What are the under-performing EFL students’ speaking anxieties factors and coping strategies?: a three-dimensional space narrative inquiry perspective at 7th Grade of Mts Ar-Rosyidiyah Bandung

This research concerns the issue of English-speaking anxiety, which has been shown to impair students' performance in English class activities, particularly speaking. Hence, this study aims to discover the two purposes concerning English-speaking anxiety. First, this study addresses to discover the English-speaking anxiety factors that under-performing EFL students experience during class. Second, this study intends to investigate how underperforming EFL students cope with English-Speaking anxiety. This study employs a qualitative method with the concept of three-dimensional space of narrative inquiry. This technique establishes a framework for attending to experience through the dimensions of interaction, continuity, and place (Connely & Clandinin, 2006). The data were collected from three underperforming EFL students through one-on-one interviews. They were selected in the preliminary study by the English subject teacher based on their English transcript scores. This research reveals that the anxiety factors experienced by underperforming EFL students are categorized as situational anxiety. Furthermore, they encountered anxiety types classified as communicative apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation. In addition, it is identified as feeling shy to speak English, sweating, and dizziness during a test or assessment, experiencing a faster heartbeat, trembling body, and fear of making a conversation in front of others. Moreover, based on the anxiety coping strategies from Kondo and Yang (2004), this study found three out of the proposed five strategies. Their preparation is such as learning at home for English lessons, relaxation identified as looking down, calming themselves and avoiding seeing their friend, and positive thinking by thinking positively even when anxious