Speaking Anxiety Of An EFL Undergraduate Student

Abstract

Experiencing anxiety is a common issue among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students throughout speaking performances. This study aims to investigate the causes of speaking anxiety experienced by EFL students. The objective of this study is to describe the causes of speaking anxiety of an EFL undergraduate student. In this study, an Islamic Law international program student of batch 2018 in a private university in Indonesia was involved. An in-depth online interview and document analysis were used in this study as instruments to collect data. The data found was analyzed through the descriptive qualitative method and examined by using thematic analysis. This study revealed several significant causes that contribute to an EFL student’s speaking anxiety. Most of the causes derive from a feeling of fear towards negative judgments, which lead to other problems such as communication apprehension; lack of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation; low self-confidence; nervousness; and teacher’s negative corrections. With the existence of causes found, the student admitted that she commits to anxiety during her speaking performance. Keywords: English as a foreign language (EFL), international program students, speaking anxiety