SEMINAR ON ENGLISH EDUCATION ASSIGNMENT

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF ANXIETY ON

STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE IN SMP

NUR ISLAMIYAH
A 122 23 005

POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
TADULAKO UNIVERSITY
PALU
2024
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Speaking is a productive skill that is important to be mastered. Its role is very

crucial to make the effective communication. According to Bygart in Al-Roud (2016),

Speaking skill is the ability to share thoughts, strength, reasoning, and emotions with other

people using oral language as a way to make the message clearly delivered and well

received by the listeners (AlRoud, 2016). Speaking is a basic thing needed in life to build

communication. Therefore, it is really important to master speaking skills, especially the

ability to speak English that uses for international communication. English is the lingua

franca, which means that English is the language used to bridge communication between

users of different languages in the world. Grag & Gautam (2015) stated that another

advantage is that English language users will easily communicate and interact with people

around the world (Garg & Gautam, 2015).

Speaking is considered as one of the final result or the output of the language

learning process. Learner who are learn a language are expected to be able to speak the

target language. Hosni in Amelia & Husna considered speaking as an important skill since

language learning progress is dependent on the ability of the learner participant in oral

activities (Amalia & Husna, 2020). Wael (2018) also stated that to improve English

competency students must be able to master English orally (Wael et al., 2018). In order

words, the parameter of students' English skills also depends on how good students'

speaking ability is. Therefore, to find out whether students have good English proficiency

or not, they must be able to demonstrate their speaking skills.

 Even so, many students still find it difficult to speak English or perform their

speaking ability. Even students majoring in English language education have experienced

this, and not a few English education students feel insecure when asked to speak English.

In the context of junior high school, students learn many studies about anxiety were

conducted previously. The first previous study is “A Study of Students’ Anxiety in

Speaking Performance at the Second Semester of English Education Department of IAIN

Surakarta (Rumini Yuliana, 2017)”. The aim of this previous study has found the factors of

students’ Anxiety in Speaking Performance. The result of this study is students use four

factors of students’ anxiety. Four factors of students’ anxiety were lack of preparation,

learner belief about language learning, personal and interpersonal anxieties, and fear of

making mistakes. But, factors of the research use six factors of students’ anxiety. Six

factors of students’ anxiety, such as: personal and interpersonal anxieties, learners’ belief

about language learning, instructor beliefs about language teaching, instructor-learner

interaction, classroom procedures, and language testing.

As in the previous study entitled "An Analysis of Student’s Speaking Anxiety and

its Effect on Speaking Performance" by Sutarsyah (2017) found that student anxiety gives

a negative contribution to student speaking achievement, the research shows that students

who experience a high levels of anxiety have low scores in their speaking performance

(Sutarsyah, 2017). The anxiety experienced by students will have a negative effect on their

speaking performance as Bashir, Azeem, & Dogar explained in Leong and Ingles (2017),

sometimes, extreme anxiety may lead to despondence and a sense of failure in learners

(Leong et al., 2017). Because of this anxiety, students will feel afraid to speak English.

Students who have low self-confidence and less motivation to learn will be reluctant to

show their speaking skills in front of many people.

 Furthermore, based on suggestion given from other researcher named Fitri (20)

who worked on a study entitle “The Correlation Between Anxiety and Student’s Speaking

Performance In The EFL Classroom” mentioned that students should discover the cause of

their anxiety and suggest further researcher to find out more about this, this may indicate

that not many students are aware or know about the causes of the anxiety they experience;

this results in students being unable to find solutions (Fitri, 2019). From this information,

the researcher assume that students might doesn’t know the factors causing their anxiety

precisely; do not know how to deal with their anxiety; it causes them not to be able to stop

the anxiety they are experiencing.

1.2 Identification of the Study

Based on the background of the study above, the researcher identifies the problems
as follows:
1. Many students may experience anxiety.
2. Many students do not yet know the cause of the anxiety they experienced.
3. The last problem is that many students do not know how to deal with their anxiety
1.3 Limitation of the Problem
Based on the problem formulation above, the researcher determined several
Research limitations such as the level of speaking anxiety experienced by Junior high
school students at SMP Negeri 01 Bulutaba, Factors that cause anxiety in speaking English
for SMP Negeri 01 Bulutaba students and overcome them well advice to students who
have a high level of anxiety in speaking.

1.4. Research Questions

The researcher formulated the research problem as follows:

1. What are students’ speaking anxiety levels?

2. What are the possible factors that cause students’ speaking anxiety?
3. What are the coping strategy that can be used to reduce students’ speaking
anxiety?
1.5. Objective of the Problem
This research has several objectives, they are:
1. To identify the level of students’ speaking anxiety
2. To figure out the factors that cause students’ speaking anxiety
 3. To find the coping strategy to reduce the high level of students’ speaking
anxiety
1.6. Significance
There are several uses that the researcher wants to provide from this research:
1. The result of this study is expected to be able to help teachers in overcoming
students who experience speaking anxiety in learning English.
2. The results of this study are expected to provide benefits for students so they
can deal with their anxiety in speaking English.
3. This research is also expected to provide additional information and new
knowledge for readers, especially those who are learning a language and are
interested in the English language.
4. This research is also expected to be a reference for further researchers to
explore further the problems of anxiety experienced by students in learning
English or other languages.
 CHAPTER II

PREVIOUS STUDY

2.1 Previous Study

Many researchers have conducted research on speaking anxiety experienced by

students. These studies are related but have different research focuses and results. Such as
the research conducted Saidatulula (2016) entitled "An Analysis of Speaking Anxiety in
The Production of English in Speaking Class" (Ula, 2016). The research was conducted at
IAIN Salatiga and involved the 2nd-semester students of the International Class Program
(KKI) of IAIN Salatiga as participants. The study aims to identify students 'speaking
anxiety levels and determine how speaking anxiety affects students' speaking ability. This
study uses a descriptive quantitative method. Researchers used an instrument questionnaire
and speaking test to collect data. The questionnaire used is the FLCAS (Foreign Language
Anxiety Scale) by Horwitz, aiming to determine the level of student anxiety and the
speaking test's final score to see the effect of anxiety levels on the students' speaking skills.
In this study, the researchers found that the average student was at the middle anxiety
level. The study also found that the anxiety level does not always affect the students'
speaking performance.

The other study is written by Fitri (2019), "The Correlation between Anxiety and
Students' Speaking Performance in The EFL Classroom" (Fitri, 2019). The purpose of this
study was to determine whether students' anxiety affects their speaking performance. This
study uses a quantitative method that involved 31 participants from the tenth-grade
students of SMA PGRI 56 Ciputat. Researchers used the FLCAS and Five Likert Scale to
analyze students' anxiety levels and oral tests to assess speaking performance. The results
showed that the level of student anxiety affected speaking performance. The higher the
level of student anxiety, the more negative impact on students' speaking performance.

Other researcher named Kurniawati (2017) has been conduct a qualitative

descriptive research entitled “A Study of Speaking Class Anxiety of The Second Semester
Students in English Education Department at Uin Alauddin Makassar” (Kurniawati,
2017).In her study, the researcher use a random sampling technique.
The study focus on the level of students’ speaking anxiety that feels by the students in
speaking class. The researcher use PSCAS or Public Speaking Class Anxiety Scale
instrument to measure the students’ anxiety levels. At the end of the research, the
researcher found that 2 % students have high anxiety level, 58% students have medium
anxiety level, and 40%s students have low anxiety level. The researcher also discovered
that anxiety which attacked students has a negative impact to their speaking performance
and suggest the teacher to resolve this problem.

Then, the other study was written by Santriza (2018), with title “an analysis of
students’ anxiety in speaking performance”(Santriza, 2018). This study is a qualitative
research. The writer hold the research in SMA Negeri 5 Banda Aceh, and use 20 students
from IPA-1 class. The aim of this study is to found out the factors of students anxiety in
speaking performance and the writer use FLCAS instrument to discover this case. The
result of the study show that the dominant factors are test anxiety, communicative
apprehension, and fear of negative evaluation.

Other researcher who conducted a research related to this topic was Abdillah
(2017). This study was a qualitative method with case study approach. This study focus on
the factor casuing students’ speaking anxiety based on students’ perspective. The
researcher found some factors which divided into two categories; internal and external
factors. The internal factors; attitude, speaking in front of the class, being laughed at by
peers, incomprehensible input, students beliefs about speaking English, lack of preparation
and the external factors; teacher personality, school environment, family environment

Based on the five studies above, there are some differences and similarities
between them. The first three studies focused on the effect of students' anxiety levels on
their speaking skills, two of them found that students' anxiety levels negatively affected
students' speaking skills, and another researcher found that students' anxiety levels had no
effect on students' speaking abilities. Then, in contrast to the three previous studies, the
research conducted by Santriza (2017) and Abdillah (2017)
focuses on the factors that cause speaking anxiety. Moreover, the five studies have some
differences and other similarities, such as the methods used in the research; the first two
studies were quantitative research; while the last three studies are qualitative research.
Furthermore, three of these studies, which are the first, second and fourth research use
FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety) as a research instrument to measure
students' anxiety levels. While, the third research use PSCAS to measure students' anxiety
levels.

Slightly different from the researches above, this study used mixed method and not
only concern about students' anxiety levels but also the cause of the students' anxiety and
strategies to reduce students speaking anxiety. This study was a mixed method research
and just like some researchers above, the FLCAS questionnaire was used as an instrument
to collect data.
 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH

A. Research Design
This study used mixed methods to provide greater insight into anxiety in speaking
English to junior high students at SMP Negeri 01 Bulutaba. In this research, researchers
combined them into types method to get clearer results. According to Creswell (2012),
mixed methods design involves collecting, analyzing, and “mixing” both quantitative and
quantitative qualitative data to understand the research problem well (Creswell, 2012).
This Researchers use explanatory design where explanatory design begins Quantitative
data collection and analysis continued with qualitative data collection and analysis
(Creswell, 2012)..
B. Population, Sample, and Sampling
In this research, this research involved eighth grade student participants at SMP
Negeri 01 Bulutaba. This research took 4 classes to participate as A sample. This research
uses purposive sampling. Based on Creswell (2012), Purposive sampling is a sampling
technique where the researcher is carried out deliberately selecting individuals and
locations to study or understand a central phenomenon (Creswell, 2012). Then, the
population is divided into categories based on predetermined criteria (students with high
levels of anxiety and students with low anxiety levels). Then from each category 10
students were taken taken as participants in interviews to help researchers answer their
research question.
C. Time and Place
This research will be carried out at SMP Negeri 1 Bulutaba. This research will be
carried out for 2 weeks. First an agenda was held to ask students to complete the FLCAS
questionnaire for determine their level of anxiety. The second agenda is for interviews
students who have low levels of anxiety. The third agenda is to carry out interviews
students who have high levels of anxiety.
D. Research Instrument
The research instruments used in this study was questionnaires and interviews.
1. The first instrument that used is a questionnaire to determine the level of
student anxiety. The type of questionnaire use is the FLCAS (Foreign Language
Classroom Anxiety Scale) developed by Horwitz et.al.
2. The following instrument was the interview. According to Creswell, an
interview occurs when researchers ask general, open-ended questions from one
or more participants and record their responses. This interview was intended to
find out more deeply and in detail about the factors causing students' anxiety
levels and find out the solutions to overcome the anxiety. The researcher
overcame the causes and solutions by considering two perspectives, both from
students with high anxiety levels and students with low anxiety levels.
E. Technique of Data Collection
The FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale) questionnaire was
provided to the respondent. The questionnaires contained questions about students'
anxiety experiences, which were carried out to identify and classify their anxiety
levels. Each student must answer all FLCAS questions distributed via Google Form
by selecting one of the options from five answer scales. Data was also collected
through interviews conducted after classifying students with low anxiety levels and
high anxiety levels. The interview will be divided into two groups according to the
student's anxiety level category. The first group was students who had high anxiety
levels, and the second group was students who had low anxiety levels. Both groups
were asked some questions that focused on finding out the cause and the strategies
to reduce anxiety from both groups' points of view or perspective. Then, the
interview results were analyzed to find the cause of the students' high anxiety levels
and find appropriate solutions to reduce the students' high anxiety levels. Not only
that, but the data to find the solution to overcome high levels of student anxiety is
also supported by the previous study by including suggestions from experts about
how to deal with students' anxiety.
F. Technique of Data Analysis
There are two data that must be processed in this thesis. The first data was
the quantitative data, it was the FLCAS questionnaire data. First, the questionnaire
data that students have filled in was calculated using the calculation rubric from
Horwitz. After that, the qualitative data was collected by interviewing two groups
of students by giving different questions based on the purpose of the researcher's
information from each category.
The results of students with high anxiety levels and low anxiety levels
interviews were analyzed to identify the cause of their anxiety experience and find
the right solution; it intends to overcome the high levels of students speaking
anxiety.
Based on Miles and Huberman, there are three steps in analyzing qualitative
data (Miles & Huberman, 1994): The first step was data reduction. According to
Miles and Huberman, data reduction refers to the process of selecting, focusing,
simplifying, abstracting, and transforming the data. At this stage, the researcher
separated the students' answers and grouped them based on the question category.
After that, the researcher selects the needed data and discards the information that
is not. Researchers did this to make it easier to find results or conclusions from the
data that students gave at the interview.
The second step was data display. Data display was a form of data
presentation arranged systematically and easily understood. At this stage, the
researcher provided a collection of information to be used as a conclusion. The
researcher presented the data in the form of narrative text, which was organized so
that the research results on the factors that cause anxiety and the suggestions given
were easy to read and understand. The third was the conclusion and drawing
verification. This stage was the third stage of data analysis. At this stage, the
researcher looked back at the reduction results but still implied it with the purpose
or initial research question. At this stage, the researcher drew meaning from the
data in a display and drew conclusions to find research problems. Then, the
researcher conducted verification to confirm the suitability of the results obtained
with the basic concepts of the study. Verification was done by providing multiple
sources or other evidence.
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