THE CORRELATION STUDY BETWEEN THE INTEREST AND THE ENGLISH LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT OF THE SECOND GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP N 33 PURWOREJO IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2013/2014

Abstract

English is an important language. In Indonesia, English is the first foreign language.English is learned in formal and non formal education. The students have started learning English from Elementary school until University. However, the result of learning English have not been satisfactory yet. The success of English teaching and learning depends on many factors. There are external and internal factors. One of the internal factors that can affect the achievement of English is the interest of its subject. This interest of English subject influenced the students’ achievement in English. Based on the statement above, the writer would like to find out the correlation between the interest and the English learning achievement of the second grade students of SMPN 33 Purworejo in the academic year 2013/2014. The research population in this study is the second grade students of SMPN 33 purworejo in the academic year 2013/2014. The whole population consists of 234 students. The sample of the research is chosen using simple random technique and gets 66 students. The data on the students’ interest are collected by using questionnaire, while the data on the students’ achievement by using documentation. The data analysis technique includes descriptive and inferential analysis. The computer calculation which is using SPSS for windows version 18 shows that the students’ interest is in the category of very high (Mean=59.43, Median=59, and SD=6.47) and their English learning achievement is on the category of fair (Mean=64.59, Median=62, SD=10.24). The result of the inferential analysis show that r-observed is higher than that of rtable(0.598>0.279). It is categorized as a medium. It means that there is a medium correlation between the interest and the English learning achievement.