English Language Education Program Second-Year Students’ Speaking Difficulties in Academic Speaking Class

Abstract

Academic Speaking class is the last speaking class that English Language Education Program (ELEP) students must passed. However, to pass this class was not very easy because the level of speaking that students had to master was to be able to speak in an academic context. Seeing this phenomenon, the researcher tried to identify the English Language Education Program of Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana second-year students’ difficulties in the Academic Speaking class. There are two research questions in this research specifically ‘what are ELEP second-year students’ speaking difficulties in Academic Speaking class?’ and ‘what factors contribute to the speaking difficulties in Academic Speaking class?’. This research used a qualitative approach that took place at ELEP UKSW and involved 38 participants from 3 Academic Speaking classes. The data were taken using questionnaires and interviews. This study acknowledged 8 difficulties in speaking English, difficulties in dealing with anxiety, over-using mother tongue, giving a spontaneous response, learning unfamiliar and strange accents, expressing ideas, finding the right lexicon, ordering the right grammatical patterns, and dealing with a competitive environment. Subsequently, the factors which contributed to the difficulties were students’ lack of confidence and lack of vocabulary. The findings of the study are hoped to be advantageous for both students and teachers in the Academic Speaking class.