Systematic Desensitization Technique's Effectiveness in Reducing Public Speaking Anxiety in MAN 1 Pamekasan Students

Abstrak:


INTRODUCTION
Students are individuals who seek to increase their potential through the learning process in both formal and non-formal education. In the process of teaching and learning, students need teachers who always accompany and guide them. At school, the teacher plays an important role because the teacher is a guide for students. In schools, all teachers guide students in the teaching and learning process; teachers also help students develop their potential because a teacher is not only in charge of delivering material, but also guides students to become more independent individuals and helps students achieve what is expected of them. One way that is usually done by teachers to make students independent is by training students to have the courage to speak in public, because this is one way for students to develop their potential.
According to Tarigan, what defines speaking is the ability to use words to express feelings and convey thoughts or ideas. Meanwhile, public speaking is an extension or variation of a conversation, in which a person speaking faces a large number of listeners whose goal is to convey information in a face-to-face situation (Ririn, 2013). Public speaking is often done in schools, both in junior high schools (SMP) and in high schools (SMA). It's also often done by students, whether it's speaking to convey material or even important information. Public speaking is very important for students because public speaking can make students more independent and help students in the learning process. Many students believe that speaking in public is extremely frightening, and as a result, many students dislike speaking in public. Speaking in public often makes students feel nervous, anxious, and groggy. To reduce this anxiety, teachers must have a strategy for helping students speak in public calmly and confidently.
Anxiety is an unpleasant emotion characterized by physical symptoms such as worry and fear, which are sometimes experienced in varying degrees. McCroskey added that some individuals experience anxiety only under certain conditions. That is, there are general types of communication conditions that cause anxiety. The most common context is anxiety in public speaking, for example, giving speeches or presentations in front of the class (Komaruddin, 2017). Morreale, Spitzberg, and Barge define public speaking anxiety as anxiety or fear associated with anxiety that is felt in a real or imagined public speaking situation (Bayhaqi, 2017). Anxiety can reduce the brain's performance, memory, and concentration in students. In addition, the anxiety of speaking among students can also reduce creativity.
Anxiety experienced by students is usually due to negative thoughts that control them so that they often feel hopeless. People who have negative thoughts assume that the negative thoughts that arise are a reality that will occur, so it makes a person feel anxious and worried. Negative thoughts arise when someone focuses on the bad possibilities that will happen. It is part of an irrational thought whose truth is not certain. This anxiety can actually be removed by remembering Allah SWT, as explained in the Qur'an in Surah Al-Fath ayat 4: Meaning: "He is the one who has lowered serenity into the hearts of the believers to add faith to their faith (which already exists). To Allah belong the armies of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is all-knowing and all-wise (QS. Al-Fath: 4). In the quotation above, it is explained that it is He who has sent calm, namely peace, into the hearts of the believers so that their faith will increase in addition to their faith in religious law; that is, when one of them descends, they immediately believe, including the law of jihad. And to Allah belong the armies of the heavens and the earth. If He had wished to help His religion without you, he would have been able to do it because Allah is all-knowing of all His creatures and all-wise in what they do, i.e., He is constantly being like that.
For some individuals, speaking in public is an easy thing, but not for others. Some people will feel tormented, pressured, and at a loss for words when asked to do this. This condition is one of public speaking anxiety, where students feel uncomfortable when speaking in public. This is evidenced by the physical and psychological reactions of each student. Physiological responses appear as cold fingers, a racing heart, cold sweats, dizziness, irregular breathing, or even shortness of breath, while psychological responses are marked by a feeling of fear, difficulty concentrating, pessimism, and anxiety, and excessive worry (Hasanah, 2021). Speaking in public can be very frightening for an individual, as evidenced by physiological and psychological reactions when speaking in public.
When speaking in public, students often have negative thoughts about themselves, such as "I can't," "I'm afraid of being wrong," "I'm embarrassed," "I'm not confident," "I don't know," "I feel nervous," and "I'm nervous." This results in students experiencing public speaking anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and being unable to think clearly. This makes students unable to perform optimally when speaking in public. Even though students are encouraged to be active in class during the learning process.
Students who are anxious when speaking in public often have difficulty concentrating and thinking clearly, causing student learning to be hampered in the learning process; additionally, students who are anxious frequently experience insomnia and anti-social behavior. Judging from the negative effects that often arise from public speaking anxiety, efforts are needed to reduce public speaking anxiety in students, so that the help of a counselor or counseling teacher is needed in dealing with public speaking anxiety. To overcome public speaking anxiety, alternative assistance is needed in guidance and counseling with systematic desensitization techniques. This technique can be used to reduce public speaking anxiety ranging from low to medium to high levels of anxiety.
The systematic desensitization technique is a behavioral counseling technique that focuses on teaching or inviting the client to relax in order to relieve tension. The essence of this technique is to eliminate the behavior that is negatively reinforced and include a response that is opposite to the behavior to be eliminated. With classical conditioning, unwanted responses can be eliminated gradually. Thus, systematic desensitization is essentially a relaxation technique used to remove reinforced behaviors. Negatively, it is usually anxiety, and it includes a response that is opposite to the behavior to be eliminated (Mulawarman, 2019). With systematic desensitization techniques, students and counselors or guidance counselors work together to place feared situations in a hierarchy from the least to the most frightening. While in a relaxed state, students act out the less fearful behavior and then gradually move through the hierarchy until they can perform the most fearful activity, all while remaining at low emotional agitation. Systematic desensitization is a technique in which the counselor helps the client calm down by eliminating negative thoughts that make the client feel anxious and by inviting the client to relax. Based on the background described above, it is necessary to test the suitability of the theory with the reality on the ground. Researchers are interested in conducting research on the "Effectiveness of Systematic Desensitization Techniques to Reduce Anxiety in Public Speaking in Students of MAN 1 Pamekasan".

METHOD
This research is a quantitative research. In this study, we used a pre-experimental design because we did not use a control variable and the sample was not chosen randomly but was selected by purposive sampling, namely, selecting a sample with a purpose. The form of the design in this study is to use a one-group pretest-posttest, namely by using the initial measurement and the final measurement, so that conditions can be compared before being given treatment and after being given treatment.
The population in this study were students of class X IPA 4 MAN 1 Pamekasan, totaling 32 students. The sample is part of the number and characteristics possessed by the population. If the population is large and it is impossible for researchers to study everything in the population because they have limited funds, manpower, and time, researchers can use samples taken from representative populations (Garaika, 2019). In taking the sample, the researcher uses non-probability sampling, namely purposive sampling, which determines the sample with certain considerations. Due to a recommendation from the guidance counselor at MAN 1 Pamekasan, Based on the research title, the researcher will examine public speaking anxiety. The samples taken were from eight students who experienced public speaking anxiety.
In this study, the instruments used were public speaking anxiety scales and interviews. The anxiety scale in this study was used to obtain data about public speaking anxiety, while the interviews in this study were used as a supporting instrument in the study. In this study, researchers used a Likert scale. There are two types of questions on the Likert scale: positive questions to measure a positive scale and negative questions to measure a negative scale (Pranatawijaya, 2019). The data analysis technique used in this study is Wilcoxon nonparametric statistical data analysis. The Wilcoxon technique was used to test the different scores of the two paired samples, specifically the pre-test-post test results, to see if there was a change in anxiety levels between the pre-test and post-test.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Before the public speaking anxiety scale was distributed, the researcher previously conducted a validity test, which was distributed outside the sample by the researcher. In this study, the researcher determined the validity test using Cronbach's alpha, where if the t count was greater than 0.3, the anxiety questionnaire for public speaking was declared valid. From the results of the validity test, the 42 items on the anxiety scale of public speaking are valid. The results of the reliability test that the researchers carried out on 42 statements on the anxiety scale of public speaking were reliable. The results of the validity and reliability tests used SPSS version 25.
The hypothesis test used by researchers is the Wilcoxon non-parametric data analysis. Data analysis with the non-parametric Wilcoxon test is used to test the difference in scores between two paired samples. The purpose of the Wilcoxon test in this study is to see whether there is a similarity or not between the scores of the two paired samples. on the initial measurement, or pre-test, with the final measurement, or post-test. The results of the statistical test output show that the results of asymp. sig. (2-tailed) have a value of 0.011 0.05, so it can be concluded that there is an increase from the pre-test results to the post-test results, and it can be stated that the Alternative Hypothesis (Ha) is accepted.

Tabel 1. Hasil Uji Wilcoxon
Based on the results of interviews that the researchers conducted with homeroom teachers for class X IPA 4, BK teachers, and Pamekasan MAN 1 students, it can also be concluded that the Systematic Desensitization technique can help students reduce anxiety in public speaking. Evidenced by the results of the interviews that the researchers conducted with the homeroom teacher for class X IPA 4 and the BK MAN 1 Pamekasan teacher, who said that there was an increase in students who had attended the counseling process with the desensitizing technique, that is, students felt no longer afraid and embarrassed to speak in public and began to get used to public speaking, While the results of interviews with students of MAN 1 Pamekasan who experience public speaking anxiety and have attended counseling with the Systematic Desensitization Technique explain that when speaking in public, students feel relaxed.
According to research by Maisyaroh (2022), systematic desensitization strategies are useful for lowering anxiety related to public speaking. Research by Irmawati (2020), which found that students experienced a decrease in anxiety as seen in the mean results before being given treatment in the form of a systematic desensitization technique, namely 27.54%, and the mean after being given a treatment, namely 16.90, is another study that supports the findings of the research above.
In addition, this study also strengthens research conducted by Setiawati (2009), namely that cognitive restructuring techniques and systematic desensitization can be used as alternatives to student problems related to anxiety. The research was conducted on junior and senior high school students. From the two studies regarding systematic desensitization techniques to deal with anxiety at school, researchers can conclude that students' anxiety at school can be reduced by using systematic desensitization techniques at SMP Negeri 1 Kebun Tebu in the 2012/2013 academic year. Tresna (2011) claims that students typically feel anxious when dealing with subjects that are regarded as challenging and focused on achieving high marks; professors are assertive in their instruction; and students feel worried while dealing with tests. According to Wolpe (in Corey, 2009), anxiety can be brought on by situations in which the body and mind become tense when confronted with a problem.
The behavioral counseling approach claims that under specific circumstances, someone might learn to develop anxiety. As a result, regular desensitization strategies must be used to condition the body so that the fear disappears in order to lessen anxiety (Willis, 2004). The symptoms of anxiety include cold fingers, a quicker heartbeat, cold sweats, dizziness, insomnia, stuttering when speaking, and chest tightness. Although the symptoms are psychological, they include the sense of impending danger, the inability to focus, and the discomfort. Goldfried (in Abimanyu and Manrihu, 1996) states that systematic desensitization is learning skills to reduce anxiety, not just reducing fearful stimulation patterns. Thus, systematic desensitization techniques not only replace students' anxiety with things that are comfortable, but students can also master and control their anxiety. Therefore, researchers use systematic desensitization techniques to reduce student anxiety at school.
The anxiety levels of each pupil differ greatly as a result of the therapy outcomes. This is due to changes in each student's personality, anxiety symptoms, level of suggestibility, familial environment, and gender. Furthermore, the discrepancy in results is caused by pupils who are not ideal or have difficulties carrying out many movements during the application of relaxation. The difference in results is also caused by the level of imagination, as is the less relevant worry hierarchy. Wolpe (1969) identifies three reasons for the ineffectiveness of systematic desensitization implementation: (1) difficulty in relaxing; (2) a less hierarchical hierarchy CLOSING Based on the results of the research that the researchers have done at MAN 1 Pamekasan, it can be concluded that systematic desensitization techniques with group counseling services can reduce the level of public speaking anxiety experienced by students, as seen from the results of the hypothesis test of the non-parametric data analysis Wilcoxon test, namely the results of Asymp. Sig (2-tailed): 0.011, which means less than 0.05. That is, the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. There is a significant change in the score of public speaking anxiety, which can be seen from the difference in score between the results of the pre-test and the results of the post-test.
Future researchers that are interested in studying anxiety can look at other factors, including gender differences, age, personality, and others, as well as the environment at school. In order to pinpoint the precise origins of anxiety, future researchers can focus on it more closely. It is preferable to choose a specific location to conduct systematic desensitization for future researchers who are interested in the procedure in order to maximize the efficacy of the treatment. Future studies should also calculate the duration of desensitization in accordance with the demands of the therapeutic procedure.