ABSTRACT

Hazzariana, Poppy. 2021. Students’ Perception on Speaking Skill Development. Sarjana’s Thesis. English Language Education Study Program. Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Lambung Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin. The first advisor: Dr. Jumariati, M.Pd. The second advisor: Raisa Fadilla, M.Pd.

Keywords: Perception, Speaking, Speaking Skill Development

Speaking is an action to convey one’s thoughts, opinions and ideas in spoken language. Speaking at English Department of Lambung Mangkurat University is a compulsory subject. Realizing the importance of taking speaking classes, it is very important to use the best instructional methods, materials, activities, media and other requirements that will help students of English Department master speaking skill. Little research has been carried out regarding students’ perspectives on the process of learning and teaching of speaking in EFL classroom, whereas view is an important aspect to be taken to consideration in order to make friendly and conducive classroom environment.

 The method of this research was mix-method. The subjects of this research were 75 English Department students of Lambung Mangkurat University who attended Intermediate Speaking class. The data were collected from questionnaires and interview. The data were analyzed quantitatively using SPSS and qualitatively analyzed using three stages.

The results showed that only 13.3%of the students think that their speaking mastery is high. However, the majority of the students in intermediate speaking want to speak English well and fluently. The majority of them are willing to participate on events that require them to speak English in public. However, the majority of them are lack of confidence to do it. Not only do the majority of students agree that the opportunity they get from speaking class is appropriate, but they also find the materials and activities in speaking class are exciting and interesting. However, the time provided in speaking class is too limited and the learning facilities in speaking class need to be improved. Although more than half of the students believe that they have the proper opportunity to develop speaking skill in non-speaking classes, even a bigger number of the students still insist on having more intensive use of English in non-speaking classes. In addition, there is only 6.7% of students use English in all interaction with classmates in speaking and non-speaking classes, because the students feel shy to speak English due to fear of judgements from their fellow classmates.

Referring to the findings, it is suggested that students use English more frequently in speaking and non-speaking classes while interacting with both fellow classmates and lecturers. It is also suggested to them to find their best learning strategies to overcome each speaking deficiency. It is also suggested to the lecturers that the use of English in non-speaking classes should be made priority as a medium of communication including in explaining, asking and answering questions, giving instruction, motivation, and compliment. For further research, this could be a reference to explore more about students’ perception on the speaking skill development.