INVESTIGATING THE PROBLEMS OF ENGLISH SPEAKING OF

THE STUDENTS OF ISLAMIC BOARDING SCHOOL PROGRAM

AT STAIN SAMARINDA

Sitti Hadijah
Dosen STAIN Samarinda

Abstract:
This study investigated the students’ ability, the problems and their reasons why they faced
problems on English speaking. The triangulation of mixed methods was used in this study.
The quantitative data gathered from the speaking test result by involving 130 students of
Islamic Boarding School Program and the qualitative data gathered from the questionnaire
and interview results from the selected students who meet the criteria. The findings showed that
the students’ ability was categorized low (62.93); the students have problems on grammar
(42.20%), pronunciation (36.60%), vocabulary (35.20%), fluency (36%) and
comprehension (34.40%); the students’ reason in facing the problems on English speaking
English were not only having limited knowledge on the components of speaking skills
including pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension but also they have
own personal reasons, such as shy to perform speaking, lack of self confidence, lack of
speaking practice, limited time given for preparation on English speaking test, the difficulties
at using and understanding the speaking material found in the English textbook, the
environment (dormitory) did not support them to acquire and use English as a medium daily
interaction and they preferred to study the Islamic knowledge and Arabic than English. This
study indicated that the students’ ability should be increased by giving motivation and taught
them with the suitable and interested English speaking materials.
Keywords: speaking, speaking skill, students’ problems

A. INTRODUCTION
English speaking is the dominant language spoken by many people
around the world in both of oral and written, because it is the lingua franca
used for international communication to the all aspects of human life such as
economic, culture, business, politic, administration, science and academia. 100
Indeed, English is considered to be taught in Indonesia as a foreign language
both in religious and non-religious institution of education.
As the Islamic institution, STAIN Samarinda released the program of
Islamic Boarding School in 2006. It is a program where students stay in the
dormitory with Islamic teaching and scientific knowledge in order to master the
science of Islamic religion and general knowledge such as mastery of foreign

100 Crystal, D., English as a global language, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2003)

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language.101 One of the aims of this program in STAIN Samarinda is to train

the new students’ basic skill of English for a year.102 As a result, the students
can be able to speak English in their daily interaction. But in reality, most of the
students in this program did not use it as their communication. They preferred
to use Bahasa Indonesia and their local language than English as a medium of
interaction. It is because of their speaking ability is unsatisfactory and they have
problems on speaking English.
Based on the fact above, this study explored the students’ ability,
problems and reasons on English speaking. This study was hoped to give the
contribution and reflection of English teaching especially speaking skill at
Islamic Boarding School Program of Islamic Institution based on the students
problems faced.

B. REVIEW OF REALTED LITERATURE

Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves
producing, receiving, and processing information.103 The information can be
shared using both verbal and non-verbal communication in a variety of
contexts104 in which it occurs based on the participants themselves, the
collective experiences, the physical environment and the purpose for speaking.
In addition, speaking can be also defined as a productive skill.105 It is the
ability of participants to communicate and express their ideas, thoughts,
feelings, and needs in order to make sense of them. In this case, the skills of
speaking are needed namely accuracy, fluency and comprehensibility.106 Further,
he pointed out that the accuracy concerns on grammar, vocabulary, and
pronunciation where participants can express and use the right words in the
correct sequence of utterance and produce clear pronunciation. Then, the
fluency deals with the ability of a person to speak fluently and accurately,
meanwhile the comprehensibility is the ability to require and response the
subject that is being spoken. As a result, the shared information can be shared
and understood comprehensively.

101 Departemen Agama RI, Pembakuan sarana pendidikan, (Jakarta: Directorat jenderal
kelembagaan Agama Islam DEPAG RI, 2005)
102 Sari, I. M., Structural error analysis on students writing ability in english of State Institute of

Islamic Studies (STAIN) Samarinda in academic year 2007/2008 Undergraduate and unpublished Thesis,
(Samarinda: STAIN Samarinda, 2008)
103 Florez, Marry A.C., Improving adult English language learners’ speaking skills, (New

York: National Center for ESL Literacy Education, 1999)

104 Chaney, A.L. and Burke, T.L., Teaching oral communication in grade K-8, (Boston:

Allyn & Bacon, 1998)

105 Brown, H.D., Language assessment, principles and classroom practices, (New York:

Longman, 2004)
106 Heaton, J.B., Writing English language test, (USA: Longman, 1989)

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C. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study used the triangulation of mixed methods design. It is the
collection of quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously at understanding
of a research problem.107 The data were gained from the results of speaking
test, questionnaire, and interview. The speaking test was used to obtain the
quantitative data and to know the students’ speaking ability. Meanwhile, the
questionnaire and the interview were also used to get the qualitative data. The
questionnaire was administrated and piloted to the 10 students who were not
included in this study in order to get the feedback whether the instructions and
the wording questions can be understood by the research participants. Their
questions covered on the students’ problems and their reasons in English
speaking. Then, the speaking rubric presented by Haris that consists of
pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension were used to
analyze the data of speaking test result.108 While, the results of questionnaire
and interview transcript were analyzed by using content analysis in which its
procedures used the flow model data analysis of Miles and Huberman.109
The data were collected at the end of the even semester of academic
year 2013/2014. The research participants were 130 students randomly selected
from the students of Islamic Boarding School Program of STAIN Samarinda.
They were asked to perform the speaking test based on the free and determined
topics given. Then, the 15 students who were research participants and meet
the criteria were selected to fulfill the questionnaire and to follow the interview
in order to explore their problems and reasons on English speaking.

D. FINDINGS
The findings of this study present some issues about the students’
speaking, such as: students’ speaking ability, students’ speaking problems, and
facing the speaking problems. The data presents below.

1. The Students’ Speaking Ability

To know the students’ speaking ability, they were asked to perform the
speaking test orally. Their performance was evaluated based on the five criteria
namely pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.
Further, to get the trustworthiness the students’ score, the three scorers were
involved. Then, the scores were merged to get the average score of each
student.

107 Creswell, J.W., Educational research: planning, conducting, and evaluation quantitative and

qualitative research, (New Jersey: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008)

108 Harris, D.P., Testing English as a second language, (New York: McGraw-Hill Book

Company, 1969), h. 84
109 Miles, M.B and Huberman, A.M. , Qualitative Data Analysis, (London: Sage

Publication, 1994)

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From the calculation result, the total of the students’ score was 81.33
and the number of students was 130 students. So, the mean score of the
students’ speaking ability was 62.93. Furthermore, the description of the
students’ speaking score can be seen the following table:

Table 1: The Frequency of the Students’ Speaking Score

The number of the students
Interval Qualification
Frequency
80 - 100 Excellent 23
70 – 79 Good 26
60 – 69 Low 26
0 – 59 Failed 55

Based on the table above, the percentage of the students’ speaking

ability can be seen below:

Figure 1: The Percentage of the Students’ Speaking Score

17.69% Excellent
42.31%
20.00% Good
20.00% Low
Failed

Based on the table 1 and the figure 1, the students’ speaking ability
showed that 23 (17.69%) were excellent categorized, 26 (20%) were good and
low categorized and 55 (42.31) were failed categorized.
In addition, the mean score of the students’ ability based on each
component of speaking skills as follow:

Table 2: The Students’ Speaking Ability

The components of The scores of the students' speaking
speaking skills Total Mean (%) The students' ability
Pronunciation (5) 412.00 3.17 63.40
Grammar (5) 375.67 2.89 57.80
Vocabulary (5) 415.00 3.19 63.80
Fluency (5) 416.00 3.20 64.00
Comprehension (5) 426.67 3.28 65.60

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Further clear description, the percentage of the students’ speaking ability

for each component of speaking skills can be seen the following diagram:

Figure 2: The Percentage of the Students’ Speaking Ability Based on the

Components of Speaking Skills

65.60% 63.40%
Pronunciation
Grammar
57.80%
64.00% Vocabulary
63.80%
Fluency
Comprehension

From the table 2 and the figure 2, it can be stated that the students’
ability for each component of speaking skill was almost similar about 60%
(pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension). It means that these
components were low categorized. Meanwhile, the component of grammar was
57.80% or failed categorized.

2. The Students’ Problems on Speaking Skills

To analyze the students’ problems on speaking skills, the analysis
focused on the five components of speaking skills. They were pronunciation,
grammar, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The following was the table
of the students’ problems on speaking skills as follows:

Table 3: The Students’ Problems on Speaking Skills

The students'
The elements of
The students' ability problem
speaking
(%) (%)
Pronunciation 63.40 36.60
Grammar 57.80 42.20
Vocabulary 63.80 36.20
Fluency 64.00 36.00
Comprehension 65.60 34.40

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Seeing the table 3 above, it showed that the biggest problem of speaking
skills faced by the students was grammar with 42.20%. Then, it followed by
pronunciation with 36.60% which almost similar with vocabulary, 35.20%,
fluency with 36.00% and comprehension with 34.40%. The finding above was
crosschecked and triangulated with the results of questionnaire and interview.
And the finding was relevant in which the students faced the problems on
speaking skills in terms of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and
comprehension.

3. The Students’ Reasons in Facing the Problems on Speaking Skills

To know the students’ reasons in facing the problems of speaking skills,
the data were gained from two sources such as questionnaire and interview
transcript results. There were some reasons why the students faced the
problems on speaking skills. They were limited knowledge on the components
of speaking skills (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and
comprehension), shy to perform speaking, dislike studying English since they
preferred to study Islamic knowledge and Arabic, lack of self confidence, lack
of speaking practice, limited time given for preparation when speaking test took
place, the difficulties at using and understanding the speaking material found in
the English textbook, and the environment (dormitory) did not support them
to acquire and speak English.

E. DISCUSSION
Based on the data analysis, it showed that the mean score of the
students’ speaking ability was 62.93. It indicated that their ability was
categorized low. This finding was mostly same with their ability for each of
speaking skills components such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary,
fluency and comprehension with the average percentage of 60% above
although in grammar was only 50% above. Therefore, the students needed to
increase their speaking ability.
Moreover, the students faced the problems in English speaking. The
biggest problem was grammar with 42.20%. Then, it was followed by
pronunciation with 36.60%, vocabulary with 36.20%, fluency with 36.00% and
comprehension with 34.40%.
There were some reasons why the students faced the above problems.
They were difficult to pronounce the English words correctly, arranging the
words in good sentence grammatically, limited vocabulary to express their ideas;
as a result, their speaking performance was not fluently and comprehensively.
Additionally, they also have personal reasons, such as feeling ashamed at
performing English speaking, interested at studying Islamic knowledge and
Arabic rather than English, lack of self confidence, lack of speaking practice,
limited time given for preparation when speaking test took place, the difficulties
at using and understanding the speaking material found in the English

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textbook, and the environment (dormitory) did not support them to acquire
and speak English.

F. CONCLUSION
The students’ English speaking ability should be improved by
motivating the students on how the important of English for global
communication and interaction. Indeed, the students would interest and try to
overcome their problems faced on English speaking skill.

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