Junior High School Students’ Speaking Anxiety In Learning English

Abstract

This study was conducted to find out the level of speaking anxiety in students and why students are anxious when learning speaking in English class. The participants in this study were eighth graders of junior high schools in several schools in Indonesia. Participants consisted of 41 grade 8 (VIII) students. The data was collected by using quantitative survey research method. The instrument in this study used the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) questionnaire adapted from Horwitz and Cope (1986). The results show that junior high school students experience anxiety at various levels. The dominant level of speaking anxiety by Junior High School learners was in anxious level of speaking anxiety. Of the 41 students, 16 (39%) students were anxious, 15 (37%) students were at the very anxious level, 8 (19%) students were mildly anxious, 2 (5%) students relaxed, and none (0% ) of the students were at the very relaxed level. Based on factors that make students nervous when learning English, it can be concluded that grade 8 students are anxious with the highest score of 3.82 concerning about Fear of Negatif Evaluation. It means, when they feel afraid about how if their peers will judge their speaking ability, they are worried about being negatively evaluated. Then, the second highest is about Test Anxiety with a mean of 3.65. It means, students experience anxiety if they fail in the language test. Furthermore, the lowest average score of 3.58 is Commumicatiom Apprehension about they cannot fully understand what is said or corrected by the teacher. Key words: Speaking Anxiety, English Speaking, EFL Students