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such as motivation or enthusiasm and anxiety bind correlation with expected success. When the students were more enthusiastic and less anxious, they would
ensure themselves to succeed on the test. On the contrary, those who were less motivated and more anxious thought that they would fail.
2. The S tudents’ Experiences during Test Preparation and Test Taking
This section will summarize the interview result. The format of the interview invited the students to share their experiences during the test preparation
and test taking. In the end of the interview, the students were asked to reflect on their experiences and on what they thought and felt during test preparation and
test taking. The students were invited to give their opinions about TKBI test, the implementation of the test, and the benefits of TKBI test. There are some points
were identified from the interview, including self-efficacy, affective factors, frame setting, test format, test preparation, interaction with examiner, self-evaluation,
perceptions, and misbehaviors. Most of the students felt confident about their language competence.
They mentioned that they were ready and confident to take the test. They believed that they could pass the test easily. However, some students were not really
confident with their language competence. The students thought that they would fail because they had low language proficiency to pass the test. They felt nervous
that they would fail because they had taken the test many times, but they never succeeded. Students who felt confident about their language competence would
feel relax during the test preparation and test taking process.
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In the interview, the students mentioned that their readiness and feeling were affected by their friends. When their friends mentioned that the test was
difficult, it would affect their perceptions towards the test. They would think that the test was difficult and not feasible which might lead to failure. As soon as they
took the test, their perceptions might change. They mentioned that the test was not as difficult as what they thought, moreover, they could pass the test easily. Few
students still thought that the test was difficult to tackle because they failed to pass the test many times.
It was inferred that the students were fully aware about the test format. They knew that the purpose of the test was to measure their language competence
and the result would be beneficial for the requirement to earn their degree. Related to the test format, the students were well-informed that it would be in the form of
speaking test, while the rest expected that the test was like a standardized test. The contents were about their personal information, self-description, experience,
problem-solving, and job interview. All of which were included in SPK2. For the preparation, the students practiced their speaking skills in English
course offered by university in their early semesters. Several departments even offered TKBI preparation course to the students. The learning activities were
mostly like presentation, discussion, and interview simulation. In addition to English course in the university, some students decided to practice their speaking
skills with their friends from English department. However, during the preparation, some misbehaviors were found. Some students mentioned that they asked their
friends to tell them the questions. After that, they learned by preparing the
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answers and memorizing some useful vocabularies. Some students even did no preparation at all because they believed that their language competence was
enough to help them pass the test. When the students were asked to share their experience during the test
taking process, they said that the test was like a conversation. They felt like having conversation with the examiners during the speaking test. The examiners
would ask a question and they would answer the question as what they did in a daily conversation. Most students enjoyed the interaction and felt relax during the
speaking test although they might feel nervous at first. When they found difficulty in answering the questions, the examiners would gladly help them with the
vocabularies. Nevertheless, few students still felt nervous when communicating with the examiners. Although the test was designed as interactive communication,
they still felt that they were observed and assessed by the examiners. In the self-evaluation part, the students shared that they could improve
their language proficiency. Hence, they also improved their confidence to speak in English and raised their self-efficacy level. Some students mentioned that they
were dissatisfied with their performance that they still needed to improve their competence, such as grammar, vocabulary, and fluency. In the last part of the
interview, when the students were invited to give their opinions about the test, the students gave positive feedbacks on the test. They felt that the test was meaningful
for their lives because it motivated them to practice speaking in English. It gave them useful experience for communication and job interview. The test was also
important for their academic life and future career.
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B. DISCUSSION
