Abstract

English is an international language and is understood almost all over the world. There are different determiners that effect the level of achievement in learning English. The main concern of the study was to find out the relationships between them. The descriptive correlational study design was selected with a multilayer sampling technique having sample of 320 Degree level students form four universities of Pakistan. Data was collected and the correlation was found through Pearson correlation. It was found that many factors including Anxiety, interest, attitude, and self-confidence had strong correlation with academic achievements of students. Some practical implication was suggested including the training of teachers in a better way.

Key Words

Academic achievement, Anxiety, Attitude, Culture, Determiners, Motivational Selves.

Introduction

Motivation is a driving force that is answerable for defining behavior of mankind giving it direction, without it no single individual can achieve the desired objectives despite his outstanding ability and aptitude for the task. Language aptitude, animated teaching and good curriculum all share their parts in language learning of students as cited by Brown, K, B (2000). Motivation is considered a primary force that determines success in assimilation of EFL. It also works as a great mobilizer, an impetus to navigate the stretching and often elaborated learning process. Many pieces of research have tried to study this area including Csizér, & Dörnyei (2005) but no study has been conducted in Pakistani context.  

Language learning is a complex phenomenon; the more the term motivation has been explained the more it has become inexplicable to understand. Motivation is an essential part of learning and also important in the field of learning a language (Brewer & Burgess, 2005).  Motivation can be of two types depending on the locus of control.  Some internal motif or impulse which forces people to work is called intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic or Self-determination motivation is animated by personal desire and gets satisfaction in praise and pleasure (Deci & Ryan 2010). 

Some external or outside factors urge someone to act in a particular way is called extrinsic motivational forces (Vansteenkiste, Lens, & Deci, 2006). Aims, objectives, goals, values, culture, reinforcement, religion, nation and country are some of the motivational forces of such type which stimulate people in one way or other to action which is responsible for their achievements and formulating behavior. In learning a language, motivation could be integrative or instrumental: Integrative means an endeavor to explore the target language so as to integrate it into the culture through the use of the language. Instrumental means learning the target language for the sake of job satisfaction, or a language requirement (Gardner, 1985).

To learn a language, a learner should be motivated. Motivation is an agent both external and internal which determine the concerns regarding complex tasks. A teacher should know how to engage them in a learning process. In the pursuit of the acquisition of learning language, various factors have a significance role in acquisition of language,¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ ¬ one of these components is motivation (Dörnyei, 1994). Motivation is one of major determinant which decides the achievement of the second language. The interest of the learner for learning a language and his intimacy with the culture and community determine the achievement level of the students. (Gardner & Lambert, 1972).

The motivational level of a learner is the most important factor in successful instruction (Crooks & Schmidt, 2005). In case learning of foreign or English language, motivation is considered one of the learning booster having a proven history of fruitful endeavors that reaches English language achievement and attainment. Motivation serves as a driving force that leads to acquiring a foreign language (Dornyei, 1994).

  

Objectives 

To investigate the Determiners of English Language of Degree students in Pakistan.

To find out the relationship between English Language Determiners and the achievement of students at bachelor level.




Research Design

It was a descriptive as well as correlational research study. The descriptive strategy is mostly concerned with the description of individual variables (Gravetter& Forzano, 2006). One section of this research consists of exploration and description of individual variables. So for this section of research descriptive research was adapted.

The second section of the research is finding an association between ?motivational selves and academic achievement”. So, for this part correlational research design was applied. As the main purpose of correlational research strategy is to check and describe the relationship and association between variables (Gravetter& Forzano, 2006).




Population and Sampling Procedure

All the male and female students of public sector universities in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, offering Bachelor of English were considered as a target population of the study. According to HEC, (2017) of Pakistan, there are 23 public sector universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. All the enrolled students of Bachelor of English departments of these universities were the population of the study.

Multi-stage sampling technique was carried out for the data collection in which at first stage purposive sampling technique was used in selecting the universities offering BS English programs for the students. In the second stage Stratified Random sampling technique was used and selected two semesters i.e. Second and fourth-semester students of Bachelor of English students for data collection. Thus 320 students were the sample of study in the light of Cochran formula.

Research Instruments

Researchers adapted a 6-point Likert scale of Dörnyei (1996) for the collection of data regarding English Language Motivational Selves. The research instrument was localized and made in accordance with Pakistan’s education system with educationists.

 

Validity and Reliability

The validity of the tool was checked by 5 Nos. of PhDs in the field of education, all of them read it critically and checked its content validity, face validity, and criterion validity and declared the tool is valid one.

Table 1. Reliability of the Scales.

Variables	Items	Cronbach’s Alpha
Criterion Mean Ideal Self	3 2	0.832 0.780
Ought to be	2	0.760
Family	3	0.8.11
Promotion	3	0.759
Prevention	2	0.785
Self Confidence	2	0.743
Travel	2	0.771
Interest	2	0.772
Attitude	2	0.7.32
Anxiety	3	0.782
Integrative	3	0.778
Culture	2	0.732

Table 1 represents the level of consistency or internal reliability of each construct of the Motivational Selves questionnaire. Chronbach’s (?= .7) found for the instruments, Of Motivational selves having 31 questions. The Cronbach Alpha of all the constructs was strong as all the values are a >0.7. 

 

Data Collection

The researcher went to the concerned universities. The questionnaire was distributed among the graduate-level students of BS English. Results of BS English 2^nd and 4^th semester of the students were obtained from the concerned office.

Data Analysis and Results

Correlation between Motivational Selves sub scales and Achievement (Academic Marks)

Variables	Correlation Coefficient (r)	P Value
Criterion Mean	0.138*	0.014
Ideal Self Mean	0.112*	0.046
Ought to be Mean	0.114*	0.048
Family Mean	0.075	0.120
Promotion Mean	0.164**	0.003
Prevention Mean	0.167**	0.003
SelfConfidence Mean	0.247	0.000
Travel Mean	0.062	0.265
Interest Mean	0.111*	0.048
Attitude Mean	0.213**	0.000
Anxiety Mean	0.212**	0.000
Integrative Mean	0.092	0.168
Culture Mean	0.066	0.270

 

Table 2 shows the correlation coefficient between all the subscales of motivational selves and the academic achievement of the students. For the understanding of the data, it has been divided into two sections. Section one presents all the subscales that have strong significant value. On the other hand, section two represents the data having insignificant correlational value.

 The first subscale variable Criterion Mean Motivation shows that there is a slightly moderate correlation of 0.138 while the significance value 0.014 that is less than the base value of significance 0.05 which shows that the correlation is significant. The second subscale of Motivational selves is ideal self which shows that there is slightly positive correlation of 0.112 while the significance value 0.046 making the correlation significant. The third subscale is of ought to be which leads that there is positive correlation of 0.112 and the significance value 0.048 which is again less than the base value of significance 0.05 which indicating its significance. Then comes the promotion mean which presents somehow positive correlation of 0.164 and the significance digit is 0.03 that is less than 0.01 so it is significant for the base value of 0.0. The Pearson correlation of prevention mean and academic correlation is 0.167 and the significance level is 0.03 that is less than 0.01 so it is significant for the stand value of 0.01. Self-confidence correlation with academic achievement shows strong positive correlation of 0.248 and the significance value is 0.00 which is clearly less than 0.05 thus making it strongly significant.

 The correlation of intrinsic motivation and academic achievement has a slightly positive correlation of 0.111 is significant with 0.048. With correlation of 0.213 attitude and academic achievement has 0.00 significance. Anxiety correlation with academic achievement is at 0.742 making its relation extremely strong and does show significance base of value of 0.00. The last correlation is between motivational mean and academic achievement which is much high level i.e. 0.742, while the significance value is 0.011 making it strongly significant.

This section presents the subscales of Motivational Selves having insignificant relation with Academic achievements. The first variable is Family mean which proves that there is very less positive correlation of 0.055 and the significance value 0.329 which is very much greater than the base of significance 0.05 which indicates that it is insignificant. The subscale of travel shows correlation of 0.062 having significance value of 0.265 making its relation highly insignificant. Integrative and academic achievement is hardly positively correlation of 0.050 and the significance digit is 0.368 which is strongly insignificant. The last subscale is the cultural and academic achievement that also shows less positive correlation of 0.016 and the significance digit is 0.77 making it insignificant.

Findings

1. Criterion means related statements such as “I will voluntarily take English learning classes” were correlated with their achievements 0.138 which is slightly positive.

2. Ideal Self-motivation in which students imagine themselves involved in English related activity is also slightly correlated with achievement (0.112). 

3. Ought Self-motivation is related to what the students think English is important for which is positive but slightly (0.114) related to their achievement. 

4. Family relationship is related to the family support and encouragement that is provided to them which does not prove to be a strong positive relation (0.075)

5. The Instrumentality of Promotion is related to the future usefulness of the English language and its relation with achievement which in this case is very strong (0.164). Meaning it is one of the strong effects on students’ academic achievements.   

6. The instrumentality of Prevention points towards the negative effect of not being good in English language. The current sample proves it has a strong relationship with students’ achievement (0.167).

7. The Linguistic Self Confidence pointing towards the student's perception that they can do better in learning English has one of the highest relations with academic achievement (0.247) making it one of the most important factors for students to have.

8. Travel with Motivation is positive but very low (0.065) which means that most of the student wants to learn English but it has nothing to do with their desire to go to English speaking countries for study or any other purpose.

9. Interest relationship with Motivation responses slightly strong (0.111) which indicates that students have good feelings towards English as a language apart from other extrinsic factors.

10. Another strong relation achievement has is with attitude (0.213) resulting from their surrounding atmosphere.

11. The feeling of anxiety has the strongest positive relationship with achievement (0.212) Responses of the students got Motivation and Achievement which is the main factor is 0.742 which is not only positive but very much high also.

12. Integrative suggests that the speaker of English should look more like the native speaker which proves to have minimum relation with academic achievement. It means that to be like a native English speaker is not one of the major factors in relation to academic achievement (0.092). 

13. Cultural mean involves all the mandamus including newspaper and tv programs through which one can be culturally influenced but the result shows that there exists a minimum relation with academic achievements (0.066)

Recommendations

Johnson (2005) says about the education system that it is in a world of Praxis exams, where learner psychology, standard-based education, and authentic teaching should be uplifted. In light of his saying and findings it is recommended that all the subscales of Motivational Selves are wast fields it itself and needs to be researched separately and deeply.

Teacher training institutes are the strongest inherited educational institutes through which the future generations of students can be given good directions. If these teachers are the trend in a way to learn to manipulate different forms of Motivational selves the students of all groups and levels can show enormously positive results. As Palmer (1998) has put it that teaching an individual is teaching though soul and connection at deeper level.

According to R. Miller (2006), students can learn through care and love not merely through teaching strategies. It is recommended that one of the major effectors of academic achievement, Anxiety should be minimized in language classes for students to reach their full potential. In another study by Matsuda (2000) he says that the attitude of teachers towards English language can influence the students. This statement again makes the teacher responsible for the attitude of student to words the target language.  

References