Difficulties in speaking English among the first-year students of English education study program of Nusantara Islamic Religious Institute Ashidiqiyah Lempuing Jaya

Difficulty speaking English, especially for beginner students, has become an ongoing problem.  Looking at this phenomenon, this research aims to see the difficulties in speaking English among first year students of the English Language Education Department at IAI Nusantara Ashidiqiyah OKI. What difficulties do first year students of the English Department face in speaking English? and what factors cause difficulty speaking English among first year students of the English Department? This research used a qualitative approach by choosing a place in the English Language Education Department at IAI Nusantara Ashidiqiyah OKI and selecting three students from the class of 2023 as participants in this research. Participants are selected based on recommendations from each lecturer who teaches the course. Regarding difficulties in speaking English, this study revealed four difficulties, difficulty in pronouncing English words, lack of vocabulary, lack of confidence, and confusion in using grammar. Second, factors that influence difficulty speaking English are lack of knowledge, lack of practice, audience attention, environment, accent or mother tongue, differences in writing or spelling, and finally lack of motivation.