AN ANALYSIS OF SPEAKING FLUENCY LEVEL OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITAS NEGERI PADANG (UNP)

Abstract

ANALISA LEVEL KELANCARAN BERBICARA BAHASA INGGRIS PADA MAHASISWA JURUSAN BAHASA INGGRIS DI UNIVERSITAS NEGERI PADANG (UNP)

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to describe students’ fluency level and to identify students’ disfluency factors at the English Department Program of Universitas Negeri Padang (UNP). It employed quantitative research method with the class of 2011 students as the research population. There were 25 students taken as the research sample selected through simple random sampling technique. The data were collected through speaking test and a survey with a set of questionnaire. In the speaking test, students were allowed to choose one of five topics provided and were asked to deliver short talks for 2 minutes. These short talks were recorded digitally. In addition to the speaking test, there were 20 questions with four options as the answers. These questions represented five main factors of disfluency such as task with high difficulty, absence of meaning-focused, lack of time pressure, deficiency of planning and preparation, and repetition nonexistence. The collected data were mainly in the form of transcription texts mined from the recordings of the short talks as well as the answers fronm the questionnaire. The results of the study show that students’ fluency level at the English Department Program of UNP is good (level 3). However, the information on disfluency which prevented them to get a higher score were also identified. Some of the main disfluency factors were task with high difficulty, absence of meaning-focused and lack of time pressure.

Key words/phrases:  Speaking, fluency, disfluency, disfluency factor

Abstrak

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah (1) mendeskripsikan kemampuan fluency mahasiswa Jurusan Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris dalam berbicara menggunakan bahasa Inggris, (2) mengetahui faktor-faktor disfluency yang mereka hadapi. Penelitian ini adalah penelitian deskriptif. Populasi penelitian ini adalah mahasiswa tingkat III Jurusan Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris tahun masuk 2011 Fakultas Bahasa dan Seni, Universitas Negeri Padang. Sampel penelitian ini berjumlah 25 orang yang dipilih dengan menggunakan teknik simple random sampling. Data dikumpulkan melalui dua instrumen yaitu tes speaking dan angket. Dalam tes speaking, mahasiswa diberikan lima topik  untuk dipilih dan diminta untuk menyampaikan short talk selama dua menit untuk kemudian direkam dengan menggunakan perangkat lunak komputer. Selain itu, di dalam angket yang digunakan terdapat 20 pertanyaan dengan 4 opsi jawaban yang mana semua pertanyaan tersebut mencakup 5 aspek penyebab utama disfluency yaitu difficult task, not meaning-focused, the absence of time pressure, lack of planning and preparation, dan unrepeated task. Data penelitian ini berupa transkripsi dari rekaman short talk dan jawaban mahasiswa untuk angket yang telah dibagikan. Dari penelitian ini ditemukan bahwa kemampuan fluency mahasiswa di dalam berbicara bahasa Inggris adalah good atau berada pada level 3. Faktor-faktor penyebab disfluency yang dihadapi oleh mahasiswa mencakup tingkat kesulitan, aspek meaning-focused, dan batas waktu pengerjaan dari kegiatan speaking fluency.

Kata Kunci:  Speaking, fluency, disfluency, disfluency factor