CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

According to Stephen P. Robins (2006,46) ability is an individual's capacity to carry

out various tasks in a particular job. Djago Tarigan (1990: 149) states that speaking is a skill
to convey messages through spoken language. Meanwhile, Arsjad and Mukti U.S (1991:17)
provide an understanding that speaking ability is the ability to pronounce articulation sounds
or pronounce words to express, state, convey thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Based on the
description above, it can be concluded that speaking ability is the skill of each individual in
conveying his ideas through spoken language so that it can be used as a means of
communication.

One of the skills that must be mastered in English is speaking. The ability to speak
English is a challenge for students in Indonesia because they use English as a foreign
language in learning. Hornby, AS (1983:48) and Alexander, LG (1984:72) English language
skills include several components, namely pronunciation, intonation, sentence stress,
grammar, and vocabulary. To increase the ability, it is necessary to develop the five
components.

Based on previous research (2016: 56), there is a significant relationship between

students' shyness and their motivation to speak English. Students' motivation to speak is
influenced by their shyness. There are 40% of students who are shy about speaking, the rest
of the students are shy to deal with people of different social classes or more skilled people,
and worry about what other people think of them. Of the three indicators, shame is the
highest indicator. This shows that the higher the shyness level, the lower the motivation to
speak, and the lower the shyness level, the higher the students' learning motivation.

Most of the previous studies used shyness as an independent variable and students'
motivation to learn English as the dependent variable. In this study, the researcher used
shyness as an independent variable but changed the dependent variable to the student's ability
to speak English. This shows that there are differences in the dependent variable between
these studies.
 The purpose of this study is to explain whether or not there is a relationship between
shyness and the English speaking ability of undergraduate students. In this study, there are
two research variables, namely shyness as the independent variable and the ability to speak
English as the dependent variable. The indicators of these variables will be developed into
statement items as outlined in a questionnaire using five categories to measure students’
shyness and five categories to measure English speaking ability, then the data obtained will
be analyzed using a statistical program.

For this reason, this study uses a quantitative approach, this is the opinion of Creswell
(2014) who states that quantitative research is an approach to testing the objective theory by
testing the relationship between variables. These variables, in turn, can be measured using
instruments, so that the total data can be analyzed using statistical procedures.