Students’ Boredom, Motivation, and Anxiety in Correlation to English Language Learning Achievements

Abstract

Socio-psychological factors are claimed to have a predictive ability on learning achievements, due to the nature of socio-psychological factors that may affect individuals’ state of being. However, there has been few empirical evidence to support those claims, despite the many evidence on the effect of each of the socio- psychological factors, and further studies to provide the evidence are needed. The present study aims to understand the predictive ability of three factors - boredom, motivation, and anxiety - on EFL achievement, using control-value theory as the model to provide an empirical perspective on some of the socio-psychological factors. The population for this study is English language education students at a university in Indonesia, amounting to 20 participants in total of differing semesters (with minimum of finishing the third semester) and genders, with 10 females and 10 males. Quantitative research design is chosen, specifically correlational quantitative research design for it is best suited in answering the research aim due to its correspondence to the theory. Online questionnaires are employed to gather data on each boredom, motivation, and anxiety, based on existing scales which are Boredom in Practical English Language Classroom – Revised, Self Determination Theory – Second Language, and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale respectively, and grade point average is used as a measure for EFL achievements. Correlational and regression statistics are used to analyze the data gathered from the questionnaire and EFL achievements. The result of the data analysis shows that (1) motivation is the only factor significantly affecting EFL achievements; (2) jointly, while the result of regression is significant, motivation is the only significant regression factor; (3) boredom is not a significant factor in affecting EFL achievement. This research serves as a cornerstone for future research and a perspective on socio-psychological factors in EFL context.