STUDENTS’ STRATEGIES IN OVERCOMING ENGLISH SPEAKING ANXIETY AT ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM AT BENGKULU UNIVERSITY IN ACADEMIC YEAR 20018/2019

Abstract: The aim of this research was to find out the strategies used by
the English Education Study Program Students in overcoming English speaking
anxiety. The research was designed as a descriptive quantitative research. The
population of the research was fourth semester students of English Education
Study Program at Bengkulu University in the 2018/2019 academic year. The
samples were 34 students. The data were collected by using a set of questionnaire.
There were 25 statements of anxiety strategies which consisted of five categories
of anxiety strategies proposed by Kondo and Ying-Ling (2004). They were
Preparation strategy, Positive Thinking strategy, Relaxation strategy, Peer
Seeking strategy and Resignation strategy. The result of this research showed that
the fourth semester students of English Education Study Program of Bengkulu
University used five strategies in overcoming their English speaking anxiety.
Positive Thinking strategy (M=3.21) appear to be the most frequent strategy used
by the students, followed by Relaxation strategy (M=3.12), Preparation strategy
(2.82), Peer Seeking strategy (M=2.50) and the last is Resignation strategy
(M=1.53). Furthermore, the average of mean score was 2.63 with predicate
“Moderate”.
Keywords: Students’ Anxiety, Students’ Strategies, English Speaking Anxiety