Being Unconfident to Speak English (Small Research in My Class)

          When I was in my 3rd semester, I was asked to write my essay assignment about one of the skill in English. That's why I conducted a small research at that time by interviewing my friends and my lecturers. I also gave my friends some questionnaires related to my small research. So, here's the result of my small research in the form of short essay.. :P

         Nowadays, English language is become an important language to be learned by everyone. They, who lived in a country where English still become a foreign language, are trying to master all the skills required in English which are writing, listening, reading, and speaking skill. However, although many of them have learned those skills for many years, there are still some them who are shy to practice their ability in English, especially in speaking, even for the students who are taking an English language as their major. After asking the opinions from some students, at least I have discovered that they are unconfident to speak English under some particular reasons.

         When I tried to ask the reason to the students of why they are still unconfident or shy to speak English, they have their own reasons that is different from others. One of students that I had been asked is Lilla. She is one of the student of English Department in my Reading class. She said that pronunciation is the most difficult thing to deal in speaking. The lack of pronunciation can lead the students into the feeling of being unconfident and shy to speak English. She also said in her statement that we will be so shy when we know that the way we pronounce the word is wrong and changing the meaning. The second student that I had been interviewed at that time is Fia. She seems to have the similar idea with Lilla. She said, “The wrong or lack of pronunciation can make the people misunderstanding with what I said.” I think what they said all are true, moreover the effect of being shy because of wrong pronunciation can come to us, if we talk with foreigners directly.

  Besides interviewing students, I also had already given the questioners to all of the students in my Grammar class. In that questioner, I asked them of why students are usually unconfident to speak English. The statistic of it shows that from 30 students, 36 percent of them chose the lack of pronunciation become the most difficult problem to deal in speaking, 33 percent of them chose the lack of grammar become their dark shadow of being unconfident to speak English, while 17 percent of them chose the lack of vocabulary and only 14 percent chose their own opinion that shyness and the local accent which is very distinct become their reason of being unconfident to speak English. Those who chose the lack of grammar become their dark shadow of being unconfident stated that grammar is so complicated to remember in speaking. Eki who is one of my fellow students in Grammar class wrote her reason that it is hard to arrange the words in a good order of grammar while speaking spontaneously. Another different reason that I have read from those questioner is coming from Dina. She stated that we will be afraid to make mistakes and we will think too long about how to arrange the words before speaking. Her reason seems to be the most supportable reason chosen by many other students that they usually take a long time to make a sentence in good grammar before starting to speak.

  As what I stated before, for about 17 percent of the students in my Grammar class chose the lack of vocabulary become their problem to speak English confidently. I think, in this case, those who chose this option is agree with one reason that they usually have to translate the words one by one from bahasa to English if they do not know or forget the words in English. This opinion is also strengthen by the expert opinion, Mrs. Widayati, one of the grammar lecturer. She said that the lack of vocabulary can also lead into the fear of speaking English. That is why students who have the problem in it should try and practice more in that particular problem while continue to practice speaking, too. By doing this, the confident of the students may increase gradually. Mr. Murdjib also added Mrs. Widayati’s opinion. He is one of my speaking lecturer. He said that students should build their own self-confident because if they’re afraid to speak, the lecturer will not know in what matter they have difficulties in speaking and it will remain their problems unsolved. 

  In conclusion, there are at least three general reason of why students are usually unconfident to speak English. Those are the lack of pronunciation, the lack of grammar, and the lack of vocabulary. However, we actually can solve that problem gradually by practicing speaking more and overcoming our own weakness in a particular matter because practice will make us better.

Written by : Aida Shine