The Relationship Between Linguistic Intelligence and Students' Anxiety Toward Speaking Skill at Seventh Grade Class of SMP Islam Al Azhar 4 Kemandoran

dr. santi chairani djonhar, ma; elin driana, ph.d;

This research aims to investigate whether (1) the combination of linguistic
intelligence and students’ anxiety influences speaking skill, (2) linguistic intelligence
influences speaking skill in the presence of anxiety, and, (3) students’ anxiety influences speaking skill in the presence of language intelligence. The researcher focused the research on the relationships between linguistic intelligence, students’ anxiety, and speaking skill. This correlational research was conducted at SMP Islam Al Azhar 4 Kemandoran from March to October 2016. By using simple random sampling, 42 seventh grade students of the 2016/2017 academic year were chosen. There are three instruments in this research. First, is a linguistic intelligence questionnaire. The instrument of linguistic intelligence was developed from the characteristic of linguistic intelligence which consists of 15 characteristics which were made by the International Montessori Schools and Child Development Centre. Second, the students’ anxiety questionnaire was adopted from Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) made by Horwitz to measure students’ anxiety.
Last, the researcher used Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (SOLOM) to get the score of students’ speaking skill; this instrument is adopted from the Language Proficiency Handbook of Illinois State Board of Education. The students’ score of these tests were analyzed by multiple correlation and multiple regressions.
Based on the results of data analysis, three conclusions were drawn. First, the
combination of linguistic intelligence and anxiety does not significantly influence speaking skill. It is because students’ high or low level of linguistic intelligence and anxiety does not influence students speaking skill, other factors that contribute more on students' speaking skill. Next, linguistic intelligence does not significantly influence their speaking skill in the presence of anxiety. Finally, anxiety doesn’t significantly influence speaking skill in the presence of language intelligence.