4.

Possible reasons The reasons why this problem arose have been justified through writers preliminary investigation and are listed as follows: Firstly, the students language levels are different. Some of them are good at English, but some others are not. Their attitudes toward learning English are different as well. The more discouraged they get, the less they practice and the worse their speaking skill becomes. Secondly, some students are introvert and they are afraid of making mistakes. Though some of the students want to improve their spoken English, they are too shy to speak English in class. Thirdly, some of the students lack oral practice, as they come from a traditional educational background. They usually used to focus their attention on the language structure, not speaking when they were at high school. Fourthly, most of the students dont spend so much time to review orally what they have learned. They pay much more attention to written work. This has led some of the students to this belief that even practicing spoken English in class is a waste of time. Fifthly, sometimes the teachers instructions are not detailed or clear enough and the teachers methods in handling exercises perhaps lack variety.

6. Rationale for incorporating activities into classroom Many researchers in their studies have proposed that students confidence is enhanced through 1) increasing students communicative competence, 2) motivating activity, 3) non-threatening activity, and 4) providing a positive atmosphere. These activities and materials act as tools for accomplishing these purposes. Regarding the first factor, increasing favorable self-conceptions of L2 competence is one of the main factors to promote students confidence in language learning (Dornyei, 2001). Students may discover that as they acquire greater skill, their confidence will grow and, as they become more confident in their ability to speak, they will take advantage of new opportunities to speak, which will enable them to gain greater skill. The second factor is motivation which emphasizes basic human need. More specifically, the key to learning is motivation (Edge, 1993). Brown (2002, p. 17) points out, Motivation is one of the most important factors in your success in English. In the same line, I believe that

when students are interested in the activities (like the ones used in this study), they will be very creative in terms of speaking and develop intrinsic motivation to be life long learners in the future. Using learner-centered approach, the non-threatening activities in this study were one of the main factors to encourage students to participate in the class. This approach is a subtype of the humanistic approach which is defined by Richards (2002, p. 13) as: a. the development of human values b. growth in self-awareness and in the understanding of other c. sensitivity to human feelings and emotions d. active student involvement in learning and in the way learning takes place. The atmosphere for teaching and learning is also a major factor to promote students to learn (Baird, 2002). A good and encouraging atmosphere can promote students confidence in language learning.