STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN SPEAKING ENGLISH (A Case Study on Students’ Poor Performance in Speaking English)

Abstract

Learners of Foreign language are generally encounter difficulties to express their thoughts using English language. Even after several years of studying English, students tend to have poor performance in speaking English. In line with this case, the present study intends to examine the factors that affect the students’ poor performance in speaking English as well as the solution to overcome the factors. The research method adopted in this study is qualitative. The data are gathered through interview and observation toward 8 students in eleventh grade of SMA Negeri 1 Limboto in academic year of 2019/2020. The findings reveal that the factors arise from two aspects which called internal and external factors. First, the internal factors consist of language competence and psychological aspect. In language competence aspect, the major factors are lack of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation aspect. In psychological aspect, the students are influenced by lacking confidence to speak English, fear of making mistake, and lack of motivation. Second, the external factors include the deficiency of using various teaching method, shortage of having English spoken in class environment and large scale of students’ amount in the class. Besides, this study reveals one new finding as the affecting factor of the students’ speaking performance, which is lack of exposure to English language. Another last, the study uncovers several solutions to overcome the students’ poor speaking performance. They are building the students' motivation, creating classroom rules, using various teaching method, and reforming attitude of students, teacher, and school.