PROJECT

(Professional Journal of English Education) p–ISSN 2614-6320

Volume 6, No. 4, July 2023 e–ISSN 2614-6258

ANXIETY EFFECTS OF SELF-CONFIDENCE IN EFL

SPEAKING SKILL
Desti Rahmawati1, Rissa San Rizqiya2
IKIP Siliwangi, Indonesia
1
[email protected], 2 [email protected]

Abstract
Speaking sometimes considered as the display of one’s language proficiency, the more proficient s/he
speaks the better is his/her language skill. Speaking can be influenced by several aspects of psychology
as self-confidence. People who have higher fear and lower of confidence in speaking English have
difficulties in performing their speaking skill ability. This study is to investigate the effects of anxiety
on self-confidence in English as Foreign Language speaking skill. This study is a qualitative study where
the data were obtained from closed-ended questionnaire and open-ended questionnaire. The participants
of this research were 35 students aged 20-23 years old. The data result was evaluated descriptively,
while the open-ended question questionnaire was processed line by line to produce and build codes and
themes. The questionnaires showed that five themes were related to students' anxiety in speaking
English, which resulted in a lack of self-confidence; among all are lack of vocabulary, lack of self-
esteem, a fear of negative reaction, a fear of judgment from the lecturer, and teacher-centered classroom.
Keywords: Speaking; Foreign language; Anxiety; Self-confidence

INTRODUCTION
English is used as foreign language in Indonesia. Learning English is not easy for some people
because this country is non-English speaking. Different with other skills such as writing,
reading, and listening, speaking is the hardest skill. Because of a variety of factors, English has
distinguished itself as a foreign language among those available in Indonesia (Lauder, 2008) in
(Atmojo & Nugroho, 2020). English has become a school subject that is required in a job
position. Because, high level of unemployment and English proficiency is highly valued in the
workplace, business, and tourism. English is an international language that is indispensable in
various aspects such as education, business, even daily life for those of us who are abroad. But
not everyone who learns English is able to speak English directly. Based on the results of a
global survey conducted by The English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) in 2020 Indonesia scored
453, the country ranked 74th out of 100 countries in the survey and ranked 15th in position in
Asia (EF Education First, 2020). The results showed that English proficiency in Indonesia is
low. In this survey there are world ranking levels that are very high, high, medium, low, and
very low. Asia's highest ranked country is Singapore, which ranks 10th. As Bill Fisher,
president of EF Englishtown's online division, stated that, "In an era of competition and a global
economy, English proficiency is absolutely necessary at work". Tran argues and asserts "those
who are able to compete are those who are able to communicate well with various cultures and
nations, and ready to become citizens of the world". But the reality of English proficiency in
Indonesia is still low. This is due to a lack of confidence to start and hone our English language
skills by getting used to it. Affect in language learning encompasses various aspects of the
learner's emotion, feeling, and attitude. Anxiety is one of the most negative affective variables
that prevents learners from learning a foreign language successfully. It causes nervousness and
fear in language learners, which may contribute to poor aural/oral performance. Self-confidence

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is one of the personal factors that is highly correlated with anxiety. Self-confidence is based on
judgments and evaluations of one's own worth and value. When a language learner perceives
himself to be deficient and limited in the target language, self-confidence suffers. Speaking as
the use of verbal language to communicate with others. Speaking is an oral skill that two people
usually do even more, as stated by Fulcher (2003) cited in Tridinanti (2018). Morgan (2008)
cited in Raja (2017) stated there are some important things in giving a speech or presentation.
1) open feelings for audience, 2) intention with audience, 3) passionate of topic, 4) listen to the
audience and to be a motivating speaker. The audience will be interested in the speech as well,
which will make the speaker feel more at ease when speaking. Weissman (2012) cited in Raja
(2017) argues there are several reasons why speaker speak faster when they are in front of the
audience. When the speaker is standing in front of the audience, the situation pressure stimulates
adrenaline, which causes the time-wrapper to speak quickly, but also says that it can be dealt
with through thoughts and warming. Allow the public to process the information more time,
while enabling the speaker to decipher other words. Previous research by Liu (2007) and Liu
& Jackson (2008) cited in Mede and Karairmak (2017) found that speaking an EFL has a
negative impact on learners' communicate skills. Lack of vocabulary, poor English proficiency,
and memory disassociation are the factors of anxiety. Tsiplakides and Keramida (2009) cited
in Mede and Karairmak (2017) found in a similar vein that students are experiencing anxiety in
English school or in public because they are afraid of negative evaluations and of perceptions
of low skills.
Kushner (2010) cited in Raja (2017) argues about simple strategies that effective for
overcoming the fear of public speaking and delivering presentations well. Starts from
describing an effective style for starting and ending speeches. Rhetorical questions, quotes in
the introduction, or conclusions can all be used to engage and capture the audience's attention.
The speaker should examine the requirements of the topic and evaluate his/her motivation to
speak and the motivation of the audience to listen. He stressed that targeting must also be
achieved and that certain objectives will likely be demotivated for the audience and the public.
Tsiplakides (2009) cited in Mede and Karairmak (2017) argues, anxiety in speaking is the
reluctance of a person to participate in a conversation using a certain language, it is due to lack
of motivation and low performance. Speaking anxieties are common in foreign language
learning English. English students are anxious to speak English because they do not speak
English in their daily lives and because they lack practice. The speaking genre has an impact
on anxiety as well. Several studies have found that anxiety with foreign languages is most
prevalent when students need to perform an oral production task publicly because they have no
familiarity with that genre (Raja, 2017). When students talk to others, they feel uncomfortable,
timid and concerned about their ability to control their body movements, facial expressions and
actions.
Stated from Lanerfeldt (2011) cited in Hakim and Syam (2019), Speaking regarding anxiety
has a major impact on self-confidence, as it often leads to failure if you cannot speak up and
show what you know. Speaking fear causes the distrust of students, even if they can express
themselves and to have the knowledge that is worthy of hearing, to remain silent. In line with
Murray (2006) cited in Tridinanti (2018), Self-confidence is a strong conviction. When a person
is certain of something, he or she simply assumes that everything will go as planned. Adalikwu
(2012) cited in Tridinanti (2018), states that the belief that someone could do a job, regardless
of whether he or she did so in the past, is self-confidence. As a result, regardless of prior
experience, people who are confident in their abilities will succeed in their learning.
This study investigates the causes of the low self-confidence in Indonesian people's English
proficiency. It presents the reasons why they are afraid to show their speaking skills, and what
fears are holding them back. This study was conducted on 35 participants who have an age
range of 20-23 years. 25 of them are students majoring in English language education and 10

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of them are students of other majors. Data collection is conducted using questionnaires and
interviews that will explain the cause of their hesitation in speaking English.

METHOD
This paper presents some findings from the result of qualitative research data collected from 35
college student participants in Bandung, which 25 are English education majors and 10 are
other majors. In the research, qualitative method is a type action of social that focuses on how
people make sense of their experiences to better understand the social realities of individuals
(Zohrabi, 2013) cited in (Haradhan, 2018). In this study, a questionnaire is used to collect data
for the results. Based on the statement from Arikunto (2010) cited in Rohman et al (2017),
questionnaire method is a research data collected that consists of a series of questions or other
types of prompts, and designed to collect information from respondent to express their opinion.
This study will explain what they are afraid of to speak English confidently. The participants
were asked to share their thoughts and criticisms about their experience.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Results
This study was designed to report the sources of self-assurance that college students met in
Bandung, Indonesia, as a foreign language learner especially in speaking skill. This section
includes the findings of the data collected from the result of questionnaires. Table 1 shows the
participants' responses.

Table 1. Responses Given by Participants

Percentage Percentage
response response
Questions N
(%) (%)
‘yes’ ‘no’
1. Do you have any apprehensions about 35 88.6% 11.4%
speaking English in public?
2. Do you think this anxiety stems from a lack 35 91.4% 8.6%
of confidence?
3. Does the size of the crowd affect to your 35 74.3% 25.7%
public speaking performance?
4. Do you think that increasing your 35 91.4% 8.6%
participation in public speaking activities
will help you to improve your English?
5. Do you think you can overcome your fear of 35 85.7% 14.3%
public speaking by employing certain
strategies and seeking professional
assistance?

Meanwhile the followings are the figures for each question.

1. In response to the first question about whether students were afraid of public speaking,
more than 88,6% of those polled said they were afraid of speaking in front of an audience.
As a result, most of them were discovered to be terrified of speaking in front of others.

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DO YOU HAVE ANY APPREHENSIONS ABOUT SPEAKING ENGLISH IN

PUBLIC?

Yes 88,6% No 11,4%

Figure 1.
Percentage of apprehensions about speaking English in public

2. The second question asked if the students believed their fear stemmed from a lack of
confidence. The data analysis of the second question revealed that lack of confidence was
an important variable for 91.4 % of the respondents.
DO YOU THINK THIS ANXIETY STEMS FROM A LACK OF CONFIDENCE?

Yes 91,4% No 8,6%

Figure 2.
Percentage of anxiety stems from a lack of confidence

3. The third question investigated whether the size of the audience had an impact on students'
presentation performance. 74.3% of respondents admitted that the size of the audience has
a significant effect on their performance and nervousness.
DOES THE SIZE OF THE CROWD AFFECT TO YOUR PUBLIC SPEAKING
PERFORMANCE?

Yes 74,3% No 25,7%

Figure 3.
Percentage of size of the audience

4. The fourth question investigated whether having more participation in public speaking
activities improves people's presentation skills. 91.4 % of respondents said that
participating in public speaking activities would help them improve their presentation
skills.

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DO YOU THINK THAT INCREASING YOUR PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC

SPEAKING ACTIVITIES WILL HELP YOU TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH?

Yes 91,4% No 8,6%

Figure 4.
Percentage of participation

5. The fifth question asked if people thought that their fear of speaking to the public could be
overcome through some strategies and professional assistance. The fear of speaking
English can be minimized, according to 85.7% of respondents, by employing various
strategies or seeking professional assistance.
DO YOU THINK YOU CAN OVERCOME YOUR FEAR OF PUBLIC
SPEAKING BY EMPLOYING CERTAIN STRATEGIES AND SEEKING
PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE?

Yes 85,7% No 14,3%

Figure 5.
Percentage of strategies and personal assistant

Furthermore, an analysis from open-ended questionnaires data showed that five topics
related to English-speaking foreign languages were: (1) lack of vocabulary and grammar, (2)
fear of negative reaction from others, (3) lack of self-esteem to speak in English, (4) fear of
judged from the lecture, (5) cultural factors for speaking English (Table 2).

Table 2. themes of the sources of speaking English anxiety

No Themes Participants
1 A lack of vocabulary and grammar in speaking ability 100%
2 A fear of negative reactions from others 100%
3 A lack of self-esteem to speak in English 100%
4 A fear judged from the lecture 100%
5 Teacher-centered styles cultural factors 100%

1. A lack of vocabulary and grammar skills in speaking ability

The participants reported that there were a variety of issues that made them poor in English.
They mostly admitted lacked vocabulary and grammar ability. The following example:

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I am afraid of making mistakes. Cause of low my vocabulary mastery (M1)

I have less of vocabulary knowledge (M3)
Lack of vocabulary makes me to low confident (M2)
I got lack of grammar and vocabulary, so I cannot speak English well (M4)
I am having some difficulties with English grammar, so the meaning is a little unclear
to me. When I want to speak English, I have difficulty organizing my thoughts. (M5)
I make a lot of mistakes when speaking English; sometimes I understand what I'm
saying, but I got lack of grammar and how to pronounce the words correctly. (M7)

They were clearly apprehensive about speaking both in and out of the classroom, based on
their statement. Their problems arose due to their failure to communicate vocabulary,
grammar, and incorrect pronunciation in English.

2. A fear of negative reactions from others

In the foreign language learners’ participants, fear of negative reactions was identified as
source of anxiety. Participants who attempted to converse in speaking English with others
in the classroom or people around reported being mocked. The participants were hesitant
to use English because of the negative atmosphere. They stated that:

Many of my friends mocked me and teased me when I tried to speak English, and I felt
like an object of amusement. (M3)
I fear to make mistakes and as a result my friends have mocked me. (M6)
I fear using the English language because my friends like to mock me who is depriving
me. (M8)

One of the reasons why participants did not want to speak English was fear of negative
reactions from others. They were worried because they had been mocked about speaking
English. They feared speaking English because of the mockery. Teasing not only bothered
them, but also motivated them to communicate in English.

3. A lack of self-esteem to speak in English

The participants' low self-esteem is the next factor influencing their refusal to speak
English. People judge them as superior because they use English with friends, the data
taken from the participants for example:

I feel I am overacted by others when I’m speaking English, so I should avoid speaking
in English. (M1)
People think that I am so superior when I try to speak in English. (M2)
I cannot to speak with anyone using English. (M4)

People who spoke English thought their peers were superior, according to the data. It was
still considered "shooting off" when the first use of English was made. This negative
association motivated the students to speak in English, enabling them to speak in and
outside of their classroom in English because of this motivational factor.

4. A fear of being judged by lectures

In the lives of the students the teacher plays an important role. The teacher has most control
over the configuration of the classroom. In other words, whether the student is enjoying
the lesson, success or not. The teacher's conduct is therefore extremely important in the
classroom. The fear that you cannot communicate in English with teachers is a source of

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anxiety that students share in classroom. Because of this, they were disappointed in
themselves for not being able to speak English as well as their teacher. Especially when
their teacher observed or evaluated them, the participants were baffled by their mistakes in
English. As an illustration:

I am afraid to speaking in English because I am afraid evaluated by my lecture. (M7)

I am not confident when I am making a mistake while I am speaking in English. (M1)
I cannot be good in speaking English as my teacher, so I am not confidence. (M5)

These statements said that people feared that the teacher would speak English because they
feared that they would make mistakes when they conversed. They believe that their English
lecture in the language was perfect. If you make mistakes in your English-speaking class,
you fear your teacher will be graded.

5. Teacher-centered styles cultural factors

Especially when learning a foreign language, the culture has an impact on the learning
process. As a result of their school's more teacher-centered learning culture, participants
said the lecture were more dominant in the classroom, and there no chance to students to
show their ability. They asserted:

When my teacher asks me, I will answer. (M3)

I do not want to speak if my teacher does not give me a question (M8)
I think teacher should guide me first before I speak (M1)

From the data result above, participants lacked to English communication in the classroom
due to the culture of a teacher-centered approach to learning English. This is because the
teacher dominant in the classroom in English teaching and learning. They would not speak
English unless the teacher encouraged them to, so most of student prefer silent in the
classroom and just listen to the teacher.

Discussion
Since many people are mild in nature and tend to feel uncomfortable speaking before others,
distrust was the common cause for fear of speaking to the public. In a public-speaking study on
ordinary phobias, Burgess (2013) cited in Raja (2017), argued the fear was seen as more urgent
than death. The study also found that there were people who controlled the debates and speeches
in lectures who did better. Even if someone is afraid to speak publicly, they will do well if they
practice and diligently rehearse. When approached as a skill, public speaking can be greatly
improved. Instructors play a critical role in providing students with encouragement and
confidence, as well as assisting them in overcoming their fear of public speaking. This is in line
with Baldwin and Caroline (2011) cited in Nijat et al (2019), when the students speak in public
or in front of others, they experience obsessive fear and detestation, and feeling shy causes their
minds to go blank or they forget what to say. According to Bowen (2005) cited in Nijat et al (
2019), there are also some discussions about the students' personalities, such as too quiet and
passive, which leads to their reluctance to speak English. Their shyness also obstructs their
ability in communicating use English. In addition, learners who lack trust, the state from
Sjoberg (2006) cited in Raja (2017), need encouragement in the early stages of learning to be
encouraged to participate Students typically encounter difficulties in the early stages of learning
English, particularly in understanding grammar, pronunciation, and other areas. Students find
it difficult, feel uneasy, and make mistakes. Students become nervous when speaking in front

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of others. When this occurs repeatedly, students develop speaking anxiety in a second language.
Students who are capable of learning English but believe they are failing in class, on the other
hand, lack self-confidence. Furthermore, the size of the audience has a significant effect on their
performance and nervousness. Gamston and Wellman (1992) cited in Raja (2017) explain why
this has such an impact, concluding that the large audiences appear more intimidating than
smaller ones. The term atmosphere in this context refers to how various types of audiences may
be perceived. Students should interact with the audience to pique their interest in their speech.
They must generate engagement to provide a value and an opinion on a speech. It is stated that
those who appear confident and have no signs of nervousness have learnt to master the
technique of desensitization only or to hide their nerves (Akin and Kunzman,1974) cited in
(Raja, 2017). Constant exposure to a diverse audience would make them confident speakers.
Public speaking is a type of oral communication involving physiology, language, psychology
and culture. Speaking capacity is both an indicator of professional success and a strategic ability
to gain a competitive advantage, credibility and a good reputation (Hancock, 2010) as cited in
(Haradhan, 2018). To conclude, it is essential to encourage people who are motivated to develop
and rebuild confidence and become self-employed and lifelong learners with diverse strategies
in order to achieve their goals at their own speed.

CONCLUSION
Because all of these factors seemed complexly interconnected, the factors that caused
Indonesian students to remain silent during the English course and the factors that played a
greater role in the English-speaking anxiety of students were not determinable. The results of
the study help to better understand the causes of the anxiety of English-language students at
Indonesian college and describe what schools, education staff, teachers, parents, and students
should do to improve the confidence of English-language students in themselves. The five
major themes discovered in this study regarding Indonesian college students' English language
speaking anxiety have significant implications for both Indonesian and non-Indonesian
language teachers. Furthermore, the study's findings have implications for secondary language
education programs as well as teacher language education programs. The sources of English-
speaking trust between Indonesian college students should encourage greater trust between
educational policy makers, colleges, and teachers. Teachers should use a range of teaching
methods, approaches and strategies to help students speak better. The teacher should also be
aware of the anxiety of the students when they talk to other people or make errors in public.
Teachers should know that their students know their environment acutely. More importantly,
students should be given more chance to successfully to speaking skill. The college and the
lectures should be provided the facilities because learning English as a foreign language in a
non-English speaking country requires more consistent effort. It is important for schools or
teachers to have access to a variety of teaching approaches, strategies, and techniques that can
be used with students from different cultures or languages.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Praise to Allah SWT, for the presence of plenty of mercy and for his grace tis paper can
completed. This is one of conditions and completed studies to obtain a Bachelor of Education
degree course of English Education at IKIP SILIWANGI. Appreciation and thanks to the
beloved father and my mother who have out all love for me.

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