The Correlation between Motivation and Language Achievement (Receptive skills and Productive skills)

The Correlation between Motivation and Language Achievement (Receptive skills and Productive skills)

Motivation is very important in learning because learning will be more effective and efficient if it is pushed by motivation. According to Yu-mei (2009), motivation is one of several important factors that  may influence students’ English achievement. Learners’ motivation has been widely accepted as a key factor which influences the rate and success of second/foreign language learning (Ellis, 1994;  Mcdonough,  1983).  Among  the  factors influencing students’ learning, motivation is thought to be an important reason for different achievement. Motivation is a very important factor which determines the success or failure in second language learning because motivation   can directly influence the frequency of using learning strategies, will power of learning, goal setting, and the achievement in learning (Li & Pan, 2009. Huit (2001:1) says that “motivation refers to internal state (sometimes described as a need, desire, or want) that serves to activate or energize behavior and give it direction”. According to David McClelland (1985) in Hamacheck (1994:276), “Motivation is associated with a need for achievement”. It is stated in Oxford and Shearin (1994:12) that “motivation is an inner power that determines successful learning activity”. And Yufrizal (2001:150) states that “motivation is very important in language learning as in other field of human learning”. In other words, motivation can influence language achievement. There are two kinds of language skills. They are receptive skills and productive skills. Listening and reading are included in receptive skills, because learners do not need to produce language to do these, they just receive and understand it. Receptive skills are known as passive skills. In other hand, there are speaking and writing which are included in productive skills, because learners doing these need to produce language. They are also known as active skills. They can be compared with the receptive skills of listening and reading but both of them naturally supporting another.

From the research, there are findings as follow:

a.    The correlation between motivation and receptive skills.

r is 0.70

p is 0.03

Coefficient correlation (r)

r means coeffisient correlation. The result of calculation for the hypothesis shows that the coefficient correlation is 0.70 which is classified into high correlation. Setiadi (2006:167) states the interpretation of the correlation coefficient (r) is as follow:

·         between 0,800 to 1,00 = Very high correlation

·         between 0,600 to 0,800 = High correlation

·         between 0,400 to 0,600 = Moderate correlation

·         between 0,200 to 0,400 = Low correlation

·         between 0,00 to 0,200 = Very low correlation

Based on the results discussed above, the coefficient correlation found is 0.70. This proves that there is high positive relation between students’ motivation in learning English and their receptive skills (listening and reading skills). It means that the higher the students’ motivation is, the higher their receptive skills (listening and reading skills) achievement will be.

Regression

r= 0.70

r² = 0,70² = 0,49 = 49%

It means that motivation gives contribution as 49% towards the students’ receptive skills (listening and reading skills) achievement. So, 49% of motivation and receptive skills achievement are concerned each other.

Significant value (p)

p= 0,03

Setiadi (2006:97) says that p or significant level is the trust level to reject null hypothesis (H₀). In the research, it has been approved that 0.05, 0.01, and 0.001 as alpha level to reject Ho. The standard level of significance used to justify a claim of a statistically significant effect is 0.05. It was Fisher who suggested giving 0.05 its special status. Page 44 of the 13th edition of SMRW, describing the standard normal distribution, states that the value for which p=0.05, or 1 in 20, is 1.96 or nearly 2; it is convenient to take this point as a limit in judging whether a deviation ought to be considered significant or not.

The findings shows that the significant level is 0.03. It means that from 100 possibilities of rejecting H₀, there are 3 possibilities (3%) to be mistakes and 97 possibilities (97%) to be true. In other words, p=0.03 or p<0.05 means the null hypothesis (H₀) is rejected and the research hypothesis (H₁) is accepted. It can be said that motivation is significantly correlated with English learning achievement at the level of 0.05. So, this research verifies that there is influence of students’ motivation toward their listening and reading skills (recepive skills).

From the research findings, we may make some analysis. First, motivation is important aspect in receptive skills (listening and reading skills) because it pushes students to listen and read. Moreover, motivation is also useful to force the students to achieve their goal both in listening and reading. In short, by having high motivation one will listen and read, then it will affect on his/her achievement of listening and reading (receptive skills).

It means the results support the theory of motivation that stated by Huit (2001:1) who says “motivation refers to an internal state that serves to activate or energize behavior and give it direction”. And, the result also proves that what Hamacheck (1994:276) has said about the function of motivation is true.

b.    The correlation between motivation and productive skills.

r is 0.50

p is 0.17

Coefficient correlation (r)

The sign of the correlation coefficient determines whether the correlation is positive or negative. The magnitude of the correlation coefficient determines the strength of the correlation. Although there are no hard and fast rules for describing correlational strength, I [hesitatingly] offer these guidelines:

0 < |r| < .3               weak correlation

.3 < |r| < .7              moderate correlation

|r| > 0.7                   strong correlation

(http://www.sjsu.edu/facultygerstman/StattPrimer/correlation.pdf)

The result of calculation for the hypothesis shows that the coefficient correlation is 0.50 which is classified into moderate possitive correlation.

This shows that there is moderate relation between students’ motivation in learning English and their productive skills (speaking and writing skills) achievement.

Regression

r= 0.50

r² = 0,50² = 0,25 = 25%

It means that motivation gives contribution as 25% towards the students’ productive skills (speaking and writing skills) achievement. So, motivation is not too influential towards students’ productive skill achievement.

Significant value (p)

p=0.17

Fisher viewed P values more as measures of the evidence against a hypotheses. In statistical hypothesis testing, the p-value is the probability of obtaining a test statistic at least as extreme as the one that was actually observed, assuming that the null hypothesis is true. One often "rejects the null hypothesis" when the p-value is less than the significance level α (Greek alpha), which is often 0.05. When the null hypothesis is rejected, the result is said to be statistically significant.

p=0.17 or p>0.05 means that the chance of error in testing is 17% from 100%. In other words, the null hypothesis (H₀)  is accepted and research hypothesis (H₁) is rejected. It means that there is no significant correlation between motivation and students’ productive skills (speaking and writing skills) achievement. Therefore, students’ productive achievement, such as speaking and writing is not depend on motivation. The high or low of students’ achievement on productive skill is not influenced by motivation but it can be influenced by another factors, such as teacher’ style in teaching material. It is supported by Roth et al. (2007) who points out that the effect of teachers’ motivation on student motivation could be the direct result of the teaching styles of the teacher.