The Impact of Students’ Educational Background toward Their Ability in Speaking English

Educational background is a series of education, ranging from formal, non-formal, and informal. The aim of this research is to find out the impact of students educational background and school environment on students' speaking ability. There were 7 participants from the seven-semester of English department students batch 2017, they were purposely selected based on particular criteria. This research used the questionnaire to support the researcher in selecting participants and using a qualitative approach for data collection. From the result of the research, the researcher found the impact of students' educational background on students' speaking ability. The impact was more confidence to talk in English, have good basic knowledge of English and speaking skill, have more interest in learning English, and have more opportunities to practice speaking skills. Another results came from students' school environment that support students while learning speaking skill, these were particular school programs and learning discipline, have enough facilities and media to learn English, hire great English teachers, then supportive classmates and peers. Moreover, the students' stated there is a significant improvement in English knowledge that they feel when they continue to study in English language major. They also gained advantages from their educational background and their language learning experience.