Sebuah Kajian Pustaka: ELTIN JOURNAL: p-ISSN 2339-1561 Journal of English Language Teaching in Indonesia e–ISSN 2580-7684 57 EFL STUDENTS’ ANXIETY FACTORS IN DOING ORAL PUBLIC EXAMINATION: INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL FACTOR? Syafryadin1*, Ida Yulianawati2 1syafryadin@unib.ac.id, 2ida.yulianawati@unwir.ac.id ¹UNIVERSITAS BENGKULU, ² UNIVERSITAS WIRALODRA ABSTRACT Anxiety is a psychological issue that must be noticed in learning English. Students feel anxious about doing public speaking, like oral presentations. Surely, it may be caused by internal and external factors. Therefore, this study aimed to find out the factors that caused EFL students’ anxiety in doing oral public examinations. A mixed method was employed to conduct this research. The sample of this research was twenty-four students of doctoral program who do oral public examinations in 2022. The instruments were questionnaire and interview guideline. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. In quantitative data, simple calculation with mean score and percentage were used in this research, while in qualitative data, several steps were undertaken namely reducing, displaying and concluding the data. The result showed that students felt anxiety were caused by internal and external factor. However, it was dominated by internal factor. It can be proved by looking at the result of questionnaire namely mean scores of students who were affected by it is 40.6%, while 33.34% for external factor. Besides, it was also supported by interview result. In short, these factors could be obstacles for students to do oral presentation. These must be noticed, known and anticipated by the students. Keywords: Anxiety, Oral public examination, Internal factor, External factor A. INTRODUCTION Anxiety in oral presentation is one of the issues that must be considered by students and educators. It can influence students’ ability in doing oral presentation. Several researchers figured out that anxiety could affect on students’ speaking competence. They found that high anxiety students would have low ability in speaking and vice versa (Saputra, 2018; Susanto, Palupi, Mustikawati, 2017). Students’ anxiety in doing oral presentation can be caused by several things, such as lack of preparation, getting negative evaluation from other participants and teacher, inadequate knowledge, afraid of making mistakes, communication apprehensions, lack of confidence (Fadlan, 2020). Furthermore, in doing oral presentation for public examination for doctoral program were something making students anxiety. Based on the pre-observation and interviewed several candidates of doctor or philosophy doctor (Ph.D), they said that they felt anxiety because they were shy if they could not answer the questions from examiners. Besides, many family and their colleagues would come to their public examination. Thus, it gave effects on their performance because many people see when he or she did oral public examination. The factors that can cause anxiety in doing oral mailto:syafryadin@unib.ac.id Syafryadin & Yulianawati: EFL Students’ Anxiety … 58 presentation were important to be known by the students because it will lead them know the problems and try to anticipate those problems. The factors can be internal and external. Internal factor can be from the participants itself, while the external factor is from the outside of participants (Chen, 2015). Many relevant studies were concerned about anxiety in oral presentation. They focused on anxiety factors, causes, strategies, types, and level. The first, several studies emphasized on anxiety factors that cause students’ oral presentation. Chen (2015) investigated EFL students’ anxiety in oral presentation class. They found that students’ anxiety forms mental blocks during presentations, but it has less influence on their presentation performance. Based on this relationship, internal factors from participants and environmental factors from their physical contexts causing language anxiety are investigated with relevant possible coping strategies. In addition, Huda (2018) and Fadhlan (2020) found that factors that contribute to students’ speaking anxiety during presentation were overthinking, lack of preparation, bad experience, low proficiency, low self-confidence, afraid of making mistakes, and test. Then, Rahmat, Othman, Hasan, Arepin (2018) showed that both trait and state apprehension have different influence on oral presentation among students. Another researchers found that several factors of anxiety in oral presentations were perceived; language ability, personality traits, preparation and audience interest (Razawi, Zulkornain, Razlan, 2019). Then, Hussein (2021) focused on factors causing anxiety and strategies to cope it in oral presentation. However, that was conceptual papers or review papers. The findings showed that the factors were communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, text anxiety, affective factors, personality factors, second or foreign language proficiency, audience familiarity, teacher’s influence, preparedness, topic familiarity, cultural factors. The strategies to cope it were peer assessment, good classroom atmosphere, avoidance, five cluster solution, role play and simulation. The second, some studies researched on overcoming speaking anxiety. Kurniawan (2016) investigated students’ strategies to overcome anxiety in oral presentation. He found that practicing is a strategy that can be implemented by students to solve their problems in anxiety in oral presentation. Fajri (2019) found that anxiety exist in the 6th semester of English Department. It can be seen from the results of the factor that contribute to students’ anxiety in class presentation are lack of confidence, lack vocabulary, lack grammar, poor pronunciation, fear being laughed, fear of making mistake, fear of negative evaluation and lack preparation. The study also found ways students deal with their anxiety in presentation are preparation before presentation, relaxation, positive thinking, peer seeking and focus. Nur, Rosmini, Sakkir (2022) added strategies of students’ anxiety in thesis examination during covid-19. Those strategies were self-entertaining and praying, besides what has Fajri already written in his research result. Then, Abdullah, Hidayati, Andriani, Rosmala, Nurvianti (2022) figured out causes and solution for English speaking anxiety to junior high school students. They found that the students suffered from FLSA when they engaged in questions and answer session of the classroom English language learning activities and speaking performance activities. On the other hand, the solutions of such FLSA encompassed focusing on the learning process and ignoring the disruptive behavior of their classmates. Pedagogically, creating a less anxious atmosphere of learning English speaking practices enables students to successfully acquire English language skills (e.g., speaking) and adapt to appropriate social and academic. In the same year, Mardiningrum & Ramadhani (2022) emphasized the challenge ELTIN Journal: Journal of English Language Teaching in Indonesia, Volume 11/No 1, April 2023 59 and solution of classroom oral presentation. The study found nervousness, group dynamics, audience, missing points, challenging content, language boundaries, and high self- expectation as the challenges the participants faced in classroom oral presentations. In addition, the study also discovered that strategies used to overcome the challenges were self- assurance, better preparation, peer discussions, directed eye contact, direct communication, backups, self-isolation, and presentation aids use. Furthermore, Naser & Isa (2021) researched on public speaking anxiety level in oral presentation class among undergraduates. They found that majority of respondents experienced a moderate level of anxiety. However, it is prevalent that despite having good academic results, most respondents had speaking anxiety during public speaking presentations. The findings of this study were consistent with prior studies conducted in the same area of language skill, and it is hoped that this may provide insights into developing speaking strategies to overcome speaking anxiety. In brief, the previous studies focused on, anxiety level, causes and strategies to overcome anxiety in oral presentation for undergraduate and master students. However, the current research is intended to find out the internal and external factor of anxiety in oral public examination for doctoral students. The significance of the research can be beneficial for the lecturer and students. For the lecturer, it can be as reference, thus, the lecturer could identify problems that cause anxiety and prepare how to face it. Then, it is also useful for the students because by knowing it, students could also identify their problems and find the solution. B. METHOD The research implemented a mixed method to achieve the research objective namely to identify internal and external factor that cause students’ anxiety in doing public examination for doctoral students. A mixed method was a method that intermingle quantitative and qualitative in a research. According to Creswell (2017), mixed method is a method that can help the researcher to analyze the quantitative data and qualitative data. The participants of this research were fifteen Ph.D candidates who want to do public examination from 2020 until 2022. Those candidates were from Doctoral Program of Education with English concentration in University of Bengkulu, Indonesia. The number of students were limited because the students with English Education concentration or major were not as many as other majors. The sampling technique were purposive sampling because the researcher just took the students who want to do public examination. The instruments were questionnaire and interview guideline. The questionnaire was used to find out dominant factor that causes anxiety of the Ph.D candidates. It comprises internal and external factor indicator based on the theory from Asnur (2017). There were 13 items that used likert scale strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree. This questionnaire were distributed to fifteen Ph.D candidates. To support the questionnaire, the researcher interviewed five students. It was because 10 percent from the total samples. The data collection technique of this research used those instruments to gather data. The procedures of data collection were (1) permitting to the doctoral program of faculty of teacher training and education, University of Bengkulu; (2) consulting questionnaire and interview guideline to the two qualified English lecturers as experts; (3) giving consent form to the participants whether they want to be voluntarily participated in this research or not. Then, the result showed that they were willing to fill the questionnaire and being interviewed Syafryadin & Yulianawati: EFL Students’ Anxiety … 60 by the researcher; (4) distributing the questionnaire to fifteen students as Ph.D candidates; (5) interviewing five Ph.D candidates; (6) filing the data. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The questionnaire data were quantitatively analyzed by calculating mean score, percentage and frequency. While, the interview transcription were analyzed by using theory from Miles, Huberman, and Saldana (2014). Those steps were reducing, displaying and concluding. In reducing, the interview data were chosen and reduced based on the research objective. After that, the data would be displayed by the researcher in form of text. In this part, the piece of interview transcript was showed in the data finding. The last, the researcher conclude the data whether it answers the research question about internal and external factor of anxiety in oral public examination for doctoral program. C. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The result of this study covers internal factor and external factor that caused anxiety when students did oral public examination. The internal and external factor can be seen in table 1 and 2. Table 1. Internal Factor that Causes Anxiety No Item Scale Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Internal Factor 1 I am Fear of making mistakes during oral public examination 5 20.8% 11 45.8% 7 29.2% 1 4.2% 2 I am fear of facing questions to examiners during oral public examination 6 25% 6 25% 11 45.8% 1 4.2% 3 I am fear of failing the oral public examination 6 25% 7 29.2% 11 45.8% 4 16.7% 4 I am lack of self confidence during oral public examination 2 8.3% 7 29.2% 11 45.8% 4 16.7% 5 I am lack of linguistic abilities (Grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary) in doing oral public examination 2 8.3% 8 33.3% 12 50% 2 8.3% 6 I have negative thinking before and during oral public examination 2 8.3% 2 8.3% 13 54.2% 7 29.2% 7 I have negative experience ragarding speaking in the public 0 4 16.7% 14 58.3% 6 25% 8 I am fear of being stopped during oral public examination 1 4.2% 9 37.5% 12 50% 2 8.3% Mean scores 12.48% 28.12% 47.38% 14.07% Table 1 shows that students chose 12.48% for strongly agree, 28.12% for agree. It means that around 31% of students showed positive reaction to the internal factor that made them anxious in doing oral public examination. However, majority students chose disagree and ELTIN Journal: Journal of English Language Teaching in Indonesia, Volume 11/No 1, April 2023 61 strongly disagree that internal factor cause them anxiety in doing oral public examination. It can be seen that the percentage of the mean score namely 47.38% and 14.07% for strongly agree and disagree. This part is supported by the result of interview. Several students had been interviewed by the researcher. It can be seen in example 1, 2, 3, 4. Example 1 I am anxiety in doing public oral presentation because my friends and my family watched me when I do public examination. Thus, I have a pressure and afraid, if I can not answer the questions from examiners (Student 1). Example 2 To be honest, I am afraid to be laughed by my friends if I can not answer the questions or can not explain well what examiners asked (Student 6) Example 1 and 2 showed that student was anxiety because there were important people who watched him during oral public examination. In this part, the audience will be family, close friends, colleagues and other person. Perhaps, he will be shy if he cannot perform maximally and answer the questions from examiners. Example 3 - Actually sir, I am anxious because I am not confident my speaking when it must be watched by many people (Student 4 and 5) Example 3 shows that student 4 and 5 did not have enough confident to speak in front of many people. It caused them anxiety because of it. Example 4 I am anxious because I wonder if I forget what I am going to explain in front of many people. I often feel blank when I am anxious (Student 9 and 10). Example 4 displays that the students were anxious because he was afraid of explaining in front of many people. They were not usual to convey the materials in front of many audiences. When he got anxious, he would be blank. He could not say anything. Based on the result, internal factor is more dominant than external factor because students felt that they were anxiety due to the feeling of themselves or it comes from themselves. Based on eight items in internal factor, some students were fear of making mistakes in doing oral public examination because after doing wrong, it would distract their mind. They would be shy in front of many people. Besides, several students were also fair of looking at the questions from examiners because they would be difficult to answer the questions or even can not optimally answer it. Then, few students were anxiety because they did not have enough self confidence and linguistic abilities, such as grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary in doing oral public examination. Some students were also anxious because they had overthinking regarding public examination because they had negative thinking about the examiners, the condition of examination, and audience if they could not perform optimally. Syafryadin & Yulianawati: EFL Students’ Anxiety … 62 In addition, several students were having negative experience regarding speaking in public and also being fear of stopped during oral public examination. It may cause them trauma to do public speaking in front of many people. This finding was almost similar to Chen (2015) who found that internal factor caused anxiety in oral presentation class. In this part, Factors causing students to get anxious in presentations have been explained and categorized into subjective and objective factors: English proficiency, time for preparation, presenters’ experiences, unfamiliar topics, audience attention and some secondary requirements in presentations. However, the object of the current research was different because the doctoral students did oral public examination. Another research from Ajmal and Ahmad (2019) also researched on factor caused anxiety and he found that lack of communication skill was one of the factors that caused anxiety. This finding is one of the findings in this current research. Table 2. External Factor that Causes Anxiety No Item Scale Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree External Factors 9 I am anxiety because of condition of presentation room during doing oral public examination 1 4.2% 9 37.5% 12 50% 2 8.3% 10 I am lack of practice and unprepared before doing oral public examination 1 4.2% 6 25% 13 54.2% 4 16.7% 11 I am fear of negative evaluation from participants and examiners 2 8.3% 7 29.2% 11 45.8% 4 16.7% 12 I am difficult to speak in front of many people 0 6 25% 11 45.8% 7 29.2% Mean Score 4.17% 29.17% 48.95% 17.72% Table 2 displays that the majority of students chose to disagree (48.95%) and strongly disagree (17.72%) about the items from number 9 until 12. It means that most of the students showed negative responses towards an external factor that caused them anxiety in doing the oral public examinations. Then, the students who chose strongly agree and agree only 4.17% and 29.17%. This result also indicated that several students were still caused by an external factor. Furthermore, it is supported by interview result by several students. The proof can be seen in example 5,6, and 7 Example 4 Due to I am busy to work and so many assignments from my boss in my office, so I did not prepare well my presentation (Student 2 and 3) Example 3 displays that student 2 and 3 had a job. They were very busy and difficult to manage their time. Thus, they did not do well preparation for the presentation. ELTIN Journal: Journal of English Language Teaching in Indonesia, Volume 11/No 1, April 2023 63 Example 5 - I am anxiety because I am afraid if the examiners asked me difficult questions and This is my first experience to be examined and watched by many people (student 7) Example 5 I am afraid when the examiners announced my score was low (Student 8) Example 4 and 5 showed student 7 is afraid of being examined and asked uneasy questions. Besides, that is his first experience to be examined and watched by many audiences. Besides, the student 8 was anxious because of examination score. It means that he was afraid, if he gets low score after being examined by examiners because the score is directly announced in front of audiences after doing oral public examination. Another finding is about external factor. Students’ anxiety was also caused by external factor. Some students were anxious because the condition of presentation room when they did public examination. In this case, they saw examiners and many audiences in the room. They had to face them. Then, they had on their mindset that they got negative evaluation from the examiners and participants if they could perform maximally. They were also lack of practice and difficult to do public speaking in front of many people because it may be caused by lack of knowledge. This finding is in line with Fajri (2019) who found that students god anxiety because several reasons. It could be fear of negative evaluation from audience and examiners and lack preparation before doing the presentation and no one to help them to practice. This can be categorized as external factor because it is outside of the students itself. Table 3. Summary of Mean scores No Factors Scale Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree 1 Internal 12.48% 28.12% 47.38% 14.07% 2 External 4.17% 29.17% 48.95% 17.72% Table 3 shows that internal factor is more dominant than external factor. It can be seen that 12.48% and 28.12% of students opted strongly agree and agree or the total is 40.6% for internal factor, while 4.17% and 29.17% of students who chose strongly agree and agree or the total 33.34% for external factor. Regarding the result of this study, anxiety is psychological factor that influence students’ speaking. Students with high anxiety in doing oral presentation will cause a problem in it. There are two factors that cause anxiety in doing oral public examination for doctoral students namely internal and external factor. Furthermore, based on the result, internal factor was more dominant than external factor that caused students’ anxiety in doing oral public examination. It may be influenced by the students itself. Internal factor means that they felt anxiety because there are several things that made us uneasy or uncomfortable with themselves. For example, some students felt anxious because of lack of speaking skill. In this case, the students did not have enough knowledge and ability to speak in front of many people. Syafryadin & Yulianawati: EFL Students’ Anxiety … 64 Another one is that several students were not confident in speaking and fear of making mistakes during oral public examination. The finding was almost similar with Daud, Ras, Novitri, and Audia (2019) who found that factors that caused anxiety, such as lack of students’ linguistic skill or lack of speaking ability, feeling under pressure, fear of making mistakes and other causes. These causes were categorized by them as social factor, but in this current research as internal factor. D. CONCLUSION Based on the results, it can be concluded that internal and external factor caused students’ anxiety in doing public oral examination for doctoral programs. The dominant one is internal factor because students felt that they got anxious influenced by themselves. This research was only limited to find out the factors. Besides, this research only covered small sample because it is difficult to find out the Ph.D candidate students especially for English Education major who will do public examination. The researcher must wait for several months to get data. 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