SALIKA Pengarang Sastika Seli, S.Pd., M.A. Dosen Pembimbing 1 Ayu Oktaviani, M.Pd. Dosen Pembimbing 2 Maria Ramasari, M.Pd. Penguji 1 Sastika Seli, S.Pd., M.A. Ketua Penguji Yulfi, M.Pd. Penguji 2 SALIKA Contributor

This research aims to analyze the speaking barriers encountered by the second-semester students in the Public Speaking class at PGRI Silampari University, examine their impact on performance, and identify the strategies utilized to overcome them, employing a descriptive qualitative method. The findings conclusively show that students face dual challenges: Linguistic Barriers (e.g., limited vocabulary, grammar concerns) which function as initial cognitive triggers, and Non-Linguistic Barriers which are the dominant and primary determinant of poor performance. The study explicitly reveals the critical role of Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA), manifesting as chronic shyness and a crippling fear of negative evaluation, which results in cognitive blocking physically hindering students from accessing their existing linguistic knowledge, severely disrupting fluency and reducing active participation. To cope, students primarily rely on intensive individual rehearsal and repetition to build speech automaticity, complemented by seeking social support for anxiety mitigation. The study concludes that speaking proficiency in this context is fundamentally contingent upon emotional readiness; therefore, improving performance demands a holistic and sustained pedagogical approach where educators must move beyond targeted language skills and critically focus on creating an emotionally safe and supportive classroom environment to lower the affective filter, ensuring sustainable growth in student confidence, fluency, and communication effectiveness Keywords: Speaking Barriers; Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA); Public Speaking; Non-Linguistic Barriers; Holistic Approach.