The Correlation between Self-Esteem and Self-Perceived Speaking Competence on EFL Students' Speaking Ability

This thesis examines the correlation between self-esteem and self-perceived speaking competence among final-year students of the 2022 cohort in the English Language Education Department at UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh, motivated by the observation that students who feel positively about themselves do not always demonstrate equal confidence when speaking English. The study adopted a quantitative correlational design using a census method with 130 respondents. Data were collected through the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Self-Perceived Speaking Competence Questionnaire adapted from MacIntyre et al. (1997), both confirmed as valid and reliable (RSES α = 0.812; SPCC α = 0.874), and analyzed through SPSS using descriptive statistics, normality testing, and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation. The findings revealed that 94.6% of participants demonstrated high self-esteem with a mean of 31.76, while self-perceived speaking competence averaged only 47.01, placing most students at a moderate confidence level. The Pearson correlation produced r = 0.154 and p = 0.081, indicating a very weak and statistically insignificant relationship, leading to the acceptance of the null hypothesis. These results suggest that self-esteem alone does not reliably predict speaking confidence among EFL learners, and that factors such as language anxiety, frequency of practice, classroom environment, and actual linguistic proficiency, may carry greater influence on how students perceive their own speaking ability.