A Study on Speaking Difficulties Encountered by Third Semester of English Department of University of Islam Malang

Abstract

Abstract: Speaking is the action of conveying information or expressing thoughts and feelings in spoken English. Yet, some difficulties faced by the students in learning speaking English. To overcome these difficulties, the students must know what kinds of their difficulties they faced in learning speaking English. Therefore, the writer chose to investigate the difficulty in speaking English in linguistic and psychological aspects. The design of this research is using descriptive mixed method and the purpose of this study is to investigate the students’ difficulties in learning speaking English. Participants of this study are 30 English students and the instruments used are questionnaire and interview. There are 10 questions in questionnaire and 2 questions in interview. The data is analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The finding of the study showed that the majority of the students have difficulties in anxiety, lack of focus, and hard to maintain focus while they are speaking in English which related to psychological aspects difficulties. Other difficulties are lack of vocabulary, mispronunciation, and poor grammar knowledge which related to linguistic aspects difficulties. In conclusion, the majority of the students face anxiety and lack of vocabulary as their difficulties both in linguistic and psychological factors.

Key words: Speaking Difficulties, English Department Students, Linguistic Aspect, Psychological Aspect.