University Students Perceptions Of The Use Of Self-

Learning To Develop Speaking Skills For Under

Graduate Students

Author 1
Putri Camelia
[email protected]

Author 2
Fitra Ramadhani, M.Pd
[email protected]

Author 3
Hartatya Novika, M.Pd
[email protected]

Abstract

Putri Camelia, NPM 19210132 “University Students Perceptions Of The

Use Of Self-Learning To Develop Speaking Skills For Under Graduate
Students”.Thesis English Language Education Department of Teacher Training
Education, Islamic University of Kalimantan Muhammad Arsyad Al Banjari,
Banjarmasin. First Advisor: Angga Taufan Dayu, M.Pd.BI. Second Advisor: Neneng
Islamiah, M.Pd.

The purpose of the study was to know investigeting of speaking activities used
in study program enhancing students’ speaking skill: An Interview Study. This study
used an interview method. Data were garnered from semi-structured interviews. The
purpose of this study was to investigate the speaking activities used in the study
program to improve students' speaking ability: An Interview Study. This study used
the interview method. Data were obtained from semi-structured interviews. The
participants of this study were three English students in one of the universities in

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Banjarmasin. The result of this study shows the experience in self-learning to develop
English speaking skills.

Keywords: English lectures’ experience, teaching speaking, learning, speaking skill.

1. INTRODUCTION
Along with the rapid development of science and technology, humans are
required to be able to develop independently without depending on others (Douglas
C. & S.R., 2014). Furthermore, it has an impact on the way students learn English.
English is an international language and that is why being able to speak English is
very important and useful for us in this day and age for example for work because it
increases and expands job opportunities and opportunities, being able to communicate
with other countries.
Today's students cannot get a brief understanding of the subject matter by
simply responding to the teacher's explanation in class, but must also deepen their
understanding through independent learning outside the classroom. As a result,
students will have a better knowledge of the topic. Some students said that they found
difficulties in communicating by using English as a means of communication which
was influenced by the following factors, for example, students were embarrassed to
speak English because they were afraid of being laughed at by listeners or anyone
close to them when the conversation took place, the lack of vocabulary. (Zulfitri &
Nurlaili, 2020)
That is why self-learning is critical for student development speaking, self-
learning first became recognized when an expert named Zimmerman introduced this
notion in the realm of education in 1989. Dinata and Rahzianta (2016), Brown (2001)
has identified four aspects that students require: pronunciation; native and notative
ways of producing sound, fluency, ability to speak automatically and quickly,
vocabulary; critical aspect to convey successful communication, and accuracy; the
suitability of the language produced to the target language norms.
Self-learning refers to knowledge, skills, accomplishments, or personal
development that is chosen and created by someone utilizing their own efforts under
all circumstances and at any time. For example, the learner will improve his or her
speaking skills and be motivated to learn English Students use the internet, contact
teachers and friends, and seek advice on what they are studying in order to achieve
(Hakim L, 2019). Self-learning is defined as a mental process that is frequently
accompanied and supported by behavioral activities such as identification and
information retrieval. In self-learning, students consciously embrace responsibility for
making decisions about their goals and efforts, so becoming change agents in learning.
Advanced comprehension of self-learning an interview technique with which he
collected descriptions of the number, duration, and scope of learning projects of
various self-learners, according to (Smets & Wouter, 2022).
Furthermore, Ebadi and Saman (2017) defined a highly self-learner as one who
demonstrates initiative, independence, and persistence in learning; one who accepts
responsibility for his or her own learning and views problems as challenges rather

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than obstacles; one who is capable of self-discipline and has a high degree of curiosity;
one who has a strong desire to learn or change and is self-confident; one who is able
to use basic study skills, organize his or her time, set an a person who enjoys learning.
The necessity of self-learning to learn to speak is not only examined in the classroom,
but also outside of it. Because of insufficient time and a large number of students in
the classroom, this learning process if in the form of groups, chances are ample time
but not effective for others, because among groups who can talk only one or two
people. This time to learn to speak is not optimal and does not provide pupils
additional attention. As a result, everyone should learn English independently in order
to adjust to friends who can speak.
According to Rumkoda and Elisabeth (2022), speaking is essentially the
capacity to transfer ideas or concepts to other people through spoken language. A
child's capacity to talk is a developing language skill; speaking was only examined
once listening comprehension was mastered. The two primary skills in active language
and passive language are the division of the four English language skills. Speaking
involves using active language, and many people also claim that speaking might
involve some challenging speech in between the other abilities. One of the crucial and
necessary abilities that needs to be trained in order to communicate effectively is
speaking. Speaking allows people to understand the types of situations that exist in
the world. Individuals with speaking skills will be more adept at communicating with
one another and exchanging information. Context construction is the process of
speaking. In a similar vein, Oztürk and Mucahit (2021) contend that speaking ability
is defined as the capacity to communicate effectively in a variety of contexts, to report
events or circumstances accurately, to converse, or to articulate a series of ideas with
ease.
Additionally, according to Yuliani (2021), speakers use words to communicate
not only what is on their minds but also what the listener needs—whether it be
knowledge or assistance. Most people probably spend a significant portion of their
daily lives conversing with others.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Learning
Learning is a process of changing behavior based on experience and practice.
Learning is an activity that is carried out intentionally or unintentionally by an
individual so that there is a change from unknown to known. Learning outcomes can
be influenced by internal and external factors. Internal factors are internal factors
including motivation, intelligence, physical health, interests and talents of students.
External factors are social factors such as teacher learning methods, student residence
environment, and learning facilities. ( Dr.Gusnarib & Rosnawati, 2021).
learning can be defined as a change in attitude, experience, and practice. so
learning brings about a change in the individual who learns. this change is not only
about a number of experiences, knowledge, but also forms skills, habits, attitudes,
understanding, interests, and self-adjustment. (Feida, 2020).
Learning is behaviour change as a result of experience, a process of progressive
adoption modification of behaviour as a result of previous performance (Batia, 1997),

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 Therefore, Learning is an activity from not knowing to knowing. That is why
learning is very important for all humans.

2.2 Self Learning

Self-learning can also be called self-directed, lifelong learning, informal learning,
distance learning, personal learning, etc.(Pratibha, 2017). Webster (2016) defines self
taught as: "educated by your own efforts (such as by reading books) rather than by a
teacher", "learned by your personal efforts rather than at school".
Self-learning is a method of learning that emphasizes students intiative in
identifying their own learning requirements, creating their own learning objectives,
and independently assessing their learning achievements, self-learning begins to be
recognized when an expert named Zimmerman in 1989 developed this concept in the
world of education. (Dinata & Rahzianta, 2016), according to Humaira and Hurriyah
(2007). Hendry and Ginns (2009) concur that self-learning is a process of learning in
which students make choices and plan their own educational pursuits in accordance
with their requirements.
Self-learning gives students the opportunity to determine learning goals, plan the
learning process, use selected learning resources, and carry out activities to achieve
goals. (Budiman , 2020). The impressions and impacts obtained by students after
running self-learning include being able to foster self-confidence in working
independently and being able to be accountable in front of the class to share opinions
with other students. (Fitriatien & Mutianingsih, 2020). They all enjoy learning english
because they apply their favorite activities to study such as playing games, listening
to songs, watching TV, watching online videos on youtube, and watching movies.
From the activities they like, they can organize their learning activities to achieve their
learning goals. Their learning motivation can also grow if they learn through activities
they like. According to students views, the majority of students do learning activities
by watching videos in some media such as tv and youtube. (Yulianti, Miftakh, &
Fitriyana, 2021) .
Therefore, the current study audio-visual media is a favorite tool that students
choose in implementing self-learning.

2.3 Speaking Skills

Students' speaking skill is the ability most often complained by the teachers.
Because, they think speaking English was very difficult. Students find it difficult to
speak compared to other skills (listening, reading, and writing). Actually, it makes
sense because the process of speaking is done directly without much time to think
about what words are used, this will be worse if students feel nervous. Weak speaking
ability can be a time bomb that will explode at any time (Taslim, Asrifan, Chen, &
NR, 2019).
Speaking always deals with many things, this involves what someone wants to
say, choosing the right words from our vocabulary, placing words in the proper
grammar framework, communicating the feelings we have, and so on. Speaking is not
only about making sounds, pressures, and intonations but making every word or

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sentence that is issued by everyone has a specific meaning and purpose (Taslim,
Asrifan, Chen, & NR, 2019).
Meanwhile, the definition of speaking should be understood clearly. Hedge
(2000), “learning to speak competenly is a complex task. It involves the mastery of
grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency”. In addition Siahaan (2008), “the
spoken productive language is called speaking. It is skill of a speaker to communicate
information to a listener or a group of listener. Her or his skill is realized by her or his
ability to approach rules of the language he is speaking to transfer the information that
has in her or his mind to her or his listener (s) effectively.
Speaking is the ability to speak between someone to another one and someone to
many people. Speaking is another productive skill as in writing, we encode language,
though more rapidly. We have few opportunities to slow down or repeat without
sounding uncertain or foreign. In encoding messages into words, sentences and texts,
we have to use sufficiently clear phonetic forms that interlocutors understand us.
Furthermore, Schmitt (2010) stated is speaking is so much part of daily life that
we tend to take it for granted. However, learning speaking whether in a first or other
language, involves developing suitable and detailed knowledge about why, how and
when to communicate and complex skills for producing and managing interaction,
such as asking a question or obtaining a turn. One of the most important aspects of
everyday talk is that it always takes place in cultural and social contexts. We speak in
order to carry out various social activities and although we may not always be
consciously aware of doing so, we attune our language and the meaning we wish to
exchange to our specific purposes for speaking in that context.
From those theories above, the researcher concludes that speaking is
important to communicate with other people and it is used as media to show ideas,
opinions, thoughts and feeling to other. It is an activity between two or more people
which the purpose to share idea, information and knowledge. In order view, speaking
is fundamental and instrumental action. Speaker talks in order to have some effects
from the listeners. In addition, the best speaker always use the components of speaking
to clarify the information to be shared.
Therefore, speaking is tool of our communication so that it is important to be
mastery by EFL learners.

2.4 Challenges In Learning English Speaking

In the environment, speaking isn’t a tool for communication, and people will See
students’ proficiency in speaking in English (Ihsan, Muslem & Aziz, 2018). The
students, especially for stundents’ can not learn it fast. It should be step by step and
need to be developed (Ihsan, 2018).
There are some challenges faced by the students, such as lack of vocabulary, fear
of mistake and shyness, anxiety, lack of confidence, and lack of motivation. Lack of
vocabulary, this problem is the first challenge faced by students in learning speaking
skills. (Dewi & Jimmi, 2018) state that a lack of vocabulary is a condition when
students are unable to construct sentences due to limited words. Likewise, vocabulary
is an important part of learning English. Furthermore, Dewi and Jimmi (2018), stated
that students who lack vocabulary will have an impact on themselves when they want

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to interact and lack confidence. Fear of mistake and shyness, these factors are the
emotional feeling of the students when they want to speak in English. (Juhana, 2018).
Jin (2014). Additionally, the students can write their strength and their weaknesses in
speaking in english (Mahdi, 2015).
Therefore, we must learn it gradually and need to be developed because not
everyone can learn it quickly and the lack of material and its application and also the
lack of self confidence.

3. RESEARCH METHODS
3.1 Research Design
This research was designed by a qualitative interview study. The purpose to
choose a design was to examine students perceptions of the use of self-learning to
develop speaking skills for under graduate students. To acquire a thorough knowledge
of the participants’ experiences, the researcher will conduct semi-structured interview.
According to (Leech, 2002), semi-structured interviews have both benefits since they
are a blend of unstructured and structured interviews. During the interview,
respondents will discuss their experiences and have the opportunity to ask the
interviewer questions, allowing them to give a qualitative analysis with more relevant
information, such as their perspectives on crucial themes. And they are more at ease
explaining their replies during the interview. Furthermore, the organized portion of
the semi-structured interview provides the interviewer with an accurate and equal
qualitative result.

3.2 Participants
This interview study will be conducted on three English students at a university
in Banjarmasin. The three participant volunteered in this study where their names
were pseudonyms: Kate, Alexa and Liam, seventh semester students from Islamic
University of Kalimantan.
There are main reasons why the researcher invites them to participate in this
study,namely, students are people who can speak English fluently and have
experience competing in the field of English such as English debate competitions and
English speeches.
Researchers believe that by indetifying their experiences and struggles in learning
English so that they become great students (Iskandarwassit, 2008) And this will help
many parties improve their ability to be able to learn English better and become role
models for solving future problems in the learning system.
Demographic information of the participants.
NAME GENDER AGE SEMESTER COLLEGE

Private University in
Kate (first participant) Female 21 7
Banjarmasin

Private University in
Alexa (second participant) Female 22 7
Banjarmasin

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 Private University in
Liam (third participant) Male 21 7
Banjarmasin

3.3 Instruments
In conducting this research, the researcher used semi-structured interviews to
explore and identify English students in carrying out the self-learning. This semi-
structured interview technique allows questions to be flexible so that the researcher
gets an overview of the participants’experiences.
During the interview process, the researcher ensured the confidentialy of the
participants’ identities by ensuring that all names were not mentioned. During the
interview the researchers used the media offline during the interview process, namely
meeting direcly with participant before interviewing the participants, the researchers
first contacted them via the WhatsApp messenger to ask their willingness to
participate in this study. After they agreed, the researcher made an agreement on an
interview schedule to determine the time and date.
Interview activities were caried out face-to-face so that researchers could hear
and see participants’ reactions well which was in accordance with (Byrne, 2001)
which stated that the advantage of face-to-face interviews was that researchers could
see the participants’ emotional expressions directly. The time is adjusted according to
the free time of the participants based on their availability. The interview was
conducted in a relaxed atmosphere so that the participants felt comfortable sharing
their experiences. During the interview the participants asked for consent to record all
conversations that occurred. Three participants invited researchers to ask questions
according to data needs. The process of interviewing and confirming answers was
carried out twice for each participant. The researcher transcribed the recorded
interview data to facilitate the process of data reduction and coding. The data is then
reviewed to obtain important explanations emphasized by the participants. The
ambiguity of the imformation was later confirmed by the researcher.

3.4 Data Analysis

After collecting data by conducting interviews, the next step taken by researchers
is to analyze the data. Here the researcher does not force himself to only limit research
to efforts to accept or reject his assumptions, but tries to understand the situation
(understand the situation) according to how the situation exists, especially regarding
obstacles and effort to solve problems until they find their identity as prospective
techers. This analysis also shows that learning motivation has large influence on
learning achievement can be seen from changes in the results of personal input in the
form of motivation and expectations for success.
During the recording and transcription of the participant interview process, one
more thing that is also important for this process is that the researcher makes personal
notes when reading the transcript or while listening to the interview recording
(Heriyanto, 2018).
The researcher sent the interview transcript back to the participants via the
WhatsApp messenger for re-checking. If you wish to complete data that are deemed

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inaccurate or wish to provide further explanation a consistency of argument,
participants can return the transcript of the interview data.

4. FINDINGS
Based on thematic analysis of participant narrative, this research found five
subheading themes in the research findings namely: (1) what is your perception of
self-learning developing speaking skills? (2) what are the obstacles in self- learning
and how to overcome them? (3) what type of learning do you use in self-learning? (4)
what changes have occurred after undergoing self-learning? (5) what are the benefits
that you get from self-learning?
The researcher found that self-learning method was owned and applied by all
participant. They have good interest and almost all of them are interested in English.
It is based on some of their favorite activities such as playing games, watching movies,
listening to songs, and many more. Their enthusiasm for implementing self-learning
allows them to enjoy their learning activities so that their learning goals and strategies
can be managed well by them. Therefore, activities outside the classroom that they do
is to improve their English skills. Moreover, when students are aware of their own
learning needs and goals, they will be more motivated in learning English, especially
speaking skill.

5. DISCUSSION
This study attempts to look at the successes and setbacks experienced by the
students in conducting self-directed learning in learning English speaking.The
researcher found that among the challenges faced by the participants during self-
directed learning, there may be some barriers or challenges that can be overcome.
Speaking English fluently is challenging because we don't use English as our daily
language of communication.
Speaking is a productive skill. Speaking is inseparable from listening. When we
speak, we create a meaningful text. In communication, we can find speakers, listeners
and messages and feedback. In addition, speaking is also inseparable from
pronunciation. Speaking is very useful for children in the process of self-development.
However, many children feel unable to speak in public due to lack of confidence, not
mastering the material, or not understanding how to do it. due to lack of confidence,
not mastering the material, or not understanding how to do it.
Public speaking skills in children must be nurtured, trained and developed
continuously. (Nurcandrani, Asriandhini, & Turiatiati, 2020).However, with
awareness and the right approach, these obstacles can be overcome. There are several
barriers and challenges such as lack of discipline to remain consistent in self-learning,
difficulty in solving problems or obstacles that arise during the self-learning process,
and lack of motivation according to (Budiman, 2020). These barriers can be overcome
by applying the right strategies, such as making a study schedule, setting clear goals,
finding the right resources, and seeking support from the learning community to
improve the ability to speak effectively. Independent learners are those who learn by
finding their own way of learning. They have an open mind to learn new things, they

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are not afraid to be different. Independent learning provides opportunities for students
to determine learning objectives, plan the learning process, use selected learning
resources, and carry out activities to achieve goals. The impressions and impacts
obtained by students after carrying out independent learning include being able to
foster confidence in working independently and being able to be accountable in front
of the class to share opinions with other students. (Fitriatien & Mutianingsih, 2020).
They all enjoy learning English because they apply their favorite activities to learning
such as playing games, listening to songs, watching TV, watching online videos on
youtube, and watching movies. From their preferred activities, they can organize their
learning activities to achieve their learning goals. Their motivation to learn can also
grow if they learn through activities they enjoy. According to students' views, the
majority of students do learning activities by watching videos on several media such
as tv and youtube. (Yulianti, Miftakh, & Fitriyana, 2021). There are various types of
learning used in self-study, and the ones that are often used are such as monologues,
which is talking to yourself, imagining that you are speaking in front of a crowd and
also video tutorials, for example through tiktok or youtube, online courses, and other
forms of e-learning. Video or audio lessons can provide visual and auditory benefits
for better understanding. Knowing a language is always associated with the ability to
communicate in that language. According to (Celce-marcia, 2001), the ability to speak
a language is linked to language understanding because speaking is the most
fundamental of communication. Teaching speaking is also important because it can
help learners improve their speaking skills. Other language skills, such as vocabulary,
grammar, listening, and writing.

6. CONCLUSION
Many achievements and accomplishment they get because of self-learning such as
being able to speak fluently in front of many people,being able to participate in
competitions such as debates or speeches. According to students' views, the majority
of students do learning activities by watching videos on several media such as TV,
Youtube, or movies. Therefore, audio-visual media is the favorite media chosen by
students in conducting independent learning.( Based on the results and discussion
above, it can be concluded that all participants have been doing self-learning activities
since they were teenagers, although they themselves did not know about self-learning
strategies before. They all enjoy learning english because they apply learning
activities that they like such as playing games, listening to songs, watching TV,
watching online videos on youtube such as podcasts, and watching movies and also
monologues by speaking in front of a mirror and then recording it. And from there
they get a lot of new vocabulary, how to pronounce well and many other benefits.
From the activities they like, they can organize their learning activities to achieve their
learning goals, for example, it is easy to get a job, easy to communicate with
foreigners, and many achievements are achieved such as participating in competitions,
giving speeches in front of many people.

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