The Difficulties Encountered by Non-English Department Students in Speaking English

As a communication tool, speaking is a study that must be learned by the learners because it is the most important factor in the development of English language skills. However, students consider this more difficult than other skills because there are various difficulties encountered by students in speaking English. The research purpose is to investigate the difficulties encountered by Non-English Department students in speaking English and their strategies to solve the problems. The respondents were 15 students from the sixth semester of the Civic Education Department, Universitas Muhammadiyah Ponorogo. The researcher collected the data by using a questionnaire. The findings showed that the highest difficulties encountered by Non-English Department students in speaking English were a lack of vocabulary, lack of confidence, and difficulty in expressing words and sentences in a direct speech. It was also found that the students’ strategies to solve these difficulties are as frequent use of various vocabularies, regular practice with friends, opening and consulting dictionaries, reading English text as possible, listening to English songs, watching English films, and discussing with partners.