PERFORMANCE ANXIETY EXPERIENCED BY EFL STUDENTS IN PUBLIC SPEAKING ANXIETY

Abstract

Public speaking is a compulsory subject which has long been offered to Indonesian EFL students of English Education Program; however, performing spoken English in front of an audience can be a very difficult task for some students as they may experience anxiety, which hinders them from giving a successful oral performance. Public speaking anxiety is a form of social phobia dealing with public speaking; also, public speaking anxiety regularly arises when there is a communication between speaker and audience. This paper explores performance anxiety factor affecting public speaking anxiety among Indonesian EFL students of English Education Program and explains why performance anxiety factor occurs. The writer uses mixed method research and applies preliminary questions, questionnaire, and focus group discussion as instruments to obtain information directly from the students in learning public speaking subject. The findings show that Performance anxiety more affected the higher-scores students than middle-scores students or lower-score students. The reasons why performance anxiety factor occurred because nervousness appeared generally before starting the speech. Then, afraid of making mistake came because students thought that the audience would not get the understanding about their speech if they made mistake either intentionally or unintentionally. Also, anxiousness and feeling of helplessness became their problems due to being the center of attention.