Speaking in EFL classrooms is often considered by students as the most anxiety-producing experience. This research is primarily to examine students’ anxiety in English speaking activities, and the sources of their anxiety in speaking activities, and to propose a strategy to cope with anxiety in speaking English.
There are three questions addressed in this research. The first question was intended to find out to what extent the students are anxious when they have to speak in English. The second question is sought to find out the sources of students’ anxiety in speaking English. The third question was intended to set a proposed strategy to cope with anxiety in speaking English.
A questionnaire which consists of 33 Likert-scale items of foreign language classroom anxiety were distributed to forty-seven students, and open-ended question on foreign language anxiety were distributed to seven students and three lecturers of Akedemi Sekretari dan Manajemen (ASEKMA) Don Bosco, Pulomas. The obtained statistical data were then analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis SPSS version 16 for windows and qualitative analysis.
The result of this research is summarized into three points. First, the students were identified positively with the anxiety when they have to speak in English. Second, there were some factors that caused the anxiety in speaking English: fear of making mistakes, fear of failing the English test, problems in grammar and vocabulary mastery, fear that other students had better English, and fear of teachers’ evaluation. Third, this research was able to propose some strategies to cope with students’ anxiety in speaking English, such as designing an enjoyable learning activities and using more constructive approach especially for testing and assessing students’ progress. |