ENHANCING STUDENTS’ SELF CONFIDENCE TO OVERCOME SPEAKING

PROBLEM

By
Nidya Andini Oktavia

Abstract
Speaking English in front of many people is not as easy as speaking Bahasa. It is because of
English is not native language of Indonesian. Speaking a new language can be an intimidating
experience, it happened with Indonesian students that have tried to speaking English in or out of
the class. Feeling nervous about communicating with words and sounds that unfamiliar will be
really hard to done. It will be hardest, if someone has problems. There are many problems that
can be disturbed. One of the problems is the problem with confidence. Speaking with confidence
is usually a huge problem for many Indonesian students. They unwilling or doesn’t have desire
to speak because they lack of confidence. They ashamed to be false and will feel bad if they do
the mistakes in speaking. So, building the confidence to make someone more confidence than
before is importance to be discussed. In this paper the writer offers an in depth discussion of the
ways in enhancing self confidence to overcome speaking problem, that happen in many
Indonesian students.
Keyword: speaking English, speaking problems, self confidence

1. Introduction
Speaking is a part of human life that cannot be separate form someone activity. It means
speaking is an activity. According to Thorbury in Nurlaila (2011:9) states that speaking is so
much part of daily life that we take it for granted. Everyday someone do speaking.
There are many time that spend by speaking. Because of most of someone’s time spend
by speaking. It cannot be deny that also found the several problems appear when they are
speaking. Problem is a question proposed for solution, anything which is required to be solved or
done, or a source of difficulty. The example of speaking problems that mention by Ur (1991:120)
are inhibition or they cannot freely to explore their idea, nothing to say, the low of participation
and mother tongue. Not only that, in classroom interaction there also found several problems in
speaking such as: students do not want to talk or say anything, students keep using their own
language, students have low motivation to learn English.
Although there are many problems that found in speaking, in or out of class, there are
many ways to solve it. Such as, try to use English every day in class, and or outside the
classroom. This can stimulate someone behavior to always use English as habitual even daily
conversation. Keep in touch with someone who likes English too, because they have much more
attention than to those who don't.
Create a small group to train English speaking, whether in class or outside the class.
Learning by doing is really important in learning to speak English. Sharing information through
the group, make small conversation, and check others error. This also can give extra additional
vocabulary to the persons.
While about problems in someone dialect, the solution is train the pronunciation to be
better. Find some videos, music, or authentic conversations in English. See or hear, then practice
the sounds that have heard in the source.

1
 The most important one it back to someone self. They have to have good self-confidence.
Whatever problems found in speaking will be easy to done if someone has a good confidence.
Confidence means someone beliefs in their abilities. According to Grubber (2010) state that self-
confidence is an attitude that you hold about yourself that allows you to move forward and
achieve your goals. Confidence is really important in some one life, not only in speaking but also
in every aspect of human life. confidence equals competence, confidence creates trust,
confidence helps us communicate, confidence helps us get what we want out of life, confidence
impacts the way we enjoy life, and confidence allows us to be comfortable in our own skin so
that makes confidence really important.
Someone who has good self confidence of course they can speak well. But not all
Indonesian students have hood self confidence. So that, it is important to enhance students
confidence in order to help them overcome their English speaking problem.
That is way the researcher offer this paper to solve that problem. This paper is to discuss
in depth the ways in enhancing self confidence to overcoming speaking problem. This paper is
compromised several sections. Definition of speaking itself, speaking problems, how to
overcome speaking problems, definition of self confidence, and the way of enhancing self-
confidence to overcome speaking problem.

2. Discussion
2.1 What is speaking?
According to Thorbury in Nurlaila (2011:9) states that speaking is so much part of daily
life that we take it for granted. It means that speaking is activities in daily life. In addition,
Brown in Nurlaila (2011:11) states that speaking is the product of creative contraction of
linguistic strings; the speaker makes choices of lexicon, the structure, and discourse.
Furthermore, Nunan (2003:48), speaking is productive aural or oral skill which happens
in real time, usually the person you are talking to is waiting for you to speak. It consists of
producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning. In conclusion, speaking activities in
daily life that is used to express one is ideas and process of choosing and using the element of
language. Moris in ayu diah (2007: 4) defines speaking serves as a natural means of
communication between members of community in which language is used both for thought and
as a form of a social behaviour.
According to Balley and Savage in Heinle (2001:103), speaking is seen as the central
skill. Widdowson in Nurlaila (2011:15) states that speaking is an active productive skill that is
commonly performed in face to face and occurs as parts of a dialogue or other forms of verbal
exchange. In Oxford Advanced Dictionary the definition of speaking is “to express or
communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc, by or as talking and it involves the activities in the
part of the speaker as psychological, physiological (articulator) and physical (acoustic) stages.”
So, talking about speaking is talking about communication, express the idea, feeling,
opinion and others, that will be change from someone to someone else. There is an idea that
will be changed from both speakers that involve in dialogue.

2
2.2 Speaking problems
In speaking, it cannot be deny that will appear the several problems. It will disturb
speaking activities. There will be several problems in speaking that mention by Ur (1991:120).
The problems are:
1. Student inhibition
Speaking activities require a student to have all eyes on him and exposure to an audience
can often give students stage fright. They may also be worried about making mistakes, being
criticized or losing face in front of the rest of the class.
2. Nothing to say
Another common problem is that students sometimes think they have nothing to say on a
particular topic. In reality, they may be bored or feel that the topic is unrelated to anything they
know. If this is the case, they will have no motivation to speak other than the fact that they
know they should be participating in the speaking activity. Students often lack confidence in
their speaking ability and feel they have insufficient language skills to express exactly what
they want to say.
3. The low of participation
There will always be dominant students in an English class making it difficult for more
reserved students to express themselves freely. Dominant students who interrupt frequently or
who constantly look for the teacher's attention tend to create an environment in the ESL class
where more timid students are quite happy to sit back and watch the lesson unfolding instead of
participating.
4. Mother-tongue use
Students who insist on using their mother tongue are students who are fearful of criticism
and need to be encouraged to speak English. Students must understand that they cannot revert
to their mother tongue as this will take away precious speaking practice time during lessons and
slow down oral progress.
Harmer (2007:345) also states that reluctance or unwillingness is a problem in speaking
activities. “Unwillingness or reluctant occurs more often which is the natural reluctance of
some students to speak and to take a part in speaking. In this case, students are often reluctant
to speak because they are shy and are not predispose to expressing themselves in front of other
people, especially when they are being asked to give personal information or opinions. Baker
and gerstain (2007:732) state there are many students have serious difficulties in speaking what
they practice for example, when they want to practice, their struggle with comprehension
problems seem aware of their speaking difficulties.
According to Emma (2010), she adds, there are several problems found in the speaking
classrooms, such as:
a. Students do not want to talk or say anything
One of the problems is students feel really shy about talking in front of other students,
they are suffer from a fear of making mistakes and therefore „losing face‟ in front of their
teacher and their peers. Speaking in front of other people needs courage, motivation from
inside, and outside such as joyful atmosphere in the conversation and interesting topic. Further
is because there are students who dominate and almost intimidate. Many people have a good
ability in English language skills but when they should communicate with English, they fail in
expressing their ideas. They are afraid and anxious of saying something wrong or

3
incomprehensible. One way to encourage students to speak in English is simply to speak in
English as much as possible in classroom.
b. Students keep using their own language.
One problem may teacher face is that students use their native language rather than
English to perform classroom tasks. This might happen because they want to communicate
something important, and so they use language in the best way they know. They have difficulty
to say something and because they do not want losing their face in front of their peers, they
think that they better use their native language and so others can understand them. This
problem also connected with students does not want to talk or say anything in the foreign
language but they keep using their own language. In this situation, teacher can create an
English environment and keep reminding them always use English.
c. Students are not discipline in classroom.
Some students do not pay attention to the lesson given; they just talk with each other and
make some noises. Some come and go as they like, as the teacher cannot control them. The
problems may be because the students bored with the activities or they feel unable to cope with
the task given. They show their frustration by disruptive behavior and loud outbursts. The
discipline of the students in the classroom is related also to the motivation of the students
themselves. If they have low motivation, it means they have low enthusiasm in following the
classroom which make them indiscipline in the classroom. In this situation, the teacher can
create activities that make students feel enjoy themselves in the class.
d. Students have low motivation to learn English
Nunan (1991) wrote in Lawtie (1999), success is measured in terms of the ability to carry
out a conversation in the (target) language‟. Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or
do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated
and lose interest in learning. Nevertheless, if the right activities are taught in the right way,
speaking classroom can be a lot of fun, raise learner motivation and make the English language
classroom a fun and dynamic place to study English. Their motivation is more likely to increase
if the students can see how their process of classroom learning achieves the objective, and helps
them to accomplish the success. The development of communicative skills can only take place
if learners have motivation and opportunity to express their own identity and to relate with the
people around them (Littlewood, 1981:93,). One key to increasing motivation is to use
activities matched to the personalities, learning styles and characteristics of the learners as often
as practically possible.

2.3 How to overcome speaking problems

Teaching English as a foreign language means being able to solve problems students
may have in acquiring certain language skills. There are a number of resources and activities
available to get round these common speaking problems. Ur (1991:130) also gives the
solution, the several activities that can help reducing speaking problems:
a. Group work
Group work increases the amount of time available for oral practice and allows
more than one student to benefit from speaking time. Working in groups also lowers the
inhibitions of shy students who are not comfortable speaking in front of the whole class.

4
 b. Easy language
Simple language makes it easier for students to speak for longer without
hesitation and gives them a sense of accomplishment. Essential vocabulary can be pre-
taught or reviewed before the activity enabling students to fill-out their speech with more
interesting sentences and rich language.
c. Interesting topic
Choosing a topic according to the interests of the class ensures student
motivation. If the material and task instructions are presented clearly and enthusiastically
students will be more likely to meet the challenge set for them.
d. Clear guidelines
Stating clearly what is expected from each student is essential in ensuring that
everyone in the group contributes towards the discussion. Appointing a chairperson to
each group to regulate participation is a way to make sure that dominant students leave
discussion opportunities open to more reserved students. Feedback reveals the results of
the discussion and motivates each student to follow the guidelines.
e. English monitors
A monitor can be appointed to each group to remind students speaking their
mother tongue to switch back to English. A lack of classroom management and discipline
will encourage students, who do not feel that there is resistance to their mother tongue, to
easily revert back to it as soon as they have problems expressing themselves.

In conclusion, try to use English every day in class, and or outside the classroom. This
can stimulate someone behavior to always use English as habitual even daily conversation. Keep
in touch with someone who likes English too, because they have much more attention than to
those who don't. Create a small group to train English speaking, whether in class or outside the
class. Learning by doing is really important in learning to speak English. Sharing information
through the group, make small conversation, and check others error. This also can give extra
additional vocabulary to the persons. While about problems in someone dialect, the solution is
train the pronunciation to be better. Find some videos, music, or authentic conversations in
English. See or hear, then practice the sounds that have heard in the source.

2.4 What is self confidence?

Confidence means beliefs, what someone believe to achieve may be called by confidence.
Self confidence is the term of someone that beliefs on them truly. There are some experts that
mention the definitions of self confidence. Grubber (2010) state that self-confidence is an
attitude that you hold about yourself that allows you to move forward and achieve your goals.
An article on self-confidence from the counseling center at the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign defines self-confidence as having a positive attitude, but with realistic
views. They note that a self-confident person has a general sense of control of her own life, and
can do what she wishes, plans and expects. Self-confidence means that even if things don't go
your way, you still believe that eventually, somehow, some way, they will.

5
 Oxford English dictionary state that confidence means having strong beliefs, firm trust or
sure expectation, feeling fully assure, having not failure, etc. Meshua in Nurlaila (2008) also
states some students might good have pronunciation and e at a high proficiency level but they
still preferred to be reticent because of the lack of courage, don’t have lot confidence / courage
will prefer to be quite rather than speak English.
So, self confidence is a positive attitude of someone. It is about someone beliefs of their
self that make them achieve better than other. What the other thing it is hard to achieve, the
person that have better self confidence will done it well.

2.5 The Importance of Self- Confidence

Self confidence plays the important role in many aspect of someone’s life. Not only in
speaking but also in many aspect of someone’s life. Confidence is the most important assets--
more important than skills, knowledge, and experience.
1. Confidence equals competence.
For example, take an employment interview, someone can have all the experience and
skill in the world but they still have to convince an employer that they believe they can do the
job. If your body language says otherwise, like not looking in people’s eyes, looking down, or
bad posture, you’re less likely to get the job.
2. Confidence creates trust.
We have to trust those that are confident. If someone doesn’t trust themselves to do a
something then why should someone else trust them? If someone doesn’t think that they can
succeed than no one else will take them seriously.
3. Confidence helps someone communicate.
Those who aren’t confident often have problems communicating in the work place and in
social situations or in the school. If you lack confidence, it’s difficult to speak in front of both
large and small groups. It’s also difficult to speak with conviction to your colleagues. It can keep
you from meeting new people and from meeting a significant other. If you lack confidence you
also have trouble telling people no.
4. Confidence helps someone get what they want out of life.
Someone deserves to be happy and get what they want out of life no matter what it takes
to reach their goals. But if they don’t believe that they’re capable of reaching them goals than
their own negative talk will actually keep them from reaching world.
5. Confidence impacts the way we enjoy life.
A lack of confidence can spiral into all sorts of other problems including poor body
image, disordered eating, fear, alcohol and drug abuse, procrastination, anxiety, and depression.
It can also motivate us to take our hatred of ourselves out on others in the form of bullying or
sheer isolation. Happiness and confidence are actually close friends.
6. Confidence allows us to be comfortable in our own skin.
Someone can tell a confident person from a mile away. They walk into a room and
people stare. But on the other hand, if you’re afraid to be yourself then no one will ever have the
honor of meeting the true you.

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2.6 The way of enhancing self- confidence to overcome speaking problem

There are several ways of enhancing self- confidence to overcome speaking problem.
Jonas (2010) mentions several ways:
1. Relax.
If you put too much pressure on yourself to speak English perfectly, you create excess
tension, and this will affect how you speak. Calm down so the words flow more easily.
2. Prepare.
Allocate a specific conversation topic to review each week. Focus on building up a set of
key phrases and vocabulary, so you can enter into the conversation more prepared. For
example, take the subject of music. Learn how to describe your favorite bands, explain a gig
or festival, and ask about other people's music preferences.
3. Practice what you know already so it becomes even more familiar to you.
Your confidence will grow as the English you know becomes second nature. Set aside at
least 30 minutes a day to repeat verb conjugations, difficult vocabulary or numbers, for
example.
4. Get English-speaking conversation partner and regularly meet up.
Slowly build your confidence with the same person so you can learn to relax when speaking.
Correct each other's mistakes, and exchange tips on improving your language skills.
5. Get an English teacher or take a course to get expert help in training your English skills. He
will be able to help you with the areas you struggle in, thereby building your confidence.
Meanwhile, Anderson (2006), give there are some tips to enhancing your confidence
while speaking:
a. Talk to Everyone.
“Talking to everyone” is one way to gain confidence in speaking English. It will
enhance ability in speaking and it will help someone to solve the problems when they got a
problem in speaking, such us inhibition, nothing to say, mother tongue, and etc
b. Speak as Much as Possible
Learning a language is just about like learning anything else. The more you practice,
the better you get. That’s worth repeating. Learning a language is just like learning anything
else. The more you practice, the better you get. There, that’s more like it. The more you
speak, the easier it will be to speak. The more you speak, the better your English will
become. The better you speak, the more confident you will be at speaking an English
language. This will be an incentive to encourage you to speak even more. Let’s think of
some of the natural ways you can speak English in your day. So then, make it your goal to
speak to one or two new people each day.
c. Believe to your self
Believe in your self you can do it. You can speak with more confidence. You can
learn English and become a better speaker.

7
 Not only that, being able to speak confidently in conversations and in public is important
to success and will gain respect. Here is a breakdown of the steps you can take to be a confident
speaker and overcome all of speaking problems that you have. Adding from online source that
some trick to increase self-confidence, they are:

1. The 3-second rule. When we speaking with someone, take 3 seconds before we respond.
This may seem awkward at first, but it gives you a chance to do a lot of things before you
say something you might regret. In addition to letting you think about what you’re going to
say, it also allows room for them to continue talking. If they feel uncomfortable in the
silence, you’ve gained the upper-hand.
2. Have a plan. Go into the conversation with a plan and think about the responses you are
likely to get. Play it out like a chess game. Where each move you make has an effect on
them, and vice versa.
3. Be comfortable. Use your plan to leave room for awkwardness on their part. If they feel like
they are fumbling for words and trying to gain your confidence in them, then you’re in
control. You have to be comfortable and relaxed enough so that you can say what you want
without feeling stupid.
4. Think about what you say. Take some time to think about what you’re going to say.
You’re bound to run into snags, but if you can recover well it will look planned. So take a
second and think before you start talking.
5. Diction. Enunciate and speak well. Make sure to pronounce your T’s. Try some tongue
twisters to improve your diction.
6. Use proper English. You will sound smarter, more confident, and feel better.
Colloquialisms are great for friendly conversation but not for confident speaking.

Body language also shows the confidence of someone while they are speaking. Beside
the suggestion above, here are some suggestions specific for body language when we speak with
interlocutor or in public speaking.

1. Don’t smile so much. People take smiling as a sign of warmth but also a sign of emotional
involvement. The more distant you are, the harder it is for someone to disregard you.
2. Look them in the eye. This shows confidence and makes the other person know you mean
business.
3. Don’t look down. People believe that if you are looking down you don’t know what you’re
talking about. They might also think you are lying. Fight the urge to look at your feet and
look into the other person’s eyes instead.
4. Show less emotion. The less emotion you show the more people are likely to really listen.
Now, this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t be passionate. Just don’t get crazy excited like
Howard Dean. Instead, use your passion to fuel your speech.
5. Don’t blink so much. Next time you’re watching a movie during a serious scene, watch the
actor’s eyes. If they are good, you will notice they barely blink, if at all. The more people
can see your eyes the more sincere they believe you to be.

8
 So, in enhancing self confidence, the speaker must pay attention from these points
bellow. Generally there are two points that should be done by speaker before they are speaking.
First, Make sure your body language and speech patterns match. If one is exciting and the other
dull this will confuse your listeners and make them feel unsure about what you’re saying.
Second, Practice. Practice your voice, speaking in front of a mirror, and practice with people you
are comfortable with. The more you do it, the easier it will come.
By speaking well and having your body language in check you will be able to speak more
confidently and be taken seriously. Use these tips in conversation, presentations, and every day
speaking and you will be respected.

3. Conclusion
Speaking is a part of human life that cannot be separate form someone activity. There are
many time that spend by speaking. Because of most of someone’s time spend by speaking. It
cannot be deny that also found the several problems appear when they are speaking. There are
several examples of speaking problems that mention by Ur are inhibition or they cannot freely
to explore their idea, nothing to say, the low of participation and mother tongue. In classroom
interaction there also found several problems in speaking such as: students do not want to talk or
say anything, students keep using their own language, students have low motivation to learn
English. Not only that, one of the biggest problems is the problem with confidence. They
unwilling or doesn’t have desire to speak because they lack of confidence. They ashamed to be
false and will feel bad if they do the mistakes in speaking.
Although there are many problems that found in speaking, in or out of class, there are
many ways to solve it. Such as, try to use English every day in class, and or outside the
classroom. Keep in touch with someone who likes English too, because they have much more
attention than to those who don't. Create a small group to train English speaking, whether in
class or outside the class. Sharing information through the group, make small conversation, and
check others error. While about problems in someone dialect, the solution is train the
pronunciation to be better. Find some videos, music, or authentic conversations in English. See
or hear, then practice the sounds that have heard in the source.
The most important one it back to someone self. They have to have good self-confidence.
Whatever problems found in speaking will be easy to done if someone has a good confidence.
Someone who has good self confidence of course they can speak well. But not all Indonesian
students have good self confidence. So that, it is important to enhance students confidence in
order to help them overcome their English speaking problem.
There are many ways in enhancing students self confidence. Such as, relax when
speaking, prepare your self to speaking, practice what you know already so it becomes even
more familiar to you, get English-speaking conversation partner and regularly meet up, get an
English teacher or take a course to get expert help in training your English skills, talk to
everyone, believe in your self, speak as much as possible.
Not only that, the 3-second rule, have a plan, be comfortable, think about what you say,
diction, use proper English, don’t smile so much, look them in the eye, don’t look down, show
less emotion, don’t blink so much. So the keys is practice your speaking every time, and be
confidently.

9
References:

Nurlaila Fitri. 2011. Factors Causing students’ Unwillingness to speak inlanguage Classroom (A
Study of the Eight Semester students of English Departement at STAIN Batusangkar)
STAIN Batusangkar: (Unpublished Thesis)

Nunan, David. 2003. Language Teaching Strategyology (Practical English Language Teaching).
London: Longman Publisher.

Lawtie, Fiona. 1999. Teaching Speaking Skills 2-Overcoming Classroom Problems. TESL
Journals. (www.teachingenglish.org.uk. being accessed on June 6th, 2009)

Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary, fourth Edition. 2008. Oxford University press.
Harmer, Jeremy. 1998. How to Teach Language: An Introduction to the Practice of English
Language Teaching. Addison Wesley Longman Limited.

Ur, Penny.1991. A Course in Language Teaching Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press

Anderson, Marc. (2013). Tips On How to Build Up Your Confidence When Speaking English.
[online] available: http://www.talktocanada.com/

Jones, Philippa. (2013). How to Gain Confidence to Speak English [online] available:
http://www.ehow.com/how_8131189_gain-confidence-speak-english.html

Gruber, Karl. (2010). The Importance of Self Confidence [online] available:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/138172-the-importance-self-confidence/

Importance of Self-Confidence in Becoming a Great English Speaker [online] available:

http://englishtrainer.blogspot.com/2007/02/self-confidence.html

Teenagers: Speaking: Why teenagers avoid using English [online] available:

http://www.Onestopenglish.htm

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