An Analysis of Students' Speaking Problems in Online Classroom: How They Communicate During Distance Learning

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the problems and the factors encountered by EFL students in the fourth semester at University of Islam Malang during online learning for speaking and how they dealed with their problems. The descriptive qualitative method was used in this study. The population in this study is all fourth semester students in speaking class with samples chosen based on the results of the questionnaire considered who had the problems in online speaking class. For a total of six students being interviewed. In this study, questionnaires and interviews were used to collect the data. The findings of this study indicated that EFL students had almost the same problems. They felt that their speaking skills are not optimal when learning online, but they were motivated to online learning because their ambition to expand their speaking skill. Most of their speaking problems were lack of confidence when asked to speak, and then they were also lack of vocabulary, and the last majority problem was lack of grammar knowledge. While for the factors that they are experiencing in terms of psychology, linguistics, environment and learning methods. To solve some of those problems, they used many uniques and easy ways for everyone to do. The methods are watching western movies with subtitles, making videos by talking to yourself, looking for friends to talk to, asking lecturer and friend to boost speaking skill, using Bravolo and the Cambridge dictionary online, looking for content creators who make English content on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram, singing an English song, and lastly try to listen and watch podcasts or vlogs. Regarding the findings of this study, it provides information about the problems, factors, and ways to overcome speaking problems in online learning. It is addressed to the English lecturers to give the students new methods on how to speak in other ways. And the students can apply these various strategies to deal with speaking in online class, so they can communicate effectively and fluently. Keywords: Speaking Problems, Online