65 EEJ 6 (1) (2016) English Education Journal http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/eej PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS FACED BY THE YEAR – ELEVEN STUDENTS OF MA NUHAD DEMAK IN SPEAKING ENGLISH Mar’atul JannahSri Wuli Fitriati English Language Education Postgraduate Program Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia. Article Info ________________ Received January2016 Accepted February2016 Published June 2016 ________________ Keywords: Speaking, English speaking difficulties, psychological problems ____________________ Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ Speaking English for most Indonesian students is very challenging in terms of bravery to speak the language. Most of them show anxieties when they use it to communicate with others. The aim of this research was to: 1) to explain the psychological problems faced by the year - eleven students in speaking English; 2) to explain the causes of psychological problems faced by the year - eleven students in speaking English; and 3) to explain the effects of psychological problems. A qualitative case study was used in this research. The findings were derived from classroom observation, field notes, questionnaires, and interviews. The findings revealed three results. First, the psychological problems faced by the year-eleven students in MA NurulIttihadDemak in speaking English were: 1) most of the students were afraid of making mistakes because they were afraid if they cannot convey the message clearly and being ridiculed by their friends; 2) most of them were shy because they felt that they did not have good pronunciation and they were also ashamed if their friends laugh off their wrong pronunciation; 3) most of them were anxious because when they spoke English, all of their friends‟ eyes looked at them and gave full attention to them, including their teacher. Consequently, although they had had an idea to be expressed in English, suddenly they lost their idea and they cannot say anything in front of their friends. Most of the students lacked of confidence because they felt that their English was bad and they realized that their interlocutors do not understand them or they do not understand other speakers. They lacked of motivation because they did not like English; English was boring for them; and speaking English was difficult for them. The last, psychological problems had significant effects. They inhibited the students in speaking English. They also made the speaking activity to be passive and the speaking teaching and learning process could not run well. Therefore, teachers must give a great attention to the fact that psychological problems exist in students and students must be aware of the importance of speaking skill. © 2016 Universitas Negeri Semarang  Correspondence: E-mail: maratul901@gmail.com Kampus UNNES Bendan Ngisor, Semarang, 50233 p-ISSN 2087-0108 e-ISSN 2502-4566 Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 66 INTRODUCTION It is an undisputed fact that English as an international language is the most widely used around the world. Some countries in the world use English as their national language such as England, The United States, Canada, and Australia. Even in all commonwealth countries, they use English as their second language. English is also used as a formal language in The United Nation. In this era, English is a foreign language which provides students in connecting the world. It also opens the opportunities for getting a better job in the global economy. Kachru and Smith (2008) state that in the era of globalization and rapid diffusion of knowledge, all the nations are aware of the need to prepare their citizens to perform in ways that would ensure their prosperity and eminence in the world. In order to be competitive, they have to be able to function well in multinational industrial enterprises, international trade, diplomacy, and scientific technological areas of expertise. They have to be innovative and contribute to the knowledge-based of the world. In order to achieve these goals, they need to be able to utilize the most widely used medium, English. From those facts, we know how big the influence of English language is in current global situation. Indonesian government absolutely realizes this situation; they decide English as a compulsory subject to learn in formal school. It is not only a subject in a formal school, but also in a informal school. Recently, there are many informal institutions which include English as a main subject in training the employees of companies. English is considered more important than other foreign languages in Indonesia. It is clarified by Lauder (2008), he states that the expanding or extending circle refers to nations which recognize the importance of English as an international language, but which were not colonized by the countries of inner circle, and which have not given English any special official status. In these countries, English is taught as a foreign language. Indonesia belongs to this group. It shows that English cannot be separated from Indonesian students and educational system in Indonesia. Indonesian students learn English for various purposes. Some of them want to be a tourist guide, to be able to speak with a native speaker, or to get better job in their future. It meansthat English is part of the Indonesian students‟ activities. Indonesian students learn English from the basic four language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Speaking is one of the skills which plays a significant role in mastering English. Richards (2006: 1) stated that “learners consequently often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how well they feel they improved in their spoken proficiency.” From the statement above, it can be concluded that most language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking. Besides, the success of a language learner can be measured by the fluency in speaking. The learners define fluency as the ability to converse with others. They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire, and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments in spoken communication. Speaking English for most Indonesian students is very challenging in terms of bravery to speak the language to their English teachers and to the English native speakers. Most of the students will be very proud when they are able to speak the language fluently. Unfortunately, most of them show anxieties when they use the target language to communicate with others. Those also appear when the teacher asks the students to present something in front of the class or to respond orally to some questions using English. As an English teacher in MA Nurul Ittihad Demak, I noticed that some of my students seem to hesitate to speak English particularly in the classrooms. MA Nurul Ittihad Demak is an Islamic Senior High School located Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 67 in Babalan Wedung Demak. Based on my informal conversation with the headmaster, most of the students of that school are from low level educated family background and they never take private lessons outside the school, such as English and Math. Consequently, they get difficulties in learning the subjects in school. They also do not have high motivation in learning especially in English subject. My observation as an English teacher in that school found that most of the students cannot speak English. Even they do not understand when I speak English to them. If the students cannot speak English and do not understand conversation in English, they will be considered as unsuccessful learners in English learning. In my English teaching learning process especially of the year-eleven students of MA NurulIttihadDemak, I found that most of them got difficulties and psychological problems in their speaking. I also found various students‟ attitudes in joining the English class. Some of them were active to involve the English class. For example, they spoke out in the class and gave full of attention to the teacher, but, others were passive during the English lesson. They were just silent and even busy with their own business. Those students‟ attitudes in joining the English class seem to relate to their motivation. Motivation plays an important role in teaching learning process. When the students aremotivated to learn, they will be involved in learning and the motivation will influence their performance.When the students are active in an English teaching and learning process, they are considered as high motivated students. On the other hand, students who are passive in an English teaching and learning process are considered as low motivated students. Considering those various students‟ psychological problems in speaking English and their motivation in English learning process, I intend to conduct this research to get deeper understanding about their psychological problems in speaking and improve my students‟ ability in speakingEnglish. Speaking problems are some problems that make someone lacks of speaking ability. According to Davies and Pearse (2000), “Language problems actually serve as one of the important reasons behind poor academic performance.” These problems may become the obstacles for the students to enhance and improve their speaking ability. The reasons why the students are having problems in their speaking are they are poor in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Those problems belong to linguistics problems. Linguistics is a scientific study of language such as the study of grammar, words, and phonology. According to Spolsky and Hult (2008), “generally linguistics comprises the detailed of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.” Linguistics problems are problems which make students‟ speaking ability become a bad speaking. There are some linguistics problems that affect students in speaking skill. For example, the students are bad in grammar, lack of vocabulary, and pronunciation. While Richards (2008) claims that “there are some typical learner‟s problems in speaking. Those problems are lack of vocabulary needed to talk, poor in grammar, and poor in pronunciation.” Vocabulary is an individual word or a set of words which have specific meaning. Kamil and Hiebert (2005) state that: Generally, vocabulary is the knowledge of meanings of words. The words come in at least two forms; oral and print. Oral vocabulary is the set of words for which we know the meanings when we speak or read orally. While print vocabulary consists of those words for which the meaning is known when we write or read silently. The students get the problems of vocabularies when they have lack of vocabulary needed to talk and do not know how to combine the vocabularies into a good sentence. Khan (2005) states that, “the numbers of students who learn English as a foreign language have difficulties to use word and expression to speak.” In addition, Davies and Pearse (2000) Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 68 also state that “in the real communication, nobody paid much attention to the correct grammar expression, but emphasized the content and how to reply.” Students are clearly know what they are going to say in the source language, but when they have to translate the language itself into the target language such as English, they will be confused to combine and use the proper vocabularies. The next linguistic problem is when the students are poor in grammar. Grammar is a study in which sentences are structured and formatted. It is considered a bit boring to study correct grammar since it is really worth the time and effort. If students do not know the rules of grammar, they will not be able to communicate using English effectively. According to Celce- Murcia (2001) “grammar become difficult because learners do not learn structures one in a time. Even the learners appear to have mastered a particular structures; it is not uncommon to find backsliding occurring with the introduction of new form to the learners‟ interlanguage.” It may occur when the students produce the sentence such as “she cans speak English”. This error may occur when the students speak since they have not mastered the English grammar. The last linguistic problem is the students are poor in pronunciation. English is a language which connects people all over the world. The second or foreign language learners are also demanded to speak English naturally like native speaker. Hinkel (2005: 491) states that “a second language learner needs to master the individual characteristic of the sound of a new language. Furthermore, it will be good for the students to be able to speak naturally like the native-speaker itself.” While Brown (2001) states that “it is more important that the English speakers can achieve intelligibility, comprehensibility, and interpretability.” Pronunciation is as important as any other aspects of foreign language learning like syntax or vocabulary. Correct pronunciation is very necessary to develop speaking skill. Pronunciation also has close connections to the other fields such as listening and even grammar. Other problem that may become a barrier for the students to become a good English speaker is the psychological problems. Xinghua (2007) states that “psychological problems are those problems which often interfere your emotional and physical health, your relationships, work productivity, or life adjustment such as nervous, lack of self confident and afraid to speak.” Those problems may affect students‟ performance in their speaking. Khan (2005) in his research also claims that “some of his participants have psychological problems in speaking.” This emphasizes that psychological problems also affect students‟ performance in speaking. Psychology is the science or the study of the thought processes and behavior of humans and other animals in their interaction with the environment. Psychological problems are the problems which often involve the emotional or physical health. The psychological problems such as lack of self confidence and anxiety may bring negative effect towards student‟s speaking performance. Lack of self-confidence may bring the students‟ belief that they are not going to be a good English speaker. This lack of self- confidence also becomes a great problem which affects the students‟ speaking performance. It is difficult for the students to master English speaking skill if they are not confident with their own speaking ability. Besides lack of self-confidence, anxiety is also as psychological problem in speaking. Anxiety is “an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by physiological signs (as sweating, tension, and increased pulse), by doubt concerning the reality and nature of the threat, and by self-doubt about one's capacity to cope with it.” (Britannica.com) Rochelle et al. (2011) investigate the causes of anxiety in English language learning of foreign students in the Philippines. It has been found that “the employment of this strategy enables the learners to take charge of their own learning as this serves as their basic aid to learn other macro skills in the target language.” In this case, the students may end up with nothing to say towards their interlocutors or the audiences. They may confront certain feelings such as Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 69 nervous, anxious, worry, shy, feeling afraid or fear of something worse happen whether they are trying to speak better. Students have to realize their own psychological problems and they also have to deal with their own anxiety in order to be able to speak English better in the future. According to Ur (1996), there are four main problems in speaking a foreign language in the classroom. They are: Inhibition The first problem that the students often encounter is “inhibition”. Unlike reading, writing, and listening, speaking skill needs a real-time exposure to the audience. When the students try to say things in a foreign language in the classroom, they are often inhibited. Such as, they are worried about making mistakes; they are fearful of criticism or losing face; and they are shy of the attention that their speech will attract. Littlewood (2007) asserts that “a foreign language classroom can create easily inhibitions and anxiety.” Nothing to say The second problem is “nothing to say”. Even if the students are not inhibited, sometimes they complain that they cannot think of anything to say and they have no motivation to express themselves. Rivers (1968) believes that “the learners have nothing to express maybe because the teacher has chosen a topic which is not suitable for him or about which he knows very little.” and according to Baker and Westrup (2003) “It is difficult for many students to respond when the teachers ask them to say something in a foreign language because they might have little ideas about what to say, which vocabulary to use, or how to use the grammar correctly.” Low uneven participation The third problem in speaking class is “low or uneven participation”. In a large group, each student will have very little talking time because only one participant can talk at a time so that the others can just hear him/her. There is a tendency of some learners to dominate while others speak very little or not at all. Mother tongue use The last problem is “mother tongue use”. It occurs when all or a number of learners share the same mother-tongue. They tend to use mother tongue because it is easier for them; it feels unnatural to speak to one another in foreign language; and they feel less „exposed‟ if they are speaking their mother tongue. If they are taking in small groups it can be quite difficult to get some classes, particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones to keep to the target language. Harmer (2001) suggested some reasons why students use mother tongue in class. Firstly, “when the students are asked to have a discussion about a topic that they are incapable of performing, they will use their own language.” Another reason is that “the use of mother tongue is a natural thing to do.” When the teachers do not encourage the students to use a foreign language, they will use their first language to explain something to another. According to Juhana (2012), there are five kinds of psychological problems. They are: Fear of Mistake Students often feel afraid of making mistakes when they are speaking English. In addition, this is also much influenced by the students‟ fear of being laughed at by other students or being criticized by the teacher. Kurtus (2001) confirms that “the primary reason of fear of mistake is that students are afraid of looking foolish in front of other people and they are concerned about how other will see them.” In some other cases, they also worry about how they will sound, and are scared of sounding silly and so on. Shyness Here, shyness is identified as an emotional thing that many students suffer from at some time when they are required to speak English. This indicates that shyness could be a source of problem in students‟ activities, especially in speaking English. In line with this, Baldwin (2011) further explains that “speaking in front of people is one of the more common phobias that students encounter and feeling of shyness makes their mind go blank or that they will forget what to say.” Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 70 Anxiety Anxiety is a feeling of tension, apprehension and nervousness associated with the situation of learning a foreign language (cited in Nascente). Further Nascente writes that, among other affective variables, anxiety stands out as one of the main blocking factors for effective language learning. In other words, anxiety influences students in learning language. Also, their low ability in this aspect, in many cases, causes anxious feeling among many students. Occhipinti (2009) also stated that “speaking in the foreign language, both in social and academic contexts, entails risk taking and seems to be a challenging activity, in which learners who are not fluent in the target language experience that they cannot fully express their personality, or their intelligence.” Gardner and MacIntyre (1993: 5) define language anxiety as “the apprehension experienced when a situation requires the use of a second language with which the individual is not fully proficient”. Some of the symptoms include nervousness, tension, apprehension, and introversion. Lack of confidence It is commonly understood that students‟ lack of confidence usually occurs when students realize that their conversation partners do not understand them or when they do not understand other speakers. In addition, He and Chen (2010) state that “the main cause of students‟ confidence is their low ability in speaking English.” In this case, as they add, many students think that their English is bad and feel that they can not speak English well. The other cause of students‟ lack of confidence also deals with the lack of encouragement. Lack of motivation Motivation is defined as the reason to do something. This reason is often very strong. With a strong motivation, success can be achieved. But students can have lack of motivation in learning, especially speaking English. Nunan (1999) (cited in Gardner) adds that “the causes of the students‟ lack of motivation e.g. uninspired teaching, boredom, lack of perceived relevance of materials and lack of knowledge about the goals of the instructional program.” In order to help students to overcome problems in English speaking, it is necessary for the teachers to figure out factors that affect their speaking performance. Students‟ speaking performance can be affected by the factors that come from performance conditions such as time pressure, planning, standard of performance, and amount of support, affective factors such as motivation, confidence, and anxiety, listening ability and feedback during speaking activities. Performance conditions Students perform a speaking task under a variety of conditions. Nation and Newton (2009) believe that “performance conditions can affect speaking performance.” The four tyes of performance conditions that Nation and Newton(2009) suggest include “time pressure, planning, the standard of performance and the amount of support.” Affective factors One of the most important whichinfluences on language learning success or failure is the affective side of the learner. Arnold (2009:145) states that “affects refer to emotions, feelings, beliefs, moods and attitudes which give highly effect on one‟s behavior.” Lot of studies shows that there are some specific affective factors in human behavior that give high impact on success in second language acquisition, such as self-esteem, inhibition, risk-taking, anxiety, and motivation. Listening ability “Speaking skills cannot be developed unless we develop listening skills” (Doff,1998).Students must understand what is said to them for getting a successful conversation. Doff as quoted by Shumin (2002)states that “when one person speaks, the other responds through attending by means of the listening process.” In fact, every speaker plays the role of both a listener and a speaker. Therefore, one is certainly unable to respond if he or she cannot understand what is said. It means speaking is closely related to listening. Topical knowledge Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 71 According to Bachman and Palmer as quoted by Tuan and Mai (2015), Topical knowledge is defined as “knowledge structures in long-term memory.”In other words, topical knowledge is the speakers‟ knowledge of relevant topical information. The information that topical knowledge provides enables learners to use language with reference to the world in which they live. They state that “certain test tasks may be easier for those who possess the relevant topical knowledge and moredifficult for those who do not.” They believe that “topical knowledge has effects on speaking performance.” Feedback during speaking activities Most students want and expect their teachers to give them feedback on their performance. However, all speaking production should not be dealt with in the same way. Harmer (2001) asserts that, The decisions that the teachers make about how to react to students‟ performance will depend upon the stages of the lesson, the activities, the types of mistake made, and the particular student who is making that mistake.If the teachers correct whenever there is a problem, the conversational flow as well as the purpose of the speaking activity will be destroyed. If the students are corrected all the time, they can find this very demotivating and become afraid to speak. Baker and Westrup (2003) suggest that “the teachers should always correct the students‟ mistakes positively and with encouragement.” Here, the teachers should correct the students‟ mistakes and give them encouragement after they finish their speaking. From those statements, it can be concluded that to increase the students‟ ability in English speaking, the teachers should understand some factors affecting speaking performance as explained above. Some experts have already conducted the research of problems in speaking English. One of them is the research by Verapornvanichkul (2011). This research focused on problems in oral communication. The aim of this research was to understand the causes of English speaking problems for employees when dealing with English speaking clients in order to find the proper solution. It was conducted in one of the big audit firms in Thailand. The subjects were 52 employees. The writer used a questionnaire, an interview, and SPSS version 15.0 to analyze the data. The result showed that inadequate English skill and communication comprehension were the main problems for employees. These problems were caused by infrequent usage of English in daily life resulting in nervous feeling when speaking a second language. The other research is conducted by Tuan and Mai (2015). This research focused on speaking performances. The aim was to find out the problems that the students encountered when they learnt to speak English and the factors that affected their speaking performance. It was conducted in Le ThanhHien High School Vietnam. The subjects were two hundred and three grade 11 students and ten teachers of English. The instruments used were questionnaires and a class observation. The results indicated that the students faced many problems that they spoke very little or not at all, they could not think of anything to say, they used Vietnamese instead of English when they discuss in groups or in pairs, their participation was low or uneven, and they did not have motivation to express themselves. The results also showed that there were many factors affecting students speaking performance, such as topical knowledge, listening ability, motivation to speak, teachers‟ feedback during speaking activities, and confidence. In this research, the researcher wanted to identify the speaking problem and some factors affecting students‟ speaking. The next research is conducted by Basic (2011). This research focused on speaking anxiety. The aim of this study was to investigate in what way speaking anxiety could affect second language acquisition and examined why this phenomenon was not dealt within schools and how a teacher could encourage students to communicate orally. It was conducted in Swedish. The subjects were two Swedish English teachers at an upper secondary school. The method was based on the literature and an Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 72 interview. The results were speaking anxiety inhibits students since speaking has a negative effect on their oral skills, and this study showed that speaking anxiety was not a prioritized problem in schools. The other research is from Gan (2012). This research focused in oral English skills. The aim of the research was to identify the problems with oral English skills of the ESL students. It was conducted in a tertiary teacher training institution in Hong Kong. The subjects were 20 students (of whom 16 were females) in the final year of a4-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) (English language) program in a teacher training institution at tertiary level in Hong Kong. Eleven reported speaking Putonghua as their mother tongue and having completed their primary and secondary education on the Chinese mainland, and nine reported speaking Cantonese as their mother tongue and undertaking their primary and secondary education in Hong Kong. It used semi-structured interview. It addressed the gap in our understanding of the difficulties ESL students encountered in their oral English development in the context of a Bachelor of Education (English Language) programme. The results leaded us to question the effectiveness of the knowledge and pedagogy based on ESL teacher training curriculum. They also pointed to a need to incorporate a sufficiently intensive language improvement component in the current teacher preparation program. The other research is from Long et al. (2013). This research focused on the students‟ motivation. The aim of this research was to promote students‟ motivation in learning English. They stated that Motivation plays an important role in foreign language learning. Learning motivation is to promote, guide and maintain learning activities which have been conducted an internal strength or internal mechanism. Learning motivation once formed, the student will use an active learning attitude to learn, and express a keen interest in learning, and can focus attention in class to master knowledge. This research was conducted in Gejiu middle school. The subjects in this research were 45 junior middle school students from Middle School of Gejiu China. Most of them came from the countryside and boys were more than girls. There are 21 girls and 24 boys. Their ages ranged from 13 to15 and most of them were 14 years old. Through the study of the theory of modern education, this research discussed the definition of motivation, types of motivation; the role of motivation in English learning was analyzed. The researchers designed a questionnaire on English motivation. The purpose of the study was to find out the unfavorable factors. Based on the results and the related theory, the researcher provided some suggestions to arouse the students‟ English motivation and improve the efficiency of English learning and teaching in Junior Middle School. Among the suggestions, the implications by the study included that the students need motivation to help them learning English. They should establish the right goal to enhance them learning English well. Meanwhile, as an organizer in teaching, teacher should pay more attention to communicative learning that can stimulate students to learn effectively. Liu in 2010 studied about students‟ speaking in English. The aim of this research was not only to explore some of the theories of communicative teaching methods, but also to prove the importance of the motivation of learning. It was to arouse the college students‟ motivation in speaking English. This research was conducted in Beijing city University, China. The hypothesis was that using the activity of role-play is more effective in arousing the college students‟ motivation in speaking English than using oral English test. The subjects of this research were the students who are the freshman of Beijing City University. He divided the students into two groups, target and control group. He used observation notes, the questionnaire and the interview to collect the data. The result was the students in the Target Group which used role-play activity became more interested in speaking English than the students in the Control Group which use oral English tests. Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 73 From those previous researches, I found that most of the foreign language learners got problems in speaking foreign language. Therefore, I focused on the psychological problems faced by the students in speaking English. METHODOLOGY I conducted this present research using a qualitative case study.The subjects of this research were the year-eleven students of MA Nurul Ittihad Demak. The year-eleven students of that school consist of two classes. Each class consists of 30 students. I took one of those classes as my subjects of this research that was “A” class. The subjects were taken by using purposive sampling. Using a qualitative case study research design for this research allows me as the researcher to conduct it with the real life context in order to analyze the students‟ psychological problems in speaking English. My rich description and my observation of the students‟ psychological problems in speaking English provide away to develop my deep understanding about it. Hence, the data gained from the research field would be analyzed in an elaborated explanation mostly in the form of words and sentences. The inferences were made based on the findings and the data gained from the research were described based on related literature. Consequently, this research was expected to describe the present practice of teaching speaking in English class. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION In this section, I discuss the theoretical implications based on the findings of the study that I have presented in the previous section to answer research problems of this study. Hence, this section was divided into three parts based on the objectives of the study. Psychological Problems Faced by the Students Speaking English is not as easy as speaking using our first language. For Indonesian students, speaking English is available without any difficulties. There are many problems faced by the students in speaking English, such as linguistic and psychological problems. This research focused on their psychological problems in speaking English. Based on the findings of my observations, field notes, questionnaires, and interviews, I found many psychological problems faced by the year – eleven students in speaking English as follows: Fear of Mistakes Most of the students were afraid of making mistake in speaking English. They showed their fear of mistakes in their speaking performance. Such as: most of them spoke in English softer than in Indonesia language; most of them kept silent when they were in a discussion; and most of them did not respond and answer when they got questions in English. In line with Haidara‟s opinion (2014), he asserts that one of the students‟ psychological problem in speaking English is making mistakes because most of them think that people may laugh at them if they mispronounce some words; then they prefer not to interact in English until they know for sure that they are not making any mistake, whereas even if practice cannot make perfect, at least it can make you speak fluently. a) Shyness Most of the year - eleven students were ashamed to speak English in front of the class, although the audiences were their classmates. When they spoke English in front of the class, most of them bowed their face; cover up their mouth with their hands; and most of them were also rarely to be a volunteer to answer the question in speaking class. This finding is supported by Juhana (2012) that shyness could be a source of problem in students‟ activities, especially in speaking English. In line with this, Baldwin (2011) further explains that speaking in front of people is one of the more common phobias that students encounter and feeling of shyness makes their mind go blank or that they will forget what to say. b) Anxiety Although the students had been classmates since the first class, most of them Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 74 were still anxious when they spoke English in front of their friends. Some of the students were tremble, panic, worried, pressured, and nervous when I asked them to speak English. Gardner and MacIntyre (1993) define language anxiety as the apprehension experienced when a situation requires the use of a second language with which he individual is not fully proficient. There were also some students who suddenly forgot what they would say in front of the class. As Ur (1996) asserts that when students try to say things in a foreign language in the classroom they are often inhibited. Inhibition means that they are worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face; and they are shy of the attention that their speech attracts. In line with Littlewood (2007), he states that a foreign language classroom can create inhibitions and anxiety easily. c) Lack of Confidence Most of the students still felt unconfident with themselves. Consequently, they did not feel quite sure of their selves when speaking English; most of them did not speak English fluently and loudly; most of them were sweated; leaned on their friends when speaking English; and they did not feel comfortable in speaking English. Most of them also did not feel very sure and relaxed when speaking English. Therefore, the teachers should concern with this issue, since it will influence students‟ achievement and participation.” (Han, 2010) and (Kubo, 2009) d) Lack of Motivation In order to know the students‟ motivation in speaking English, I analyzed the students‟ interest, concentration, diligence, and satisfaction in speaking English. In the speaking class, most of the students were lack of motivation. It based on their performance in speaking class. Some of them did not show a great interest and enthusiasm toward the problem in speaking; did not like to look for and solve the problems on speaking English; did not concentrate on the speaking lesson; their concentration did not split into other thing out of lesson; were not diligent in speaking learning process; felt happy to be desperate in speaking learning or solving the problem; did not enjoy during speaking learning process; and most of them did not satisfy with the speaking learning result. It means that most of the students were lack of motivation in speaking English. Regarding this, Dornyei (2001) proposed some ways to overcome the students who have low motivation. It can be applied by the teachers in order to encourage the students‟ motivation. 1) The first stageis to create motivating condition for learning. It means creating a pleasant and supportive environment in the classroom. 2) The second stageis to introduce initial motivating techniques by creating materials that are relevant for the students. 3) The next stageis to take care to maintain and to protect students‟ motivation by offering stimulating activities and fostering self-esteem, self-confidence, and co- operation among students. 4) The last stageis to turn evaluation and feedback into positive experiences. Those problems are called as psychological problems in speaking English. If students get those problems, they will get the difficulties to speak in English. Khan (2005) supports this findings, he states that in his research that “some of his participants have psychological problems in speaking.” The Causes of Psychological Problems Faced by the Students Based on the findings of psychological problems were faced by the students in speaking English, I found some causes of those problems by interviewing some of the students. a) The Causes of the Students’ Fear of Mistakes in Speaking English Most of the students spoke in English softly; silent in a discussion class; and they did not respond the questions in English because they were afraid if they cannot convey the message clearly. They were also afraid of making mistakes and being ridiculed by their friends. Those are relevant to the report of Kurtus (2001), he states that “students are afraid of making mistake because they are worry that Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 75 their friends will laugh at them and receive negative evaluations from their peers if they make mistake in speaking English.” This is the problem that the students encountered when they wanted to speak English in front of the class. b) The Causes of the Students’ Shyness in Speaking English Most of the students were ashamed to speak English. When they spoke English, most of them bow their face, covered up their mouth with their hands, and they never become a volunteer to answer the question in speaking class. Those were because they felt that they did not have good pronunciation and they were also ashamed if their friends laugh off their wrong pronunciation. To overcome this problem, Chinmoy (2007) suggests that “teachers should encourage the students in order to realize that being shyness is not a good thing because it will prevent them from improving their speaking.” If the students can see shyness as a bad thing, they will try and overcome it. c) The Causes of the Students’ Anxiety in Speaking English Most of the students were anxious. They tremble, panic, nervous, worried, and they were pressured when speaking English. Moreover, there were some students who suddenly forgot what they would say when speaking English in front of the class. Those occurred because when they spoke English, all of their friends‟ eyes looked at them and gave full attention to them, including their teacher. Consequently, although they had had an idea to be expressed in English, suddenly they lost their idea and they cannot say anything in front of their friends. Therefore, Baker and Westrup (2003) assert that “It is difficult for many students to respond when the teachers ask them to say something in a foreign language because they might have little ideas about what to say, which vocabulary to use, or how to use the grammar correctly.” d) The Causes of the Students’ Lack of Confidence in Speaking English Most of the students were lack of confidence. They did not felt quite sure of themselves to speak English; most of them did not speak English fluently and loudly; they were sweated when speaking English; most of them also lean on their friends and did not feel comfortable when speaking English. Those occurred because they felt that their English was bad and they realized that their interlocutors do not understand them or they do not understand other speakers. In addition, He and Chen (2010) state the main cause of students‟ confidence is their low ability in speaking English. In this case, as they add, many students think that their English is bad and feel that they cannot speak English well. This is in line with Brown (2001) stating that “students lack confidence and feel that they cannot speak English because they think that they do not have the ability to speak English well and their limited knowledge of the language. This kind of feeling, for sure, hinders them from trying to speak English.” e) The Causes of the Students’ Lack of Motivation in Speaking English Most of the students were lack of motivation in speaking English. They did not have high interest, concentration, diligence, and satisfaction in speaking English. It occurred because they did not like English; English was boring for them; and speaking English was difficult for them. Based on this problem, the teacher should encourage and motivate the students to speak English. It relevant with the argument from Keramida (2009) that “provide students with positive reinforcement, motivate students and create an ease environment in class are important to be noticed since it can lower students‟ anxiety, increase their confidence, and encourage their willingness to communicate.” The Effects of Psychological Problems in Speaking English There were many psychological problems and the causes of them faced by the year – eleven students in speaking English. Those problems influenced the students and the speaking activity itself. For the students, they Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 76 inhibited them to speak English fluently. They also made the speaking activity to be passive and the speaking teaching and learning process could not run well. Speaking activity is an essential part of English language learning. Teachers must provide activities that involve interaction between learners and encourage students to interact in English fluently. Scrievener (2005: 152) makes the important point that “the aim of communicative activity in class is to get learners to use the language they are learning to interact in realistic and meaningful ways. Naegle Paula (2002: 128) adds also that “talking students with their peers about the content of the course is a powerful way for them to reinforce what they have learned.” The teachers then must encourage such type of interaction between learners because it is the fastest and the best way. It makes learners active rather than passive participants. CONCLUSIONS After conducting the research and analyzing the result, I got some conclusions concerning the psychological problems faced by the year – eleven students of MA NurulIttiihadDemak in speaking English. Seeking answers for the first research question, I found that the psychological problems faced by the students in speaking English were 1) most of the them were fear of mistake; 2) most of them were ashamed; 3) most of them were anxious; 4) most of them were lack of confidence; and 5) most of them were lack of motivation. Considering the second research question, I revealed that there were some causes of psychological problems were faced by the students in speaking English. They were as follows: 1) most of the students were afraid of making mistakes because they were afraid if they cannot convey the message clearly and being ridiculed by their friends; 2) most of them were shy because they felt that they did not have good pronunciation and they were also ashamed if their friends laugh off their wrong pronunciation; 3) most of them were anxious when they spoke English, all of their friends‟ eyes looked at them and gave full attention to them, including their teacher. Consequently, although they had had an idea to be expressed in English, suddenly they lost their idea and they cannot say anything in front of their friends; 4) most of them were lack of confidence because they felt that their English was bad and they realized that their interlocutors do not understand them or they do not understand other speakers; and 5) most of them were lack of motivation because they did not like English; English was boring for them; and speaking English was difficult for them. In relation to the last question, I found that psychological problems faced by the year – eleven students in speaking English had significant effect for the students and the speaking activity itself. For the students, they inhibited them to speak English fluently. They also made the speaking activity to be passive and the teaching and learning process in the speaking class could not run well. SUGGESTIONS Based on the result of the research, the following are some suggestions for the English teacher and the students. For English teacher, they have to give great attention to the fact that psychological problems have existed among English language learners and they need to encourage the students‟ motivation to practice more and to be confident with their ability in speaking English. For students, they should first be aware the importance of speaking skills and they should increase their motivation to learn speaking in English, so that they are able to communicate using English. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincere thanks to PPS Unnes and MA NurulIttihad Demak. I would also like to express my grateful appreciation to Dr. Abdurrahman Faridi, M.Pd. for encouragement and suggestions. Mar‟atulJannah/English Education Journal 6(1) (2016) 77 REFERENCES Arnold, J. 2009. Affect in Language Learning. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Bachman, L., & Palmer, A. 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