ATTRIBUTIONS ON STUDENTS’ SPEAKING FLUENCY
PROBLEMS IN AN EFL SPEAKING CLASSROOM
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Mutiara Putri Pratiwi
112014075
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
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COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any
course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To
the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously
published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the
text.
Copyright@ 2018. Mutiara Putri Pratiwi and Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali, M. Hum.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means withous
the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Language
Education Program, Faculty of Language and Arts, Universitas Kristen Satya
Wacana, Salatiga.
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ATTRIBUTIONS ON STUDENTS’ SPEAKING FLUENCY
PROBLEMS IN AN EFL SPEAKING CLASSROOM
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Mutiara Putri Pratiwi
112014075
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
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TABLE OF CONTENT
COVER ... ii
APPROVAL PAGE ... iii
PERNYATAAN TIDAK PLAGIAT ... iv
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ... v
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN AKSES ... vi
TABLE OF CONTENT ... vii
LIST OF TABLE ... ix
ATTRIBUTIONS ON STUDENTS’ SPEAKING FLUENCY PROBLEMS IN EFL SPEAKING CLASSROOM ... 10
INTRODUCTION ... 10
LITERATURE REVIEW... 12
THE STUDY ... 18
Context of the Study ... 19
Research Participants ... 20
Instruments of Data Collection ... 21
Data Collection Procedures ... 22
Data Analysis Procedures ... 23
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The Students’ Attributions for Their Problems to Interact with Friends Using
English During Potluck Cocktail Party ... 24
The Students’ Attributions for Their Problems to Ask Questions Using English ... 27
The Students’ Attributions for Their Problems to Answer Questions Using English ... 30
CONCLUSION ... 32
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... 35
REFERENCES ... 36
APPENDIX A ... 40
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LIST OF TABLE
Table 1 The Students’ Attributions for Their Problems to Interact with Friends Using
English During Potluck Cocktail Party...25
Table 2 The Students’ Attributions for Their Problems to Ask Questions Using
English...28
Table 3 The Students’ Attributions for Their Problems to Answer Questions Using
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ATTRIBUTIONS ON STUDENTS’
SPEAKING FLUENCY
PROBLEMS IN EFL SPEAKING CLASSROOM
Mutiara Putri Pratiwi
ABSTRACT
This study explores students’ attributions for their English-speaking fluency problems in their English as a Foreign Language (EFL) speaking classroom. The participants of the study were 34 freshmen at the Speaking for Social Purposes classes at the English Language Education Program, Satya Wacana Christian University (ELEP, UKSW), academic year 2017/2018. An open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview were used as the instruments of the data collection. On the questionnaire, three questions were presented in which the participants were asked to write their responses concerning their speaking fluency problems. Meanwhile a semi-structured interview was conducted with three participants to clarify their written responses on the questionnaire. The data analysis appeared to prove that anxiety, lack of vocabulary, and problems in grammatical aspects were primary factors influencing the students’ difficulties to speak English fluently. Eventually, this study hopes to provide insights for teachers and students in avoiding the speaking problems and improving English-speaking fluency among EFL learners.
Keywords: attribution, fluency
INTRODUCTION
English language learners learn four skills, namely listening, speaking,
reading, and writing. Among those skills, speaking is the most difficult skill to master
by students in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts (Urrutia & Vega, 2006).
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John, and Laxman (2015) reported that Indian learners presented many filled pauses
such “uh” and “um”. In Kuwait, a similar result was also found in Al-Nouh,
Abdul-Kareem, and Taqi (2015) study. Kuwaiti college students indicated unfilled pauses or
silence because they tend to forget what they want to say in English. From other
studies, learners in China and Turkey also showed significant English-speaking
fluency problems such as stuttering because of their anxiety (Na, 2007; Elaldi, 2016).
Similarly, Roberts (2002) reported that learners in French showed a slower speech in
speaking English.
Many students at English Language Education Program, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana (ELEP, UKSW) also experienced similar fluency problems. Understanding materials and doing tests could be easy for them, but they found it difficult to communicate in English. Not all students were confident enough to voice their ideas in English because they were worried about making mistakes. Having problems in speaking fluency is one of the several critical obstacles which gives negative
influence for students’ performance in the oral or practical use of languages (Yang,
2014). For those reasons, all courses at ELEP, UKSW require speaking fluency to
accomplish the goals of the course. Also, they need to keep their speaking
improvement on records and attempt to overcome their speaking fluency problems
because ELEP students will potentially be English teachers. This means, they need to
have a strong competence in speaking English.
In this research, I was interested in exploring the attributions of the EFL
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Purposes course at ELEP, UKSW. This research seeks to address the following
question: What are EFL students’ attributions to their English-speaking fluency problems in Speaking for Social Purposes classes?
The study is expected to offer some important insights into teachers’ and students’ strategies to retrieve speaking fluency in EFL contexts, specifically
Indonesia. The study could also serve as a reference for teachers to support students
in avoiding the speaking problems and improving the condition of English-speaking
fluency from the students’ experiences.
LITERATURE REVIEW
This section provides a review of the literature which is relevant to the
research objectives. This includes the definitions of attribution and fluency,
advantages of knowing learners’ attributions, and a review of the attribution studies
for speaking fluency problems.
Definitions of Attribution
Briefly, ‘attribution’ is a term referring to the causes for why students
experienced success and failure in the learning process. However, there are various
definitions of the term itself that needs to consider. Weiner (1985) explained that the
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their experiences happened, such as “Why didn’t I have enough motivations?”, “Why did I do that?”, “Why didn’t I study hard?”, or “Why couldn’t I pass the exam?”
Attributions also refer to people’s causal explanations of their successes and failures in their language learning (Mali, 2015; Banks & Woolfson, 2008; Gobel &
Mori, 2007). Meanwhile, Shcunk and Zimmerman (2006) defined the term as a
theory which clarifies the causes of students’ competence and incompetence in their
academic performances. In this research, attribution refers to ELEP students’
explanations towards their prior experiences of their reasons behind their speaking
fluency problems on their performance in Speaking for Social Purposes classes.
Definition of Fluency
Speaking fluency is one of the most important factors which reflects the
successful learning. As seen in Fillmore (1979, p.93) study, fluency is characterized
in four different ways. First, he defined fluency as “the ability to talk at length with few pauses”. Second, a fluent speaker is able to express his/her ideas with
understandable, reasonable and “semantically dense” sentences. Third, a person can
be considered as a fluent speaker if s/he is capable of stating the ideas appropriately
within the contexts. Lastly, Fillmore argued that fluent speakers are creative with the
language use. Meanwhile, according to Hedge (2000), speaking fluency refers to an
understandable response in a communication, appropriate use of connecting words in
a speech, well-pronounced words, and sentences which are accompanied by proper
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Additionally, Lennon (2000) defined fluency as the ability to speak in a
certain language related to the speed and the smoothness in delivering the messages.
In the same way, fluency is also seen as speakers’ production of language which
performs “smooth and rapid production of utterances, without undue hesitations and pauses, that results from constant use and repetitive practice” (Gatbonton &
Segalowitz, 2005, p.326). Considering some definitions mentioned above, fluency in
this study can be seen as EFL students’ oral production which significantly avoids the
occurrence of any speech hindrance such as hesitations that trigger pauses.
Advantages of Knowing Learners’ Attributions
Highlighting the advantages of exploring students’ attributions, Schunk and Zimmerman (2006) considered the explanations and reasons of success and failure in
the learning process as important conditions because they can motivate students and
influence their potential to be successful learners. Besides, knowing the students’
attributions in their learning process can create a positive impact on their future
behavior towards their study and may affect the expectancy of their achievements
(Banks & Woolfson, 2008; Lei & Qin, 2009). With a similar view, Lei (2009)
believed that causal explanations which learners attribute towards their successful or
unsuccessful experiences in learning will result in changes in expectations and
emotions, which can affect the learners’ motivation to gain academic achievement as
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explanations can help disappointed students with low self-esteem to discover their
strength of learning in order to fight against their weaknesses.
Previous Attribution Studies for Speaking Fluency Problems
The ability to be fluent in oral communication may be influenced by other
language skills that learners’ master. However, some students still cannot speak
English fluently while they are able to read, write, and do the exams well in English.
There seems to be an evidence to indicate that students have problems in speaking
English fluently. Those speaking fluency problems may occur due to different
attributions in several studies. For example, in Japan, Gobel and Mori (2007)
attempted to investigate learners’ attributions for success and failure in EFL oral and
reading tasks. In this qualitative study, open-ended questionnaires were used for the
data collection. The participants of the study included 233 Japanese university
students in the reading and speaking classes. The findings of the study showed that
the students in the classes attributed internal factors for their failure which were lack
of ability and lack of effort.
Meanwhile, another study on Chinese tertiary-level EFL students conducted
by Lei and Qin (2009) attempted to explore the attributions towards the learners’
English language achievement. To collect the data, they administrated an open-ended
questionnaire on 949 undergraduates at Huazhong University of Science and
Technology. The result of analysis revealed that 594 students were considered as
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number of students who attributed EFL failure, the study found that lack of
confidence and lack of practical use were reasons why the students experienced
difficulties to be fluent in speaking English.
In Malaysia, a related study was undertaken by Thang, Gobel, Nor, and
Suppiah (2011). They conducted a study that involved six public universities in the
country which use English as a Second Language (ESL). The researchers attempted
to analyze the relationship between the students’ performance attributions and
different university settings within the context. The results reported reasons for the
students’ success and failure. Then from five cited attributions, lack of effort, ability,
and interest become the main attributions for experiencing difficulties during their
English learning especially in doing speaking and writing activities.
Similarly, Basic (2011) investigated Swedish students’ reasons on why some
of them cannot speak English fluently. Significantly, the study revealed that students
who experienced anxiety when performed their oral skill inhibited them to speak
fluently in English. On the other hand, lack of support from English language
teachers was also an attribution of the students’ problems in their oral performance.
In that case, Basic and the teachers believed that it was important to create an
encouraging environment and activities to motivate the students to communicate
fluently.
Another related study was conducted by Jimenez (2015). In this case, the
researcher surveyed 14 Spanish students to prove their oral fluency difficulties in
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in English speaking fluency came from the interference of students’ mother tongue. While low-esteem and anxiety in EFL learning motivation and learning environment
with a low level of support can be the next obstacles to be fluent speakers.
In India, Bailoor et al. (2015) sought to assess the common speech
disfluencies in ten adults in the age range 18-20 years. The data were collected from
spontaneous speech tests such as conversation, story narration, and monologue. The
results indicated that adults presented a large number of disfluencies, such as pauses,
repetitions, interjections, and revision. Besides, Indian percentage of speaking
disfluency in doing monologue has increased. For this reason, doing a certain
individual oral task such as a spontaneous speech without having sufficient
preparation is the main factor affecting learners’ problems in speaking English fluently.
Another study by Shteiwi and Hamuda (2016) concerned with the forty
English major students’ factors behind their difficulties to have successful oral
communication in English. The researchers conducted the study at the Education
Faculty, Misrata University, Libya. Administering questionnaire was used as a
method to collect the data. As a result, the data which was analyzed qualitatively
indicated that lack of English exposure and practice inside and outside the classroom,
lack of vocabulary mastery, lack of grammatical and pronunciation components, and
self-confidence problems were the main reasons why they performed a certain degree
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Attributions on success and failure towards ESL and EFL learning is a topic
that has been thoroughly studied by many researchers. So far, however, there had
been few studies about students’ attributions towards their difficulty or failure in EFL
learning, in this case, speaking fluency problems experienced by Indonesian EFL
students in a university context. Therefore, it is significant enough to investigate the
attributions on students’ speaking fluency problems as “lack of speaking fluency and practice, sometimes, is not sufficient to maintain a communicative task in EFL class”
(Yang, 2014, p.2).
THE STUDY
This research was conducted to explore students’ attributions for English -speaking fluency problems on their EFL learning process at ELEP, UKSW. To
achieve this objective, the researcher approached the study qualitatively. By
employing the qualitative modes of inquiry, I attempted to illuminate the
understanding point and evidence of experiences in groups of a certain context
(Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest, & Namey, 2011). The findings of the data
were expressed from the participants’ statements in form of narrative (Norum, 2008).
Then the data was obtained by seeking the answer about “why people behave the way they do?”, “how opinions and attitudes are formed?” (Hancock, Ockleford, &
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This study was in line with the characteristics mentioned above. First, the
researcher explored evidence of groups’ experiences within a context. Therefore, it
was expected that data from the study was not collected from inaccurate opinions.
The researcher attempted to gain the responses from the participants’ real statements
from their experiences. Second, from the data I collected, I developed it into a
narrative text. Lastly, data was obtained by seeking the answer to why and how
questions related to EFL students’ attributions to their English-speaking fluency
problems in Speaking for Social Purposes classes.
Context of the Study
Data was collected in semester 2 of academic year 2017/2018 in which
participants joinedthe course of Speaking for Social Purposes at ELEP of UKSW.
This course was designed as a part of the compulsory course that aims to enhance the
students’ skill in speaking English (Sinanu, 2017). In this course, students were
expected to be able to improve their speaking skill using various language functions
and vocabulary in social contexts. Furthermore, this course was their first course of
speaking. There is a possibility that before taking this course, students have different
speaking proficiency and learning background. Therefore, as they enrolled the course
and did the spoken activities, their excitement and challenges towards the speaking
fluency appear to be different. In particular, for those who have fluency problems, the
challenges and difficulties appear during their first time in learning and improving
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Research Participants
The study involved 34 EFL students from Speaking for Social Purposes
classes at ELEP, UKSW who experienced speaking fluency problems in the course.
The students who participated in this study were in their first year on the field. The
researcher employed purposive sampling as it is a method for identification and
selection information-rich situations (Patton, 2002). This kind of sampling involves
selecting individuals based on their knowledge and experience of the population that
are of interest which enables to answer the research question (Mackey & Gass, 2005).
In this case, the sampling requires extreme judgments on students’ low fluency
performance in their English speaking. For this reason, this proposed study used
“extreme cases” sampling to select a sample of the subjects in this study. Extreme
case sampling is a data collection process in which samples are selected based on the
special or unusual performance of interest (Ary, Cheser & Sorensen, 2010). Commonly, the cases highlighted above or below accomplishments such as failures
or successes (Lærd Dissertation, 2012). To conduct this study, students of ELEP,
UKSW who had difficulties and problems in speaking English fluently were selected
as the participants. Due to this, the researcher asked the teachers in the class of the
Speaking for Social Purposes course about the students’ performance and grades
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Instruments of Data Collection
To collect the data, the study implemented open-ended questionnaires and
semi-structured interviews. Mackey and Gass (2005) explain open-ended
questionnaires as an instrument of the data collection which allows research
participants to express their ideas based on their willingness to share in form of
written statements. The aim of the open-ended questionnaire is to identify the
attributions for students who experience speaking fluency problems during the class
of Speaking for Social Purposes. By administering this kind of questionnaire, it is
possible to obtain new issues from the responses because each participant may
answer the questions in their own manner (Dawson, 2009).
Meanwhile, semi-structured interview is a data collection method which the
interviewer has a list of questions order to be asked and probes that are provided to
clarify more information (Mackey & Gass, 2005). The aim of the semi-structured
interview is to give participants an opportunity to elaborate their statements and their
way of thinking towards difficulties and problems they encountered to speak English
fluently. According to Dawson (2009), flexibility in the semi-structured interview
helps to gain more information. With this data collection method, the researcher
could go into details because asking probing questions as the interview goes was
allowed. In short, by using semi-structured interview, the researcher could come up
with new questions for new findings. Questions for the instruments were adapted
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modifications as it has a similar case to the present research context. The questions
are as follows:
What problems do you encounter in learning speaking skill?
1. Tell me your reasons why you found it difficult to speak English fluently in front of your friends when having the Potluck Cocktail Party!
2. Tell me your reasons why you found it difficult to ask questions to your friends in English!
3. Tell me your reasons why you found it difficult to answer questions proposed by your friends in English!
Data Collection Procedures
Before administering the two research instruments, the researcher piloted the
data instruments to demonstrate the statements on the questionnaire and interview
questions. The pilot study was conducted with 15 participants. This aimed to find the
weaknesses and ensure the validity of the instruments. After making some revisions,
the questionnaire was distributed to 34 participants without including the piloting
participants. Questionnaire sheets were administered to the participants of the study
in the class time. At first, the researcher distributed the questionnaires in Speaking for
Social Purposes classes by asking the teachers’ permission. Then the researcher
informed the participants about the purpose of the study, gave the instruction to
answer the questions in the instrument, and explained the statements on the
questionnaire. The purpose of doing this step was that to clarify the participants’
confusion about the statements written on the questionnaire. Statements of the
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questions either in English or Bahasa Indonesia to help the participants to go into details in explaining the ideas and prevent misconception of the statements.
The interview section was conducted with three participants after
administering the questionnaire. It was done in an individual face-to-face meeting
with the participants. During the interview, the researcher recorded the data by using
a voice recorder and took notes about the important points of the participants’ responses. There were several questions which led to students’ attribution on their
speaking fluency problems. The questions that were asked are the same for each
research participant. There were follow up questions to clarify the participants’
written statements on the questionnaire. The interview was conducted in Bahasa Indonesia.
Data Analysis Procedures
After obtaining the data needed, the researcher transcribed the interview data.
Similar responses were collected into groups. In this phase, thematic analysis was
used to analyze the data collected from the open-ended questionnaires and interviews.
Holliday (2002) suggests using thematic analysis to organize the data. In this
approach, data needs to be analyzed by interpreting broadly and rearranging under
themes according to the interest. The unique characteristic of thematic analysis is the
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applicable for the study as it suits questions related to people’s experience and the
understanding. All in all, the analyzed findings were drawn into a conclusion.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This section presents the findings on the students’ attributions to their EFL
speaking fluency problems in Speaking for Social Purposes classes. The researcher
aimed to display the attributions by classifying the results into three main indicators
which were adapted and developed from Mali (2015). The indicators are the students’ problems [1] in interacting with friends using English during Potluck Cocktail Party;
[2] in asking questions to their friends using English; and [3] in answering questions
proposed by their friends using English. In this section, the researcher discussed three
primary attributions categories for each indicator, including the students’ excerpts of
the results obtained from questionnaire and interview data. Below were the details of
the findings and discussion.
The Students’ Attributions for Their Problems to Interact with Friends Using
English During Potluck Cocktail Party
It was necessary to assure that the research participants were aware of the
research problem before they determined their attributions concerning their speaking
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speaking in English in Speaking for Social Purposes course, the researcher briefly
asked the participants about their experience when having the Potluck Cocktail Party.
The current study revealed ten attributions for the students’ English speaking fluency problems that they experienced during their speaking assessment at the
Potluck Cocktail Party. Table 1 described the result.
Table 1 The Students’ Attributions for Their Problems to Interact with Friends Using English During Potluck Cocktail Party
with language learning, including speaking. Interestingly, anxiety (25.3%) was the
most frequent problem that the students encountered during the assessment. As they
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making mistakes, new social context, and worried to manage their first assessment, a
participant reported that:
Excerpt 1
“I always have sudden panic attack when I speak in public, for example in front of the class. I often see that I am a failure in speaking English. Maybe, it is because I experienced something bad in the past. It was when my friends mocked me because I could not pronounce the words properly or say something out of the topic. So, I feel like I am afraid of getting the same experience. I did not want to get negative responses from my surroundings.” (S23/questionnaire/translated by the researcher)
Lack of self-confidence (14.7%) became the next attribution that was
frequently mentioned by the participants. Significantly, the theme covered some
statements, such as “I do not have native-like pronunciation and I feel awkward in
front of my friends when I speak in English. (S13/questionnaire/translated by the
researcher)” Moreover, “I think my friends speak much better than me because I
cannot speak that well. (S9/questionnaire/translated by the researcher)” Dealing with these problems to interacting with friends in the Potluck Cocktail Party, some
participants conveyed:
Excerpt 2
“When I speak English, I often could not pronounce the words well. That makes me not confident to communicate with my friends. They are great in speaking English.” (S34/questionnaire/translated by the researcher)
In Table 1, the students also attribute their problem in interacting with their
friends because of the hindrance from others. The researcher classified this attribution
as peer influence (13.3%). Additionally, the research participants conveyed that they
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fast, and seems reluctant to communicate. Concerning those, in the questionnaire,
some students stated that:
Excerpt 3
“It was hard for me to make a conversation ongoing if the person I talked with did not understand the topic. For example, I talked with someone, but he did not answer the question that I gave. He just stayed quiet. It made me confused as well.”
(S17/questionnaire/translated by the researcher)
The present findings seem to be in line with the views that a student who had
one bad experience from speaking often becomes a reminder (Basic, 2011). In that
case, that student who was mocked will have speaking anxiety that may make him or
her does not dare to speak English again. More importantly, such failure may be the
factor that decreased the students’ motivation. It is also in harmony that lack of
self-confidence is a factor that leads the EFL learning failure, significantly the fluency in
speaking English (Lei & Qin, 2009).
The Students’ Attributions for Their Problems to Ask Questions Using English
Initially, the researcher would like to inform that the asking questions in this
case was not limited to the Potluck Cocktail Party as stated in the previous part.
Rather, it was related to the students’ speaking activities in their classroom. As the
results of the data analysis, the researcher found nine different themes that showed
the reasons why they found it difficult to ask questions in English. Table 2 showed
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Table 2 The Students’ Attributions for Their Problems to Ask Questions Using English
attribution for their problems to ask questions in English. Additionally, the research
participants declared that they tend to find difficulties in speaking when they know a
little vocabulary, cannot find suitable words easily, and forgot or even do not know
the English terms that they want to say. These problems seemingly appear as a
student wrote in the questionnaire:
Excerpt 4
“I don’t have much vocabulary mastery, so sometimes I am confused about how to convey what I want to say. I do not know the English term of the words that I want to ask.” (S13/questionnaire/translated by the researcher)
The next attribution influencing their problems in communicating with their
friends using English is because sometimes they cannot present questions (17.7%).
They reported that they ran of topics after asking several questions, had no topic to
discuss, and could not initiate the conversation with a question. Those problems
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those, the results in the questionnaire corresponded to what a participant conveyed in
the interview:
Excerpt 5
“When I met new friends, I did not know how to start the conversation. I did not know what I should ask. Sometimes, it was hard for me to understand the topic that they were talking about. I took too much time thinking about a question to ask. In the end, I did not ask any further questions and our conversation was far from smooth.” (S10/interview/translated by the researcher)
Furthermore, they found difficulties in asking questions using English because
they experienced anxiety (15.7%). Within this attribution, the students declared that
they were nervous, worried, and afraid of making mistakes, particularly fear of
making grammatical mistakes and unclear questions. In the interview, a participant
clarified similar statement to this attribution:
Excerpt 6
“I met new people. I talked with different friends. Facing, greeting, and having conversations with unfamiliar friends was a challenge. I was very worried that I made grammatical mistakes when I talked to them. I felt that I arranged the sentenced poorly.” (S9/interview/translated by the researcher)
The present finding seems to be consistent with Shteiwi and Hamuda’s (2016)
findings which showed that the students’ problems in speaking English occur because of their limitations in mastering the vocabulary. The finding also supports the ideas of
Basic (2011), who found that that attitudes that reflect language learners’ anxiety such as fear of making mistakes is a hindrance for the students to have a successful
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The Students’ Attributions for Their Problems to Answer Questions Using
English
Regarding the communication among the EFL students in the classroom,
Table 3 shows students’ main attributions to their English speaking fluency problems,
particularly when answering questions proposed by their friends. From the table, the
most obvious challenge that the participants had was the students experienced
difficulty in grammatical aspect (17.6%). Some students often find problems in
arranging the words and get confused by tenses. Talking about this issue, an
interviewee said:
Excerpt 7
“I get difficulties not only in word choice, but also in English grammar. I find it hard in arranging words and sometimes get confused about the grammatical categories. I am not aware of using some tenses.” (S9/interview/translated by the researcher)
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Understanding the context of a discussion has an important point in answering
questions. Within this indicator, the participants declared that one of their problems in
answering questions proposed by their friends was due to their lack of background
knowledge (15.7%). Statements included in this attribution were “I do not understand
the topic of the question. (S7/questionnaire/translated by the researcher)” Besides, “The topic is unfamiliar to me. (S17/questionnaire/translated by the researcher)” Additionally, “I’d never heard of the roles they played; I do not know who they are in
real life. (S1/questionnaire/translated by the researcher)” These statements seemingly appear as a participant stated:
Excerpt 8
“When I pretended to be someone else in a certain speaking activity, honestly I did not exactly know about the character I was supposed to be. My character was a politician, but I did not know anything about politics. Then I usually ended the conversation if my friends brought up politics.” (S3/questionnaire/translated by the researcher)
Additionally, the participants admitted that they were lack of vocabulary
(15.7%). It became a reason why they had low performance in speaking English when
they answered questions. Some EFL students only know a little vocabulary. They
cannot find the suitable words in spoken language production to express their opinion
about particular topics. This problem hinders the participants in speaking English
actively, as one of them mentioned:
Excerpt 9
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In accordance with the present results, a previous study by Shteiwi and
Hamuda (2016) found that with the learners’ limited knowledge of vocabulary, the
learners would prefer to keep silent because they were unable to express their ideas in
English. The findings of Shteiwi and Hamuda also seem to be in line with the current
study with the views that lack of knowledge about tenses and words arrangement in
grammar can also be the EFL students’ problems which prevent them from communicating in the target language.
Furthermore, the findings showed other less frequent attributions. They were
the unsupportive environment (3.9%) and L1 interference (2%) for the students’ problems in answering their friends’ questions using English. This finding is
consistent with the ideas of Jimenez (2015) who explained that the negative
environment may not be supportive for students to speak English fluently. Jimenez
also stated that L1 interference such as students’ language switching and mixing are the causes for the students’ speaking difficulties in an EFL context.
CONCLUSION
The present study aims to explore the EFL students’ attributions who have problems in speaking fluency, particularly in the class of Speaking for Social
Purposes at ELEP, UKSW. The researcher summarized major findings which match
those observed in earlier studies. First, Indonesian tertiary-level EFL learners
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with Basic’s (2011) argumentation that anxiety can hinder the students’ ability to speak as they will not be able to focus on the speaking process. Besides, their lack of
vocabulary and having difficulties in grammatical aspects seemed to be other frequent
factors that influenced their problems in oral communication. This finding
corroborated the ideas of Shteiwi and Hamuda (2016), who stated that lack of
grammatical components and difficulty in retrieving suitable vocabulary during oral
communication were problems causing the students’ inhibition to speak in English
fluently.
Regarding the findings of the current study, it is possible for teachers to
encourage the students to have the confidence and not to worry about making
mistakes in the message that they are trying to communicate in front of their friends.
In addition, language teachers should encourage the students to prepare themselves
before coming to the classroom. The researcher also suggests that the students need
not be too worried whenever they make mistakes in language learning. Besides, to
improve their vocabulary knowledge, they should develop proper learning strategies
that focus on vocabulary. It can be done, for instance, by doing cooperative learning
activities such as playing challenging vocabulary games with their peers that may be
effective and fun for their vocabulary mastery. English learners can also improve
their grammar skills through writing and reading practices. Moreover, for the
teachers, it is important to provide support and more opportunities to the students for
34
This study, however, was limited in the area of data collection process. Only
34 students in Speaking for Social Purposes course participated in the study. They
may not represent all tertiary-level EFL learners. The context of the study was also
solely limited to a course which was Speaking for Social Purposes as the main setting
to collect the data. Thus, further studies should be conducted with a more diverse and
broader context. It would be interesting if further study can compare the students’ attributions that appear on the context of present study and other speaking courses
such as Academic Speaking as the settings of the study in order to investigate the
35
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My deepest respect and gratitude go to Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali, M. Hum.
for his invaluable guidance, support, suggestions, patience, and all of the time he gave
to me during the completion of this study. Also, I owe many thanks to Dra. Martha
Nandari, M.A., my examiner who gave me many advices and suggestions to improve
this study substantially. My thanks also go to all my teachers and staff in the Faculty
of Language and Arts, especially Ms. Yustina Priska, M.Hum. I have been extremely
lucky to have a teacher who provided experiences, encouragement, and advices
throughout my time as a student.
To Ibu SAS Sulistyorini, Bapak Heni Pudjowasana, and Mas Sandy Anwar,
words cannot express how grateful I am for having you as my family. Your prayers,
considerations, and strength are the greatest fuel to finish this thesis.
Completing this study would have been more difficult if there is not support
and friendship from Nadzifa, Salma, Hari, Rindang, and the members of TESP
family, I really am grateful to have you all around. As well, thank you to all of my
wonderful friends and relatives that I could not mention one by one.
Above all, I would like to give my biggest gratitude to Allah SWT for all the
36
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APPENDIX A
Participants’ Identity
Gender : Male / Female (please circle one) Student Number : ...
Dear participants,
My name is Mutiara Putri Pratiwi. I am a student in the English Language
Education Program of Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana. Now, I am conducting a
research about “Attributions on Students’ Speaking Fluency Problems in EFL Speaking Classroom”. This research is a part of my thesis for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd.). I would like to invite you to take part in my research study by answering the questions in this questionnaire. The questions seek to explore your
experience concerning your fluency problems during the class of Speaking for Social
Purposes. I would be very grateful if you are kindly willing to answer this
questionnaire honestly based on how you really feel in a language you are
comfortable in (English/Indonesian). This questionnaire will not affect your grade
and there is no right or wrong answer. If you have any concerns about this research, I
will gladly discuss it with you. Thank you for your assistance and participation in this
41
Please answer the following questions below!
What are your problems do you encounter in learning speaking skill?
a. Tell me your reasons why you found it difficult to speak English fluently in front of your friends when having the Potluck Cocktail Party!
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c. Tell me your reasons why you found it difficult to answer questions proposed by your friends in English!
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I really appreciate if you are willing to participate in a follow-up individual interview
(conducted in Indonesian) and can be reached at the following permanent address &
phone number if question arise:
Name :
Phone number :
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M : Sebelum ke pertanyaan inti, saya mau tanya beberapa pertanyaan dulu. Yang pertama, kapan pengalaman pertamamu berbicara menggunakan Bahasa Inggris?
S9 : Waktu SMA mulai belajar speaking, kak.
M : Bagaimana perasaanmu ketika kamu mengikuti kelas Speaking for Social Purposes?
S9 : Senang karena bisa menambah pengetahuan dan mengembangkan kemampuan speaking. Awalnya masuk kelas, pertama kali mikirnya kelasnya bakal banyak pakai bahasa inggris jadi saya takut kalau salah ngomong lah atau ada yang lebih pinter lah kak, ya kalau ada yang lebih pinter gitu kan aku minder kak.
M : Lalu, menurut kamu, ada gak perbedaan yang kamu dapatkan setelah kamu mengikuti kelas Speaking for Social Purposes? Coba sebutkan kalau ada! S9 : Kalau SMA dulu kan emang gak dikhususkan untuk ada kelas speaking jadi
aku ngomongnya juga berantakan gitu lho kak. Setelah ada kelas ini, semua orang dituntut untuk bisa speaking in English, apalagi dosen selalu menjelaskan materi pakai Bahasa Inggris, jadi lebih termotivasi gitu.
M : Apakah perbedan itu membuat kemampuan dan performance speakingmu bertambah ke arah yang lebih baik seperti menambah kemampuan speaking in English atau malah membuat kamu tambah bingung dan mengalami kesulitan?
S9 : Ya, bingung gitu. Sama sekali belum pernah dapat di sekolah, tiba-tiba detail banget materinya di kelas speaking ini. Ya kaget bingung gitu.
M : Penilaian pertama di kelas Speaking for Social Purposes itu waktu Potluck Cocktail Party, ya? Boleh ceritakan gimana rasanya waktu ngobrol sama teman-teman selama kegiatan itu berlangsung?
S9 : Di kegiatan itu, kami dipasangkan dengan teman dari kelas Speaking for Social Purposes yang lain. Aku dapat partner ngobrol sama yang jadi artis. Nah aku rolenya jadi seorang politican, jadi aku ngomongin politik, pokoknya tentang pekerjaanku. Sedangkan dia ngomongin pekerjaan dia sehari-hari jadi artis itu gimana. Beda temen, beda pembicaaraan topiknya jadi sering bingung, bikin mikir terus caranya gimana biar tetep bisa nyambung, nervous juga.
44 S9 : Iya, kak.
M : Terus emang kenapa sih kalau temennya beda? Kenapa kamu bingung? S9 : Ya karena gak kenal, aku gak biasa ngobrol sama dia. Gak kebayang mau
ngomongin apa, basa-basinya juga bingung gimana. Terus, kalau dia selesai ngomong aku bingung gimana responnya biar tetep bisa kelihatan asik padahal belum pernah ngobrol. Takut juga mereka lebih pinter dari aku dan ternyata bener, mereka keliatan lebih pinter speaking.
M : Apa sih yang membuat kamu berpikir kalau mereka lebih pinter speaking in English daripada kamu?
S9 : Dari cara mereka ngomong, apa yang mereka katakan, dan grammarnya mereka itu lebih tertata gitu, kak.
M : Memangnya kamu merasa performancemu sendiri gimana?
S9 : Emm gimana ya, kak. Aku merasa kalau orang menilai aku ya paling aku gak fluent karena aku bingung sama grammar dan pemilihan kosa-kata yang benar gitu.
M : Oh, kalau tentang grammar, kamu bingung memilih dan menggunakan tensesnya?
S9 : Iya, gitu. Mikir yang harus dipakai tu yang mana, pakainya gimana. M : Bingung juga gitu ya? Kamu takut kalau salah gak?
S9 : Takut lah, kak.
M : Okay, kita lanjut ke pertanyaan berikutnya. Kadang kan kamu harus memulai percakapan dengan memberikan pertanyaan pada temanmu, permasalahan seperti apa yang kamu alami saat akan bertanya menggunakan Bahasa Inggris? Di kuesioner, kamu tulis kamu takut grammar. Lalu, kamu bilang ingin menambah vocabulary. Tadi kamu juga sempat bilang kalau kamu bingung memilih kosa-kata yang benar. Bisa kasih contoh saat kamu kebingungan dengan pemilihan atau penggunakan kosa-kata itu gimana? S9 : Aku merasa lack of vocabulary, kak. Ya aku sering gak tau Bahasa
Inggrisnya apa. Terus, kalau temenku ngomong bilang sesuatu dalam Bahasa Inggris aku bingung itu dia ngomong apa, aku belum pernah dengar, Bahasa Indonesianya apa, gitu. Takut banget kalau grammarnya salah. Aku juga sering kesulitan menyusun kata-katanya, kak.
M : Oh I see, kamu bingung karena belum pernah tau beberapa kata. Lalu, kadang kebalikannya, temanmu bisa aja lebih dulu bertanya, supaya percakapan tetap berlanjut, kamu harus menjawab pertanyaannya. Apa kesulitan yang kamu alami ketika menjawab pertanyaan temanmu? Kamu tulis grammar lagi. Ada kesulitan lain gak?
S9 : Ya seperti yang aku bilang tadi, aku kesusahan menyusun kata-kata di kalimat gitu, kak. Gak tau mau pakai tenses yang mana. Gak percaya diri juga, soalnya kalau teman-temanku, mereka ngomongnya lebih tertata. Aku juga masih kesulitan kalau memilih kosa-kata yang tepat.
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gak familiar dengan kata yang digunakan temanmu, bagaimana kamu menyikapi kesulitan-kesulitanmu?
S9 : Akhirnya aku akan tanya maksudnya apa, artinya dalam Bahasa Indonesianya itu apa. Temanku akan jawab juga pakai Bahasa Indonesia. M : Jadi, waktu ngobrol campur pakai Bahasa Indonesia gitu ya? Kalau
kesulitanmu di grammar, kamu diem aja atau tetap ngomong tapi diam-diam cemas?
S9 : Gak diam sih kak. Aku akan tetep coba ngomong, aku coba susun kata-katanya dulu, terus aku omongin tapi terus kepikiran benar atau salahnya. M : Oh, gitu ya. Oke. Kamu sudah menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan saya
