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Farid Noor Romadlon, Roro Dwi Astuti. (2022). Affective Aspect and

Speaking Skill of the Students of English Education Program. Journal

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Eduvest – Journal of Universal Studies

Volume 2 Number 1, January 2022

p- ISSN 2775-3735 e-ISSN 2775-3727

AFFECTIVE ASPECT AND SPEAKING SKILL OF THE STUDENTS

OF ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM

Farid Noor Romadlon, Roro Dwi Astuti

Muria Kudus University, Indonesia

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Received:

December, 26

2021

Revised:

January, 17

2022

Approved:

January, 18

2022

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between

affective aspects (emotional intelligence) and the speaking skill

of students in the English Education study program, as well as

the relationship between fifteen elements in the affective aspect

(emotional intelligence) and the speaking skill of students in the

English Education study program. Sources of data from this study

were 120 students from the English Language Education study

program at Muria Kudus University. They filled out a Bar-on

(1997) Emotional Intelligence questionnaire which was used as

an instrument and an online interview whose results were

analyzed using Cambridge English Assessing Speaking

Performance – Level C1. The results of the analysis using the

correlation method show that there is a positive relationship

between the affective aspects of students' emotional intelligence

from the English Education study program and their speaking

skill. Furthermore, this study found that there was a significant

positive relationship of the fifteen elements in the affective

aspect of emotional intelligence with students' speaking ability.

In addition, the results of this analysis indicate that the affective

aspect can significantly predict students' speaking ability using

the Cambridge speaking ability assessment sheet.

KEYWORDS

Affective Aspect, Emotional Intelligence, Speaking Skill, English

Education Program

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, the ability to speak English has a very important role. Some experts

argue that the ability to speak is linked to anxiety. One of them, Tsiplakides, et.al., (2009)

states that students' anxiety in speaking foreign languages comes from their anxiety of

Farid Noor Romadlon, Roro Dwi Astuti

Affective Aspect and Speaking Skill of the Students of English Education Program 96

unexpected responses from their friends. Anxiety in foreign languages also results in low

speaking skills, which in turn will prevent them from actively participating in speaking

activities. Thus, it can be assumed that students with good affective aspects may not

easily feel anxious to speak even in situations that trigger this sense since they manage

the emotion well so that they can show better ability to speak.

(Shumin, 2002) states that speaking skill is also possibly influenced by some other

aspects such as motivation, confidence, and awareness. Related to the relationship

between affective aspects and speaking skill, students who felt, observed, and assessed

their affective aspects (namely emotionally intelligent) felt very competent to speak. A

number of studies have been conducted to investigate the two variables correlation

(affective factors-emotional intelligence and speaking skill) (Egloff, Schmukle, Burns, &

Schwerdtfeger, 2006), anxiety (Beatty & Friedland, 1990), confidence and motivation.

The affective aspect covers several elements including emotion, anxiety, emotional

intelligence, self-esteem, motivation, and empathy. One of the elements of the affective

aspect that becomes the focus of this study is Emotional Intelligence (EI). Many studies

in the field of education focus on this element, among others (Pekrun & Linnenbrink-

Garcia, 2014) (MacCann, Fogarty, Zeidner, & Roberts, 2011) and especially in English

learning (Pishghadam, 2009). (Mayer & Salovey, 1995) conveys that the emotion

visualization and the pertinence of supervision can be assisted by some abilities. This unit

of abilities calles as affective aspects (emotional intelligence). In addition, they perceive

this aspect as controlling emotions in themselves and in other people. They also use it to

encourage the motivation. Numerous opinions and concepts about emotional intelligence,

one of which is proposed by (Bar-On, 2000). He argues that emotional intelligence is a

non-cognitive ability and affects a person's ability to achieve success in the face of

environmental pressures. In addition, he considers emotional intelligence as the ability to

understand emotions and how they affect interpersonal relationships.

A number of researches have also studied the relationship between speaking skill

and affective aspect (emotional intelligence). (Bora, 2012) found that students who had

better emotional intelligence were engaged more in activities which involved mind. They

also spoke with better confidence sense and interpersonal aspects which make them better

in interacting with other people. Furthermore, Bora found that students who had less

emotional intelligence did not interact appropriately with other people. Pishghadam

(2009), also conducted research on the relationship between emotional intelligence and

students' English speaking and listening skills. The results showed a significant

relationship between the two. The five components that he focuses on, including

interpersonal skills, mood, stress management, and emotional intelligence are closely

related to students' speaking and listening skills.

Speaking is one of the important skills that must be mastered by all students. As

one of the main skills needed in the world of communication today, speaking is

emphasized on oral appearance. This is a productive skill that can be observed directly

and empirically. (Brown, 2004) states that speaking consists of several oral components

which are used as assessment as well. They are grammar, fluency, pronunciation, use of

vocabulary, and comprehension (content). These components provide a big role for non

native English speakers. According to Chaney, speaking is the process of constructing

and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in various

contexts. This is an important aspect in English learning. This is commonly seenas skill in

English as a Foreign Language classes. Oral performance is a priority in everyday

English communication. Intuitive speaking seems to be the most important of the four

language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) because a person who knows a

language is referred to as the 'speaker' of that language, as if speaking included all the

Eduvest – Journal of Universal Studies

Volume 2 Number 1, January 2022

97 http://eduvest.greenvest.co.id

other skills for knowing it (Ur, 2008). In other words, the learner's final product of

language learning is being able to speak the target language fluently. (Bygate, 1987)

explains that speaking skill mainly used in language learning. In linguistics or applied

teacher education programs, the knowledge about speech (speech act) also needed to

improve in learning speaking. It results the students’ concerned about strategies in

teaching speaking. It is begun from teacher centered learning to students centered

learning which had been improved put teachers as facilitators only in the process.

Activities in the class which involve more in the speaking tasks makes students have

better skill in communication in different situation, to different communicants, and

different setting of time. And it engages their speaking skill as well (fluency,

pronunciation, diction, intonation, etc). From a learner's perspective, speaking is the most

complex and difficult task among language skills because their preparation must include

knowledge of language and the skills involved in using it. (Wang, 2014) investigated

Chinese students in a new English class and the result showed that students felt to

improve speaking skill more than other skills (83.7%). This means that they still have less

speaking skill. Also, several studies have shown that Asian students have relatively high

anxiety in learning English (Na, 2007; Tsai, 2003). They are seldom to use English as

medium to communicate in the classroom or in daily life context. It causes low

confidence of the students which finally make them afraid to speak. This phenomenon

requires teachers to explore their thoughts so that students can effectively share their

views by speaking. One of the ways to improve students' speaking ability is by applying

the right technique for them.

The purpose of this study was to figure out whether there was a significant

correlation between affective aspects and speaking ability of students of the English

Education study program, Muria Kudus University, and whether there was a positive

correlation between the elements in emotional intelligence and the speaking ability of

students of the English Education study program. Muria Kudus University. As stated in

several opinions about affective aspects and students' speaking abilities, this study is

expected to give more emphasis and knowledge related to learning English, especially in

teaching speaking skills. In addition, the results of this study provide a reference for

developing students speaking skills.

RESEARCH METHOD

This research is an ex-post-facto qualitative study where the researcher

investigates the relationship between affective aspects and speaking skills of students of

the English Education study program, Muria Kudus University, and the correlation

between the elements in emotional intelligence and the speaking skill of students of the

English Education study program. Muria Kudus University. According to Gay in Sukardi

(2004: 166) correlational researches is one part of ex-postfacto researches because

researchers usually do not manipulate any state of the existing variables and directly look

for the existence of a relationship and the level of variable relationship which is reflected

in the correlation coefficient. Furthermore, (Fraenkel, Wallen, & Hyun, 2012) mentions

correlational research belongs to descriptive research because this research is an attempt

to describe conditions that have already occurred. In this study, the researcher tries to

describe the current condition in a quantitative context that is reflected in variables.

Questionnaire on emotional intelligence by Bar- on (1997) and online interviews were

used as the instrument for 120 students of the English Education program in Kudus,

Central Java, with a distribution of 105 females and 15 males to obtain the data.

Farid Noor Romadlon, Roro Dwi Astuti

Affective Aspect and Speaking Skill of the Students of English Education Program 98

Researchers used a questionnaire developed by Bar-on (1997) which consisted of

questions which were short sentences that assessed five elements such as mood,

intrapersonal, interpersonal, stress management, and adaptability. In addition, within the

five elements there are fifteen more detailed points on the affective aspect, namely;

flexibility, interpersonal relationships, happiness, problem-solving, independence, self-

awareness, self-esteem, assertiveness, self-actualization, empathy, impulse control, social

responsibility, reality testing, optimism, and stress tolerance. While the results of online

interviews were assessed using Cambridge English Assessing Speaking Performance-

Level C1. There are five assessment criteria which include Grammatical Resource,

Lexical Resource, Discourse Management, Pronunciation, and Interactive

Communication.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

After the process of recapitulation and calculation of the data, the results of the

questionnaire on affective aspects, namely emotional intelligence and students' speaking

scores, used Cambridge English Assessing Speaking Performance-Level C1 from the

results of online interviews were obtained. They can be seen in table 1 below.

Table 1 Student Speaking Skill Scores using Cambridge English Assessing

Speaking Performance-Level C1, how they respond to the questionnaire about emotional

intelligence, and fifteen elements of emotional intelligence.

Min.

Max.

Mean

Std. Deviation

Speaking skill score

120

1.50

5.00

4.31

1.22

Emotional intelligence

120

1.48

4.67

3.27

.62

Points in Emotional Intelligence

Self-actualization

120

1.14

5.00

3.28

.82

Stress tolerance

120

1.57

5.00

3.37

.83

Self-regard

120

1.44

4.89

3.21

.82

Emotional self-awareness

120

1.29

4.86

3.31

.83

Assertiveness

120

1.33

4.78

3.30

.74

Problem solving

120

1.50

5.00

3.38

.79

Impulse control

120

1.36

4.82

3.37

.77

Flexibility

120

1.30

4.80

3.27

.75

Reality testing

120

1.14

5.00

3.33

.80

Optimism

120

1.43

5.00

3.37

.83

Independence

120

1.50

4.88

3.28

.77

Happiness

120

1.56

4.89

3.44

.79

Interpersonal-relationship

120

1.33

4.78

3.37

.79

Empathy

120

1.13

5.00

3.41

.83

Social responsibility

120

1.40

4.70

3.38

.77

From the data above, the formulation of the first problem regarding the

relationship between the affective aspects of emotional intelligence and the student's

speaking ability was answered using the Pearson correlational formula. It showed that the

two variables were significantly related. This can be seen in figure 1:

Eduvest – Journal of Universal Studies

Volume 2 Number 1, January 2022

99 http://eduvest.greenvest.co.id

Figure 1 the relationship between the affective aspects of emotional intelligence with

students' speaking ability

Furthermore, to answer the second formulation of the problem, further analysis of

the relationship between the fifteen points of the affective aspect of emotional

intelligence with students' speaking ability are presented in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2 the relationship of fifteen points from the affective aspect of emotional

intelligence with students' speaking ability

The findings of this study show that there is a significant correlation between the

affective aspects of emotional intelligence and the students 'speaking skill. In addition, it

was also found that there was a significant relationship between each of the fifteen points

in the affective aspect of emotional intelligence and the students' speaking skill. This

finding is in agreement with the study of Pishghadam (2009) who obtained a result that

EFL students' emotional intelligence and speaking skill had correlation, as was the case

with Bora (2012) who figured out that students who had better affective aspect (emotional

intelligence) were more actively involved in class activities, especially speaking. Students

find it difficult to speak foreign languages, especially in front of public because there is a

sense of anxiety when speaking which can cause failure to communicate with the

interlocutor, especially with native speakers (Brown, 1980). He further states that EFL

students who have better emotional intelligence tend not to get stressed and anxious

Farid Noor Romadlon, Roro Dwi Astuti

Affective Aspect and Speaking Skill of the Students of English Education Program 100

easier (stress tolerance) and tend to be more flexible in dealing with indecision and

pressure (flexibility). These two elements of the affective aspect of emotional intelligence

are important because they can result in better speaking in general and speaking in

foreign languages at especially.

This means that students who are able to accept, observe, and control their

emotions in learning English work out in learning speaking, especially English because

their social skill is better where this element is one of the elements in the affective aspect

of emotional intelligence, and are more able to achieve success in dealing with

environmental pressures (Bar-On, 2000). Furthermore, he revealed that in addition to the

interpersonal element, stress tolerance and impulse control also strongly support speaking

skills. Therefore, learners who can handle stressful situations better and anxiety will

finally become successful in learning languages especially speaking.

This study concerned about the correlation between the affective aspects of the

emotional intelligence of students in the English Education program and their speaking

skill. A positive correlation between the affective aspects of students' emotional

intelligence and their speaking skill indicated the result of the study. It can be said that

students who understand and handle their own and others’ emotions (e.g. emotional

intelligence) have orderly speaking skills and can become better English speakers. This

finding answered the first research question.

The research findings also showed that the affective aspect of emotional

intelligence becomes a measure of assessment for students' speaking skill. Emotional

intelligence is recommended to be prioritized to help students improve their speaking

skill.

Further results that investigate the relationship between the elements in the

affective aspects of the emotional intelligence of students of the English Education study

program with their speaking ability show that there is a positive correlation between the

variables. Interpersonal relationships, self-actualization, problem solving, flexibility,

emotional self-awareness, assertiveness, independence, empathy, social responsibility,

reality testing, stress tolerance, self-esteem, optimism, impulse control, and good

happiness help students’ speaking skills, so that the resulting communication is better.

The results of this study are similar to those produced by Riemer (2002) that the increase

in students' skills in communication is correlated to different aspects of their emotional

intelligence.

CONCLUSION

According to the analysis of data findings from the study, the results show that

there is a positive correlation between the affective aspects of the emotional intelligence

of students in the English Education program and their speaking ability. In addition,

emotional intelligence can be used to predict students' speaking ability. The results of this

study also show that the elements of affective aspects in the form of emotional

intelligence have a significant relationship with students' speaking ability.

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