Syarifah Farahdiba, Andi Asrifan
The objective of the research was to find out the speaking ability of the second year students of the Hotel Department of SMKN 1 Sidenreng Kabupaten Sidrap and to determine their psychological barriers encountered in speaking English in hotel simulations. This research used quantitative and qualitative methods for the research. In collecting the data, the researcher used four instruments, namely a speaking test, observation, interviews and questionnaires. A speaking test was used to measure the students' speaking ability and three others were used to ascertain their psychological barriers in speaking English in hotel simulations. Based on the result of data analysis, the students were categorized as poor in pronunciation, good in grammar and vocabulary, very good in fluency and comprehension. Moreover, in speaking English in the hotel simulation the second year students encountered some psychological barriers: (1) anxiety which consisted of some indicators, such as feeling nervous, feeling worries, having dizzy attacks and feeling embarrassed. (2) Emotional distress that consisted of feeling angry and afraid in speaking English in hotel simulations. The effect of those psychological barriers was the students had low motivation. They had no positive mood or motivation, and could not focus on conversation, even finding it difficult to produce speech. In conclusion, the speaking ability of the second year students of Hotel Department of SMKN 1 Sidenreng Kabupaten Sidrap was good. In speaking English in hotel simulations, the second year students of Hotel Department encountered some psychological barriers, namely anxiety which manifested itself in feeling nervous, worried, and embarrassed, and emotional distress shown by feeling angry and afraid. Two of the psychological barriers caused students to experience low motivation in speaking English in hotel simulations. © Asian EFL Journal 2015.
English Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, State University of Makassar, Jl. Dg. Tata I Blok. A No. 5C Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan, 90224, Indonesia; STKIP Muhammadiyah Rappang, Sidenreng Rappang, South Sulawesi, 91651, Indonesia
