ABSTRACT

Humairo, Aulia. 2022. Exploring Speaking Anxiety in an Online Class Conducted during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sarjana’s Thesis. English Language Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, University of Lambung Mangkurat, Banjarmasin. The first advisor: Dr. Hj. Noor Eka Chandra, M.Pd., the second advisor : Raisa Fadilla,M.Pd.

Keywords:speaking anxiety, the COVID-19 pandemic, an online English-speaking class, narrative study

Learning speaking during the COVID-19 pandemic has many challenges, one of which is arising speaking anxiety among learners. The objective of this study is to explore speaking anxiety in an online English-speaking class conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic using narrative study for first-yearstudents of English Language Education Study Program in one of the private universities in Indonesia. To achieve the purpose of the study, a narrative study is employed. Six students participated in this study and shared their experiences related to their anxiety to learn speaking and how they overcome it. The interview protocol was used to collect data.

 The approach of this study is a qualitative study using the narrative approach as a tool to gather and analyze the data on exploring the issues of foreign language anxiety among undergraduate students in a speaking class. The researcher used the narrative approach to explore students’ anxiety through observation and interviews. The researcher identified the students in online-speaking classes who have high anxiety during the observation. The students’ scores for spoken test were used to consider the participant in this study. The researcher asked for the consent of each six participants to be interviewed. The analysis of the study followed Miles and Huberman to use three steps, data reduction, data display, and conclusion/verification after data was collected. The triangulation of observation and the thematic results were gained valid data for this study.

Findings od the research showed that some concentrated themes related to anxiety during the online-speaking class. These themes came from the triangulation of two data collection techniques class observation and in-depth interview with the teacher and six students. Some suggestions came as the result if this study can be a positive input for teacher and students to anticipate anxiety during the learning process. Students’ anxiety must be seen as something serious to overcome. Teachers can develop more fun ways to teach speaking online. This suggestion may become opportunities for future research.