Psychological Problems Encountered by EFL Students in Speaking Class at Universitas Islam Riau

This study aimed to investigate the psychological problems of English foreign language learners in speaking. This was a qualitative study with data collected from second semester English Language Education Study Program students and analyzed in the form of a description. The questionnaires were distributed to fifteen students, while five of them were interviewed to assure their responses towards eighteen statements in the questionnaire. Moreover, the questionnaire comprised statements that based on the psychological problem that consist of low of selfconfidence, anxiety, as well as low of self-esteem. The findings showed that the students faced the psychological problems. The problems that prominently encountered by the students was low of self-esteem, which stated that they were unable to speak in English as well as most of their friends. Then, they felt they had not much to be proud of during the class. Most of the students tend to feel failure, because they have not improved their speaking skills yet.


INTRODUCTION
Knowing speaking problems that are encountered by the students is really necessary and helpful for both teachers and students. By analysing it, the teachers can get to know more what kind of problems might hinder their students during speaking class then try to evaluate and overcome the problems together with the students. All of those problems are inseparable with students' speaking skill and possibly make them reluctant to speak during the class. This study focused on finding out and analysing the problems of psychological encountered by the students in the subject of Speaking for Social Intercultural Communication Class at English Language Education of Universitas Islam Riau that consist of low of selfconfidence, anxiety, and low of self-esteem.
Based on researchers' observation, it could be identified the problems as follows; students could not speak English fluently and did not even want to speak at all during the speaking class due to lack of knowledge related to the topic being discussed, and some due to lack of vocabulary. Speaking skill is a fundamental thing that must be acquired in learning English. Generally, speaking is assumed as a parameter to see how success language learning is. However, in a successful speaking classroom, students cannot be separated from various problems that might hinder them during the class. Moreover, it was indicated that the students at English Language Education Study Program of Universitas Islam Riau especially in the second semester encountered several problems in their speaking skill, such as psychological problems.
Despite the foregoing facts, it is true that English is challenging for students to master, particularly when it comes to speaking. Before engaging in communication, students must prepare either the items they will say or the most appropriate English utterances they can utilize such as choice of words, pronunciation, grammar, etc. It needs much effort to express what is performing on their minds verbally and cannot be separated from some problems related to their speaking performances. On the other hand, speaking English is not a straightforward or easy undertaking, even for English Studies students.

Speaking Skill
The ability to speak is related to communicative competence. This is a physically intensive activity for students of all ages. Speaking in a foreign language is required to share understanding with others. To convey the message exactly and accurately, they must find the most acceptable words as well as the perfect syntax. It is also critical to structure the conversation such that the interlocutor comprehends what the speaker is saying (Cameron, 2001).

Low of Self-Confidence
Confidence is one component or factor that influences a student's ability to talk. Selfconfidence, according to Murray (2006:53), is defined as 'firm belief'. "If you're confident about something, you do not have to worry about the outcome and you just take it for granted that it's going to work out." Someone who has self-confidence is someone who is not worried about the end result of something he will do. Adalikwu (2012: 5-6 in Kanza, 2015 proposes another definition, "Self-confidence can be concluded as the belief that a person has it in their ability to succeed in a task, based on whether or not they have been able to perform that task at work. past" Sokol and Fox (in Kanza, 2014: 25) add, "Confidence means believing in yourself and your skills. You are a capable and desirable person" (p.169) Here are some of the characteristics of low self-confidence that may be shown by students in their speaking skill (adapted from Fitriani, Apriliaswati, and Wardah, 2015: 6).
(1) A major confidence crisis. In delivering particular utterances, students tend to lost their self-confidence, (2) Students tend to lost their belief or faith in themselves to take on new challenges, (3) Feeling difficult to be assertive and fear of confrontation, (4) Tend to have low opinion on themselves to particular things, (5) Experiencing social phobia that make them feel difficult in certain condition such as in front of the class and their friends.

Anxiety
Anxiety is a subjective sensation of tension, fear, uneasiness, and worry caused by the autonomic nervous system being activated (Horwitz et al. 1986). In other words, anxiety refers to particular anxious feelings encounter learners that cause worry and nervous. Moreover, Horwitz (1986) adds that, just as anxiety makes it difficult for some people to excel in science or arithmetic, many people find learning a foreign language difficult, especially in a classroom setting. Anxiety that is limited to language acquisition events is categorized as a specific anxiety reaction. Psychologists use the term "specific anxiety reaction" to separate people who are uneasy in a variety of situations from those who are only uncomfortable in specific situations. As a result, language acquisition anxiety appears to be similar to anxiety in other areas.
On the basis of his research, Arifin (2017: 36-37) postulated two types of anxiety: shyness and terror. This is in keeping with the definition of anxiety by (Javed et al., 2013) as stated by Ariyanti (2016: 81), who defined anxiety as a natural psychological feature containing the emotion of fear that is sometimes uncontrollable. One of the emotions is the dread of making a mistake. Teachers must persuade children that making mistakes is both acceptable and beneficial because they may be learned from. One of the worries that may deter students from communicating is this.
One of the emotions is the dread of making a mistake. As one of the issues that may prevent students from speaking, teachers must persuade students that making mistakes is neither wrong nor harmful because mistakes may be learned from. Shyness is, without a doubt, a sort of anxiousness that can lead to communication difficulties. As a result, paying attention to this component is also very crucial in order to assist pupils in giving their best performance in the classroom when it comes to speaking (Gebhard, 2000).

Low of Self-Esteem
Perhaps the most prevalent feature of human conduct is self-esteem. Without selfesteem, confidence, understanding of oneself, and conviction in one's own skills, there is no way to carry out a successful cognitive or emotive action (Brown, 2000). It means that selfesteem has an impact on a wide range of activities as well as many other elements of human life. One of them has an impact on your ability to communicate.
Additionally, according to Rubio in Arifin (2017: 38), Self-esteem is a psychological and social phenomena in which an individual judges his or her own competence and selfworth based on a range of values, which can result in a variety of emotional states, and which become developmentally stable yet vary depending on the individual. This can happen in a variety of settings, including the classroom. Self-esteem is one of the psychological characteristics that has a significant impact on pupils' ability to communicate effectively (Lathifah, 2015). Those who have high self-esteem have the ability to appear more fluent in their speaking because making mistakes is the last thing on their minds. According to Lathifah, Dulay, Burt, andKrashen (1982, in Jamila, 2014), pupils that have strong selfesteem will feel safe and succeed in learning languages. When challenged with their speaking performance, which is usually encountered by adult students at the university level, self-esteem becomes one of the biggest challenges for students to overcome. To put it Muhammad Ilyas 1 , Miranti Eka Putri 2 and Isnania Nurani 3 J-SHMIC : Journal of English for Academic Vol 8, No 2, August 2021 144 another way, kids who have low self-esteem are more likely to have poor communication skills. Their English fluency will suffer as a result, and they will feel like a failure.

METHOD
This is a qualitative research design. According to Rugaiyah (2016), "descriptive qualitative method investigates, illustrates, and verifies the phenomenon found during the research. This kind of study aims only to describe and interpret the phenomenon or event found without further studying, such as defining its correlation or examining hypotheses. English Language Education Study Program, Universitas Islam Riau, Pekanbaru became the location of taking the data of study.
The data analysed was collected from the second semester students in academic year 2020/2021. There were 15 students or 15% from the population, 76 students, purposively chosen as the samples by using purposive random sampling technique regarding to Gay, Mills, and Airasian (2012) and Arikunto (2006). The instrument is the list of questionnaire and interview.
Procedure of collecting data is distributing questionnaire and interviewing students. First, questionnaires were distributed to the samples. Second, instructions were given to the students to make sure all the questions provided were answered by them. Next, data collected from the questionnaire were analysed to measure the percentage of each psychological problem indicators.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION
There were three indicators that have been elaborated by the researcher for finding out the psychological problems in speaking skill; they were low of self-confidence, anxiety, and low of self-esteem. Furthermore, the findings found from each indicator will be analysed one by one to the followings.

Low of Self-Confidence
In this indicator, five statements have been asked to the students to see their responses toward the statements. Statement 1. I feel confident when I speak in front of the class In this statement, there were two responses which gained the same highest percentage, 33.33%, they were from five students who chose "Strongly Agree" and "Disagree" toward the statement, followed by the three students who chose "Agree" in 20%, two students who chose "Strongly Disagree" in 13.33%. From the result, it can be concluded that more than half of the students were confident enough when they were speaking in front of class, yet the rest of students still felt unconfident in when they were speaking in front of class. This was in line with what student 1 stated through interview which stated that she did not satisfy with his speaking skill because he was not confident enough. Statement 2. I enjoy the class when I know that we are going to discuss particular topic From the data, it showed that the highest percentage was obtained from 8 students who stated "Agree" towards the statement. In other words, 53.33% of the students agreed that they enjoyed the class when they know what particular topic they were going to discuss. It supported by the percentage of students who chose "Strongly Agree", 26.67%, from four students. In other hands, there were still students who did not enjoy the class even they have known the topic. It was proven by the students' who chose "Disagree", they were three students, in 20% and no one students chose "Strongly Disagree". In conclusion, most of the students enjoyed the class when they know particular topic will be discussed, while few students still could not enjoy the speaking class even though they have known the topic. Apparently, topic also influenced the students' participation in speaking class. Four students stated that they reluctantly spoke during the class unless she was familiar and understand the topic being discussed thoroughly.
Statement 3. I like to volunteer answer questions during the class This statement asked the students whether they would like to voluntarily answer the questions during the speaking for group activities class. There were 46.67% of them or seven students who chose "Agree" and 6.67% of students who chose "Strongly Agree" towards the statement. There were 40% of them or six students who chose "Disagree" and 6.67% of students who chose "Strongly Disagree" towards the statement. The result clearly showed that the students would like to voluntarily answer the questions in spite of the rest.

Statement 4. The class moves so quickly, I worry about getting left behind
The highest percentage for this statement found in the students who chose "Agree", or 60% or nine students, followed by a student who chose "Strongly Agree" or 6.67%, and three students who chose "Disagree" or 20%, as well as two students who chose "Strongly Disagree" or 13.33%. This all means that the majority felt worry about being left behind, because in their perception, the class moved so quickly.
Statement 5. I would probably feel comfortable around my friends who are fluent in speaking Through this statement, the researcher wants to know the students feel when they were around their friends who speak English fluently. From the findings, majority of students agreed with this statement. There were six students or 40% of the participants agreed with the statement and four students chose "Strongly Agree" or 26.67% of the participants. There were three students chose "Disagree" (20%), followed by two students who chose "Strongly Disagree" or 13.33%. In other words, based on the data, most of the second semester students felt comfortable being around their friends who speak English fluently, despite some of them still felt uncomfortable.
From the data collections that have been described previously, the data found were recapitulated to the following table. From the table 1, it indicated that there were three statements which gained 66.66% of the students' agreement responses; they were statement 2, 4, and 5. In other words, the students enjoyed the class when they have known particular topic to be discussed and felt worry of being left behind, because in their perception that the speaking class moved so quickly and felt comfortable being around their friends who speak English fluently. Followed by statement 1 and 3, where 53.33% of the students would like to voluntarily answer the question in the speaking class, felt confident when they were speaking in front of the class.
In summary, from five statements that have been asked, mostly the second semester students felt confident enough in following Speaking for Social Intercultural Communication class. Meanwhile, there was one problem which still encountered some students. In their perceptions, they would not like to voluntarily answer the question in the speaking class. In line with the students' answer on questionnaire, only one of the interviewee stated that she felt unconfident when speaking in front of class. She stated that she felt unconfident due to lack of practice. Meanwhile, the other interviewee did not have problems with their selfconfidences.

Anxiety
In this indicator, eight statements have been asked to the students, in order to find out what kind of problems encountered them, which has correlation to their speaking anxiety. Furthermore, the statements as well as the students' responses toward them will be described below.

Statement 6. I would feel anxious while speaking English in the class
Through this statement, the researcher asked students whether they felt anxious or not while speaking English in the class. The data showed the percentage and amount of students who chose "Strongly Agree", "Agree", "Disagree", and "Strongly Disagree" towards the statement were 13.33% (2 student), 53.33% (8 students), 26.67% (4 students), and 6.67% (1 student) respectively. It can be seen clearly from the percentage that most of the students felt anxious while speaking English in the speaking class. The result showed that the percentage and amount of students who chose "Strongly Agree", "Agree", "Disagree", and "Strongly Disagree" towards the statement were 20% (3 student), 46.67% (7 students), 20% (3 students), and 13.33% (2 student) respectively. It means that more than half of the students agreed with statement 7, in other words they felt less nervous when they were speaking in front of class. Yet, there were some of them who still felt nervous when speaking in front of the class. For example, student 2 stated through interview that he felt nervous in delivering what was on his thought, sometimes it made him got confused at the same time.
Statement 8. I start to panic when I know I will be graded in the class The result showed that the percentage and amount of students who chose "Strongly Agree", "Agree", "Disagree", and "Strongly Disagree" towards the statement were 40% (6 student), 40% (6 students), 20% (3 students), and 0% respectively. This clearly showed that the highest percentage was from the students who chose "Strongly Agree" and "Agree" towards the statement. In other words, the students started panic when they know they will be graded by the lecturer in the speaking class.
Statement 9. I fear giving wrong answer while answering questions or statements during the class.
Here, the result suggested that there were 33.33% (5 Students) chose "strongly agree", 40% or eight students chose "agree", two students in 13.33% chose "disagree", and 13.33% of students chose "strongly agree" towards the statement. It means that the majority agreed that they were fear of giving wrong answer towards questions which probably asked during the speaking class. Statement 10. I feel shy speaking English in front of the class There were four students, in 26.67%, who chose "Strongly Agree", and 46.67% (three students) who chose "agree", 13.33% (two students) chose both "disagree" and "strongly disagree". In conclusion, more than half of the students agreed that they were shy when speaking English in front of their friends, as student 2, through interview, added that she felt shy to speak during the speaking class. Statement 11. I am so nervous then I tremble when I am going to be tested orally The result showed that the percentage and amount of students who chose "Strongly Agree", "Agree", "Disagree", and "Strongly Disagree" towards the statement were 40% (6 student), 53.33% (eight students), 6.67% (1 students), and 0% respectively. It means that they were nervous and trembling when they were going to be tested orally. The data showed that the most of the students got so nervous and then trembled when they were going to be tested orally by the lecturer.

Statement 12. I feel pressure when my lecturer corrects my oral mistakes in the class
According to the results, the students tended to feel pressured when the lecturer corrected their mistakes in the speaking class. It was proven by the percentages of students who give responses, six students, in 40% chose "strongly agree", eight students, in 53.33% Muhammad Ilyas 1 , Miranti Eka Putri 2 and Isnania Nurani 3 J-SHMIC : Journal of English for Academic Vol 8, No 2, August 2021 148 chose "agree", 1 student, in 6.67% chose "disagree", and the rest no one who chose "strongly disagree" toward the statement. Statement 13. I get nervous and confused when I am speaking in front of the class.
The result showed that the percentage and amount of students who chose "Strongly Agree", "Agree", "Disagree", and "Strongly Disagree" towards the statement were 33.33% (five student), 60% (nine students), 6.67% (a student), and 0% respectively. It means that the majority of students felt nervous and confused while they were speaking in front of the class.
Based on the data described previously, the data could be presented to the following table. From the table 2, it was clearly shown that 66.66% students would felt anxious while speaking English in the class and felt less nervous about speaking English in front of the class when they knew their friends. 73.33% of students fear of giving wrong answer while answering questions or statements during the class and felt shy speaking English in front of the class, 80% of students started to panic when they know the lecturer would grade them, 93.33% of the students felt nervous and tremble when they are going to be tested orally, felt pressure when the lecturer corrects their oral mistakes in the class, got nervous and confused when they were speaking in front of the class. In conclusion, based on the results gained from the statements, many students still faced several psychological problems in speaking, particularly anxiety.

Low of Self-Esteem
Through this indicator, the researcher provided five statements to be responded by the second semester students. The statement were "On the whole, I am satisfied with myself during the class", "I am able to speak in English as well as most of my friends", "I feel I do not have much to be proud of during the class", "I wish I could have more respect for myself", and "All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure". Moreover, the results found will be analysed to the followings. Statement 14. On the whole, I am satisfied with myself during the class This statement asked the students about their satisfaction towards their speaking skill. From the data, 13.33% or two students chose "strongly agree", 73.33%, 11 students, chose "agree", 6.67%, a student chose "disagree" and 6.67% or one students chose "strongly disagree". It can be concluded, based on the results, more than half of them satisfied with themselves.

Statement 15. I am able to speak in English as well as most of my friends
The result showed that the percentage and amount of students who chose "Strongly Agree", "Agree", "Disagree", and "Strongly Disagree" towards the statement were 6.67% (one students), 33.33% (five students), 33.33% (five students), and 26.67% (four students) respectively. In conclusion, most of the students felt they were unable to speak in English as well as most of them. While, there were few of them still felt they were able to speak English, compared to their friends. Statement 16. I feel I do not have much to be proud during the class The result showed that the percentage and amount of students who chose "Strongly Agree", "Agree", "Disagree", and "Strongly Disagree" towards the statement were 6.67% (one student), 26.67% (four students), 53.33% (eight students), and 13.33% (two students). It means that the most of the students declined that they felt do not have much to be proud of during the class. Statement 17. I wish I could have more respect for myself Through the statement, students were asked their personal judgments about their respects for themselves. The data showed there were 53.33% or eight students chose "strongly agree", 53.33% or five students chose "agree", 13.33% or two students chose "disagree" to the statements. It means that almost all of the students tended to agree with the statement, they wished they could have more respect for themselves. As stated by student 3 through the interview "the motivation statement should be given to us in learning and could motivate us to practice more. The result showed that the percentage and amount of students who chose "Strongly Agree", "Agree", "Disagree" towards the statement were 20% or three students, 73.33% or eleven students, 6.67% or one student, and none of student chose "Strongly Disagree". In other words, the majority of the students stated that they were inclined to feel that they were failures in following the class movement.
Furthermore, the recapitulation of the data would be presented to the followings, in Table 3.  Table 3 presented the result found from the questionnaire. There were 86.66% of the students who tended to feel satisfied with themselves during the speaking class and the students wished they could have more respect for themselves, 40% of them were able to speak in English as well as most of their friends, 33.34% of them felt they had much to be proud during the class, 93.33% of them inclined to feel that they were failures in speaking class.
In summary, from the students' responses towards five statements above, there were four statements which showed that most of the students did not have problems in their selfesteem. In other hands, some of them still tend to have low of self-esteem. The first problems they chose were unable to speak in English as well as most of their friends. This also supported by students' answer in interview, which all of them stated that their speaking have not fluent yet. Then, they felt they had not much to be proud during the class due to several problems. In addition, some of them also stated that sometimes they felt inferior compared to their other friends who speak English more fluently.
Finally, based on the data as mentioned before, it can be stated that the EFL students still faced several problems in their speaking skill, particularly in Speaking for social intercultural communication class. The data were analysed from students' answer on questionnaire then supported by their answer in the interview. So, the psychological problems that prominently encountered the students were low of self-esteem.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the EFL students at Universitas Islam Riau faced some problems in speaking skill, particularly in the subject of speaking for social intercultural communication class. The data were analysed from students' answer on questionnaire then supported by their answer in the interview. The psychological problem that prominently encountered the students was low of self-esteem; they were unable to speak in English as well as most of their friends. Then, they felt they had not much to be proud during the class due to several problems. Most of the students tend to feel they were failure, because they have not improved their speaking skills yet, due to several linguistics problems which encounter them at the same time. The data were analysed from students' answer on questionnaire then supported by their answer in the interview. So, the psychological problems that prominently encountered the students was low of self-esteem.