Speaking Anxiety in EFL Classroom
This research is aimed at finding out students’ speaking anxiety and their strategies to cope with anxiety. The researchers used the tenth graders of SMK Negeri 5 Palembang as Subject of the Research. The researchers used a qualitative research method. To collect the data, the researchers used documentation technique in terms of giving closed-ended and opened ended questionnaires. Percentage analysis and descriptive analysis were used to analyze the data. The results showed that there were four types of speaking anxiety occurred (i.e. communication apprehension, test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and comfortable of speaking) which were caused by not mastering grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and made them lost their self-confidence. Taking a deep breath, practicing before speaking and asking friends, pretending to be busy and avoiding eye contact are the strategies they used to cope with speaking anxiety during verbal classroom activity.
Keywords: Speaking, Anxiety, EFL Classroom
