AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ SPEAKING DIFFICULTIES OF EXPOSITION TEXT AT THE ELEVENTH GRADE IN SMAN 5 BENGKULU CITY

This research aimed to investigate the students‟ speaking difficulties in expressing
their ideas/opinion during presenting exposition text material at the Eleventh
Grade of SMAN 5 Bengkulu City and to find out the dominant speaking
difficulties faced by the students. The type of this research is descriptive
quantitative research. This research used survey technique using closed�questionnaire to collect the data. The questionnaire was distributed to 77 students
of Eleventh Grade in SMAN 5 Bengkulu City as the subject of this study. The
questionnaire used to get the data about the students speaking difficulties in
explaining exposition text. According to the table that the researcher used to
analyze the students speaking difficulties in explaining exposition text, the
researcher found seven kinds of speaking difficulties based on Ur (1996)
collaborated with Raba‟ah (2005) theory, they are vocabulary, pronunciation,
confidence, idea/content, generic structure, language feature and social function.
The researcher also got the analysis result that show the mean range of each
statement in each speaking problem category. There are some problems found in
this research. They are “difficulties in memorizing and understanding English
vocabulary” and “difficulties in developing a topic of English conversation” that
reached more than 80%. Then, the problem “Difficulties in using others correct
language features (modal, linking verbs, action verbs, adjective) in Exposition
text” reached more than 70%. Next, there are two kinds of students‟ problem
reached more than 60%, they are “Feel unable to speak in front of many people
inside a discussion forum, especially in English” and “Difficulties in
understanding parts of the Exposition text.” While the problems “Difficulties in
using the correct intonation when speaking in English” and “Difficulties in
determining the social function of Exposition text” are reached more than 50%.
Keywords: Students’ Speaking Difficulties, Exposition Text,