The Relationship between Students' Anxiety and Their Achievement in Reading Comprehension (A Correlational Study in the Eighth Grade of SMPIT AN-Nawawi Al-Bantani)

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENTS’ ANXIETY

AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENT IN READING

COMPREHENSION

(A Correlational Study in the Eighth Grade of SMPIT An-Nawawi Al-Bantani

Bogor)

Fuji Herawati

1111014000047

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF EDUCTAIONAL SCIENCES

SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

JAKARTA

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ABSTRACT

FUJI HERAWATI, 1111014000047, The Relationship between Students’

Anxiety and Their achievement in Reading Comprehension: A Correlational

Study in the Eighth Grade of SMPIT An-Nawawi Al-Bantani Bogor. A Skripsi of Department of English Education at Faculty of Educational Sciences of State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2017.

Keywords : Anxiety, Reading Comprehension

The purpose of the study is to know whether there is any correlation between students’ anxiety and their achievement in reading comprehension at the eighth grade of SMPIT An-Nawawi Al-Bantani.

The sample of this study is 54 students taken from the eighth grade of SMPIT An-Nawawi Al-Bantani. The method used in this study was a quantitative method and the technique used in this study was a correlational technique. In collecting the data, this study was distributing questionnaire to the respondents. The questionnaire besed on the Foreign Language Reading anxiety Scale (FLRAS) which was adopted from modern language journal by Saito et al. and

translated into indonesian language. Besides, in assessing students’ achievement

in reading comprehension, this study conducted reading comprehension test to the students. In analyzing the data, the questionnaire was assessed by Likert’s scale rating.

The result of this study sowed that there is a negative correlation between

students’ anxiety and their achievement in reading comprehension. According to

the statistical calculation, it is obtained N.Sig =.002, where significance < 0.05. Therefore, it means that Ha is accepted and Ho is rejected. It can be concluded

that there is a negative correlation between students’ anxiety and their

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FUJI HERAWATI, 1111014000047, The Relationship between Students’

Anxiety and Their achievement in Reading Comprehension: Penelitian

Korelasi di kelas 8 SMPIT An-Nawawi Al-Bantani Bogor. Skripsi, Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Islam Negri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2017.

Keywords : Kecemasan, Reading Comprehension

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apakah ada korelasi antara kecemasan siswa dengan prestasi belajar mereka dalam reading comprehension di kelas 8 SMPIT An-Nawawi Al-Bantani.

Sampel yang digunakan dalam penilitian ini berjumlah 54 responden diambil dari kelas 8 SMPIT An-Nawawi Al-Bantani. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode kuantitatif melalui teknik korelasi. Dalam pengumpulan data, peneliti menyebarkan angket kepada responden. Angket yang digunakan berdasarkan Foreign Language Reading anxiety Scale (FLRAS) yang diadopsi dari Modern Language Journal oleh Saito dkk dan diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia. Kemudian untuk mengukur kemampuan reading siswa, penelitian ini menggunakan tes reading kepada siswa. Pada analisis data, angket siswa diukur dengan skala Likert.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

All praises be to Allah, the Lord of the world, the Almighty God, for His

blessing, guidance, help and love, the writer completed this “skripsi” properly.

Peace and blessing be upon our prophet Muhammad, his family, his companions,

and all of his followers.

This “skripsi” is presented to Department of English Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, “Syarif Hidayatullah” State Islamic University Jakarta, as

partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of strata 1 (S-1). In this

skripsi, the writer tried to give description about the relationship between

students’ anxiety and their achievement in reading comprehension at SMPIT An -Nawawi Al-Bantani Bogor.

In finishing this “skripsi”, the writer got guidance and motivation from

people around her. Therefore, she would like to express her gratitude to them,

they are: her beloved family, especially her parents: her mother, Sukilah and her

father, Martani, for their patience, kindness and support to the writer in her life.

Furthermore, the writer would like to express her grateful to her advisors, Siti

Nurul Azkiyah, Ph.D and Neneng Sunengsih, M.Pd., for their valuable guidance,

suggestion andcorrection in writing this “skripsi”.

Moreover, the writer also would like to express her thanks and

appreciation to all people who helped her in completing this “skripsi”, particularly

to:

1. Prof. Dr. Ahmad Thib Raya, M.A, as the Dean of Faculty of Tarbiyah and

Teachers Training Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta.

2. Dr.Alek, M.Pd, as the Head of Department of English Education.

3. Zaharil Anasy, M.Hum, as the secretary of Department of English

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Bogor.

6. All of her friends in Department of English Education 2011 academic

year, especially B class and her best friends (Nofianatul Hasanah, Uswatun

Hasanah, and Wurry Aprianti).

The words are not enough to say any appreciation for their help and

contribution in this paper. May Allah, the almighty bless them all.

Moreover, the writer also realized that this paper is far from perfect. It is a

pleasure for her to get critique and suggestions to make this paper better.

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TABLES OF CONTENTS

Abstract ...i

Abstrak ...ii

Acknowledgement ...iii

Table of Content ...v

List of Tables ...vii

List of Appendices ...viii

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION A. The Background of The Study ...1

B. The Limitation of The Study ...5

C. The Formulation of The Study ...5

D. The Objective of The Study ...5

E. The Significance of The Study ...6

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW A. Reading Comprehension ...7

1. The Understanding of Reading Comprehension ...7

2. Level of Reading Comprehension ...8

3. The Purpose of Reading Comprehension ...10

4. Descriptive Text ...12

5. Factors that influence Reading Comprehension ...13

B. Anxiety ...16

1. The Understanding of Anxiety ...16

2. Types of Anxiety ...17

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D. Hypotheses ...24

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD A. The Research Design...25

B. The Location and Time of the Research ...25

C. The Population and Sample ...25

D. The Technique of Collecting Data ...26

1. Questionnaire ...26

2. Test ...29

E. The Technique of Data Analysis ...31

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDING A. The Description of Data ...34

B. The Analysis of Data ...37

C. The Interpretation of Data ...39

D. Discussion ...39

CHAPTER V CONCLUTION AND SUGGESTION A. Conclusion ...43

B. Suggestion ...43

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Anxiety Symptom ... 20

Table 3.1 Sample of the Research ... 26

Table 3.2 The FLRAS Questionnaire ... 26

Table 3.3 The FLRAS Questionnaire ... 27

Table 3.4 The Questionnaire Scoring... 28

Table 3.5 Cronbach Alfa Table ... 29

Table 3.6 The Category of Students’ Reading Achievement ... 29

Table 3.7 Cronbach Alfa Table ... 30

Table 3.8 The Blueprint of Reading Comprehension Test ... 30

Table 3.9 Product Moment Correlation Index ... 32

Table 4.1 Students’ Anxiety ... 34

Table 4.2 Statistical Scores of Anxiety Level ... 35

Table 4.3 Reading Comprehension ... 36

Table 4.4 Statistical Scores of Reading Comprehension ... 36

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APPENDIX 1Questionnaire of Students’ Anxiety APPENDIX 2 Reading Comprehension Test

APPENDIX 3 Score of Students’ Anxiety

APPENDIX 4 Score of Students’ Reading Comprehension test APPENDIX 5 Output SPSS between X Variable and Y Variable

APPENDIX 6 Surat Bimbingan skripsi

APPENDIX 7 Surat Permohonan Izin Penelitian

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1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A.

The Background of the Study

For many years, students from many places around the

world have learnt English. Since English is considered as an

international language, learning English has become necessity for

everyone who wants to engage in international interactions. There are

four basic language skills in teaching and learning English as a foreign

language; they are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening

and reading skills are regarded as receptive skills while speaking and

writing are considered to be productive skills.

In the teaching and learning of English as a foreign

language, the acquisition of the four language skills of listening,

speaking, reading, and writing are important. However, reading is by

far one of the most important skills.1 This is because reading is

interelated with the success of students’ learning in educational process. Through reading, students are able to gain a lot of knowledge

and information. Moreover, many advantages that students can obtain

from reading, such as reconizing the factual information, getting new

idea in order to be able to give argument during discussin or

presentation, getting entertainment, channeling the hobby and so on.

Therefore, the acquisition of reading skill is highly required.

Furthermore, regarding the importance of reading in

educational field, Indonesian government has included reading skill

in English syllabus. It is stated in competence standard (SK) and basic

competence (KD) of current School-Based Curriculum Kurikulum

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Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) that second year students of

Junior High school are expected to be able to understand the meaning

of short funtional text and simple essay in the form of narrative,

descriptive, recount, hortatory exposition in the context of daily life

and to access the science.2

However, it has to be noted that it is not easy to acquire

reading skills. Larry Lewin writes in his book about the complexity of

reading activity. He states in his book that “reading comprehension is a very complex activity. So much occurs inside the mind of a reader as

the eyes glided over the printed pages”.3

From the statement, it has to be admitted that reading is a

complex activity because readers must do some works at once.

Readers have to think what comes to their mind from the text while

some parts of the reader’s bodies are also working, especially the eyes. Plus, those actions have to be accomplished altogether. This is in

line with Jerremy Harmer’s statement who pointsout that “reading is an exercise dominated by eyes and the brain. The eyes receive

messages and the brain then has to work out the significance of these

message”.4

It can be seen that reading is not only looking at word in the

form of graphic symbols but also getting meaning from word to word

or line to line to understand what we read. Therefore, the ability to

comprehend a reading text is not easy to achieve.

Because reading comprehension is not easy, most students

in this country are still very poor in their reading comprehension. A

2

Peraturan Mentri Pendidikan Nasional Republik Indonesia, Standar Kompetensi Lulusan Untuk Satuan Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah, (Nomor 23, 2006), p.360

3

Larry Lewin, Paving the Way in Reading and Writing, (San Fransisco : Jossey-Bass a Willey Impint : 2003), p.2

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research conducted by UNESCO in 2003, the Program for

International Student Assessments (PISA), showed that reading ability

of 15 years old Indonesian students was at the level 39 out of 41

countries.5

There are some factors that can influence students’ reading comprehension. Firstly, background experience.6 Students who have

little background experience may have some difficulties in

comprehending many ideas, for example, a student who never sees or

hears about a galaxy will feel hard to follow the text. Secondly,

language abilitiy.7 It includes semantics or word meaning and

knowledge of syntax. Semantic and syntax are necessary to recover

the structure of language. Thirdly, thinking ability.8 It all depends on

students’ intellectual development. Although the teacher gives the same textbook and the same purpose of reading, the result of reading

may be different. The slow learner cannot be expected to show same

reaction as the bright students when they read together for pleasure or

to gain information. Fourthly, affection.9 It includes personal interest,

motivation, attitudes, beliefs, feelings; students will attain a better

understanding to the story about a topic if they find it personally

interesting.

In addition, another factor which could influence their

reading comprehension is anxiety. Anxiety is unusual worry feeling

that causes someone want to avoid the anxiety stimulus.10 When

students see situation as threatening, they will feel worry. Their

learning ability will be distracted, because they cannot fully

5

Laksmi, The Effectiveness of Reading Habit Promotion in Public Libraries of DKI Jakarta Province, (ICOLIS Journal, 2007), p. 155

6

Larry Harris. Carl B. Smith, Reading Instruction : Diagnostic Teaching in Classroom, (New York : Owen Publisher, Inc., 1980), p. 207

7 Ibid., p.207 8 Ibid., p.207 9 Ibid., p.207 10

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concentrate on the task. Arnold and Brown, cited in Sengupta, state

anxiety is quite posibly the affective factor that can hinder students’ comprehension ability.11 It interferes the reader’s working memory which is very important for processing and storing information.

Consequently, students are difficult to store and recall the information

in their short-term memory.

Moreover, anxiety plays an important role in the second

language acquisition. MacIntyre and Gardner, cited in Brown, state

that foreign language anxiety has a negative effect on the language

learning process.12 A study that had been done by Shameem

Rafik-Galea and Zuhana Mohd. Zin in 2010 showed that there was a

significant correlation between anxiety and academic reading

performance among 218 Malaysia first year students taking English as

a second language. It indicated that the higher level of students’ anxiety, the lower their grades.13

The finding seems to strengthen the researcher’s assumption that anxious students are having dificulties in dealing with some task

in reading comprehension. In addition, anxiety appears because

students have poor ability such as lack of vocabulary, lack of

background knowledge, etc. For instance, students feel worry about

misunderstanding the structures or worry about inferring meaning

from its context, so they feel uncomfortable and unconfident that it

can stimulate the anxiety. This situation will reduce their

concentration which means can influence their reading comprehension

performance.

11

Anupama Chakrabarti and Madhumala Sengupta, Second Language Anxiety and Its Effect on achievement In The Language, (Vol 12 : 8 August 2012), p.52

12

H. Douglas Brown, Principles of language learning and teaching, (New York : Addison Wesley Longman, inc, 2000) p. 151

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Based on the explanation above, the researcher thinks that

the psychological order also has effect for students’ reading comprehension. Therefore, the researcher is interested to do a research

of relationship between students’ anxiety and their achievement in

reading comprehension.

B.

The Limitation of the Study

There are many factors that can influence students’ reading

comprehension such as background experience, language ability,

thinking ability, and affection. Affection includes personal interst,

motivation, attitude, beliefs, and feelings. However, the researcher

limits the study only on the affection which includes feeling in the

aspect of anxiety; this is because anxiety seemingly has an important

role in the second language acquisition. In addition, the researcher

also limits the reading text focusing on descriptive text.

C.

The Formulation of the Study

The researcher formulates the research question as follow:

“Is there any relationship between the anxiety and the achievement in reading comprehension of the eighth grade students of SMPIT

An-Nawawi Al-Bantani Bogor?”

D.

The Objective of the Study

The objective of the study is to find an empirical evidence

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E.

The Significance of The study

The result of the study is expected to give some benefits

not only theoritically but also practically to:

- Teacher

The teacher can enrich the concepts and knowledge about

anxiety and reading comprehension in order to create a

comportable learning situation. It is believed that a comportable

situation can help students to feel relax when they study in the

classroom.

- Researcher

The researcher can fulfill requirement for the Degree of

Strata 1 (S-1) in English Education Department and she also got

many knowledges about the anxiety and reading comprehension.

- Other researchers

The other researchers can use this research as a reference

for further reserch which is similar in the case of study.

- Readers

The reader can made this research as a source of reading to

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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A.

Reading Comprehension

1.

The Understanding of Reading Comprehension

Reading is one of various ways to know condition and

development of knowledge in the world. It is because of the term

“reading is the window of the world”. By reading, people can obtain

new knowledge and information which is not only around them but

also around the world. So the more we read the more we get

information that contributes a great advantage in our life, such as

gaining success in school for student.

The understanding of reading is conveyed by Smith and

Robinson, who state that reading is an active process to understand the

author’s message.1

It means that reading is not only to get the

information from the text passively but also to process it in mind to

understand the meaning and deal with the writer’s wishes to communicate in the text.

Moreover, comprehension is the essential part of reading.

This is the important thing that needs to be paid attention during

reading activity. Savage and Mooney state that comprehension is the

ability to get meaning and understand the written language.2 It means

that when readers do the process of reading, they do not only read the

text but also understand the meaning of written text.

Reading comprehension, according to Brassell and

Rasinski, is the ability to take information from written text and to

1

Nila Smith and H. Robinson, Reading Instruction for Today’s Children, Second Edition, (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc, 1980), p. 6

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demonstrate knowledge or understanding of that information.3

Comprehension occurs when a reader is able to get the information

that is presented in written text. It means that reading comprehension

is not a passive activity. Reading comprehension requires reader’s

action that involves the use of the existing knowledge that the reader

has on the topic of the text as well as the text itself in order to create

meaning.

According to Snow, reading comprehension is “the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through

interaction and involvement with written language”.4

It means that the

core of successful reading comprehension is the ability to understand

and construct information.

Based on the definition above, the writer sums up that

reading comprehension is an active process which needs both the

reader’s eyes and brain to get the information from the author’s

message. The reader also needs to comprehend, interpret, and respond

to text according to what he/she has already known.

Moreover, comprehension requires the reader’s thinking ability. It is important for a teacher to introduce the student to the

types of thinking process that take place as he/she reads. The

following are the three levels of comprehension (from lowest to

highest) a student needs to experience when reading any textbook.

2.

Level of Reading Comprehension

Students learn to read gradually from the easiest to the most

difficult one. With the better reading skill, they likely will be able to

make better progress and attain better achievement in their study.

3

Danny Brassell & Timothy Ransiski, Comprehension That Works, ( Oceanus Drive: Shell Education, 2008), p.15

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Therefore, there are three levels of comprehension which are

identified:5

a. Literal comprehension

Literal comprehension refers to understanding ideas and

information explicitly stated in the passage. The literal level of

comprehension is fundamental to all reading skill at any level because

a student has to understand what the author say before he/she can

draw an inference or make evaluation. In literal comprehension, a

student needs to recognize the details such as fact and main idea.

b. Inferential comprehension

Inferential comprehension refers to understanding of ideas

and information not explicitly stated in the passage. In this level, the

students can infer supporting details, main idea that is not explicitly

stated, and relationship of cause and effect.

c. Critical comprehension

Critical comprehension refers to analyzing, evaluating, and

personally reacting to information presented in the passage. Critical

reading requires a higher degree of skill development and perception,

because it involves evaluation, making of a personal judgment on the

accuracy, value of what is being read. It means questioning,

comparing and evaluation.

To sum up, when student understands textbook material at all

three levels of comprehension, he/she has acquired sufficient

background knowledge in that subject area. In other words, the more a

student is familiar with particular topic, the higher his/her level of

comprehension will be.

Comprehension needs differ in term of the goals of an

individual and the purpose of reading. When people decide to read, it

means that they have a purpose for reading. Reading purpose will help

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the student to be more focus on what they want to get. Therefore, the

researcher explains some purpose for reading in the next topic.

3.

The Purpose of Reading

There are many different purposes for reading. Sometimes

people read a text to learn material, read for pure pleasure, and read

for doing assignment. There are four main headings of reading

purposes that is classified by William Grabe and Fredricka L.Stoller.6

a. Reading to search for simple information and reading to skim.

Reading to search for simple information is a common

reading ability. It is used so often in reading tasks that it is

probably best seen as a type of reading ability.7 In reading to

research, readers usually read the text for specific information or a

specific word. It is different when readers face prose texts, they

sometimes read slowly and carefully to process and get the

meaning of a sentence or two in search of clues that might indicate

the right page, section, or chapter. Similarly, reading to skim is a

common part of many reading tasks and a useful skill.8 It involves

strategies for guessing where the important information might be

in the text.

b. Reading to learn from texts.

It usually occurs in academic and professional contexts

when people need to learn a number of information from a text. It

requires abilities to remember and understand where main ideas,

topic sentence and supporting ideas in the text. Then readers can

recognize and build conceptual framework that organize the

information in the text, and they link the text to their knowledge.

6

William Grabe and Fredricka L. Stoller, Teaching and Researching Reading, Second Edition (Edinburgh: Pearson Education, 2011), Pp. 7 - 9

7

Ibid., p. 7 8

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In doing this purpose, slow readers usually need long time for

understanding the text.

c. Reading to integrate information, write and critique texts.

This purpose can be said as the complex purpose. It

requires critical evaluation of the information being read so that

the reader can decide what information to integrate and how to

integrate it for the reader’s goal.9

Meanwhile, reading to write and

reading to critique texts may be task variants of reading to

integrate information. Both of them (reading to write and reading

to critique) require abilities to compose, select, and critique

information from text, and readers redescribe information that they

have gotten to integrate other information in the text.

d. Reading for general comprehension.

The notion of general reading comprehension has two

reasons.10 First, it is the most basic purpose for reading,

underlying, and supporting most other purposes for reading.

Second, it is actually more complex than commonly assumed. It

means that the term of “general” here does not mean „simple’ or „easy’. Reading for general comprehension, when done by a

skilled fluent reader, it may require very rapid and automatic

processing of words, strong skills in forming a general meaning of

text. It is sometimes more difficult to master generally than

reading to learn

Based on the explanation above, it can be summarized that

main purpose of reading is for increasing knowledge by various ways

such as making critical thinking, taking lesson from the text, just for

searching simple information, etc.

9

Ibid., p. 8 10

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Furthermore, regarding the importance of reading

comprehension in educational field, students of Junior High school are

expected to be able to understand the meaning of short functional text

and simple essay in the form of narrative, descriptive, recount,

hortatory exposition. However, the researcher limits this research only

focusing on descriptive text which is explained in the next topic.

4.

Descriptive Text

As already pointed out in the chapter 1 point B that this research is

limited to the relationship between students’ anxiety and their achievement in reading comprehension, the researcher already limits the scope of this

research on reading the descriptive text. It is necessary for the researcher

to briefly discuss the descriptive text.

Descriptive text is a part of factual genres. Anderson and Anderson

define description as “Describing a particular person, place or thing, its

purpose to tell the subject by describing its feature without including

personal opinion. A factual description differs from an information report

because it describes a specific subject rather than a general group.”11 It

means that descriptive text is a factual genre which describes a specific

subject and usually tells its characteristics.

Further, Wishon and Burks define “description also gives sense

impressions such as the feel, sound, taste, smell and look of things.

Emotion (feelings) may be described too, like happiness, fear, loneliness,

gloom, joy, comport, etc. Then, description helps the reader through

his/her imagination to visualize a scene or a person, or to understand a

sensation or an emotion.”12

It means that descriptive text describes a

specific subject and its characteristics that include the feel, sound, taste,

smell and look of things.

11

Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson , Text Type 3, (South Yarra: McMillan, 1998), p. 26

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Barbara Fine Clouse divides the objective of description into six,

they are:13

a. To entertain

b. To express feeling

c. To inform (for a reader unfamiliar with the subject)

d. To inform (to create a fresh appreciation for the familiar)

e. To persuade (to convince the reader that some music degrade women)

Descriptive text usually includes the following grammatical

features:14

a. Verbs in the present tense

b. Adjectives to describe the features of the subject

c. Topic sentences to begin paragraphs and organize the various aspects

of the description

Whatever the type of text student reads, it cannot be denied that

there are several factors which influence the quality of student’s

comprehension. Factors that influence reading comprehension are

discussed in the following topic.

5.

Factors that Influence Reading Comprehension

There are many factors that can influence students’ reading

comprehension. Larry A. and Carl B. Smith argue that there are five

factors that are identified as the primary determinants of reading

comprehension, they are : background experience, language abilities,

thinking abilities, affection (interest and motivation, attitude and

beliefs, and feelings), and reading purpose.15

a. Background experience

13

Barbara Fine Clouse, The Student Writer, (New York: Mc-Graw Hill, 2004), p.143

14

Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson , Text Type 3, (South Yarra: McMillan, 1998), p. 26

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Experience is a process of gaining knowledge or skill over a

period of time through seeing and doing things. When the printed

message related to the experience, which student has not had, he

would fail to comprehend. The student who has limited experience

may have difficulty in comprehending many ideas in the text. In

other word, the reader’s background experience can be said as

connector of the information gap between reader and writer.

b. Language abilities

A good knowledge of language is necessary in preparation

for reading. Students’ language ability is an important factor in

beginning reading. Semantic (the meaning of words) and syntax (the

way that words and phrases are put together) are important to deliver

the meaning. They are related to the reading comprehension. If the

students find the printed page which presents too many new words,

they will not get comprehension because the words are strange for

them.

c. Thinking abilities

When students read, they associate what they read with

previous knowledge or experience; their thinking abilities or

intelligence influence it.16 The student who has good intelligence

will be better in his/her understanding in reading, but student who

has low intelligence will find the difficulties in reading.

d. Affection (Interest, Motivation, Attitude, beliefs, feeling)

Educators and parents recognize that the child’s interest,

motivation, attitudes, beliefs, and feeling are important factors that

cannot be taken for granted or ignored in the educational process.17

The affective domain means of feeling or emotion of the reader. It

determines what he/she reads and how he/she interprets the meaning

of the text.

16

Harris, 1980, op.cit., p. 210 17

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15

1) Interest motivation

Student who is not interested in reading or if their motivation is

low to read, she/he will get failure in comprehending. She/he will

not get any fun in reading, because her/his first impression does not

like reading, so when she/ he reads, she/he does not have the

process of thinking, which is a basic in reading. Thus the

comprehension will not occur.

2) Attitudes and beliefs

Attitudes and beliefs are frequently closely linked to their interest.

Attitudes and beliefs usually reflect background experience. They

also play important role in a comprehension.

3) Feeling

Emotion is fact of life. Feeling develop early when infants find

some things pleasant and other unpleasant.18 Emotional factors like

feeling or mood and concentration will influence student’s reading

comprehension. To get comprehension students always have to be

in a good condition.

e. Reading Purpose

This fifth factor also determines the comprehension ability,

student could also have difficulties to understand the text if she/he

reads it without particular purpose in mind. Comprehension is always

directed and controlled by the needs and purposes of an individual.

The purpose of reading is to get the meaning from the written

symbols. One of the most important tasks of the readers to find out

what the writer said. For junior high school, reading is used to

understand textbook.

Based on the explanation above, the researcher summarizes

that there are many factors which influence reading comprehension,

such as background experience, language abilities, thinking abilities,

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affection (interest and motivation, attitude and beliefs, and feelings),

and reading purpose. They are primary determining factors which can

influence students’ reading comprehension.

From all factors have been mentioned above, there are three

important factors in reading comprehension which are identified:

thinking, feeling, and purpose for reading.19 However, the researcher

limits this research on feeling factor in the aspect of anxiety.

Therefore, the writer discusses anxiety in the next topic.

B.

Anxiety

1.

The Understanding of Anxiet

y

In our daily life, when we find unexpected situation, we will

feel anxious.Anxiety is a negative feeling that someone has in certain

time. Anxiety is a feeling where the people are uncertain or hesitant

with their ability or what they want to do. This anxiety can be

described as a feeling which causes someone’s low self-confidence, so

that he/she can’t make maximal success in his/her life. For the people

who learn a foreign language, anxiety may affect their acquisition of

the language. Someone with high anxiety can create a negative effect

especially in their learning achievement.

According to Horwitz et al. define anxiety as “the subjective

feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated

with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system.”20

Furthermore,

anxiety arises as a response to an awful situation. Passer and Smith

define anxiety as a state of tension and apprehension as a natural

response to perceived threat.21 It means that people are naturally feels

anxious when they are threatened. According to Ormrod anxiety is a

19

Ibid., p. 261 20

Horwitz, et. al., Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety, The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 70, (Blackwell Publishing, 1986), p.125

21

(29)

17

feeling of uneasiness and apprehension concerning a situation with an

uncertain outcome.22

Anxiety is an abstract word which is not easy to define and

explain in a simple sentence. Commonly, anxiety is associated with

feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, or worry.

Moreover, Atkinson and Hilgard argue that anxiety occurs because of

threatening situation, conflict, frustration, threats of physical harm,

threats to self-esteem, and pressure to perform beyond an individual’s capabilities.23 Also, people with low self-esteem generally feel

anxious because they always think that they cannot do something

good and get success.

From the explanation above, it can be summarized that

anxiety is apprehension feeling that arises when someone face an

awful situation. Anxious person will focus on thinking the negative

results are going to happen rather than the positive result. Moreover,

Anxiety has negative effect in the learning process; their learning

ability will be distracted, because they cannot fully focus on the task.

Therefore, anxiety plays an important role in the learning process.

Moreover, it is important in a classroom for a teacher to know

whether students’ anxiety from the trait or whether it comes from a

particular situation at the moment. The following topic will discuss the

types of anxiety.

2.

Types of Anxiety

Anxiety may negatively affect students’ self-esteem, self- confidence, and ultimately prevent proficiency in language acquisition.

22

Jeanne Ellis Ormrod, Educational Psychology: Developing Learner, (Boston: Pearson Education Inc., 2011), p. 401

23

(30)

Anxiety can be experienced at various types. According to Spielberger

in Brown, anxiety is divided into two:24

a) Trait anxiety is anxious feeling that tends to be more

permanent. It has been someone’s character and become tendency.

b) State anxiety is emotional reaction which occurs

temporarily because of threatening situation.

Although anxiety may result in negative effects on language

learning, it is also believed that anxiety could motivate language learning.

Alpert and Haber in Brown distinguish harmful and helpful anxiety as

facilitative and debilitative anxiety, those are:25

a) Debilitative anxiety is harmful anxiety. It has negative

effect on language learning process. Anxious students are

having difficulties in dealing with some task, they feel

uncomfortable and unconfident. This situation will reduce

their concentration which means can influence their

language learning process.

b) Facilitative anxiety is helpful anxiety. It is contrast to

debilitative anxiety because facilitative anxiety has positive

effect. Several studies have suggested the benefit of

facilitative anxiety in learning foreign languages. In

Bailey’s study of competitiveness and anxiety in second

language learning, facilitative anxiety was one of the keys

to success, closely related to competitiveness. It motivated

students to study harder.

Therefore, anxiety can be divided into two types: State anxiety;

feeling of apprehension and nervousness as reaction to particular situation,

and trait anxiety; more intense anxiety that depends on one’s individual

24

H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Fourth Edition, (New York : Addison Wesley Longman Inc., 2000) p. 151

25

(31)

19

regardless of the situation. Moreover, anxiety appears because of some

sources. Sources of anxiety will be discussed in the following topic.

3.

Sources of Anxiety

Anxiety appeared when someone is aware of the danger

which is threatened to herself/himself. Anxiety can form as illness,

feeling sin or guilty. In teaching learning process, anxiety can occur

because of situation. There are some situation that can cause anxiety,

those are:26

1) A situation in which physical safety is at risk. For example, if violence

occurs in their school or neighborhood.

2) A situation in which self-worth is threatened. For example, when

someone makes unflattering remarks about their race or gender.

3) A new situation. For example, moving to a new school.

4) Judgment or evaluation by others. For example, receiving a low grade

from a teacher or being excluded by peers.

5) Frustrating subject matter. For example, having difficulty with

particular mathematical concept.

6) Excessive classroom demands. For example, being expected to learn a

great deal of material in a very short time.

7) Classroom test. For example, having to take an important test that

affects chances for promotion or graduation.

8) Concern about the future. For example, how to make a living after

graduation from high school.

Moreover, anxiety has many symptoms. Anxiety symptoms will

be discussed in the next topic.

26

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4.

Anxiety Symptoms

Michael W. Passer and Ronald Smith classify anxiety symptom, they

are:27

1) Subjective-emotional symptom, including feeling of tension, and

apprehension

2) Cognitive symptom, including worry some thought and a sense of

inability to cope

3) Psychological symptom, including increased heart and blood

pressure, muscle tension, raid breathing, nausea, dry mouth, and

diarrhea

4) Behavior symptom, such as avoidance of certain situations and

impaired task performance.

Another anxiety symptom also described by Jeffrey S.

[image:32.595.107.520.148.717.2]

Nevid as follow:28

Table 2.1

Anxiety symptom

Physic symptoms Behavioral

symptoms

Cognitive symptoms

Nervous, Panic Avoid behavior Worried about

something

Body Tremble Dependent behavior Conviction about

something will

happen

Sweating Unstable behavior Hard to focus

27

Michael W.Passer and Ronald Smith, Psychology, The Science of Mind and Behavior, Fourt Edition (New York: Mc Grawwhill Company, 2003), p.547

28

(33)

21

Hard to speak Very careful to need

sensation

Short breath

Dizzy, Frightening,

Frequently urine

Moreover, foreign language anxiety appears in the form of

anxiety such as: communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of

negative evaluation. Components of language anxiety will be discussed in

the following topic.

5.

Components of Language Anxiety

According to Horwitz, three components of foreign language

anxiety have been identified:29

1) Communication apprehension arises from learners’ inability to adequately express mature thoughts and ideas. It is usually

associated with personality like shyness, quietness, and

introversion. Communication apprehension plays large role in

foreign language anxiety since interpersonal interactions are the

major emphasis in foreign language class. In foreign language

class students are required to communicate with the target

language by ways of speaking and listening. Their limited

capabilities in the target language may derive students into a

communication apprehension. Communication apprehension

exist because students think that they will have difficulty

understanding others in listening and making oneself understood

in speaking.

29

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2) Fear of negative social evaluation arises from student’s need to make positive social impression from others. Moreover, students

are prone to have a fear of negative evaluation from both teacher

as the only fluent speaker in the class and their peers.

3) Test anxiety is a fear of failure about academic evaluation. It

means this kind of anxiety occurs in an evaluation situation.

Students with test anxiety might have unpleasant experience on

their previous tests which makes them fear of failing the

upcoming test. These students may also have false belief about

foreign language learning. They put unrealistic demand that they

should feel that anything than a perfect test is a failure.

C.

Previous Study

In this study the researcher takes three previous studies to

support this study. The first study is “The Relationship between

anxiety and Oral Practice in Turkey” written by Gonca Subasi in 2010. The objective of the study is to find out the correlation between

anxiety and oral practice of turkish. The method of this research is

correlational study. The data were gained through questionnaire and

interview. The result shows that there is correlation between students

and anxiety and their oral performance. They feel more anxious when

they are in Foreign language classroom because they perceive that

their own speaking ability as poorer than their classmates and teacher.

As a result, the anxiety influences their performance quality.30

The second study is “A study that had been done by Shameem Rafik-Galea and Zuhana Mohd. Zin in 2010. The objective of the

study is to investigate the influence of reading anxiety on

comprehension performance among low proficiency Malay ESL

30

Gonca Subasi, What Are the Main Sources of Turkish EFL

(35)

23

learner. The data were gained through questionnaire and reading

comprehension test. It showed that there was a significant correlation

between anxiety and academic reading performance among 218

Malaysia first year students taking English as a second language. It

indicated that the higher level of students’ anxiety, the lower their

grades.31

The third study is “Second Language Learning Anxiety and its effect on achievement in the language” by Anupama Chakrabarti and Madhumala Sengupta in 2012. The objective of the study is to find out

the effect of anxiety level with achievement. The sample used was 146

students of class IX. The data were gained through questionnaire and

students’ English score in the last summative examination. The result shows that there is a consistent negative correlation had been observed

between anxiety and test result.32

Those previous studies above used as references for the

resercher in comparing between those relevant studies with the study

conducted by the researcher this time. This study was the relationship

between students’ anxiety and their achievement in reading

comprehension. Some simmilarities and differences appeared between

this study and previous study were obviously the method and data

collection of studies. The simmilarity of both studies are both of them

focus on the correlation between students anxiety and their

achievement. Another simmilarity, the researcher used quantitative

method namely correlation technique. then, both of the data were

collected from questionnaire and test. Morever, there were some

differences this study with the previous study regarding the total of

31

Zuhana Mohd. Zin and Shameem Rafik-Galea, Anxiety and Academic performance among Malay ESL learners, (Journal of Pan-Asia Pasific Association of Aplied Linguistics, 2010) Pp. 41-58

32

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sample and language skill. The reseracher took 54 students as

respondents. It was different with previous study which was more that

that. Then the researcher chose reading skill as a variable.

D.

Hypotheses

Based on theory and thinking above, the researcher proposes the

hypotheses that can be formulated as follow:

a. Alternative Hypothesis (Ha): There is significant correlation between

students’ anxiety and their achievement in reading comprehension.

b. Null Hypothesis (Ho): There is no significant correlation between

(37)

25

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

A.

The Research Design

This research was a correlational research. According to

Creswell, this research is a quantitative method of research in which

investigators measure the degree of association or relation between two or

more variables using the statistical procedure of correlational analysis.1

This research consisted of two variables. Students’ anxiety was

independent variable symbolized by “X”, while the students’ achievement

in reading comprehension was dependent variable symbolized by “Y”.

B.

The Location and Time of the Research

This research was conducted at SMPIT An-Nawawi Al-Bantani

Bogor, especially at the second year students. This research was conducted

in October 6th, 2016.

C.

The Population and Sample

The population of this research was two classes of the second year

students of SMPIT AN-Nawawi Al-Bantani Bogor. Number of population

were 54 students. Because the number of population was less than 100,

then the researcher took all of population as respondents.

1

John W Creswell. Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and

Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Third Edition (New Jersey: Pearson

(38)

[image:38.595.107.531.105.707.2]

Table 3.1

Sample of the research

No The Number of Students

Class Male Female Total

1 8A - 26 26

2 8B 28 - 28

Total 54

D.

The Technique of Data Collection

To collect the data, the researcher used instruments. They were

questionnaire for assessing students’ anxiety level and descriptive reading comprehension test to measure students’ reading comprehension.

1. Questionnaire

In order to get data of the students’ anxiety, the researcher used a set of questionnaire. The form of the questionnaire was the

Foreign Language Reading anxiety Scale (FLRAS) which was adopted

from Saito et al. which consisted of 20 items.

Table 3.2

The FLRAS Questionnaire2

No Indicator Total Key Number

1 Students’ self-report of anxiety over

various aspects of reading 8

1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,

17,

2 The perception of reading difficulties in

the target language 10

2, 9, 10, 11, 12,

13, 14, 18, 19, 20,

3 Their perception of the relative difficulty

of reading as compared to the difficulty

of other language skills

2 15, 16,

2

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27

Total Items 20

The writer also made another 20 items questionnaire with

the same indicator as FLRAS in order to avoid invalid and unrealiable

[image:39.595.108.521.152.536.2]

data. Here was the indicator of FLRAS :

Table 3.3

The FLRAS Questionnaire

No Indicator Total Key Number

1 Students’ self-report of anxiety over

various aspects of reading 5

23, 27, 29, 31,

35

2 The perception of reading difficulties

in the target language 4 21, 28, 31, 32

3 Their perception of the relative

difficulty of reading as compared to

the difficulty of other language skills

11

22, 24, 25, 26,

30, 33, 36, 37,

38, 39, 40

Total Items 20

The questionnaire in this study was a Likert type

questionnaire which provided the students with five responses option:

Strongly agree (Sangat Setuju (SS)), Agree (Setuju (S)), Neutral

(Neutral (N)), Disagree (Tidak setuju (TS)), Strongly disagree (Sangat

(40)

[image:40.595.106.520.112.652.2]

Table 3.4

The Questionnaire scoring

Scale Affirmative Statement

Score

Negative Statement

Score

Strongly Agree 5 1

Agree 4 2

Neutral 3 3

Disagree 2 4

Strongly Agree 1 5

The questionnaire was translated into Bahasa Indonesia

which was aimed to avoid the possibility of different perception in

understanding the statement. Therefore, using Bahasa Indonesia in the

statement was useful for students to understand and answer the

question.

To obtain the data from the respondents, the researcher

made try out the questionnaire to determine the validity and reliability.

The writer got the standard coefficient validity minimun for this

instrument with N= 25 and coefficient validity is 0.3 to see the

validity of instrument, the researcher used SPSS 22 to measure the

validity and realibility of questionnaire. Based on the try out result of

the quetionnaire validity of the 40 items, it showed that 31 items were

valid. The number of invalid item were 2, 10, 14, 24, 25, 26, 35, 36,

(41)

29

. Table 3.5

Cronbach Alfa Table

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items ,813 40

From the table above, it can be seen that the value of

cronbach’s alpha is 0.813. That meant that the questionnaire was

reliable because the score was bigger than 0.60.

2. Test

The test instrument played an important role in collecting the

data. In this research, the researcher administered test to the students to

know students’ reading comprehension score. The reading material

and its question were selected from students’ book and other sources

wich was suitable with their level. The researcher used multiple choice

types in order to make the score more objective. Here was the indicator

of descriptive reading comprehension test.

In addition, the researcher clasified the students’ score of reading comprehension into some measurable categories as follows :

[image:41.595.108.521.96.536.2]

Table 3.6

The Category of Students’ Reading Achievement

The score of

students

Table 3.7

Cronbach Alfa Table

From the table above, it can be seen that the value of cronbach’s

alpha is that 0.726. That meant that the test was reliable because the

[image:42.595.108.518.556.749.2]

score was bigger than 0.60.

Table 3.8

The Blueprint of Reading Comprehension Test

Theme

Indicator

Question

Number

Total

My brother

a. Determining topic of the text

b. Finding specific information

1 2

2

A pet

b. Looking for main idea

3 4

2 Reliability Statistics

(43)

31

Blue bird

b. Finding specific information c. Synonim

5 6

7 3

My new neighbor

b. Looking for main idea c. Finding specific

information d. Finding implicit

information

8 9 10

11 4

Young stars

b. Finding specific information c. Synonim

12 13

14 3

Favourite jersey

a. Determining topic of the topic

b. Finding specific information

15

16, 17, 18

4

Desta’s family

b. Finding implicit information

19 20

2

Total 20

E.

The Technique of Data Analysis

After getting the questionnaire data from the students, the

researcher had to analyze the data and correlate the questionnaire score

(44)

To analyze the data, the writer used Pearson Product-Moment

Correlation Coefficient.3

√

Note :

r = Coefficient of correlation between X variable and Y variable

N = Number of respondent

= The sum of the product of X and Y scores for each students

= The sum of X scores

= The sum of Y scores

= The sum of quadrate of each X scores = The sum of quadrate of each Y scores = The sum of quadrate of each scores = The sum of quadrate of each scores

Before testing the tcount the researcher made two hypotheses of

signicance, they are:

Ha : there is a significant correlation between two varibales

Ho : there is no significant correlation between two varibales

The formulation of test :

a. If tcount > ttable, it means that the null hypothesis is rejected and

there is a significant correlation.

b. If tcount < ttable, it means that the null hypothesis is accepted and

there is no significant correlation.

3

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33

To interpret the index scores of “r” correlation, product moment

(rxy) usually used the interpretation such as bellow:

[image:45.595.108.517.175.533.2]

Table 3.9

Product Moment Correlation Index4

‘r’ value of product moment correlation (rxy)

Interpretation

0.00 – 0.20 Considered as no correlation

0.20 – 0.40 Low correlation

0.40 – 0.70 Medium correlation

0.70 – 090 Strong correlation

0.90 – 1.00 Very strong correlation

Moreover, the index correlation was clasified as positive

correlation or negative correlation. According to cresswell, positive

correlation happens if two factors have values that change in the same

direction. While, negative correlation happens if two factors have values

that change in the opposite direction.5 Positive correlation means that as

values of one factor increase, values of a second factor also increase. As

values of one factor decrease, values of a second factor also decrease.

While, negative correlation means that as values of one factor increase,

values of the second factor decrease.

4

Riduwan and Sunarto, Pengantar Statistika untuk Penelitian Pendidikan, Sosial, Ekonomi,Komunikasi dan Bisnis, (Bandung: Alfabeta, 2011), p.81

5

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34

A.

The Description of Data

As mentioned in the research methodology, to get the data,

the researcher distributed questionnaire for assessing students’

anxiety level and descriptive reading comprehension test to measure students’ reading comprehension. The researcher used the quantitative research by the correlational method. Therefore,

calculations of statistic were neceserry. The table can be seen as

follow:

[image:46.595.107.514.189.626.2]

Table 4.1 Students’ anxiety

From the table above shows that 46 students have high

anxiety level, 5 students have medium anxiety level, and 3 students

have low anxiety level.

From the scores that were collected above, the

researcher needed to know the statistical score. To find out mean, The Score of

Students Frequency

Table 4.2

Statistical Scores of Anxiety Level

Statistics Quesionnaire N Valid 54

Missing 0

Mean 96.37

Median 98.00

Mode 98a

Std. Deviation 14.750 Variance 217.558

Range 61

Minimum 64

Maximum 125

From the calculation of SPSS, the average of anxiety level

is 96.37. The median is 98 and the mode is 98. The highest anxiety

level is 125 while the lowest level is 64. The standard deviation is

14.740 with variance 217.558.

Based on the result statistic above, the average of anxiety

level is 96.37. It means that the most of students have high anxiety

(48)

[image:48.595.105.518.107.746.2]

Table 4.3

Reading Comprehension

The score of

students Frequency

Table 4.4

Statistical Scores of Reading Comprehension

Statistics

Reading Test

N Valid 54

Missing 0

Mean 54.17

Median 55.00

Mode 45

Std. Deviation 14.594 Variance 212.972

Range 75

Minimum 20

(49)

37

From the statistic table, the average of reading

comprehension score is 54.17. The median is 55 and the mode is

45. The highest score of reading comprehension is 95 while the

lowest score is 20. The standard deviation is 14.594 with variance

212.972.

Based on the result statistic above, the average of reading comprehension test is 54.17. It means that the most students’ score of reading commprehension was in below minimum comptence

criteria (KKM).

B.

The Analysis of Data

The researcher used SPSS 22 to know whether or not there

is correlation between students’ anxiety and their achievement in

reading comprehension. The result of the data can be seen in the

[image:49.595.108.523.86.704.2]

following table:

Table 4.6

SPSS Correlation Table

Quesionnaire Reading test Quesionnaire Pearson Correlation 1 -,407**

Sig. (2-tailed) _,002

N 54 54

Reading test Pearson Correlation -,407** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) _,002

N 54 54

(50)

From the calculation above, it is found that is -0.407.

The next step is to find the significance of varibales by calculating

is tested by significance test formula.

tcount = √ √

in which tcount = t value

R = -0.407

n = 54

tcount = √

√

= √

√

= √

√

=

√

=

= -3.213

Based on the calculation above, the result is compared by

ttable in the significance of 5% and 1% and n=54, the researcher

found the degree of freedom (Df) with the formula:

Df = N – nr

= 54 – 2

= 52

From Df = 52, it is obtained ttable of 5% = 0.279 and 1% = 0.361. It

means that tcount is higher than ttable 3.213 > 0.279 and 3.213 >

-0.361. Therefore, the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is accepted. In

other words, there is a significant correlation between students’

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39

C.

The Interpretation of Data

Based on the table 4.6, it is proven that the correlation between students’ anxiety and their achievement in reading comprehension is -0.407. It indicates that there is a negative correlation between them. It means that if students’ anxiety is lower, their score of reading comprehension test will be higher. On the contrary, if students’ anxiety is higher, their score will be lower.

The result of formula ‘r’ is -0.407. Refer to the table 3.9,

it is found out that index is in the interval of 0.40 – 0.70, it means that correlation between students’ anxiety and their achievement in reading comprehension is a medium correlation.

D.

Discussion

As the researcher wrote in the first chapter, the research

proposed to find an empirical evidence whether the students’ anxiety

has any relationship with their achievement in reading comprehension.

In the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language, the

acquisition of the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading,

and writing are important. However, reading is by far one of the most

important skills. This is because reading is interelated with the success of students’ learning in educational process. Through reading, students are able to gain a lot of knowledge and information. When the learners

have problem in reading comprehension such as feel anxious, fear or

low self-confidence, it can influence to comprehend the text.

In this discussion is derived from the analysis of the findings.

The analysis has been accomplished in order to answer the research

(52)

design, collecting data and analyzing data based on the result in

finding.

In this study, the researcher had conducted the data collecting.

The data was collected by using two instruments. The first was a

questionnaire sheet that was given to all students as participants in this

research. They were asked to fill the items of statement on the

questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to know the level of