Students’ Perception Toward the Implementation of Speech Training
Speech anxiety becomes one of the obstacles for the students to enhance their speaking competence. The students felt afraid of speaking in public because the students were apprehansion to make mistakes, gain negative evaluation and less preparation in giving speech. Thus, this study was designed to know students’ perception toward the implementation of speech training in improving students’ speaking competence and reducing speech anxiety. This study used descriptive qualitative. The population of this study is fourth semester students in academic year of 2015/2016 of English Department in one of the private universities at Kendari. The number of the students was 38. The instruments of this study were anxiety test, observation checklist, interview guideline and note taking. The data were analyzed qualitatively. The findings of this study were the students had positive response or attitude to the implementation of Speech Training. Based on the interview and observation guideline, the students were enthusiastic in joining speech training and they feel better in giving speech in front of many people. Besides, most of the students weren't anxious anymore, even though some students were still awkward in giving speech. Thus, the students assume that speech training could alleviate their speech anxiety and improve their speaking competence.