Students' Perceptions and Challenges in Improving Speaking Ability in Public and Private University

Abstract

Speaking is one of skills that difficult to master by students in Indonesia, little research has been done to investigate students’ perceptions and challenges in improving speaking ability: the analysis study between English Education Department students. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, this research selected learners’ studying in private and public university as research respondents. The findings suggest that the main causes of speaking difficulties were affected by shyness, lack of vocabularies, and environment of learning; dealing with mistake and lecturers’ reaction during English speaking performance. This study is beneficial to improve EFL learners to improve their speaking ability. It is important to lecturers identifying their students’ speaking skill as a matter of applying a more effective learning strategy. Keywords— English students’ perceptions and challenges, and speaking ability