The Effects of Motivation, Learning Engagement on the Students’ English Achievement

Sri Wahyuni Amaliah¹, Andi Tenri Ampa², Saiful³

¹ Makassar Muhammadiyah University, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Makassar, Indonesia

² Makassar Muhammadiyah University, Postgraduate Program, Makassar, Indonesia

³ Makassar Muhammadiyah University, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Makassar, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This research aims to find out the Motivation, Learning engagement and English Achievement of the students and the effects of students’ Motivation and Learning Engagement on students’ English achievement. of junior high school in Limbung.

Methods: The sample of this research were 88 class VIII students of SMP Muhammadiyah Limbung who were chosen random from 363 total population. This research used Descriptive Quantitative Research. The data was obtained by using questionnaires filled in by students and the students’ final grades in listening and speaking materials.

Results: The results of data analysis from 88 samples showed that motivation (X1) was good with score 77.09, learning engagement (X2) was good with score 74.56 and students’ English achievement (Y) was very good with score 82.26. And the students’ motivation in English achievement has a very strong effect with R coefficient was 0.917 in listening skill and 0.903 in reading skill. Also the students’ English engagement in English achievement has a very strong effect too with R coefficient was 0.882 in listening, and 0.883 in reading.

Conclusion: The students of SMP Muhammadiyah Limbung have good motivation and learning engagement, also their English Achievement is very good. There is a very strong effect between students’ motivation, Learning engagement and their English achievement (listening and reading).

KEYWORDS: Motivation, Learning Engagement, English Achievement

1. INTRODUCTION

Learning motivation is the tendency of students to carry out learning activities that are driven by the desire to achieve the best achievement or learning outcomes (Rafida & Idayani, 2021). In teaching and learning process, students need learning motivation for their spirit in their study. Students who have high motivation will get good learning outcomes. It means that motivation is one of the several things which determines the success of the students in learning. With motivation, students will study harder and have full concentration in teaching and learning process.

Besides that, students’ engagement refers to their active participation in learning and mastering a new language (Hiver et al., 2021). Engagement is an important predictor of success. The more students engage themselves in academic activities, the more they will be successful. The fact that students focus on assignments and subjects means that teachers have achieved their intended purpose and students are actively engaged in the learning process. An engaged student dedicates himself to the subject and performs with enthusiasm and care during the learning process because he attributes a value to it.

As Irvin et al. (2007) noted academic motivation and engagement as two related constructs are of high importance for students’ increased achievement, advancement, and academic success. Language learning achievement is judged not only by knowledge or skills acquired but also by students’ ability to apply and use the language effectively in real life circumstances. It entails being able to communicate fluently in English, interpret and generate meaningful and coherent materials, and confidently engage with others (Dwinalida & Setiaji, 2022).

Learning English has become a public image for the students that as a difficult subject. It could be one of the factors that effects the students in learning English. According to the English teacher in SMP Muhammadiyah Limbung, the students are actually enthusiastic to learning in reading and listening, but are hampered by students’ lack of comprehension during listening lessons, especially when listening audio of native speakers speaking. Even in reading lessons, students sometimes lack confidence when reading because they often make mistakes with pronunciation. As the result, their English achievement is weak. In order to solve that, students must be actively engaged and show interest in classes to achieve effective learning in school. For this they must be highly motivated and interested in classes. To achieve this, students’ motivation levels must first be identified and activities must be planned to promote their active engagement in classes. Therefore, teachers must be aware of their students’ motivation levels and employ motivation strategies to ensure their authentic engagement in classes. According with the problem above, the researcher interest to conduct the research entitle “The Effects of Motivation and Engagement in Learning on the Students’ English Achievement”.

1. REVIEW RELATED OF LITERATURE
2. Concept of Motivation

Motivation is an important thing in teaching learning process to push the students in order to study harder more and grow feeling of spirit in their self for learning. The word of motivation originates from Latin that is “movere” which the meaning is move. This term has a meaning, it is encouragement, direct human behavior. (Wahyuni, 2011).

1. Behavioral

According to Behaviorists, motivation is primarily driven by effective contingent reinforcement. Therefore, Behaviorists advocate for the utilization of extrinsic reinforcement to encourage students’ engagement with tasks. This reinforcement can manifest through praise, gestures like a smile, or tangible rewards. Behaviorists caution against the indiscriminate use of extrinsic rewards, particularly for students already intrinsically motivated or when material items or privileges are employed without other forms of social approval (Landrum & Kauffman, 2006). However, they argue that in cases where intrinsic motivation is lacking and student behavior is challenging to manage, judicious and cautious use of extrinsic reinforce may prove beneficial. Recent studies exploring various types of extrinsic reinforce suggest that certain forms could aid in fostering motivation if applied with care. These researchers have differentiated between verbal rewards, tangible rewards, and expected or unexpected awards.

1. Social – Cognitive

Social-cognitive explanations of motivation take into account our conscious and regulated cognitive processes, suggesting that these personal cognitive processes interact with and influence our behaviors. However, this theory also acknowledges the reciprocal relationship between our behavior and the environment, where our behavior can shape our environment, and vice versa, influencing our cognitive beliefs and behavior. The concepts of social cognitive such as self-efficacy, goals, values, outcome expectations, and others are central to several cognitive motivational theories. Moreover, these cognitive theories recognize various sources of influence on individual motivation.

1. Humanist and Human Needs

Needs-based theories of motivation, such as Ryan and Deci’s (2000) self-determination theory, have undergone further development. This theory posits that humans naturally strive for a harmonious integration of their internal psychological makeup and their social environment.

1. Cognitive

Cognitive of motivation have generated some of the most extensively researched theories in the field. These theories generally acknowledge children as innately active learners, aligning with constructivist or social constructivist approaches. However, the primary focus of this research often centre on understanding the mechanisms that link cognitive processes with academic achievement or performance in school.

1. Concept of Learning Engagement

Students’ engagement is very important in achieving the success of the learning process, especially in learning foreign languages such as English. Student engagement in the learning process refers to the level of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion shown by students when they are learning or being taught, which can develop to the level of motivation that they must learn and progress in learning (Anita & Susilawati, 2018). Researchers have been intrigued by the complexity of engagement for the past 25 years, as it is influenced by a multitude of factors.

1. School factors

This provides a brief overview of school-level factors influencing engagement. It is essential to recognize that these findings pertain specifically to engagement and should not diminish the significance of schools in other aspects of students’ lives.

1. Classroom factors

The classroom environment serves as the arena where teachers wield the power to shape students’ motivational journeys and influence their engagement through the lessons and tasks they administer. For many educators, this concept may pose a challenge as we often possess our own intrinsic interests in the subjects we teach, developed over years of learning. Understanding why students may not share the same level of enthusiasm can be perplexing.

1. Social factors

Peer relationships not only contribute to feelings of belonging but also characterize student engagement within the school setting. These aspects of peer relationships, sense of belonging, and engagement are influenced by various social factors.

1. Concept of English Achievement

Learning achievement is a thing achieved or produced by student after learning. It is marked with existence of behavior change that happened in students where interaction in individual bringing change in character, action, deed, and behavior. Classification of skills in learning English are productive and receptive skills. Productive skills refer to speaking and writing skills, while receptive skills refer to listening and reading skills. Students who are learning English should master the four language skills.

III. RESULTS

1. The Motivation, Learning Engagement and English Achievement.

The researcher found that the Motivation of the students at seniour high school of Muhammadiyah Limbung was 77.09. It means that their motivation is good. Then, the Learning engagement of the students was 74.56, which means that it is good. Whereas the mean score of the students’ English achievement is 82.26 which is classified as  is very good.

1. The Effect of the Students’ Motivation on the Students’ English Achievement (X¹ – Y)

2. Reading Skill

Model Summary

The researcher found the calculation of Regression analysis between students’ motivation (X1) and their English achievement (Y). The R result for listening was 0.917 and for reading was 0.903. It means that students’ motivation has very strong effect on the students’ English Achievement.

1. The Effect of students’ learning engagement on the Student’ English achievement (X² – Y)
2. Listening Skill

2. Reading Skill

The researcher found the calculation of Regression analysis between students’ learning engagement (X2) and their English achievement (Y). The R result for listening was 0.882 and for reading was 0.883. It means that students’ Learning engagement has very strong effect on the students’ English achievement.

1. DISCUSSION
2. The Students’ Motivation, Learning Engagement and English Achievement at Eight Grade Students of SMP Muhammadiyah Limbung.

As explained in the previous section, the students’ motivation can be classified as good. It can be shown from the highest score that students answer is in questions number 1 “I become more enthusiastic in learning English when the teacher praises my efforts in solving problems” with total score 391. The students are mostly strongly agree with that question. It means that they have an interest and willingness to learn English especially when teacher give more attention to students. With that, the students will be more ambitious in learning English both in home and school. It is correlates with Umpung et.al (2022) teachers also have an important part in giving motivation to students before teaching a lesson inside the classroom. Since the instructor is the key person who imparts knowledge to students, teaching a challenging subject like English to students would be meaningless without their assistance or motivation, and the majority of students lack the motivation necessary to learn English. Then, According to Fachraini, (2017) motivation is a key concept to be success in learning. Student who has high motivation would do the best in learning even though the materials were felt difficult.

Then for learning engagement, the students’ learning engagement can be classified as good. It can be shown, the highest score that students answer is in questions number 6 “I listen or read carefully the English material presented during class” with total score 359 from 88 students. The students are mostly strongly agree with that question. It means that they can arrange their learning process well in school, classroom and social environment. With all the facilities, ability and willingness make them keep learning and mastery English. According to Sanchez-Cardona et al., (2012) Some researchers highlighted student engagement as characterized by a willingness to invest effort in one’s work and be persistent even when encountering difficulties. Yet, Linnenbrink and Pintrich (2003) stated that behavioral engagement was outwardly observable via behaviors. Students are said to be more engaged when they show more effort, persistence to tasks and help-seeking behaviors. Other positive engagement behaviors are lesson participation, attendance, task completion, and effort.

And English Achievement, the students’ English achievement can be classified as very good. It means that they have good receptive skills in English. They can receive the information in English well. According to Syah (2010) stated that achievement is a success level of someone in achieving an objective which has been determined in a program. Then, According to Nurgiyantoro (2016), receptive skills entail the ability to comprehend and decode spoken or written communication.

2. Students’ motivation and their English Achievement

According with the data in the findings shows that there is a very strong effect between students’ motivation and their English achievement (listening and reading). It means that the students’ motivation has a very good impact for English achievement, the students have good motivation to make them want to learn English. According to Fitriwati, D. G. (2018) learning motivation is a key factor in learning English as a foreign language. From the viewpoint of behavioral theory, learning motivation is the result of reinforcement. Enabling students to obtain achievement is the key to improving students’ learning motivation in learning process. Both learning motivation and learning achievements are correlated with each other. If students have higher motivation, their learning achievement will increase. And, according to Alawiyah, T., & Sulistiyo, U. (2018) motivation is a complex part of human psychology and behavior that influences how individuals choose to invest their time. Motivation is probably the most im portant factor that teachers can target in order to improve learning. Then, motivation is crucial for effective learning, it is argued that students with better motivation usually perform better in school grades (Pintrich, 2003)

3. Students’ learning engagement and their English achievement

For learning engagement and English achievement, there is a very strong effect between students’ learning engagement and their English achievement (listening reading). It means that the students’ learning engagement has a very good influence on their English achievement. According to Rizaldi et.al (2024) this finding underscores the pivotal role of fostering students’ engagement in facilitating effective language learning and academic success. By promoting an environment that encourages active participation, emotional investment, and cognitive immersion in the learning process, educational institutions can cultivate a conducive atmosphere for students to thrive in their English language development. Ultimately, recognizing and nurturing student engagement emerges as a crucial factor in enhancing language proficiency and equipping learners with the necessary linguistic skills for academic and professional pursuits in an increasingly globalized world. Then, according to Wong and Chong (2018), student engagement is the optimization of students’ time management, effort, and other related resources to improve students’ learning outcomes and experience, as well as institution performance and reputation.

1. CONCLUSION

The students at eight grade of Senior High School Muhammadiyah Limbung have good motivation and learning engagement, also their English Achievement is very good. It means that they have a good interest and willingness to learn English. They can arrange and do their learning process well in school, classroom and social environment. Because of that, the students have very good English achievement especially in receptive skills. There were a very strong effect between students’ motivation to their English achievement also between students’ learning engagement to their English achievement. It means that the students’ motivation and learning engagement has a good influence for English Achievement, the students have good motivation to make them want to learn English. Because of that their English achievement shows very good result for SMP level. And with all the willingness and activity that students do in school especially in learning English, make their English achievement get very good point.

1. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The researcher expresses her deepest gratitude to the supervisors Prof. Dr. Andi Tenri Ampa, M.Hum and the  Dr. Saiful, M.Pd, who had given their valuable time, patience, assistance and guidance to finish this research.

VII. DISCLOSURE

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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