ARTICLE
ARTICLE
Isna Humaera
Universitas Muhammadiyah Kendari
[email protected]
Ririn Syahriani
Universitas Muhammadiyah Kendari
[email protected]
Introduction
English is a language that is being studied by many people. Speaking English has become a trend
in the world. Herni and Ayu (2021) said that many people use English as their second language to
communicate with other people from various countries, as well as cultural backgrounds. Learning to
speak is the most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language (Shteiwi & Hamuda, 2016).
In studying English, Angraini at al. (2022) argues that there are four competencies that need to
be understood in learning English, in particular: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Because these
four competencies can help students understand English without difficulty. Speaking is one of the skills
that must be mastered in learning English because it can help us express ourselves to others, convey our
thoughts, spell words well, and make other people believe and say what they want to say. As stated by
Rao (2019) that speaking is one of the important skills that must be mastered by English learners or
second language learners.
Herni and Ayu (2021) say that English is difficult for Indonesian students because speaking
English is not their mother tongue. Bueno et al. (2006) stated that many students who have studied
English for years but are not fluent in speaking English properly and correctly like learning English from
school to university, but still cannot speak English well. Students may understand a little what people say
in English. According to Afisa (2015) there are some difficulties experienced by students in speaking
English, namely very minimal knowledge of vocabulary, difficulty in pronouncing words, students are still
confused in composing words and students have difficulties in grammar and pronunciation.
Based on the background, the research question is: What are the causes students’ difficulties is
speaking English in senior high school?
Literature Review
2. Nothing to say
Sometimes students are not inhibition, but students complain that they cannot think of what
to say (Ur, 2000). Meaning they don't know what to say when they are about to speak. Students
have difficulty thinking about what to say. The students couldn't think of anything to say because
they didn't have the motivation to express themselves in speaking. Afisa (2015) states that
students generally use Indonesian more when they have to speak English because they do not
know a lot of English vocabulary. Sheila (2015) said that when students do not know vocabulary,
they will spontaneously use Indonesian when they have to speak English. With a lack of knowledge
of vocabulary students do not know what to say even most students are often not confident in
speaking for fear of being wrong when speaking. Then, grammar is an important part of learning
English (Tasmia, 2019). By understanding grammar, speakers and writers become easy deliver
information that others can understand. Lots of grammar rules that explain how words are
combined, arranged, or changed to show them different kinds of meanings.
3. Low participations
There are only one to two participations who can speak during the lesson in a large group
class, meaning that each person will have very little time to speak. This problem is exacerbated by
the tendency of some students to lead, while others speak little or nothing. Petress (2001) stated
that the low participation of students in class is very detrimental to student progress and hampers
the ability of teachers to assess students' speaking progress.
Motivation is an important part of student learning achieving goals (Nijat et al. 2019).
Motivation can easily influence students hate speaking English. In this case, motivation is just as
important aspects that lead to effective communication Nunan (1999) in Nijat et. al (2019) there
are many studies showings that students have a strong motivation to succeed and more likely to
progress they learn and achieve better grades than students who already do lack of motivation.
There are several causes of lack of motivation, they feel quite bored during the teaching process
English, do not understand what is being taught.
Method
In this study the researcher used a quantitative descriptive research design. According to Silaen
(2018) quantitative research is a research procedure that produces data in the form of numbers and is
generally analyzed using descriptive or inferential statistics. The quantitative method uses a Likert scale
to determine the factors causing students' difficulties in speaking English, while the descriptive method
was used to explain the numbers obtained from the factors causing students' speaking difficulties.
The research subjects were class II high school students because in that class most of the
students had low speaking scores. The researcher chose two classes, namely IPS 1 totaling 20 people and
IPS 2 totaling 21 people. However, researchers only need 30 students to be research subjects. The
sampling was based on the criteria of seeing students' speaking scores below 80, the researcher took
samples from each class, namely in IPS 1 class which totaled 17 and IPS 2 class which totaled 13 based on
the criteria mentioned above.
The collected data obtained from the subject by using a questionnaire, the type of questionnaire
that was used is a closed questionnaire in the form of a Likert scale. Likert scale was used to measure
respondents agree and disagree with the questionnaire. Using a Likert scale on the questionnaire follows
the steps based on Nazir (2005). Namely, organize the data, calculate the data, categorize the data,
Meanwhile, the questions in this study were adapted from factors that can cause students' speaking
difficulties as stated by Ur (1996).
For more details, the effects of each factor from each aspect can be seen from the points below.
a. Inhibition
N(3) SA(5)
25% 29%
A(4)
34%
From the chart above, almost 41% agree that they will find it difficult if they make mistakes when
speaking in front of the class, because they are embarrassed to be noticed and they are not confident so
they are worried when speaking will be commented on. Meanwhile, 29% of students strongly agree that
speaking in front of the class causes difficulties for them. Although 25% expressed doubts and 7% did not
find it difficult because of inhibition, this shows that the number of students who agree and strongly agree
that inhibition cause students to have difficulty getting 72% which is the effect of students' difficulties in
speaking English.
b. Nothing to say
A(4)
N(3) 34%
27%
The graph above shows that, almost 34% agree that they do not know what to say so that it
makes it difficult for them to speak English. and 26% of students were not sure if having nothing to say
made it difficult for them to speak and 14% strongly agreed that nothing to be said would make it difficult
for them to speak. Meanwhile, the percentage of disagree and strongly disagree is slightly lower, namely
24% of students disagree if nothing will be said to be a factor in their difficulty. However, the average
percentage influences students' speaking difficulties.
c. Low Participations
A(4)
N(3) 32%
38%
For low participants 12% strongly agree that low participants are one of the factors that cause
their speaking difficulties where, they are less motivated, not interested in English lessons, 32% also
agree and 38% quite sure. While the remaining 16% did not agree that low participation was a factor
causing students' speaking difficulties. However, when viewed from the number of students who agree
and disagree, more agree and the results affect students' speaking difficulties.
D(2)
12% SA(5)
18%
N(3)
36%
A(4)
31%
The use of mother tongue shows that almost 18% of students strongly agree that the use of
mother tongue is part of the factors that make it difficult for them to speak English. 31% agree and
neutral 36% while disagree and strongly disagree 14%. However, because of the large number of
students who agree about the use of the mother tongue, it can be categorized as quite affected students'
difficulties in speaking English.
Discussion
Based on the results of the analysis, it is known that there are 4 factors that make it difficult for
students to speak, namely: inhibition, nothing to say, low of participations, and the use of the mother
tongue.
1. Inhibition
According to the data obtained. When viewed from the percentage values obtained, there are
72% of students who stated that inhibition were one of the factors that become students' difficulties in
speaking. According to Latha (2012) inhibition are one of the factors that make it difficult for students' to
speaking in learning foreign languages. These inhibition make students feel anxious to start speaking,
and afraid to act. This is in line with the theory put forward by Afzari (2020) that fear of speaking has a
major impact on self-esteem because when a person is unable to do so, it often creates a feeling of failure
to say and demonstrate what others are saying. Must be able to understand. In addition, other inhibiting
factors are fear of making mistakes and lack of confidence. As a teacher the solution that can be offered to
overcome these inhibiting factors is to take a personal approach to students, provide as much feedback as
possible, and as much as possible invite students to always be actively involved in learning. However, this
cannot have more impact if the student does not develop his learning patterns.
2. Nothing to Say
The data that has been obtained has nothing to say to be the cause of students' speaking
difficulties. From the resulting percentage value, 60% of students stated that there was really nothing to
say about their difficulties in speaking English, meaning that students did not know what to say because
knowledge of vocabulary and grammar was still lacking. Afsar and Asakereh (2016) said that students
always make mistakes in speaking due to the use of wrong grammar when expressing something. From
the results of student statements, almost all students find it difficult to speak English. This is because
knowledge of grammar and vocabulary is very minimal. They also say that English words are hard to
remember. Too bad because they will always use Indonesian dominantly several times. With this it is
proven that speaking English requires mastery of vocabulary in order to be able to speak properly and
correctly. For this reason, the solution that can be offered to this problem, especially for teachers, is to
have more impact on students by stimulating students' vocabulary mastery at each meeting, using
pictures, cards or video blog media.
3. Low Participations
Data obtained from the aspect of the lack of participations can be the cause of students'
difficulties, but student inactivity does not mean they are difficult to speak. When viewed from the
resulting percentage values, 60% of students stated that their speaking difficulties were not only caused
by a lack of participation in class but due to a lack of motivation from the teacher so they were
embarrassed to try to speak. In addition to the lack of motivation, students are also shy to speak. Nurdin
(2014) said that most students failed to do good speaking skills. The inability of students to speak is
influenced by their own feelings, namely: shame it can be said that shyness makes it very difficult for
students to be able to speak. From the results of student statements, quite a number of students stated
that they felt embarrassed when speaking in English learning classes. This shows that shyness is one of
the causes of students' difficulties in learning English in the classroom. Petress (2001) stated that the low
participation of students in class is very detrimental to student progress and hampers the ability of
teachers to assess students' speaking progress. With this, the teacher must be able to provide motivation
and support to some students who are less active in speaking so they do not feel embarrassed to try to
speak in class during learning.
Conclusion
Based on the findings presented in the previous chapter, the researcher found that the percentage
of students' difficulties in speaking English was found to be the influence of factors that could cause
students' difficulties. Based on category adjusted findings on Nazir intervals (2005). Inhibition has the
highest percentage value, reaching 72% which is categorized as the factor that most influences students'
difficulties in speaking English.
From the data above it can be concluded that the causes of students' difficulties in speaking English
are influenced by several factors. However, the factor that most influences student difficulties are the
obstacle that causes students to find it difficult to speak.
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