THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS' SPEAKING ANXIETY AND THEIR SPEAKING ABILITY

This study was aimed to investigate the relationship between the students' speaking anxiety and their speaking ability. This study was carried out at SMP Tahfidzul Qur'an of An-Najah Cindai Alus Islamic Bording School. The designated research design of this study was quantitative non-experimental design; correlational study. It was due to the fact that correlational study methods are used to assess relationships and patterns of relationship among variables in a single group of subjects. In collecting the data, the researcher utilized some techniques and instruments; questionnaire and speaking test. The questionnaire was utilized in order to collect the data of students' speaking anxiety, while the speaking test was administered in order to collect the data of the students' speaking ability. The data were examined by using Pearson correlation. The result of this study indicated that there was a negative and significant correlation between students' speaking anxiety and their speaking ability (significant value= 0.011 < 0.05). It was also found that the two variables were moderately correlated (correlation coefficient= -0.517). It means that the increase of the students speaking anxiety will be followed by the decrease of the students' speaking ability