JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching 
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v%vi%i.8162 

July 2023. Vol.11, No.3  
p-ISSN: 2338-0810 
e-ISSN: 2621-1378 

pp. 537-546 

 

JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, July 2023. Vol.11, No.3   | 537  

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ LEARNING ANXIETY 
AND SPEAKING SKILLS IN LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL 

1*Dessy Mutiara Syahbani, 1Tri Wintolo Apoko 
1English Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, University of 

Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. HAMKA, Indonesia  
*Corresponding Author Email: mutiaradessy99@gmail.com 

Article Info Abstract 
Article History  
Received: May 2023 
Revised: June 2023 
Published: July 2023 

Speaking skill, which involves the ability to communicate orally, demands self-
confidence and composure when interacting with others. Furthermore, speaking 
in the English language poses a significant challenge for many students, often 
inducing nerves and anxiety. The purpose of this research was to examine the 
correlation between students' learning anxiety and their speaking skills at the 
lower secondary school level. To investigate this relationship, a quantitative 
research approach with a correlation design was adopted. The data collection 
involved the administration of a questionnaire (FLCAS) to assess students' 
learning anxiety and an English-speaking test to evaluate their speaking skills. 
The questionnaire used in this study was adapted from the work of Horwitz et al. 
(1986) to measure students' learning anxiety. The collected data were analyzed 
using the SPSS Program version 25. The target population for this English-
speaking of all second-grade students, totaling 102 individuals. Through simple 
random sampling, 41 students were selected as respondents. The analysis of the 
data yielded results indicating the acceptance of the alternative hypothesis (Hi) 
and the rejection of the null hypothesis (H0) (0.046 < 0.05). Thus, the findings 
suggest a significant correlation between students' learning anxiety and their 
speaking skills. In summary, the research findings support the existence of a 
relationship between students' learning anxiety and their proficiency in speaking 
skills. The study contributes to the understanding of the challenges faced by 
students in developing their speaking abilities, particularly in the context of 
English language learning. 

Keywords 
Learning anxiety; 
Speaking skills; 
Foreign Language 
Anxiety; 

How to cite: Syahbani, D. M., & Apoko, T.W. (2023). The Correlation Between Students’ Learning Anxiety 
and Speaking Skill in Lower Secondary School, JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, 11(3), 
pp. 537-546. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v%vi%i.8162 

INTRODUCTION 
In reality, many students are currently faced with a new language problem, especially in 

English. Meanwhile, English has been used as an international language in many countries in 
the world. This is supported by Badrasawi et al. (2020) and Suparlan (2021) who stated that 
English is a medium to communicate with all people in the world that is widely accepted 
regardless of their language and cultural differences. So, students need to develop their speaking 
skills to communicate effectively. Moreover, speaking is the most essential skill in English 
(Suadiyatno et al., 2020). This is what makes students have good abilities in English as the aim 
of English instruction in schools is to encourage the students to be capable of mastering various 
areas of the target language, such as conversation, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar 
(Wasiq & Helmand, 2021). The students who are not used to using English will feel afraid to 
speak English. In addition, they feel tense, embarrassed, and anxious. More specifically, anxiety 
in English learning is commonly felt by students in several lectures and it could affect the 
students’ language skills, mainly in speaking skills. 

Speaking skill is a tool of daily oral communication, and students should have adequate 
confidence in front of people when speaking (Asysyfa et al., 2019; Aulia & Apoko, 2022). 

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When speaking in English with confidence, people are more likely to start conversations in that 
language wherever they are (Lee & Hsieh, 2019). Cameron (2001), as cited in (Jannah et al., 
2022), stated that speaking is the way to communicate and use the language so that others can 
understand it. (Rao, 2019) as cited in (Irawati, 2021) said that speaking skill is essential not 
only for communicating in English but also for developing communication so that 
communication goals can be achieved. It makes speaking a difficult skill to master compared 
to other skills. (Pratolo et al., 2019) stated that speaking skill, especially in English, is hard. It 
was because the students’ speaking skill was influenced by a variety of aspects. According to 
Brown (2004) as cited (Bohari, 2020) stated that grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, 
fluency, and pronunciation were all theists of speaking skills. 

Speaking English in an EFL classroom is challenging for students because it is not easy 
to speak a new language where they are not native speakers. They generally feel nervous when 
they should speak in English. Thus, their feeling can be an obstacle for them to speak English. 
The factor that causes students to think that in learning, especially speaking, is anxiety. It is a 
problem in learning called learning anxiety. Siregar & Perwana, (2020) stated that learning 
anxiety is a psychological phenomenon that causes problems such as worrying about the 
students while learning. In this research, learning anxiety which is meant is the anxiety in 
learning English as a foreign language. Students who have anxiety will have negative emotional 
reactions such as fear, especially in learning English. Meanwhile, anxiety is a fear that occurs 
as a reflection of something bad that will happen. It is supported by Reber and Sapir & Aronson 
as cited in (Oflaz, 2019) who explained that anxiety is a fear based on the emotion characterized 
by a feeling that something negative will happen, such as uncertainty, loss of control, distress, 
restlessness, and worriedness. Another view from previous research stated that anxiety has 
differences from fear. Anxiety has no clear object, whereas fear has a clear object. According 
to Abdullah et al. (2022), there were several types of anxiety, such as trait anxiety, state anxiety, 
and situation-specific anxiety. Meanwhile, Horwitz et al. (1986) (as cited in Miskam & 
Saidalvi, 2019) stated that types of foreign language classroom anxiety could be communication 
apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and test anxiety. 

Horwitz (as cited by Toyama & Yamazaki, 2021) explained that people who were anxious 
about learning a foreign language had higher learning difficulties and struggle with their grades, 
which could influence their academic achievement. Therefore, the research above showed that 
anxiety is the most severe variable that can prevent students' success in foreign language 
learning. So, the students have to suffer from learning anxiety, which can bring negative effecon 
in learning English. Moreover, it is supported by Daubney et al. (2017) (as cited in Dryden et 
al., 2021) stating that foreign language anxiety was a negative emotional reaction that happened 
when a person learned or used a foreign language in public, such as in front of a class. 
According to other experts in this study, Horwitz et al. (1986) stated that foreign language 
anxiety is described as a set of self-confidence related to language learning in the classroom. 
Based on those definitions, it is deduced that foreign language anxiety is the negative response 
that arises during language learning, especially in the classroom or public places that are the 
center of attention.  

There are numerous kinds of research investigating anxiety and speaking skills. Chen et 
al., (2022) found a negative correlation between foreign language anxiety and speaking 
performance through computer-based tests although the relationship was non-significant. They 
also provided strategies for students with speaking anxiety in online-texting tests. Another 
research revealed that the students were anxious about learning English and had different 
anxiety levels (Noviyenty, 2021). Another relevant research used the mixed method to 
investigate speaking in-class anxiety, focusing on a non-English major first-year student at 
CECAC, and it reported factors contributing to the student’s speaking anxiety and the student's 
self-perceived language proficiency (Tran, 2022). In addition, several factors caused the 



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students to feel anxious, and strategies for the teacher to reduce their learning anxiety in 
English. Those studies stated that English is a foreign language in Indonesia, and not ale 
students use it in their daily communication (Suciati, 2020). They use English only at certain 
times. They still use their native language, Indonesian in the English Foreign Language 
classroom. Thus, there is a high level of anxiety and a significant relationship between speaking 
anxiety and speaking skill skills strategies to overcome the problems. 

Based on the explained relevant studies, this current research is rarely conducted as it 
focuses on showing other insights into the students’ learning anxiety and speaking skills in a 
lower secondary school. This research aimed to find a significant correlation between the 
students’ learning anxiety and speaking skills in lower secondary school. Thus, the research 
question addressed was: Is there a significant correlation between students’ learning anxiety 
and speaking skills in lower secondary school? 
 
RESEARCH METHOD 
 This research examined the correlation between students’ learning anxiety and speaking 
skills in a lower secondary school.  Thus, a suitable design for offers research was a quantitative 
approach with correctional design. The researcher collected the data by using a questionnaire 
to measure the students’ learning anxiety. Meanwhile, English speaking test was used to 
measure their speaking skills. The questionnaire was distributed in the first step to collect data 
and did the English-speaking test to perform the speaking skills. To analyze the data, SPPS 
Programs version 25 was utilized if the data correlated or not.  

Research Design 
This research used quantitative research by applying a correlational design to gain the 

relevant data of two variables (Creswell, 2012), namely students’ learning anxiety and their 
speaking skill in lower secondary school. In addition, quantitative research was used for this 
research as the data was presented with numerical data and evaluated with statistical analysis. 
It is supported by (Allen et al., 2013) who stated that quantitative research is one of the research 
that concerned with gathering and evaluating the structured data that might be shown 
numerically. The primary goal of quantitative research was to create trustworthy and reliable 
measures that could be applied for statistical analysis.  

Population and Sample 
The respondents of this research are the nd-semester students in the 2022/2023 academic 

year of an Islamic lower secondary school in Depok, West Java. This has three types of classes, 
such as Fullday class, Tahfidz class, and Regular class. The population of the respondents 
consists of students from second grade with 102 students. Of 102 students, 41 students with 22 
male and 19 female students responded to the questionnaire and performed an English-speaking 
test. They were selected from a random sampling of the student population size. 

Instruments 
In this research, the data were collected by using two instruments, namely a questionnaire 

and an English-speaking test. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) was 
used as a questionnaire form by Horwitz et al., (1986). The questionnaire, which had 23 
statements, was administered after the original version was translated into the Indonesian 
language. It was employed through a paper-based questionnaire that the students filled out. The 
questionnaire includes several aspects that contribute to foreign language anxiety. There are 
communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, and test anxiety. There are 5 
statements for communicative apprehension, 8 statements for fear of negative evaluation, and 
10 statements for test anxiety in each aspect. The questionnaire responses include a five-point 



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Likert Scale. 1 indicates strongly disagree, 2 indicates disagree, 3 indicates enough, 4 indicates 
agree, and 5 indicates strongly agree. 

The second instrument is the English-speaking test. This research used the test to assess 
student’snts’ speaking skills. One topic which is about recounting text with the given theof on 
holiday or personal experience was provided in the English lesson. The students performed 
their spoken English within 2-3 minutes and their performances were recorded. In testing 
English speaking skills, Brown (2004) as cited in (Syahidah & Umasugi, 2021) stated that 
speaking assessment used several criteria, such as grammar, vocabulary, fluency, 
pronunciation, and comprehension. The score in the English test contains 5 points for excellent; 
4 points for very good; 3 points for good, 2 points for adequate; 1 point for poor. The results of 
the test showed information about their level of English-speaking skills. 

In collecting the data, firstly the students were asked to fill out a questionnaire to find out 
their anxiety levels when learning English. In the next meeting, two ratters tested their speaking 
skills using an English-speaking test. Each student had 3-5 minutes to perform their spoken 
English.  

Data Analysis  
The researchers employed a data analysis technique to analyze the data that has been 

obtained. The data were gained from the speaking test as an instrument for English speaking 
skills and a questionnaire asan learning anxiety instrument. The validity and reliability tests 
were employed to test the questionnaire of the independent variable on the dependent variable. 
Seven statements were declared invalid as a result of the validity test such as numbers 2, 5, 7, 
16, 20, 26, and 27. Meanwhile, 23 statements were found to be valid. It could be said valid as 
the r-result from the r-table is bigger than 0.361 with a significance level of 0.05. The data was 
then subjected to a reliability test. The reliability test score was 0.809, placing it in the category 
of very high reliability. The data were then tested using the normality test, regression linear test, 
correlation test, and hypothesis testiHypothesisesis testing was performed to test the research 
hypotheses after determining the solution to the problem. The data were analyzed by SPSS 
program version 25. Then, the normality test by using Kolmogorov Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk 
provided that the significance value is more than 0.05. Thus, the data were normally distributed. 
Meanwhile, simple regression linear test was used to show the relationship between students’ 
learning anxiety and speaking skills. Then, the researchers did the correlation test by using 
Pearson Product Moment which provided the category of correlation. Here is the table of the 
category of Pearson Product Moment Correlation: 

Table 1  
Pearson Product Moment Correlation 

Range Category 

0 – 0.19 Very weak  

0.2 – 0.39 Weak 

0.4 - 0.59 Sufficient 

0.6 – 0.79 Strong 

0.8 – 1.0 Very strong 
 

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 
Research Findings 

The data findings were gathered using a questionnaire for students’ learning anxiety and 
an English test for speaking skills as the instruments. The findings of the data were evaluated 
using descriptive analysis. Here is the outcome of the descriptive analysis: 



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Table 2  
Descriptive Statistic 

 N Range Minimum Maximum Sum Mean Std. 
Deviation 

Variance 

Learning Anxiety 41 51 51 102 3211 78.32 12.177 148.272 
Speaking Skills 41 15.5 6.5 22.0 564.5 13.768 4.1414 17.151 
Valid N (listwise) 41        

 
The research sample, as shown in Table 2, consists of 41 students. They were filling out 

the questionnaire as an instrument of the student’s learning anxiety and did the English-
speaking test as an instrument of speaking skills. From the sample, it is found that the mean 
score of students’ learning anxiety as inan dependent variable was 78.32, and speaking skills as 
dependent variable was 13.768.  The minimum score of students’ learning anxiety was 51 and 
maximum was 102. Meanwhile, the speaking skill for the minimum score was 6.5 and 
maximum was 22. The range of students’ learning anxiety was 51 and 15.5 for speaking skill. 
From this analysis, the frequency distribution is determined for each variable in the following 
table.  

Table 3 
Frequency of Learning Anxiety 

Interval Frequency Percentage 
51 - 58 2 5% 
59 - 66 4 10% 
67 - 74 10 24% 
75 - 82 9 22% 
83 - 90 10 24% 
91 - 98 5 12% 
99 - 106 1 2% 
 41 100% 

 
As it can be seen from Table 3, there were 2% of students that had the highest score in 

learning anxiety while the lowest score is 5% of the total of participants. Besides, there were as 
many as 24% of students who had a score of 67-74 and 83-90. The other results obtained were 
as much as 10% with a total frequency of students as many as 4 students, 22% as many as 9 
students, and 12% as many as 5 students. In conclusion, the students’ learning anxiety score 
ranged between 67 and 74, and also 83 and 90 as the majority scoring of their learning anxiety. 

 
Table 4 

Frequency of Speaking Skills 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
According to Table 4, there was 7% of students that had both the higher and lower scores 

in English speaking test. Furthermore, there were 29% of students who had a score between 
11.4 and 12.8. The other results obtained were as much as 17% of students who had a score 
between 13.8 - 15.3; 16.3 - 17.7; and 83 - 90. The other results were as much as 10% with a 

Interval Frequency Percentage  
 6.5 – 7.9  3 7% 
 8.0 – 10.4  4 10% 
 10.5 – 12.8  12 29% 
 12.9 – 15.3  7 17% 
 15.4 – 17.7  7 17% 
 17.8 – 20.1  5 12% 
 20.2 – 22.6  3 7% 
 22.7 - 25  0 0% 
 41 100% 



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total frequency of students as many as 4 students and 12% as many as 5 students. In conclusion, 
the student’s speaking ranged from 10.5 to 12.8 as the mostly score got in English speaking 
test. The normality test is the following stage once the data findings have been obtained. The 
normality test determined whether the data were distributed normally or not. The SPSS program 
can be used to view it. The following is the result of the normality test. 

 
Table 5 

Test of Normality 
 Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk 

Statistic df Sig. Statistic df Sig. 

Learning Anxiety .099 41 .200 .982 41 .739 

Speaking Skills .114 41 .200 .963 41 .194 

*This is a lower bound of the true significance 
a. Lilliefors Significance Correction 
 

Based on Table 5, it can be seen that the results of the significance of the data have 
different results with two different types of normality tests. In Kolmogorov-Smirnov, the 
significance values of both the students’ learning anxiety and speaking skills were 0.200. 

Meanwhile, the other type, Shapiro-Wilk, had different results for two variables. The 
significance of students’ learning anxiety was 0.739 and 0.194 for speaking skill.   

If the data was normally distributed, it had a significance greater than 0.05, and vice versa. 
If the significance value is less than 0.05, the data is said to be not normally distributed.  Based 
on the data shown above, it was clear that the results of all significances value, including 
Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk were normally distributed. It is because the results of 
significance are 0.200 > 0.05, 0.739 > 0.05, and 0.194 > 0.05. The researchers performed a 
simple linear regression to establish the relationship between the two variables once the data 
has been normally distributed.  It used ANOVA table that explained the examination with F-
test. It also shown the relationship between learning anxiety and speaking skills with 
significance value less than 0.05. The end result is as follows. 

 
Table 6 

ANOVAa 
 

Model Sum of 
Squares 

df Mean 
Square 

F Sig 

1 Regression 67.237 1 67.237 4.238 .046b 

Residual 618.811 39 15.867   

Total 686.049 40    

a. Dependent Variable: Speaking Skills 
b. Predictors: (Constant), Learning Anxiety 

According to the table above, the F value is 4.238 with the significance level of 0.046. 
The data can be said to have a relationship if it has a significance value < 0.05, and vice versa. 
If a significance value is more than 0.05, the data does not have relationship. Based on the data 
presented above, the results of significance were 0.046 < 0.05. It is clear that there was a 
relationship between both students’ learning anxiety and speaking skills. Another simple linear 
regression was to explain the relationship or correlation value, namely Model Summary. It 
contains the magnitude of correlation of learning anxiety as independent variable to speaking 
skill as dependent variable. Here is the result. 



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Table 7 
Model Summary 

Model R R Square Adjust R 
Square 

Std. Error of 
the Estimate 

1 .313a .098 0.75 3.9833 
 

a. Predictors: (Constant), Learning Anxiety 

From Table 7, it was a simple linear regression analysis that explained about correlation 
(R), coefficient determination (R square), adjust R square, and std. error of the estimate. It is 
found that the relationship or correlation (R) value was 0.313, and the coefficient determination 
(R Square) was 0.098. It indicated that there was a 9.8% the effect of correlation or relationship 
on the students’ learning anxiety to speaking skills. Meanwhile, adjusting R square is used when 
the research has two or more independent variables. After knowing the value of the relationship 
or correlation (R) and the coefficient determination (R Square), the hypothesis in the research 
is accepted or not. In order to discover if it is accepted, the SPSS program was used. Here is the 
value of the coefficient in this research. 

Table 8 
Coefficients 

 Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients  
Model  B Std. Error Beta t Sig. 

1 Constant 22.107 4.098  5.394 .000 
 Learning Anxiety -.106 0.52 -.313 -2.059 .046 

a. Dependent Variable: Speaking Skills 

As it can be seen from Table 8, the significance value is 0.046. The data could be said 
to be correlated if it has a significance value < 0.05. It means that Hi is accepted, while H0 is 
rejected. The data found is 0.046, and the significance value is 0.046 < 0.05. Thus, the data that 
has been found is correlated with students' learning anxiety and speaking skills. Another result, 
as can be seen from the table above, the significance value is as follows. 

Table 9 
Correlation analysis 

  Learning Anxiety Speaking Skills 
Learning Anxiety Pearson Correlation 1 -.313* 
 Sig. (2-tailed)  .046 

N 41 41 
Speaking Skills Pearson Correlation -.313* 1 

Sig. (2-tailed) .046  
N 41 41 

a. Correlation is significance at the level 0.05 level (2-tailed) 
 

According to Table 9, it can be seen that the Pearson correlation is -0.313. It means that 
it has a negative direction on the results of the correlation between the two variables. The 
negative results showed that if students' learning anxiety has a high score, then the speaking 
skills will have a low score, and vice versa. If students' learning anxiety has a low score, 
speaking skills will have a high score. Thus, it could be said that the level of correlation between 
these two variables has a weak level with a negative direction. 
 
 
 



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Discussion 
The aim of this research was to discover the correlation between students’ learning 

anxiety and speaking skills in lower secondary school. The students considered that English is 
one of the complicated subjects in the school. They needed to speak English during the learning 
process. The students were anxious to speak English in front of the class as they feared of being 
wrong. The anxious arose when the students were required to speak English and found some 
mistakes, such as incorrect sentences in grammar and mispronunciation (Nadia & Hilalina, 
2020). The feeling of pressure in speaking English during learning process could hinder 
students' learning to speak English confidently. Thus, they tried to avoid it. Meanwhile, the 
previous studies also found that the fear of negative evaluation was the most dominant types of 
foreign language anxiety. The students were confident when they spoke English, and their 
anxiety decreased. Even if they made errors in grammar or pronunciation, they had to be 
confident in order to avoid being evaluated by others when speaking English (Plantika & Adnan 
2021). 

Overall, the result showed that there was a correlation between students’ learning anxiety 

and speaking skill in Lower Secondary School. It is evidenced by the hypothesis testing that 
indicated the result was less than 0.05, namely 0.046 with the negative direction. The other 
result pointed out that 2% of students’ learning anxiety got higher scores than other students 
and 5% got lower scores. Meanwhile, 7% of students’ speaking skills got both higher and lower 

scores than other students. This current result is supported by a study conducted by Megawati 
(2019), and it showed that there was a considerable correlation between students’ anxiety and 
their speaking skill. It revealed a negative correlation between speaking anxiety and speaking 
skills where if the student had a high level of anxiety, their speaking skills were low, then vice 
versa. Meanwhile, the category of correlation was in strong level. Meanwhile, another study 
done by Putri & Refnaldi (2020) revealed that the students’ speaking skill was in the fair 
category. The half of the students got score around 60 to 74 that means the half students were 
in good in speaking English and the other half students were in below average. Related to this 
current result, the students’ anxiety in speaking English was influenced by some factors such 
as grammar, pronunciation, shyness, and self-confidence (Rajitha & Alamelu, 2020).  

Based on the findings in this study, the implication is that it could help the students to 
better understand the contribution of learning anxiety to speaking skills experienced by them. 
The students need to prepare well to reduce their anxiety related to speaking in front of the 
class, communicating, and being afraid of making mistakes (Fang & Tang, 2021). If they are 
well-prepared, their confidence will increase and thus reduce their anxiety. In addition, teachers 
can also encourage them to be more confident in speaking English, especially during learning. 
Teachers can provide a pleasant learning atmosphere so that students can feel comfortable 
during English learning. 

The limitation of this research was that only certain school and grade of the students to 
fill out the questionnaire and English-Speaking test. There were only 41 students who 
completed the data. Thus, this research could not generalize that it represented all the students 
in others regions. In addition, there is time constraints. The researcher had to adjust the time to 
the research place related to the time used at the time of data collection. Finally, the further 
research is expected to have more participants and time management better.  

 
CONCLUSION  

Based on the results and discussion, it is therefore concluded that there is a correlation 
between students’ anxiety and speaking skill. It is proven that the result of correlation was -
0.313 which means that it is in the weak category. In addition, there was only 9.8% of the 
students’ learning anxiety to speaking skills. As learning anxiety contributed to English 
speaking skill, it is important to recommend that students in lower secondary schools should 



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consider the grammar use and pronunciation as external factors. The more they practice English 
by correcting the grammar use and by practicing their pronunciation, their spoken English 
would be better. By having adequate skills of English, students would be more confident in 
using English. In addition, they would not be afraid of using English expressions. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
The researcher would like to thank the Principal of Islamic Lower Secondary School of 

Al-Kautsar, who permitted the researcher to do the research in the school as the research place. 
In addition, appreciation was delivered to the students who were co-operative during the whole 
data collection process, starting from filling out the questionnaire as the instrument of students’ 

learning anxiety and the English test as the instrument of speaking skills. 

 
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