Research Article doi: 10.12973/eu-jer.9.3.967 European Journal of Educational Research Volume 9, Issue 3, 967 - 977. ISSN: 2165-8714 http://www.eu-jer.com/ Investigating English Speaking Problems: Implications for Speaking Curriculum Development in Indonesia Sri Wahyuningsih * Institut Agama Islam Negeri Kudus, INDONESIA Muhamad Afandi Universitas Islam Sultan Agung, INDONESIA Received: October 4, 2020 ▪ Revised: March 31, 2020 ▪ Accepted: May 16, 2020 Abstract: The present study aims at investigating some English speaking problems found by the students of English language education department at State Islamic Institute of Kudus and exploring some implications for speaking curriculum development of English language education department. This study used a descriptive qualitative approach and the data were taken from semi- structured interviews, observation and focus group discussion (FGD). The results of the analysis reveal that the problems encountered by the students in English language education department in speaking English cover the lack of appropriate vocabulary, the lack of grammar mastery, the lack of correct pronunciation, the lack of input of English outside the class, the lack of confidence and the lack of English speaking curriculum development. There have been some implications for developing English speaking curriculum. First, the curriculum of speaking should be well designed. Second, lecturers should design English speaking curriculum integrated by technology and social media that makes students to enrich some culture, knowledge and experience around the world. Third, lecturers should facilitate the English speaking curriculum with the English speaking community so that the students will have more chance to speak English inside and outside the class. Keywords: Curriculum development, English speaking problems, implications, Indonesia. To cite this article: Wahyuningsih, S., & Afandi, M. (2020). Investigating English speaking problems: Implications for speaking curriculum development in Indonesia. European Journal of Educational Research, 9(3), 967-977. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu- jer.9.3.967 Introduction The notion of speaking may seem interesting to discuss. It is crucial for students to acquire speaking skills for the purpose of communicative purposes (Iman, 2017). Speaking is normally imitative and reproductive providing students to practice patterns of language and communication (Becker & Roos, 2016). In spoken language, speaking has a crucial role in conveying messages which shows different characteristics from the written one. These could be seen from voice potentials, facial languages, signs, pitch, articulation, stress, rhythm and stopping. As a matter of fact, It may not be easy for beginners to speak English particularly EFL learners including the Indonesian undergraduate students of English language education department at the State Islamic Institute of Kudus. In this sense, they may find problems speaking English that seems complex than their first language. It is in accordance with Gan (2012) revealing that the problems that may be commonly encountered by the students are inadequate vocabularies, complicated structure, inappropriate intonation and pronunciation, lack of exposures in speaking English, lack of language curriculum development. In addition, there are other aspects needed in speaking skills which include cultural and social matters. These deal with the roles of participants, turn-taking, situations, and so on. Referring to it, teachers have played a vital role in developing the students’ speaking skill. It can be done by exploring practices in line with simultaneous communications. In order to enhance the communicative environment, a better spoken communication should take place concurrently (Talley & Hui-ling, 2014). Along with it, considering the significant types of interactions which cover the source, input of speaking, and feedback is meaningful. Regarding the speaking ability, the language anxiety especially speaking may be taken into account. Language anxiety is sorts of anxiety particularly related to learning foreign languages (Tsai, 2018). Further, anxiety can be considered as a negative emotion comprising of state and trait components (Diehl et al., 2019). In this sense, English language classroom activities are a source of speaking anxiety. Thus, it has correlated with students’ unwillingness to speak * Corresponding author: Sri Wahyuningsih, Conge Ngembal Rejo Street, Institut Agama Islam Negeri Kudus, Indonesia.  wahyuningsih@iainkudus.ac.id © 2020 The Author(s). Open Access - This article is under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).