Inhibition in Speaking Performance Isna Humaera (Email) : Vol. 1 No. 1, September 2015 ISSN XXXX-XXXX
Inhibition in Speaking Performance Isna Humaera (Email) : Vol. 1 No. 1, September 2015 ISSN XXXX-XXXX
Inhibition in Speaking Performance Isna Humaera (Email) : Vol. 1 No. 1, September 2015 ISSN XXXX-XXXX
____________________________________________________________________
Isna Humaera
Faculty of Education and Teaching, IAIN Kendari
(email)
Abstract
Abstrak
Masalah yang paling sering ditemui oleh pelajar dalam proses pembelajaran
berbahasa adalah inhibisi. Inhibisi berhubungan dengan kecenderungan
tekanan perasaan dalam menunjukkan kekhawatiran, ketakutan,
mengedalikan responnya terhadap orang-orang, objek, dan situasi yang
masih asing baginya. Ada sejumlah faktor yang melatari munculya inhibisi,
misalnya kurang motivasi, keseganan, kepercayaan diri, bangga diri, dan ego
berbahasa. Inhibisi memiliki level yang beragam, bergantung pada jenis dan
penyebab inhibisi itu sendiri. Pengajar dapat mendukung peserta didiknya
untuk meredam inhibisi mereka dengan berbagai cara, salah satunya adalah
membuat manajemen kelas yang baik termasuk menciptakan hubungan yang
baik antara guru dan peserta didiknya.
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INTRODUCTION
will cover a simple explanation in understanding about inhibition, factors that cause
inhibition, level of inhibition, strategies to overcome the inhibition causes, and strategies to
lower inhibition. The elaboration of each item will be in the following paragraph.
Inhibition is condition which someone or students are losing face, worry about
making mistakes and afraid of the attention that their speech attraction (Ur, 1996, p.
121). Others, Kagan et all. (1988), pointed out that inhibition refers to a temperamental
objects, and situations. These describe that inhibition affect to students’ language
problems. Speaking activities require a learner to have all eyes on him; exposure to an
audience can often give learners stage fright. They may be also be worried about
making mistakes, being criticized or losing face in front of the rest of the class. This
results in their performance where either they make a lot of mistakes in spite of having a
Those arguments indicate that inhibition is important factor that hinder the
students in their language acquisition and should be solved by teachers and students
itself. The students with inhibition will be exercising self-control in speaking English.
Students with inhibition will protect their ego in language acquisition or produce
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According to Kurtus (2001), inhibit to speak come together with fear of mistakes
that will become the primary reason that students are afraid of looking unwise in front
of other people, then they are disturbed about how other will see them. Inhibition
makes students cannot do something. Ur (1996) said that students who are inhibited in
their speaking activity generally are afraid of making mistakes, losing face, and fearful
factors. The following paragraph will explain factors that cause inhibition.
Generally, there are two main elements that cause inhibition, cognitive factors
and affective factors. Clearly Mohseni and Ameri (2010, p.44) categorize source of
a. Cognitive Factors
1. Grammar
Thornbury (2006, p. 144) explained that grammatical structure was crucial in language
learning but it did not took up that grammar should be the starting point of learning. It
means that grammar is not the only one of language component that need to be mastered
(2006) points out that grammar is not only eventually focused on syntax but also how to
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acknowledging the grammatical rules, students can know the appropriate language use
where they are taking part. Other, Cook (1996) views that grammar is the structure
knowledge of language that the users possess in their brain (p.33). Students need to
Most students assume that in taking conversation or speaking English, they have to say
in right way with structured. Students’ grammatical judgment inhibited them to take a part in
a conversation because of afraid to produce some words ungrammatically. In line with Cook
(1996), Chomsky (2002) points out, speakers’ grammatical consideration not only retains for
the sentences that the students have said or heard before, but also retains for those that the
students have never said or heard before (p. 103-104). However, Thornbury (2006) pointed
out that grammar is language component that should be mastered by students but it doesn’t
teachers have to bring the students understand and aware that speak grammatically is not an
2. Vocabulary
highlights that vocabulary is amount of words that has meaning (p. 49). Students need
factors for language users both in receiving and producing language. Thornbury (2006)
points out that gradually students are emphasized to activate new vocabulary and
structures more freely and to integrate them into the language production. Furthermore,
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the knowledge of grammatical structure and vocabulary mastery do not guarantee that
students will be good language users. It needs production and implementation in the
process of learning. Becker (1997) said that students’ lack of vocabulary is the main
causes of students academic failure. Lack of vocabulary that faced by the students
make them cannot arrange a sentence, share their idea and build communication.
Hence, why vocabulary becomes one causes of students’ problem in speaking activity.
3. Pronunciation
interpret the speaker means. It is determining factors for language users both in
Students’ difficulty in pronouncing the words will affect their performance. They
could not say something to other people when they afraid in mispronouncing the words.
Teachers should familiarize students with pronunciation to enlarge their bravery in oral
that affecting students’ speaking (Brown, 2000b, p. 283). The variables of pronunciation that
affect students speaking are native language, age, experience, inherent phonetic ability,
identity and language ego, and the last is motivation and concern for good pronunciation.
b. Affective Factors
1. Lack of Motivation
emphasizes that high motivation is one component that prompts successful in learning
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and however, vice versa. Motivation certainly plays a very crucial role in learning and
teaching a foreign language. Grabe and Stoller (2003) say that motivation is an
important key to learn that has significant contribution associated with interest, self-
efficacy, involvement, and self-concept. Motivating means creating the need of the
students to learn and become actively involved in the lesson. Every student has their
own way to deal with their own knowledge development. If this happens the process of
learning and teaching will be much easier and full of fun. The students who are
motivated help their teachers in understanding teaching materials and can learn better.
Nunan (1999) stated that motivations concerns to the compounding of hope for
reaching the goal of learning the language and affirmative attitudes in the direction of
language learning (p. 232-233). The sign of success can be seen from students’ own
self-motivation to learn and to associate with knowledge. On the other hand, teacher’s
role is needed to support students on the right track in their learning. Cook (1996)
teachers are hoped to recognize the students through allowing for opportunities for each
them to gain in their own way. Teachers need to be conscious that they also have a
cover students’ motivation, they should cater for the difference of personality types in
2. Shyness
Shyness is an emotional thing that many students feel from at some time when
they are required to speak in English class. This indicates that shyness could be a source
Therefore, Gebhard (2000) points out that paying attention on students’ shyness is also
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quite important in order to help the students do their best in their speaking performance
in the classroom. This is in line with Baldwin (2011) statement that speaking in front of
people is one of the more common phobias that students facing and feeling of shyness
makes their mind go blank or that they will forget what to say.
This theory is also supported by some research (Nurdin, 2014) in which most
students fail to perform the speaking performance at their best. As they said, their
inability to show their ability in speaking is also influenced most by their feeling of
shyness. In other words, it can be said that shyness plays an important role in speaking
3. Self Confidence
students realize that their conversation partners have not understood them, or when they
do not understand other speakers. In this situation, they would rather keep silent while
others do talking showing that the students are lack of confidence to communicate. In
response to this, Tsui cited in Nunan (1999) points out that student who lack of
confidence about themselves and their English necessarily suffer from communication
teachers’ focus of attention. This means that the teacher should also learn from both
According to He and Chen (2010) the main cause of students’ confidence is their
low ability in speaking English. In this case, as they add, many students think that their
English is bad and feel that they cannot speak English well. The other cause of
students’ lack of confidence also deals with the lack of encouragement from the teacher
(Brown, 2007, p. 168). In this context, many teachers do not think that convincing
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students that they are able to speak English is important. As a result, as Brown adds,
students find the demotivating learning rather than motivating. This suggests that
Therefore, giving students’ encouragement and showing that they will be able to
4. Self Esteem
that the individual hold towards himself. Self-esteem is abstract just like it can be felt
but it cannot be seen. Self-esteem can make a person judge himself weather is good or
not before another person giving opinion on him. Everyone holds their personal
opinions about who they are. These opinions are at the heart of self-esteem and affect
someone feeling or values. Self-esteem is not static or fixed; someone beliefs about
himself can change throughout his life as a result of circumstance and experience. High
or low self-esteem that produced by students will influence their feelings and beliefs.
Students with lower self-esteem will not know what they have made, meanwhile the
higher one will know about their weaknesses and mistakes that they have made
(Chamorro, 2013).
role. Brown (2007, p. 156) points out that second language acquisition is influenced by both
intrinsic and extrinsic affective factors that contribute to the success of language learning.
Self-esteem is one of intrinsic personality factors. Afterwards, Brown explains that global
self-esteem derives from the accumulation of inter and intrapersonal experiences, and from
successful cognitive or affective activity can be carried out without some degree of it.
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Students perform well when they have high global self-esteem, or they may have a high
5. Language Ego
The other personal factors that affect students in second language acquisition
and performing their second language is language ego. Brown (2000b, p.16) states that
language ego is the way of someone in developing their personal mode of thinking,
feeling and acting in second identity. Language ego has positive and negative side in
language acquisition. Generally language ego brings negative side in second language
acquisition such easy create students sense of fragility, defensiveness, and rising of
inhibitions. Students sometimes feel silly when they are learning second language.
Students with lack of language ego will be losing face to face communication.
motivation, self-confidence and language ego even individuals with the most
remarkable abilities cannot accomplish long-term goals, and neither are appropriate
curricula and good teaching enough on their own to guarantee students achievement.
c. Classroom Interaction
environment. The interaction between learners and the teachers include asking question
and answer, guidance in language learning, and solving problem. Interaction between
learners and teachers that is not developed well become the cause of inhibition in their
speaking activity. Students feel uncomforted to share or asking the teacher’s help when
they find some difficulties in language learning process. Classroom interaction includes
how the teachers provide good opportunity to students performing their language and
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support system to encourage students’ interest and enable students to internalize new
values, develop important skills, and develop social responsibility. So, teacher as guide
Inhibition can appear form language testing. In language testing, the greater the
degree of students’ evaluation and the more unfamiliar the test tasks and formats, the
more the learner inhibited produced. Students also experienced inhibition when they
spend hours studying the material emphasized in class only to find that their test assess
Further, teacher and peer corrections are horrible thing that produce students’ inhibition
in language learning activity. However, for some students believe that assessment can
improve them. It is similar to what pointed out by Cohen in Celce (2001, p. 515) that
students face language assessment as a threat to their competence, because they are
afraid about lack of English performance. For this reason, teacher and other students
should pay attention fully to feedback or assessment that they provide for the students.
Level Of Inhibition
Nigg (2000) explained that level of inhibition affected by kinds of inhibition and
caused if inhibition itself. Kinds of inhibition are inhibition that related to cognition
inhibition more influence language learners than psychopatological inhibition (p. 220).
Meanwhile, Brown (2000a) points out that inhibition level are affected by students’
language ego and self-esteem. Hence, students with weaker self-esteem will maintain
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High or low inhibition that faced by students will influence their language
students in learning process than skill factors. The mental inhibition such lack of self-
confidence, learning motivation, anxiety, losing face of correction and shyness more
inhibit students in show off their personality even though they have comprehension in
Brown (2007, p. 155) state that learners with a weak self-esteem will feel more
inhibition to perform, and will put up barriers to protect themselves against failure. They
might not be prepared to take risk, such as making intelligent guesses or experimenting with
the language they already know for fear of making mistakes and subsequently feeling
embarrassed. This uneasiness is anxiety, the fear of not being able to perform to
expectation, expectation which may often be imposed by the learner himself. The negative
effect of low self-confidence, inhibition and anxiety on language learning may lead to non
performance, the denial to carry out certain task, as learners fear portraying an image of
ways to do it. Some experts have proposed several strategies to overcome inhibition
causes that can be tried by students to lower their inhibition prolem. In the following
ways, the students can try to solve their personal inhibition based on the causal factors.
pronunciation ability, the students can follow some tips as advised by experts. Porter
(2003, p. 1-3) proposed some ways to improve students box vocabularies. Firstly is
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using dictionary. Dictionary can be used by students to decide the words categorical, in
order to help them to understand the words, to remember them more easily, and to use
them correctly. Moreover, the students also can find the way how to pronounce the
words itself. Next, reading more. Through reading activity, the students can find the
new words in the text. Reading not only help the students to find new words, but also
how the words use in the sentence. The, write down the new words in different example
of sentence to help students remember its meaning and finally, note down any
Meanwhile, Green (2004) suggested listening to radio and television programs and use a
words three times by heard them frequently, read them frequently, teach them to others
Kondo and Ling (2003) proposed five strategies to reduce psychological factors
that perceived by students. They are preparation, relaxation, positive thinking, peer
threat by improving learning strategies ( e.g. studying hard, trying to obtain good
students subjectively estimated mastery of the subject matter, and hence reduce the
unconfidence. Typical items are “I take a deep breath” and I try to calm down”.
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reluctant (e.g. imagining oneself giving a great performance, trying to enjoy the
tension). These strategies are intended to divert attention from the stressful situation to
positive and pleasant cues, and bring relief to the inhibition students.
The fourth category, peer seeking, is distinguished by students’ willingness to look for
other students who seem to have trouble understanding the class and/ or controlling their lack
of confidence. For the anxious student, the realization that others are having the same problem
may serve as a source of emotional regulation by social comparison. The last but not least is
In the same way, Premuzic (2013) advised that to overcome the low self-esteem
that felt by someone, they can use; believe in one’s own, letting go on past hurts and
forgiving others, loving and accepting someone unconditionally, planning and setting
achievable goals in life, visualizing someone achieving and succeeding in life and
Scrivener (2005) suggests a number of things that can do to create a positive learning
atmosphere, and by extension, to establish rapport. These include: showing respect, being fair,
really listening to the students, giving clear, positive feedback and the last be being oneself.
Scrivener believes that those activities can stimulate the students to build good relationship with
other classroom members, and those also create a positive classroom climate.
Brown (2001) proposed that there are three tools for creating a classroom
climate that is positive, stimulating, and energizing. Positive can be build through
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LANGKAWI Journal of The Association for Arabic and English Vol.1 No. 1, September 2015
teacher and students, a relationship built on trust and respect that leads to students’
feeling capable, competent, and creative. Teachers can set up such connection to the
person’s progress, openly soliciting students’ idea and feelings, valuing and respecting
what students think and say, laughing with them and not at them, working with them as
a team, and not against them, and developing a genuine sense of vicarious joy when
management is creating rapport based on delicate balance between praise and criticism.
put it to use (Brown, 2001). The last is generating energy. Energy is the electricity of
many minds caught up in a circuit of thinking, talking and writing. Energy is an aura of
creativity sparked by the interaction of students. Energy drives students toward higher
attainment. Students and teachers take energy with them when they leave the classroom
demotivated. To overcome fear of negative evaluation students have to; try and take an
objective more wise in viewing of what happened, recall what happened, then making reflection
(Scrivener, 1994, p. 196-197). Moreover, Scrivener says that through those ways the students
will face negative assessment as something positive and values for their capability.
process. Strategies can be categorized as teaching and learning strategies. Stones and
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Morris (1972) define teaching strategy a a generalized plan for a lesson which includes
planned tactics necessary to implement the strategy. Meanwhile, Oxford (2003) defines
language learning strategies are specific attitude or thought processes that students use
to expand their own language learning. This definition is further expanded to include
“specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable,
more self-directed, more effective, and more transferrable to new situations”(p. 8).
to tackle a difficult language task used by the students to enhance their own learning
(Oxford, 2003, p. 2). Learning strategies can be classified into six groups, namely
cognitive, Meta cognitive, memory related, compensatory, affective and social. These
six strategies are divided by Oxford in direct and indirect categories. Those three groups
that belong to the direct strategies are memory, cognitive, and compensation. While
Meta cognitive, affective and social strategy includes indirect strategies (Oxford, 2003).
Teachers as the problem solver and as the researcher in the classroom have to be
creative in identify the students’ problem and find the way to solve those problems.
lower inhibition in speaking activity, they are group work and discussion activities.
Further, Ur explains that through grouping activity, the students or learners who feel
inhibited can express their though or feeling to other. Moreover, in grouping activity
the students will get more chance to speak than they learn individually. In this activity
the teacher cannot dominate the class and it means that the students will be doing more
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activity particularly speak to their friends. Hence, Ur stated that discussion as the other
identically designed to solve problems about related topics that students are facing with.
Linked to that opinion, under discussion, students can share their though and ideas to
other without depressed. In this activity, the students who inhibit can ask their friends
Alves (2008, p. 8) and Brown (2001, 2007, p. 146) state that to lower the effect
games, communicative games, do role play activity, simulations, sing songs, group
work, laugh together other students, and have the students share their fears in small
groups. Thornbury (2006) defines role play as an activity where the students pretend to
be someone else (p.98). Role play is a technique which involves fantasy or imagination
to be someone else in a specific situation for a while, improvising dialogue and creating
Based on definition above and related to Alves and Brown points of view, in role
play activity the students are expected to be more responsible in their duty. Further, Alves
explains that by using role play the students will be more active by sharing ideas to other
group members. Further, Brown (2001) explained that role play minimally involves (a)
giving a role to one or more members of a group ad (b) assigning an objective or purpose
that participants must accomplish. For example: similar dual roles could be assumed with
assignments to others in the group to watch for certain grammatical or discourse elements
as the roles are acted out. Or a group role play might involve a discussion of a political
issue, with each person assigned to represent a particular political point of view. Others,
simulations usually involve a more complex structure and often larger groups where the
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entire group is working through an imaginary situation as a social unit, the object of which
Providing students’ exercise and opportunity are important to give the students
(2000a) states that opportunity should be given by teachers that enable students speak
English. The teachers have to think beyond in designing speaking assignment that
covers the students’ proficiency level. If teachers give them time to do task that are
higher or lower than their level, they will simply become frustrated and demotivated.
Conversely, it is good to provide the students task at time that challenge them, because
if speaking tasks are always easy, they can also become demotivated, beside the task,
the teachers also have to think about opportunity for students to speak. If teachers give
them little opportunity, they will be inhibited and less practicing. Those are several
Even though the success of speaking tasks depend on many factors, the
following characteristics are common in successful speaking tasks (Ur, 1996, p.120)
In successful speaking, the students talk a lot in the target language. One
common problem in speaking activities is that the students often reduce one or two
simple utterances in the foreign language and spend the rest of the time chatting in their
mother tongue. Other common problem is that the teachers talk too much of the time,
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b. Even participation
Given the students equal opportunity in showing their personal ability should be
done by teacher. Even the students put in whole class or small groups, a successful task
should encourage speaking from as many different students as possible. The task
should be designed in a way so that the outspoken students do not dominate discussions.
When necessary, the teachers may interfere ti guarantee equal opportunities for students
of different level.
c. High motivation
learning. Teachers can do a lot to increase and maintain the motivation of students by
the types of tasks that they organize in classroom. Students are enthusiastic to speak,
when they realize that the topic is interesting or there is a clear objective that must be
reached. Again, great care should be taken to make sure that the task is in line with the
students’ ability to deal with the tasks. If the tasks are too easy, the students may think
In a successful speaking task, the language is at the right level. The task must be
designed so that students can complete the task successfully with the language that they
have. If the students lack too much vocabulary the task will become frustrating and the
students are likely to give up or take a step back to the native language. Hence,
teachers should take into consideration about language level that they will provide in
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CONCLUSION
Inhibition is one the most crucial aspects in language learning either other
related to condition which someone or students are losing face, worry about making
mistakes and afraid of the attention that their speech attraction will be loose. There are
some factors that cause inhibition, such as lack of motivation, shyness, self-confidence,
self-esteem, and language ego. There are also levels of inhibition, it refers to kinds of
inhibition and caused of inhibition itself. Teacher can support their students to reduce
their inhibition effect by many ways, one of them by creating good classroom
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