This research was conducted to describe the causes of anxiety at the first
semester of English department student, Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto
in speaking. Survey was used as the method of this study. The subject of this
research were 31 students from the first semester of English department
Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto. Questionaire and interview was used to
collect the data. The result showed that there were 6 causes of anxiety among
students when it comes to speak in English, namely communication apprehension,
text anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, negative self-perception, speaking
activities, and competitiveness. Communication apprehension was the highest
cause of anxiety in speaking with 69,89%.