e-Journal of ELTS (English Language Teaching Society) Vol. 11 No.

1, September - Oktober
p-ISSN 23381841, e-ISSN 2721-2152 pp. 1-13

INVESTIGATING ENGLISH SPEAKING PROBLEMS FACED BY

THE SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS AT SMP NEGERI 13 PALU

*Nur1), Aminah2), Wahyudin3)

English Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training

1,2,3,)

and Education
Tadulako University, Palu

* nurh92756@gmail.com

ABSTRAK

Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui apakah ada masalah berbicara bahasa
Inggris yang dihadapi oleh siswa kelas tujuh di SMPN 13 Palu. Penelitian ini menggunakan
penelitian kualitatif. Sampel penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas VII D yang berjumlah 32
siswa. Peneliti mengambil kuesioner dan melakukan teknik wawancara mendalam untuk
mendapatkan data yang direkomendasikan oleh model Miles dan Huberman. Hasil
penelitian menunjukkan bahwa tingkat kemampuan siswa. Hasilnya adalah sebagian besar
siswa memiliki masalah dalam berbicara bahasa Inggris yaitu: mereka tidak percaya diri
untuk berbicara, mereka tidak terbiasa berbicara di kelas karena takut membuat kesalahan,
kurangnya kosa kata, tata bahasa dan pengucapan. Berdasarkan pernyataan di atas, faktor
penyebab masalah menjadi tiga kategori umum, yaitu a) mereka bingung berbicara dalam
bahasa Inggris b) mereka mengatakan kekurangan kosa kata dan c) mereka mengatakan
bahwa bahasa Inggris sulit untuk diucapkan.

Kata kunci: Menyelidiki, masalah siswa dalam berbicara bahasa Inggris.

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research is to find out if there are any English speaking problems
faced by the seventh grade students at SMPN 13 Palu. This research employed qualitative
research. The sample of this research was the students of class VII D consisting of 32
students. The researcher took questionnaire and conducted in - depth interview technique
to obtain data recommended by Miles and Huberman model. The result of the study show
that the level of student’s. The result is most of the students have problems in speaking
English namely: they were not confident to speak, they were not used to talking in class was
caused by being afraid of making errors, lack of vocabulary, grammar and pronouncation.
Based on the statement above, factors cause of the problem into three general categories,
namely a) they are confused to speak in English b) they say lack of vocabulary and c) they
say that English is difficult to say.

Keywords: Investigating, students problems in speaking English.

INTRODUCTION
Speaking is one aspect of language that helps students to communicate using

English by speaking, students can tell everything they think. Purpose of teaching speaking

1
 Investigating English Speaking Problems Faced by The Seventh Grade
Students at SMP Neger 13 |2

in language lessons will encourage the spirit of communication and mobilize speaking

skills inside and outside the classroom

Basically, speaking focused on two way conversation, speakers and listeners

discuss what they say. Speaker and listeners interact at the right place and at the right time,

then the speaker conveys something and then, respons the listener and the speaker listen to

the feedback received listener.

The goal of communicative competence is to make the students to speak up.

Because speaking is very difficult to master, so it is very important to introduce English as

a second language to the students since they in kinergarden. In teaching speaking skill,

teacher is giving instruction to their students in order to communication.

Speaking among the other foreign language skills (listening, reading and writing)

seems intuitively the most important one. As the process of learning and applying the skills

of oral English are so closely related, classroom should be a place where the use of spoken

language is sensitively supported since it enables students to make connections between

what they know and what they are learning, and it is the one through which they are going

to be judged while the first impressions

Another difficulty is that the students are lack of English vocabulary because they

are passive users of English. They only use English in English class. It is also very often

that in the English class they do not use English as the main language. Moreover, they are

unwilling to open their dictionary. They prefer asking to their teacher or friends to finding

the words in dictionary. In fact, the teacher has ordered them to bring it.

Speaking is good skill in English learning especially to English foreign language.

All of school likes language, socials, arts, and other need speak up. It is needed in every

level of field in of study. Particularly i1n this case when students have to speak in English
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materials for their own special subject. And also speaking is useful to communicate with

other people to share information. Speaking is a basic in teaching English to interact with

other.

Therefore, the teacher should to have an appropriate technique in teaching speaking

skill in 3 order to make students more active in learning English speaking skill. One of the

suitable technique is numbered Heads. Numbered Heads is a cooperative learning

technique that promotes students to better learning English, improves student’s motivation,

increase enjoyment and English material more easy to understand because students will be

given many questions related to the material by the teacher.

Besides that, this technique focuses on team-works that can build students ability to

communicate and share their idea or ask questions to the teacher. Learning English through

numbered heads technique is interesting and lessen the student’s freedom. They also can be

more active and creative during the teaching learning process because they works in team

and they always have to prepare opinion or answer the question related to the topic or

answer question from the researcher. When the teacher gives a question on instruction,

they are invited to think about the answer because it is possible for them to answer the

question. Because of the fact, it can be predicated that numbered heads can make students

more active in learning English speaking skill.

Among the other language skills, speaking skill is one of the language skills that is

not controlled by any person, especially in speaking through academic contexts such as

speech, discussions, lectures, interviews, etc. Standards of competence in school-based

curriculum stated that language learning is directed to help the learners to know

themselves, their culture and others’ culture. It is also to improve the idea, feeling, and
 Investigating English Speaking Problems Faced by The Seventh Grade
Students at SMP Neger 13 |4

participation in a certain language community. In addition, language learning is to find and

to use inner capabilities in analyzing and imagining. Therefore, Indonesian language

learning is directed to communicate in the Indonesian language properly and in the right

manner either orally or in written (Department of national education, 2006). In fact,

speaking is a process of communicating because it contains a message from any source to

other sources.

Furthermore, it has been mentioned in the school-based curriculum that the nature

of learning to speak is basically using oral discourse to express thoughts, feelings,

information, experiences of opinions and comments in interviews, presentations of reports,

discussions, protocols, and speeches. There are also various literary works in the form of

short story, novel, poetry and drama (Department of national education, 2006). Based on

the reality in the field, learning speaking skill is not optimal because, in practice, it is rarely

performed in class. The teachers more often explain about the theory of speaking than

giving the practice to speak. Thus, it causes the students are less trained to speak or express

their opinion in front of the class.

Numbered Heads is fun and motivated, students get a chance to develop their

opinions and it is useful to extend students knowledge, so it can motivated the students in

learning English speaking skill. By applying this approach, the teacher hope that the

students are able to speak English well in the end. As second language, it needs a long time

to master it. Therefore, it is not surprising that the students could not 4 communicative well

in English. Based on those conditions, in this research, the reason why the writer purposes

Numbered Heads Together.

There are some factors that discourage students to speak up. According to

Afriyalsanti (2011), as cited in Hidayanti (2014) those factors include that students are
5 | e-Journal of ELTS | Vol. 11 No. 1 | August-September 2023 | 1-13

nervous and afraid of making mistakes, the topics are not interesting, the classroom

atmosphere is not encouraging and feedback of lsteners are not supportive. Students

somestimes fear of losing face as they make mistakes in their speaking so that they tend to

be afraid to speak.

Vandani & Dewantara (2019) said that other factors influencing English speaking

skill of the students are internal and external factor. Internal factor that influence students

is motivation. Whereas the external factor influence the students is interaction they do not

like English lesson and in their daily routines they never use English. Most of the students

are in high level of speaking anxiety that make them are not really motivate in speaking

task. Some of them know how to construct sentences but they are reluctant to speak. They

are afraid of making mistakes in pronouncing the words or English grammar. Besides, they

are afraid of being laugh at by other students, so they just keep silent and keep their ideas

and feeling in their mind.

Based on the researcher premiliary study in the school, students generally assume

that speaking is quite hard for them, particularly, regarding the pronunciation of letters,

words and sentences and they could not speak English in class with their teacher or friends.

In addition, they feel so afraid to make a mistakes. This study has not been explored before

by the previous researcher and it is expected the outcome of this study will provide a

meaningfull inputs for teachers facilitating them to speak English fluently. In a accordance

with the above background, this study aims to Investigate English speaking problems faced

by the grade seventh students at SMP Negeri 13 Palu.

METHOD
 Investigating English Speaking Problems Faced by The Seventh Grade
Students at SMP Neger 13 |6

In conducting the researchs, the researchers employed qualitative research design in

collecting the data from respondents. There are two instruments used by the researcher,

they are questionnaire and interview.

The researchers collected data using a questionnaire and interviews to obtain students

information related to problems faced by students and then the data collecton technique

used is an in-depth interview technique with a semi-structured type. The researchers used

a questionnaire consisting of several item questions via the Google form with 10 question

statements and 5 interview questions written on a piece of paper.

Descriptve qualitative research is the design in this research. The researcher used

questionnaire and interview, The questionnaire also showed additional findings where

students faced other problems, namely lack of confidance, shame to speak, fear of making

mistakes, feeling doubtful, and having nothing to say. Furthermore, there are several

factors that cause problems speaking to students, firstly, poor reading habits, uneven

participation and practice of English both inside and outside the classroom, and confusion

in applying grammar rules.

The researchers subject is the students of seventh grade class D consist of 32 students.

All of them filled out the questionnaires and the researcher only chose 5 female students to

be interviewed. The interview by face-to-face and other students are only willing to find

out the questionnaire link, students who have been willing to be interviewed are also

willing to fill out the questionnaire link that has been distributed.

This research was carried out at SMP Negeri 13 Palu. The location is at Jalan Munif

Rahman II, Ulujadi, kec. Palu Barat, Palu. This research was conducted from August –

September 2022.
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The data analysis several steps according to the states of Miles and Huberman, and

Saldana (2014) that analyzing data in three steps, namely data reduction, data display and

conclusion.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

FINDINGS

Analysis of Questionnaires

After analyzed the 10 statement in the questionnaire given to student of their

problems, the research presented the result of analyzing the data then concluded that from

the first statement I found it difficult to say few words in English mostly students chose

agree because they find it difficult to say a few words in English, the result of analyzing

data from the second statement I prefer speak Indonesian to attending English subject,

researchers concluded that mostly students chose agree because they more like to speak

Indonesian when attending subject English, from the third statement I found it difficult to

say English words that have the pronouncation is almost the same, mostly students chose

agree because they hard to pronounce English words that are almost the same

pronouncation. Next the fourth statement I have trouble making English sentence when

talking students chose agree because they have trouble making sentence in English when

talking. The fifth statement I am confused to construct English sentences when talking to

others, the researchers concluded that mostly students chose agree because they confused

composing English sentences when talking to other people. From the sixth statement I’m

afraid of getting critism from classmate when I say English words/sentences, the

researchers concluded that mostly students chose agree because they afraid of being

criticized by they classmates when say English words/sentences. Statement seventh I don’t

know what to license when designated suddenly for speak English, dominant students
 Investigating English Speaking Problems Faced by The Seventh Grade
Students at SMP Neger 13 |8

chose agree because they don’t know what they say when suddenly appointed to speak

English. From statement eighth I’m using regional languages when talking everyday

making it difficult to say English words, the researcher concluded that mostly students

chose agree because they used to using the local language when speaking everyday, so it is

difficult for they to say the words speak English. Statement ninth I’m not eager to speak

English when discussion, the researchers concluded that mostly students chose agree

because they not eager to speak English when discussing. The last statement tenth I have

no motivation to speak English, the researcher concluded that mostly students chose agree

because they don’t have motivation to speak English.

At this stage the researcher makes a frame of mind as a process of research, starting from

an investigate of English speaking problems. The school has prepared face-to-face learning

and students are ready to take offline learning at school, every student has problems in the

from of support themselves and from ouside.

Based on research by using interview guide questions and distributing guideline

questionnaires, the researcher investigate English speaking problems students. After that,

the researcher tried to find out the problems. Researcher used In - depth interview and a

questionnaire to investigate the English speaking problems students.

Investigating English
Speaking Problems

Questionnaire Interview

Google Live
Form, Link Interview
9 | e-Journal of ELTS | Vol. 11 No. 1 | August-September 2023 | 1-13

Students’
Problems

The picture above this is the frame mind of the researcher where researcher

investigated the problems faced by students in speaking English using questionnaire sheets

and interview sheets through the Google form media and direct interviews with students

DISCUSSION
Based on data collected through questionnaires and in-depth interviews, the

abilities of class VII D students at SMP Negeri 13 Palu are poor. This is supported by the

percentage of student answers. It can be seen that the use of appropriate techniques is very

effective in helping students understand the learning material and more adequate support

and facilities are needed for students in learning English.

From the result of interviews with students about speaking difficulties students

English it was found that the difficulties faced by students in speaking were; difficulty of

speaking English, lack of vocabulary, lack of knowledge of grammar, fear of make

mistakes and less active in speaking. According to Taiqin (1995) So far it can be concluded

that there are two kinds of difficulties that are often encountered by language learnes in

speaking namely linguistics and non-linguistics matters. Brown (2001) points out that

clustering, reduced forms, performance variabels, and colloquial language are the factors

that make speaking difficult.

Beside from the students, the problems also come from the facilities to improve

students speaking skill at school. The teacher difficult to teaching speaking when there are
 Investigating English Speaking Problems Faced by The Seventh Grade
Students at SMP Neger 13 | 10

many facilities at school is not support the teaching and the teacher uses conventional

technique like speaking by using mother tongue and like use media in teaching. The fact,

teacher is not maximizing to teaching speaking in the class.

So, besides this big importance, it is necessary to deal first with what good speakers

of a foreign language can do. Hence it was assumed that the ability to speak fluently is all

the time associated with certain characteristics to be owned by the speaker. This latter is

presented in the teaching of grammar, an amount of vocabulary with some care about

pronunciation so that the piece of the produced speech sounds as the native speakers' ones.

But, now we all know that this skill is more complex than that; it involves the cooperation

of different types of knowledge with the good command of certain skills. (Bygate, 1987).

The result of the questionnaire showed that students at the seventh grade students at

SMP Negeri 13 Palu faced some problems that make them do not actively speak in

English. Based on the analysis from the questionnaire the students are not active in

speaking English because of a lack of self-confidence when they speak English in front of

the class. They are afraid of being laughed at by their friends when they say wrong words

in English. Thus making them afraid to volunteer in speak English in daily life or in front

of class.

After conducting the research, the researcher concludes the research result.

Researcher found several interesting things from the findings are as follows; Students not

being brave to speak, students not being confident to speak was caused by being afraid of

making errors and being afraid of making errors was caused by not being confident to

speak, students being afraid of speaking was caused by being afraid of making errors.

Students being afraid of making errors was caused by being afraid of speaking, students

nervous to speak was caused by not being confident to speak. Students not being confident
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to speak was caused by nervous to speak, students not used to talking in class was caused

by being afraid of making errors.

CONCLUSION
There are some conclusion made by the researchers in this research. The English
speaking problems faced by the seventh of SMP Negeri 13 Palu are five factors causing
the students problem in speaking English. There are: Students not being brave to speak,
students not being confident to speak was caused by being afraid of making errors and
being afraid of making errors was caused by not being confident to speak, students being
afraid of speaking was caused by being afraid of making errors.
Students being afraid of making errors was caused by being afraid of speaking,
students nervous to speak was caused by not being confident to speak. Students not being
confident to speak was caused by nervous to speak, students not used to talking in class
was caused by being afraid of making errors.
The goal of communicative competence is to make the students to speak up.
Because speaking is very difficult to master, so it is very important to introduce English as
a second language to the students since they in kinergarden. In teaching speaking skill,
teacher is giving instruction to their students in order to communication.
It is hoped that the results of this research can be a contribution to science
knowledge in general and towards mastery of learning English speaking in particular.
Apart from that, teachers or lecturers can take advantage of the results this research by
using it as additional teaching material teaches English through fun media so that learning
language is not boring by utilizing videos that are usually popular by students or pupils.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The researchers give all her praises and thanks to God, the Almighty, their
research work to complete the research successfully. May His blessings be upon our
beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his family. The researchers also
do not forget to thank to the VIID grade students of SMP Negeri 13 Palu had participated
in this research. The researchers also extend their deepest gratitude to all of the lecturers
of English Education Study Program at Tadulako University who cannot be mentioned
individually. Lastly, special thanks go to researchers families for their unwavering
support and encouragement throughout this journey.
 Investigating English Speaking Problems Faced by The Seventh Grade
Students at SMP Neger 13 | 12

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