Students’ Perceptions on Factors Affecting the Anxiety of the 12th Graders of SMKN 10 Malang in Speaking English

ABSTRACT Anggitasari, Maya. 2016. Students’ Perceptions on Factors Affecting the Anxiety of the 12th Graders of SMKN 10 Malang in Speaking English. Sarjana’s Thesis. English Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Advisors: (I) Dra. Sri Andreani, M. Ed., (II) Prof. Utami Widiati, M.A., Ph.D. Keywords: Foreign Language Anxiety, Communication Apprehension, Fear of Negative Evaluation, Test Anxiety Communicating skill using English becomes a requirement for SMK (Vocational High School) students to be competitive graduates to compete in a workplace. However, the process of developing speaking English skill in the classroom may increase many problems, one of which is students’ anxiety. The students showed the signs of anxiety such as reluctance to speak English, avoiding making eye contact, and stuttering. This study aimed to find out the factors affecting the students’ anxiety in speaking English. This study used descriptive qualitative design to obtain the data. The subject of the study was class 12 Multimedia (MM) 1 students of SMKN 10 Malang semester 1 in academic year 2015/2016. The data were collected with an adapted version of Horwitz’s Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) questionnaire and observation sheet. The questionnaire used consisted of 33 statements with yes/no responses. The questionnaire was used to gather the students’ responses concerning factors which affect their anxiety in speaking English, while the observation sheet was used to support the data from the questionnaire. Then, the data were analyzed in three steps, i.e. reviewing, reduction, and interpreting data. The findings of the study showed that the students experienced anxiety in speaking English due to three factors, i.e. communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and test anxiety. Firstly, 92.17% of the total students reported that one of the factors affecting their anxiety is communication apprehension. This factor is related to the students’ interaction with their teacher and classmates and the students; abilities in speaking English. The anxious students were afraid of speaking English in front of other students, thus they tended to remain silent in the class. They avoided making eye contact and showed resistance when they are asked to speak in English by the teacher. Secondly, fear of negative evaluation became the next factor affecting the students’ anxiety, claimed by 92.85% students. The students were anxious about others’ perspectives in the class. They were afraid of making mistakes because they were embarrassed when their classmates laughed at them and the teacher corrected their mistakes. It might happen due to some classroom activities which put pressure on them and the way teacher corrected their mistakes. Thirdly, 93.87% of the total students claimed test anxiety as one of their anxiety’s factor in speaking English. It made test anxiety as the most dominant factor affecting their anxiety. The students reported that they were afraid of being failed in English class. They also felt overwhelmed by the number of rules they have to learn to speak English. It might happen because the students felt being pressured to get a good score in English. From the result obtained, it can be concluded that students’ anxiety in speaking English emerges from the students itself and their environment; the teacher and their classmates. Therefore, this problem cannot be neglected and merely considered as the students’ problem. Teacher also has an essential role to help the students to deal with it. Teacher should be able to create such a comfortable atmosphere and avoiding anxiety-induced activities in the classroom. They also need to make some strategies that encourage students to speak English confidently without putting too much emphasis on correcting students’ mistakes to avoid their feeling of losing face. It is also important for teacher to give insight to the students that trial and error is an acceptable English teaching and learning process