Exploring the Students’ Challenges and Utilization of Technology in Their Speaking Strategies

Speaking activities in the classroom follow standards in their implementation to provide real results for students, including exercises or practices based on real-world communication, having students start speaking in public to build their confidence, and providing technology-based learning that allows them to do self-learning with more accurate exercises and feedback. This study analyzed factors that might hinder students’ confidence in speaking, using qualitative research methods. This study used a qualitative method, distributing an open-ended questionnaire. The participants were 30 students from one of the private universities in Semarang, comprising 12 males and 18 females. The data were analyzed thematically to identify students’ challenges, strategies, and responses. The research results show that students respond positively to speaking activities using technology, particularly when tools personalize practice, provide repeated exposure, and offer non-judgmental feedback, which helps reduce anxiety. However, the data also indicate several inhibiting factors, including fear of making mistakes, limited vocabulary, lack of speaking exposure in daily life, and performance anxiety when speaking in front of peers. To sum up, this study contributes to the development of practical speaking activities by proposing classroom strategies that combine real-world communication tasks, confidence-building exercises, and technology-enhanced learning. Therefore, this research provides several speaking-learning activities that can be applied in the classroom to build students’ confidence in real-world English communication.