Ridwan Nurmansah
141101010028
Anxiety is a feeling of frustration, being threatened, apprehension, tension, and worry
that play role in affecting students in learning language especially English speaking skill
low proficiency level students is a group of students who may feel anxious easily.
However those anxiety can be reduced by employing strategies like preparation,
relaxation, positive thinking, peer seeking, resignation the strategies to cope with
language anxiety in speaking skill. This research is descriptive qualitative.Which
involved 10 low speaking proficiency students’ as participants. The data were gathered
through questionnaire (close ended questionnaire) and interview. First, lack of vocabulary is the most dominant factors anxious faced by low students, there are 52.6% of respondents who feel anxious in speaking skill because they have limited vocabulary.
Second, lack of preparation, there are 50.5% respondents who had anxiety in speaking
because they unprepared. Third, fear of making mistakes, there are 49.7% of respondents
who had anxiety because they are afraid to speak if they have mistakes. Fourth, low
English proficiency, there are 49.6% of respondents who felt anxious because their
English is poor. Fifth, fear of being attention, there are 49.6% of respondents who felt
anxious because they felt uneasy if their friend focused on him when speak English in
front of class. Sixth, lack of practice, there are 48.5% respondents who had their feeling
anxious in speaking because they do not practice. And the last inability to express ideas,
there are 45.0% of respondents who felt anxious because they do not know what to say.
The strategies that used by the low students to cope with their language anxiety in
speaking skill are preparation and most students use this strategy to cope with their
language anxiety.
Keyword:anxiety, speaking skill.