THE INFLUENCE OF PEER PRESSURE ON VERBAL BULLYING IN SPEAKING AMONG FLSP STUDENTS

Speaking English would be a challenge to some people, especially if English is not their first language. Therefore, higher education English learners that are necessary to focus more on developing their communication abilities in their specific subject areas. Nevertheless, because of their limited familiarity with speaking English in everyday communication verbal bullying can still occur in The Foreign Language for Specific Purposes (FLSP) classes. This can be brought on by peer pressure in order to blend in with peers. This research focused on a study of peer pressure, speaking and verbal bullying in the context of higher education. Specifically, it aims to investigate the influences of peer pressure on the given verbal bullying among FLSP students in speaking class. Twenty fourth students from all majors of Faculty of Teacher Training and Education batch 2021, at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang were the participants. Descriptive qualitative method was applied and the technique of data collection was taken through semi structured interview and students’ open questionnaire. While the technique of analysis the data was analyzed qualitatively as suggested by Miles and Huberman (1984) they were data reduction, data display and data conclusion. The result of the study revealed that there were four factors contributing to verbal bullying in speaking class due to peer pressure: fear of being rejected by society, fear of deviant behavior, cohesiveness of the group and a desire for independent judgment. Furthermore, the study identified two main forms of verbal bullying that occurred in class during speaking activity: mocking pronunciation mistakes and name-calling.