Silent Classrooms: Investigating Passivity in English Speaking Among Students

This study aims to pinpoint the root reasons of students' passivity as well as the methods they take to combat it. A Google Forms-distributed questionnaire was used to gather the data for this investigation. Small-group conversations were used to confirm the respondents' responses. The results suggest the following: Technical issues: The respondents somewhat concur that poor sentence structure and poor pronunciation contribute to their passivity in class; Internal issues: The interviewees overwhelmingly concur that internal factors like anxiety, insecurity, and fear of making errors cause their passivity. They also moderately agree that peer pressure is a contributing factor; and Environmental factors: The respondents strongly agree that motivation, or the lack thereof, influences their passiveness. They moderately agree that the frequency of using the language and the availability of practice opportunities impact their level of passiveness. Regarding the strategies used to overcome passiveness in the classroom, the findings are as follows: The respondents heavily rely on translation when answering questions, while they moderately use it when organizing ideas and writing responses; they frequently employ hand gestures and facial expressions to convey their ideas; extensively use English movies, reading English books, and watching English classes on social media platforms to develop their speaking skills; and they commonly engage in self-talk and conversations with peers, while rarely engage in conversations with English-speaking individuals and provide comments during class discussions.