Students’ Attitude and Motivation on English Learning: A Survey Study in A Junior High School

Abstract

This study aims to identify attitude and motivation of students grade VIII at one of schools in Yogyakarta. There were 120 students who participated as respondents in this research. The instrument of the research was a questionnaire AMTB (Attitude and Motivation Test Battery) adapted from Ming, Ling, and Jaafar (2011). The design of this research is quantitative approach in a form of survey study. The questionnaire contains 40 items, which are divided into four categories: positive attitudes, negative attitudes, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation. The data were analyzed by using descriptive quantitative technique. The results of this study Researcher found that students in English class had higher positive attitudes (M=4.21, SD=0.87) than negative attitudes (M=3.26, SD=1.11) and higher extrinsic motivation (M=4.19, SD= 0.91) in relation to language learning rather than intrinsic motivation (M= 4.11, SD=0.89). The data imply that students have a positive willingness to study English. However, they need to improve their internal motivation to enhance their learning process. These findings imply that teachers need to design personalized classroom activities to empower student motivation, so that students can passionately learn English.