Students’ Fear Towards Impromptu Speech Activities in Speaking Class at The English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University

Abstract

There are two conditions of speech activities in a speaking class at the English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University. They are planned and unplanned speaking. An impromptu speech is one of the unplanned speaking activities. It is why delivering an Impromptu speech is one of the most challenging and difficult speaking activities (Jeng, 2007) because the presenter doesn’t have much time to prepare what will be said in front of the class. It creates fear and panic for students. The purpose of this study was to find out the major causes of the fear that the students face in delivering an impromptu speech in class and how the students overcome their fear. The participants of the study were 53 English Department students of 2011 academic year, Satya Wacana Christian University (SWCU) Salatiga, who have passed Public Speaking class. The data in this study were gathered by questionnaire. The result of the study shows that the students’ major fear in delivering an impromptu speech is on emotional aspects. Most of the students feel the increasing heart beat when standing in front of other students and are afraid making an eye contact with other students. The sources of their fear seem to be the lack of knowledge or ideas they have on the topic given. Notes is the students’ favorite strategy to make them more confident and also as the guidance for them to deliver their impromptu speech in front of the class, even though they have limited preparation time.There are two conditions of speech activities in a speaking class at the English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University. They are planned and unplanned speaking. An impromptu speech is one of the unplanned speaking activities. It is why delivering an Impromptu speech is one of the most challenging and difficult speaking activities (Jeng, 2007) because the presenter doesn’t have much time to prepare what will be said in front of the class. It creates fear and panic for students. The purpose of this study was to find out the major causes of the fear that the students face in delivering an impromptu speech in class and how the students overcome their fear. The participants of the study were 53 English Department students of 2011 academic year, Satya Wacana Christian University (SWCU) Salatiga, who have passed Public Speaking class. The data in this study were gathered by questionnaire. The result of the study shows that the students’ major fear in delivering an impromptu speech is on emotional aspects. Most of the students feel the increasing heart beat when standing in front of other students and are afraid making an eye contact with other students. The sources of their fear seem to be the lack of knowledge or ideas they have on the topic given. Notes is the students’ favorite strategy to make them more confident and also as the guidance for them to deliver their impromptu speech in front of the class, even though they have limited preparation time.