express their thought clearly in English. This

leads to an assumption that the learners experienced speaking anxiety whenever

they were aware that their pronunciation is incorrect.

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b. Not Confident with Their Fluency

There were 6 out of 10 learners said that they were not confident with their

fluency in speaking English. The fluency in speaking English could be one of

the aspects to be seen as a great English speaker. It is maybe because the

learners were afraid to make mistakes as shown in Excerpt 2.

Excerpt 2

L1: “Iya sih, mbak. Soalnya kan kalau ngomong bahasa Inggris gak fasih

itu kaya keliatan banget kalau gak terlalu bisa bahasa Inggris, sekarang

kalau mau ngomong bahasa Inggris jadi mikir-mikir dan malah jadi

gugup.”

Yes, it is. Because if I speak in English not fluently, it shows that I cannot

speak in English. Then I am hesitate to speak in English and I become

nervous.

Excerpt 2 shows that one of the learners who have a similar answer with the

rest five learners said that she might be aware for being not fluent enough in

speaking English. It might be one of the reasons why she does not have the

willingness to try speaking. It leads to an assumption that the learner was

worried about her classmates’ and her teacher’s negative evaluations by being

not fluent enough while speak in English. As Herwanto (2013) said that

speaking anxiety could appear because the learners were afraid to show their

inability in speaking. Realizing that they might have too frequent or too long

pauses and be stuttered in their speech apparently can also cause anxiety for

leaners.

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c. Limited Vocabulary Competence

Half of the learners have a similar answer and said that one of the causes of

anxiety in speaking English might be because of the limited vocabulary

competence. They said that whenever they wanted to speak and they did not

know the English word, they might become unsure and speechless. This might

happen because the learners were aware that they did not have enough

vocabulary exposure. The learners might feel that their vocabulary competence

still below the average. As shown in Excerpt 3 below.

Excerpt 3

L4: “Kalau menurut aku sih lebih ke penguasaan vocabnya yang masih

kurang. Soalnya kan biasanya kita kalau mau bicara bahasa Inggris suka

gatau bahasa Inggrisnya itu apa kaya “aduh kata ini bahasa Inggrisnya apa

ya?” gitu. Terus kan karena gak tau vocabnya itu, kita mau lanjut asal

ngomong malah takutnya salah, makanya saat itu jadi muncul cemasnya

begitu.”

In my opinion, it is influenced by the lack of vocabulary comprehension.

Whenever we wanted to talk in English, sometimes we do not know the

English of some words. Then, if we want to keep talking in English but we

do not know the vocabulary, we are afraid that we will make any mistakes.

That is why the anxious is appeared.

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From Excerpt 3, the learner said that vocabulary competence might play an

important role in speaking English. It might be because whenever the learners

wanted to speak in English, they were afraid to make mistakes and that could

become one of the reasons why the learners experience speaking anxiety. The

learners might feel that they still need more exposure in English vocabulary. It

leads to an assumption that low vocabulary exposure might weaken the

learners’ willingness to speak English.

d. Limited Grammar Competence

Two out of ten learners with a similar answer said that the other factor which

affecting learners speaking anxiety is limited grammar competence. The

students might feel anxious whenever they need to choose which grammar to

use while they speak in English as seen in Excerpt 4 below.

Excerpt 4

L10: “Soalnya kan tensesnya banyak, kak. Jadi kan bingung harus pake

yang mana kalo mau bicara bahasa Inggris. Jadinya takut salah.”

It is because the tenses are too many, so it confuses me to choose which

grammar tense whenever I need to talk in English. So, I am afraid to make

mistakes.

Excerpt 4 shows that the learner might be confused because she thought

grammar has too many types of tenses. The learner said that she needed to think

which grammar is appropriate to use in which situation. That is possibly become

one of the reasons why the learner do not have the couragement to speak in

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English. It can be because speaking needs a spontaneous act and the respondent

could not do that due to the variety of grammar. It also leads to an assumption

that the learner was aware that having a high grammar competence is important

to be a foreign language speaker. Then, the learner was under pressure and

anxious.

e. Lack of Practice and Lack of Preparation

Three out of ten learners said that whenever they do not prepare enough

and lack of practice to perform in front of the class, they will feel anxious. Lack

of practice and preparation might be the next causes usually faced by the

learners in affecting their speaking anxiety. The learners can be aware that they

have not practiced much in speaking English then their willingness to speak

English would be diminished. Everytime the learner needs to perform in front

of the class and they feel like they do not have enough time to prepare, they

would experience the speaking anxiety. Learner 2 also said that she might

experience speaking anxiety because she might not do enough practice speaking

in English. She was possibly aware that being the learner who still need a lot of

practice made them feel nervous. As found by Ay (2010), learners’ anxiety

occured mostly when they were required to speak without having prepared in

advance. This leads to an assumption that the learners’ willingness to speak

English in front of people might be affected by how ready they were in terms

of practice and preparation.

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f. Afraid of Making Mistakes

Three out of ten learners said that the most common cause in English

speaking anxiety is because they were afraid to make mistakes, it could be in

terms of vocabulary, pronunciation, and commonly in terms of grammar. Also,

the judgements from learners’ classmates would affect their fearfulness feeling

to speak English. That might happen because they thought that being wrong is

shameable and it shows their English competence level is below the average.

Learner 10 said that whenever she was afraid to make mistakes, it would lead

her to speaking anxiety. It might be because she thought too much to avoid any

mistakes, and the tension of being perfect especially in grammar while speaking

in front of their classmates and teacher might make them feel anxious. As

Young (1991) stated, whenever learners think that their peers speaking skill is

better than theirs, they would experience speaking anxiety. It can happen

because the learners were not confident with their speaking skill level compared

to their peers’s ability.

As seen in this section, internal causes in English speaking anxiety really

weaken the learners willingness to speak English especially in front of their

classmates and English teacher. All of the internal causes appeared because of

the learners’ self conscious through their English speaking performance. Most

of the causes of speaking anxiety happened because they were afraid of other

people’s judgements.

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B. External Causes

English speaking anxiety could also be affected from external causes. It might

include recipients’ failure to understand, negative learning environment, and

performance-based activities. The respondents might experience speaking anxiety

because of the external causes they had while doing the learning process in their

classroom. The external causes have been identified from the interview and

discussed below.

a. Recipients’ Failure to Understand

Eight out of ten learners with a similar answer said that they were afraid

that whenever they talk in English, the information would not be delivered as it

should be. They said that whenever they wanted to speak in English, the thought

of being the one who shares some misunderstanding to their classmates and

English teacher would appear. That can be the reason why the learners were

anxious. The learners may find it embarrassing whenever their classmates and

their English teacher does not understand what were they saying in English. As

seen in Excerpt 5 below.

Excerpt 5

L5: “Sedih. Karena mereka gak “mudeng” apa yang aku omongin tuh

kaya “ya ampun ternyata bahasa Inggris ku tuh kurang banget sampe

mereka ga ngerti apa yang aku omongin” gitu.”

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It was sad. It is because they did not understand what I was saying and

that feels like “Oh my God, it turns out that my English is so bad that

they did not understand what I was saying.

From Excerpt 5, it shows that others’ understanding to the learners’

English might affect learners’ feelings. It may lead the learners to feel

discouraged because whenever they tried to speak in English, their classmates

did not understand their sayings. It leads to an assumption that the learner might

be aware that she made mistakes due to making other people did not understand

her English. This finding shows that once the learners’ feelings were affected,

i.e. becoming embarrassed and sad because other people do not understand their

English, they would have speaking anxiety. Then, the learners may be

discouraged to speak in English once they feel like they make the audience not

understand.

b. Negative Learning Environment

Six out of ten learnes who have similar answer said that they were worried

of people’s opinion through their English speaking skill, and it affects their

speaking anxiety. A good social environment might affect learners’ learning

process in a good way. However, not all learners could cope with their

classmates and English teacher’s judgements toward their English speaking

skill. As seen in Excerpt 6 below.

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Excerpt 6

L9: “...sama takut dimongin temen lah, diomongin guru lah. Karena

juga kan di kelas itu kan lama, jadi kalau diejek satu kali gitu kan mesti

agak down ya, mbak. Jadi gak mau belajar lagi, gak mau bicara bahasa

Inggris lagi, dan juga jadi malu tampil di depan umum lagi.”

...and I am afraid being the talked object by my friends and my teacher.

It is because the duration while in the classroom is too long, and once I

got teased, it made me down. I do not want to learn anymore, I do not

want to speak in English, and also I become embarrassed to perform in

front of people.

Excerpt 6 shows that the learner might experience being teased because

of her speaking skill is below the average. She said that whenever her

classmates teased her, it affects her feelings and her confidence to perform

speaking English in front of other people. This phenomena might bring learners

speaking anxiety and most respondents, i.e. 8 out of ten, having the same

experience. As MacIntyre and Gardner (1991) stated, most people often feel

anxious when they meet oral/aural situations. This could be said that a negative

learning environment especially from their classmates and teacher might affect

learners speaking anxiety in a negative way. Learner 9 said that her teacher’s

sudden correction would interfere her speaking performance. Eventhough she

might have prepared their performance well, it would make her speechless and

nervous. It leads to an assumption that the teacher should have an appropriate

method to give feedback or any evaluations to learners. It is because teacher’s

22

role is important to improve learners’ confidence to perform in front of their

peers.

c. Speaking Activities

Five out of ten learners said that they were worried about speaking

activities inside the classroom. The speaking activites here include presentation,

role-play, speech, and mini drama that have audience and thus, need a lot of

confidence to be done. Eventhough their teacher might expect them to be more

accustomed to speak English through speaking activities, the learners might feel

that it affects their speaking anxiety in a negative way even more.

Excerpt 7

L1: “Iya sih mbak, soalnya kan suka takut kalau ngeblank ditengah

jalan, misalnya lagi presentasi gitu tiba-tiba gatau harus ngomong apa.

Terus ya takut juga kalau temen-temen gak paham sama aku, gitu.”

Yes, it is. It is because I am afraid that I go suddenly blank while doing

the activity, for example, suddenly I do not know what to say while I do

my presentation. And I am also afraid that my friends do not understand

everything I said.

Learner 1 from Excerpt 7 said that whenever she could not speak

English as she wanted, she might become nervous and anxious. The nervous

feeling for being great while do the activities might make the learners afraid to

speak English. Learner 1 also said that she was afraid that her classmates would

23

not understand her speech during the activity. That might be the reason why the

learner thought that speaking activities will make her anxious.

From this section, external causes in English speaking anxiety especially

learning environment might affect learners’ feelings, confidence and their

willingness to keep learning and speak in English. Learners’ learning

environment might force them to be good all the time in terms of their speaking

skill. Most of the learners might be afraid to receive any negative evaluations

from their classmates and English teacher. Then, once they received any

negative evaluation, it would obstruct their speaking learning process.

V. CONCLUSION

This study found several problems and causes related to speaking anxiety in

English classroom speaking performance of Senior High School students. The first

cause is internal causes which demand learners’ confidence and self-esteem. Most of

the internal causes brought out because of the learners’ thought and feelings. Once the

learners feel pressured because they thought that speaking in English is terrifying, the

learners would experience speaking anxiety. Because of that, learners will feel afraid

whenever their weaknesses are being exposed in front of their classmates and English

teacher. Their weaknesses are usually in terms of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary,

and also fluency. This phenomena will make the learners to fear of making mistakes

which could not be happened in learning speaking process.

The next cause of speaking anxiety is external causes. External causes could

not be handled easily by the learners themselves. The learners should adapt other’s

24

actions toward their speaking performance to prevent speaking anxiety. However,

negative evaluations from their classmates and English teacher really affect their

speaking anxiety in a wrong way. The learners tend to feel anxious whenever they got

negative evaluations. In result, the learners were not willing to speak English due to

preventing any further mistakes and negative evaluations. The other things that affect

speaking anxiety is speaking activities. The learners feel pressured whenever they are

being demanded to do the activity by speaking in English. It is because they were afraid

to expose their mistakes and weaknesses to their classmates and teacher, then their

speaking anxiety would appear. Different from the previous study, this study also found

more specific factors that lead to speaking anxiety from speaking activities requiring

present audience. The learners mentioned several activities which made them anxious,

i.e. journal presentation, speech, drama performance, and story telling.

Finally, based on the results, this study is expected to help the learners to be

aware of their speaking anxiety. Moreover, the reasercher expected that this study could

make teachers to be aware of the causes of learners’ speaking anxiety and find out the

effective strategies to help them overcome the problem. The teachers could give some

time after the activity for the learners to make a reflective note. This may help the

teachers to know what problems that the learners have especially related to speaking

anxiety. However, this study still has limitations and gaps. This study has a limited

number of participants of which a similar study can be done by adding more

participants. Further studies with a different perspective, not only from learners but

also from the teacher, can also be conducted to get better understanding of learners’

speaking anxiety. An interesting factor that could be done further by other researchers

25

is about learners being afraid of being judged toward their speaking skill, suc as

exploring why the learners could experience that and what learners and teachers should

do to overcome this problem. From this study, another factor that can be interesting to

be discussed is the anxiety level differences between advanced and novice learners

which have a slight huge gap.

26

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would say thank you my highest gratitude to God Jesus Christ for

all the blessings, the encouragement, the ability, patience, and endurance that have been

given to me through all time. All the faith and strenght that You gave to help me in

completing this thesis. Also, my special gratitude goes to my parents, Yustinus

Hermadi and Yasinta Junarsah, and my sister Stefani Dea, for being supportive, mood-

booster, and understanding my college life.

Second, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor

and my student advisor Ibu Dr. Elisabet Titik Murtisari, M. Trans., Stud., Ph. D. for

her patience, motivation, her care in guiding me in all the time in finishing my thesis

and advising me throughout the whole course. Then, I would like to show my deepest

appreciation for my thesis examiner, Yustina Priska Kisnanto, M. Hum. for being kind

and care not only to my thesis, but also in all my organizations skill, from LoVED,

Faculty Events, and so many important events like iTELL. Thank you for letting me to

experience those amazing chapter of my life.

Third, I am blessed to have a friend, a cheerleader, Nathan Oscar Deniro for

helping me, encouraging me through all the time while finishing my thesis. Thank you

for Nathan Oscar Deniro’s family for every encouragement that they gave to me

throughout this years of my college life.

Fourth, I would to give my sincere gratitude to all my Cirebon friends, Veronika

Veren, Theresia Mitra, Sarah Yovanka, Katherine Cynthia, Chriselda Sugianto, and all

29

SK friends. Thank you for all the laugh whenever I felt down regarding to my thesis,

thank you for the encouragement and make sure that I will make it.

Last but not least, I owe my sincere and loving thanks to my supportive and

encouraging college friends especially for Santi Resmidowati, Saras Restuningtyas,

and Regina Particya M. for accompanying me for all these years in my college life,

thank you for always made my day full of laugh and love. Also, I would like to say

thank you to all my hang out friends, Wildan Fadillah, Yerikho Panji, Christian

Diyonata, Rohmat Adi, Alan Aridtya, Dedin Eka, and all my Fifteeners friends. Thank

you for all the memories, for the experience I got while being a member of fifteeners.

I would not forget all the memories we had during my study in this University.

30

APPENDICES

Appendix 1

Foreign Language Anxiety Scale

Please answer the following questions by providing the number

correspondent to the option that best describe your opinion.

1. Strongly Agree 2. Agree 3. Neither Agree nor Disagree 4.

Disagree 5.Strongly Disagree

1. I never feel quite sure of myself when I am speaking in my foreign language

class.

2. I don't worry about making mistakes in language class.

3. I tremble when I know that I'm going to be called on in language class.

4. It frightens me when I don't understand what the teacher is saying in the

foreign language.

5. It wouldn't bother me at all to take more foreign language classes.

6. During language class, I find myself thinking about things that have nothing

to do with the course.

7. I keep thinking that the other students are better at languages than I am.

8. I am usually at ease during tests in my language class.

9. I start to panic when I have to speak without preparation in language class.

31

10. I worry about the consequences of failing my foreign language class.

11. I don't understand why some people get so upset over foreign language

classes.

12. In language class, I can get so nervous I forget things I know.

13. It embarrasses me to volunteer answers in my language class.

14. I would not be nervous speaking the foreign language with native speakers.

15. I get upset when I don't understand what the teacher is correcting.

16. Even if I am well prepared for language class, I feel anxious about it.

17. I often feel like not going to my language class.

18. I feel confident when I speak in foreign language class.

19. I am afraid that my language teacher is ready to correct every mistake I

make.

20. I can feel my heart pounding when I'm going to be called on in language

class.

21. The more I study for a language test, the more con‐ fused I get.

22. I don't feel pressure to prepare very well for language class.

23. I always feel that the other students speak the foreign language better than

I do.

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24. I feel very self‐conscious about speaking the foreign language in front of

other students.

25. Language class moves so quickly I worry about getting left behind.

26. I feel more tense and nervous in my language class than in my other classes.

27. I get nervous and confused when I am speaking in my language class.

28. When I'm on my way to language class, I feel very sure and relaxed.

29. I get nervous when I don't understand every word the language teacher says.

30. I feel overwhelmed by the number of rules you have to learn to speak a

foreign language.

31. I am afraid that the other students will laugh at me when I speak the foreign

language.

32. I would probably feel comfortable around native speakers of the foreign

language.

33. I get nervous when the language teacher asks questions which I haven't

prepared in advance.

Appendix 2

Topic Questions

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English Learning

History

When did you start studying English?

When did you start learning to speak English?

What do you think of speaking in English?

Main Question: What do you think about the causes of your anxiety in speaking

English in class?

Topic (Category of

Anxiety)

Tentative Questions

Output Anxiety What do you feel about talking in front of your

classmates and teacher?

Why do you feel anxious/afraid?

o What makes you anxious/afraid

talking in front of your classmates

and teacher?

What about your

pronunciation?

What about your fluency in

speaking English?

What do you feel when you

use simple/broken English?

34

What do you do if your

English is not understood by

others?

Why do you feel happy when you speak in

front of your classmates and teacher?

How do you respond to your classmates or your

English teacher?

Why do you respond slowly?

Why do you respond quickly?

What do you think about role-play?

Why do you like role-play from the other

activities?

Why do you think role-play is difficult?