Students’ Difficulties in Speaking Skill at the Seventh Grade of MTs Negeri 2 Hulu Sungai Utara

Abstract

This research aims to find out students’ difficulties in speaking English skill with the factors that caused the difficulties as well as the strategies to overcome them in the seventh grade of MTs N 2 Hulu Sungai Utara, South Kalimantan. The descriptive qualitative method was employed to gather data focused on 10 students with the lowest grade in class A. In collecting data, the researchers used field-note observation, interviews, and questionnaires. The data collected were analyzed by reducing the data, presenting the data, and taking the conclusion after verifying the data. The results show that every student has different difficulties in speaking. The difficulties in speaking that the researchers found during the research include: 1) psychological problems: fear to make a mistake, shyness, lack of vocabulary, lack of motivation, and lack of pronunciation; 2) language problems: mother tongue use and saying nothing. Then, students have three factors that cause difficulties in speaking English skills, which are psychology factor, non-social factor, and social factors. Furthermore, the strategies used by students to solve their difficulties in speaking skills include following an English course, using an online dictionary and watching English videos on YouTube and English games without Indonesian subtitles. In addition, the teacher suggests using a variety of learning methods in class.