This study investigated the factors that cause students to feel anxious during impromptu activities in speaking class. Qualitative descriptive methods were employed. An openended questionnaire was used to collect the data. Nine students from class A in the second semester of the academic year 2019/2020 took part in this study. They were majoring in English education at one of Southeast Sulawesi’s higher education institutes, and they had speaking anxiety when performing impromptu activities in speaking class. The study’s findings indicated that students had feelings of nervousness, fear and worry, and a lack of vocabulary during impromptu activities. The findings also demonstrated their reasons for feeling anxious and how they overcame their anxiety. This research found that teachers used impromptu activity performance to create and provide a learning environment that made students feel less nervous about speaking in front of the class. Keywords: kwd