Abstract:
Anxiety is a feeling where a person feels notconfident in one's abilities and doubts
about what will happenongoing. Therefore, this study aims to determine the types
and effects of anxiety and then investigate the extent to which the use of the
literature circle strategy can reduce students' speaking anxiety.This research was
conducted for students of two levels of English at a university in Ciamis. The
qualitative approach used in this study. Procedure data collection is observation,
and interviews. The findings show that there are four aspects of anxiety experienced
by students in this study seen from the way of influencing and divided into four
aspects of anxiety based on student experience, namely: worried because abilities
cannot be maximal and satisfying, nervous because of factors that are seen by many
people, afraid because they are afraid to do something. mistakes, and shame for fear
of being ridiculed or humiliated by their appearance. This study also found three
effects of anxiety experienced and demonstrated by students in their speaking
performance and from students' perceptions, namely lack of confidence, lack of
concentration, and lack of practice. Furthermore, students' perceptions of the use of
literature circles received a positive response and most students agreed that the
application of this strategy provided benefits and helped them to decrease speaking
anxiety. According to their perception, the results of this study indicate that
literature circles contribute to students' English speaking ability. Most of the
students found it helpful to use the literature circle method, students said that it
encouraged them to express and elaborate their opinions and also voice their
thoughts. So the conclusion that literature circles could help decrease anxiety in
speaking English with this fun method and also make them more confident in
dealing with their anxiety.
Keywords: literature circle, speaking anxiety, literasry work, case study.
