AN INVESTIGATION OF OBSTACLES EXPERIENCED BY 8TH GRADE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT IN SPEAKING PERFORMANCEAT SMP SWASTA MUHAMMADIYAH 1 MEDAN

This study aimed to investigate the obstacles experienced by 8th grade junior high
school students in speaking performance at SMP Swasta Muhammadiyah 1 Medan
and the underlying reasons for those obstacles. This study used the theory of Ur (1996)
where there are four types of problems in speaking. The research utilized qualitative
methods, including observation and interviews to comprehend the obstacles
encountered. The analysis followed the Miles and Huberman modes with three stages:
data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. This study found that (1) There
are three main problems: inhibition, nothing to say, and mother tongue use. Inhibition,
the primary obstacle, involved verbal disfluency, facial expressions, voice
characteristics, and physical behavior. The "nothing to say" obstacle led to superficial
content and misuse of time, while mother tongue use, such as code-switching, was a
minor obstacle. (2) Several causes of those obstacles, including affective factors such
as anxiety, worries, nervousness, shyness, forgetfulness, confusion, lack of confidence,
and discomfort; linguistic factors, such as the fear of making mistakes in
pronunciation, grammar, and word choice, unfamiliarity with speaking in English,
difficulty in organizing words or sentences, and limited proficiency in English;
meanwhile performance conditions involve issues such as time pressure, lack of
preparation and external disturbances from peers.