Students’ Speaking Problems in Interpersonal Speaking Class

Abstract

Based on Leong and Ahmadi (2017) speaking skill is regarded as one of the most difficult aspects of learning English. Many learners find it difficult to express themselves because they generally faced problems when using the language to express their thoughts effectively. At ELLP UKSW, there have been many studies that investigated speaking problems encountered by English Language Education Program students. However, there were still a few researchers that conducted the research in English Language Literature Program. This study set out to determine whether the speaking problems faced by English Language Literature Program (ELLP-UKSW) students are the same as other EFL learners. The data were collected from twenty-five students from the batch of 2019 through an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that there were two types of problems faced by students which are linguistic and non – linguistic problems and the strategies that are used by the students to overcome their problems are independent practice and peer practice. The results of this study support the view that guidance from the teachers has a big role in helping the students to deal with the problems.