STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PROBLEMS AND FACTORS CAUSING IT

Sari

Speaking seems more complex than other language skills. It requires
many skills, such as listening, vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar,
and structure. Most students found speaking English as a stressful
activity even uninteresting activity. Students became a quite passive
in speaking English class. This research was conducted to find out
the students’ problems in speaking English and the factors causing it.
This research revealed that students have many problems in speaking
English, they are: (1) meaning or content of the conversation;
2) lack of vocabularies; (3) pronunciation; and (4) shy. Then, there
were a variety factors causing students’ problems in speaking
English. The result indicated that the majority of students highly
agreed on the fact that confidence is the biggest cause of their
problems in speaking English. The next two important factor is the
students were worried about making grammatical errors. The next
factors are the students were fearful of criticism or losing face in
front of the audiences or were worried about audiences’ attention,
respect, or appreciation, and the students were agreed about the
difficulties in finding partner in outside class to practice speaking
English.