A Link Between Speaking Interest and Its Achievement: Correlational Study at University of Islam Malang

Abstract

English has spread to every aspect of life include technology, science, communication, and education. Speaking abilities are crucial for students since they are the foundation of communication. In order to be able to learn speaking optimally, interest is needed as encouragement because interest is an important part that similar to other aspects and plays a big role related to student achievement. The purpose of this study is to find out how EFL students’ interest in speaking class, and to find out whether there is a significant correlation between speaking interest and speaking achievement at second semester in University Islam Malang. The sample consisted of 32 students from class A. For the research design, this study used the quantitative method with correlation. In collecting data, the researcher got the students’ data by using questionnaire and speaking score. The finding of the study showed that the result of the EFL students’ interest in speaking class is on level of curiosity and the score is 4.34. Meanwhile, the significant value is .000 which is lower than .05 and the result of Pearson Correlation is .595 with indicates a moderate correlation. This implies that the students can improve their speaking achievement because they have moderate interest. It is clear that the students' interest and their success in public speaking are moderate correlated. According to the study's findings, speaking proficiency might be impacted by students' desire in speaking. Each student becomes an engaged participant in the educational process. The relation to pedagogical implication, the researcher gives some suggestion for the English teacher, in order to produce good speaking, she/he must know the students interest to speaking first. For the English students, they should be an active student and become the best learner in their learning English especially in speaking lesson. For future researcher who is interested to do the same research can use interview in order to easily find out the level of student interest. In addition, this study was conducted online so that it could not meet face to face. So there might be constraints that occur such as students missunderstansing some of questions in the questionnaire. Hopefully, our research will serve as a guide for those who wish to conduct similar research in the future. Key Words: Speaking Interest, Speaking Achievement