English Language Education Department Students’ Perception towards Online English Speaking Activities during the Covid-19 Pandemic

In a speaking class, students commonly have a direct interaction inside classroom. However, due to Covid-19 Pandemic, speaking activities are carried out in online learning, and therefore students face various challenges because the learning conditions are different from the previous ones. The purpose of this research is to investigate speaking activities conducted in online mode both synchronous and asynchronous meeting and to find out the challenges faced by students. The researcher used qualitative method and used descriptive qualitative as research design, and used interviews to collect the data. Six English Language Education Department students who experienced online speaking classes during the Covid-19 Pandemic were involved as participants. The results of this research showed that the speaking activities learn by the students in online learning are virtual role-play, recorded master of ceremony performances, vlog video project, online presentation, and synchronous discussion. By all those speaking activities done with students can develop responses, develop students’ speaking skill, develop self-confidence, develop critical thinking, solve the problem, know to use formal and informal language, more involved in the online course, and students can express their idea or opinion. Furthermore, the challenges in online English speaking classes faced by students were a bad internet connection, limited time for activities, lack of speaking ability, laziness and unmotivated, an unconducive environment, lack of physical interaction, and no feedbacks from other students in synchronous meeting.