Investigating EFL Students’ Speaking Anxiety in Public Speaking Activity at English Department of UNISMA

Abstract

Anxiety is a condition of person experiencing fear and worry. The students become anxiety when they speaking English, especially in public speaking. For those, the EFL students has different level of speaking anxiety when speaking in public. This study aimed to investigate about level of EFL students speaking anxiety in public speaking activity at English Department of UNISMA and solution of speaking anxiety. This research used descriptive quantitative and qualitative method with purposive sampling techniques. The participants are the fourth-semester students who are joining public speaking class. The researcher used PSCAS questionnaire and interview as the instrument. Thus, the total participating in this questionnaire was 60 students and 5 students were selected to be purposively respondent to join the interview. To analyze the data the researchers calculated the data used descriptive statistic through SPSS 20. To analyze the data from interview, the researcher transcribed the data and classified into four classifications, there are communication apprehension factor, fear of negative evaluation factor, test anxiety factor, and comfort in speaking English factor. The first finding indicates that the fourth-semester students at English Department of UNISMA had moderate level speaking anxiety. It implies that the students “sometimes” feel anxious using English when they join public speaking class. The second findings from the interview, the EFL students have some solutions in speaking anxiety. Students’ solutions are trying to practice their public speaking in real life and trying to connect with the listeners, preparing material with find out new vocabs by read English book, practicing and eliminate the grammatical that they use is correct and also, they need motived when speak English from anyone in inside or outside in the classroom. Students’ solution if they feel their body tense and rigid are the students trying to relax, take a deep breath slowly, and stretch their body a few minutes before starting. Student use their body gestures as well if their have trouble coordinating their movements. Based on the finding of the study, the researcher has some suggestions for the teachers and future researcher. This research hopes that the teachers should know their students’ condition in learning and know the level of their speaking anxiety and for the future researcher who are interested in the similar study, they need to have various or other speaking activities such as classroom presentation or role play activities, and they can find out the level of students speaking anxiety in class related to the topic. Keyword: EFL Students, Anxiety, Public Speaking Activity