Students’ Stories of Speaking English in EFL classes: A Narrative Inquiry into Factors Affecting Their Willingness to Speak

Authors

  • Johan Ariel Suwito Banunaek Universitas Katolik Widya Mandira
  • Yohanis Nurak Siwa Universitas Katolik Widya Mandira
  • Elvis Albertus Bin Toni Universitas Katolik Widya Mandira

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37304/ebony.v6i1.23637

Keywords:

EFL classes, speaking, students’ willingness, narrative inquiry

Abstract

Although research on factors affecting students’ willingness to speak has been extensively carried out, most studies focus more on employing quantitative research methods by identifying the influencing factors through surveys or questionnaires. Moreover, research focusing on this issue within the Indonesian contexts is scarce. Hence, this study employed a narrative inquiry to elicit participants’ lived experiences with in-depth interviews to explore how four EFL students experience and reflect on the factors influencing them to speak in their EFL classes. The findings revealed that there are five internal factors affecting students’ willingness to speak, they are language anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, confidence, motivation, and self-directed learning.  Moreover, peer influence, teacher feedback practices, and classroom activities become external factors affecting students’ willingness to speak. And students’ reflect their speaking experiences as identity and recognition, narratives of change from elementary and junior high school to senior high school, and agency.

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DOI: 10.37304/ebony.v6i1.23637 DOI URL: https://doi.org/10.37304/ebony.v6i1.23637
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Published

2026-01-17

How to Cite

Banunaek, J. A. S., Siwa, Y. N., & Toni, E. A. B. (2026). Students’ Stories of Speaking English in EFL classes: A Narrative Inquiry into Factors Affecting Their Willingness to Speak . EBONY: Journal of English Language Teaching, Linguistics, and Literature, 6(1), 26–36. https://doi.org/10.37304/ebony.v6i1.23637