A Correlation between English Achievement and Mathematics Achievement of The First Year Students at Internationally Standardized Class at SMPN 1 Kraksaan

By.

Ibnu Rajab Akbar

Firman Parlindungan

ABSTRACT

This research concerned on the correlation between English achievement and Mathematics achievement of the first year students at internationally standardized class at RSBI SMPN 1 Kraksaan. This study was conducted in a correlation design. In this study, there are two variables investigated, namely: independent variable (students’ English achievement) and dependent variable (students’ mathematics achievement). The sample in this study was 52 students who were selected randomly from 130 student of the first year at RSBI SMPN 1 kraksaan. Meanwhile the data is a document of LHBS (laporan hasil belajar siswa) to know the English and mathematics achievement. The collected data were analyzed by using Pearson product moment correlation formula.

The result in this study indicates that that there is a positive correlation between English achievement and Mathematics achievement of the first year students at internationally standardized class at SMPN 1 Kraksaan. Significant means the correlation coefficient 0,327 is higher than critical value where (df = n-2) at 0,05 level of significant 0,2732. However, the correlation between English achievement and Mathematics achievement is low (weak) since the result is only 0,327. It means that the higher students achievement in English, the higher students achievement in Mathematics.

 

A. Introduction

English the first foreign language in Indonesia plays an important role as a means of communication in many part of the world, is considered important in order to absorbs and develops technology, art and culture and also to maintain good relationship with foreign country. English is also the tool to communicate and interact with foreign people and international audiences. English has been acknowledged as the medium of great deal of the world’s knowledge (Crystal, 1999: 110) as cited in jurnal sastra inggris (2009: 40). In this case, the educational institution plays an important role in supporting the teaching of English. In the field of education, the needs of English are increasingly unavoidable because most teaching and learning materials are available in English (Aminatus, 2004:1). In learning English, there are four language skills that have to be mastered by learner. According to Alexander (1983:3) as cited in Ronny (2009:1) in learning English we have to learn at least four language skills: (1) listening (2) speaking (3) reading (4) writing.

Left Behind in various fields in the era of globalization compared from neighbor countries led government seems compelled to have international standards. Education sector are encouraged to include international standard. The impetus was even listed in the government regulation No. 20 of 2003 on National Education System paragraph 50 articles 3 which reads “Government and / or regional government held at least one unit of education at all levels of education, to develop a unit of international education”.

Internationally standardized school has several characteristics, such as, internationally standardized curriculum, internationally standardized administration, and the most well known is the use of language – English. Internationally standardized classes use English as the communication tool between the teachers and students. The use of English in SMPN 1 Kraksaan is 50% English and 5o% Indonesian for first year students, 75% English and 25% Indonesian for first year students, and 100% English for third year. Every aspects on the process of teaching and learning, assessing students, giving instruction, even the books are in English. That is why the students are supposed to be master in English to make them easy to understand another lesson – in this case it is Mathematics. Students have to take the time to study English before they study another lesson.

By those all phenomena, the researcher want to research about the relationship between English achievement and Mathematics achievement, whether there is a significant correlation or not. Do the Students who are master in English also have a good score in mathematics? Or, maybe in the contrary, students do not understand so much when the Mathematics is delivered in English. Researcher takes the first grade because it is the transition from elementary school which most of them use Indonesian as the communication tool in teaching and learning process.

Pursuant to the background of the study, the problems of research can be stated as follows: “Is there a significant correlation between English achievement and mathematics achievement of the first year students at internationally standardized class at SMPN 1 Kraksaan?”. the hypothesis can be stated as there is a significant correlation between English achievement and Mathematics achievement of the first year students at internationally standardized class SMPN 1 Kraksaan.

 

B. Research Design

This study is classified into descriptive research and for more specific, the researcher used correlation study. It can be used to indicate and determine the relationship between two pairs of scores. Ary (1979: 134) notes, “the statistical technique for determining relationship between two pairs of scores is known as correlation procedures. Correlation coefficient are statistical indices have been developed to indicate both the direction (negative or positive) and the strength of a relationship between variables. It attempts to investigate correlation between two variables – English achievement and mathematics achievement. To answer whether there is a correlation or not, researcher uses documentation – score of both lessons. To find out the coefficient of correlation between two variables, the data were analyzed by using the correlation formula of Pearson product moment. The reason why using Pearson product moment formula is because the N (subject) is more than 30 and the data must be interval or ratio. The extent of relationship between variables is expressed in a figure, which is called correlation coefficient (Mistar, 2007).

 

B.1 Population and Sample

In this research, the population that taken by the researcher was the first year students at internationally standardized class at SMPN 1 Kraksaan. Ary, et-al (1979:307) defines that the correlation does not require large sample; it can be assumed that if a relationship exists it will be evident in a sample of moderate size. The first year classes in this school consist of five classes. Each class consists of 26 students, so the total number of students is 130 students. Researcher took 52 students or 40% from all of total population of the participant in this research. In other word, the researcher took two classes –class VII A and VII B which are chosen randomly as the sample research.

 

B.2 Instruments

Instrument in research activities take an important role to get proper and relevant information data. In this study, the researcher used documentation as the only one instrument. The documentation was used to gain data on the students’ English achievement and students’ Mathematics achievement. The documentation was the score of “laporan hasil belajar siswa” (LHBS) of English and Mathematics subjects. The score of these two courses was taken from available documents in SMPN 1 Kraksaan, from English and Mathematics teacher.

 

B.3 Data Collection

In this study, the researcher used the documentation as the only one source of the data. The documentation was used to collect data on the student achievement – English and Mathematics. Then, the researcher calculated the data to get the result. The procedures of gaining data are as follows:

1. The researcher confirmed to the headmaster of SMPN 1 Kraksaan about the sum of the first year students in this school. And then, the researcher decided to take all of the first year students of SMPN 1 Kraksaan as the population and sample of this research.
2. The researcher contacted the English and mathematics teachers of the first year students at SMPN 1 Kraksaan to confirm and asked for the score of both subjects – English and mathematics.

 

B.4 Data Analysis

The researcher used Pearson product moment correlation. Mistar (2007-20) explains that correlation is to measure the extent of relationship between two variables. This technique is used to determine the correlation of English achievement and Mathematics achievement of the first year students at internationally standardized class at SMPN 1 Kraksaan. The variable X was English achievement and variable Y was mathematics achievement. The data analysis is as follow:

1. The researcher computed the correlation of the students’ English and students’ Mathematics scores by using Pearson Product moment. As we know that there are two types of formula in Pearson product moment correlation, the researcher will use the formula II. The formula is used as follows:

Formula I

r =

Legend:

N         :           The number of subject or students

∑XY    :           The sum of the products of students’ reading interest multiple students’ reading achievement

:           Mean of students’ reading interest

:           Mean of students’ reading achievement

S_x         :           Standard deviation of students’ reading interest

S_y         :           Standard deviation of students’ reading achievement

Steps in computation

a)      Writing score X and score Y of each individual in a parallel form.

b)      Squaring each score of variable X

c)      Squaring each score of variable Y

d)      Multiplying score X by Y of each individual

e)      Computing the mean of scores X and Y

 

The following formula:

=

=   mean

∑X   =   the sum of scores

N      =   the number of subject

f)        Computing the standard deviation of scores X and Y

 

g)      Computing correlation coefficient

 

Formula II

 

Legend:

N         : number of subjects

∑XY    : the sum of t he products of X times Y

∑X       : the sum of the products of X

∑Y       : the sum of the products of Y

∑X²      : the sum of the squared X

∑Y²      : the sum of the squared Y

(∑X)²   : the sum of X square

(∑Y)²  : the sum of Y square

 

1. To know there is a correlation or not, the null hypothesis was tested by comparing the obtained correlation at 0.05 level of significance with the critical value at Pearson product moment table.

• In terms of significance
  • Correlation coefficient (r) ≥ r-critical, it means the correlation between two variables is significant
  • Correlation coefficient (r) ≤ r-critical, it means the correlation between two variables is not significant. The correlation is significant if the correlation coefficient (r-observed) is the same or higher than r-critical. It means that there is a significant relationship between students’ English achievement and students’ mathematics achievement. On the other hand, the correlation is not significant if correlation coefficient (r-observed) is lower than r-critical.
• In terms of variance
  • The shared variance is the proportion of variance in variable Y that may be attributable to variance in variable X. the shared variance is found by squaring the observed correlation coefficient. To know significance of the coefficient correlation, the computed r is checked with r table. There are many classifications of the degrees of correlation to indicate the significance. The degrees of correlation are classified into five groups. They are as follow:

0,000 – 0,200: very low correlation

0,200 – 0,400: low correlation

0,400 – 0,600: moderate correlation

0,600 – 0,800: high correlation

0,800 – 1,000: very high correlation

 

C. Findings and Discussion

Researcher computes the average score from English subject and mathematics subject. The score of English include Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. The score of mathematics include Pemahaman Konsep, Penalaran and Pemecahan Masalah. As mentioned in chapter III, variable X is English achievement and variable Y is mathematics achievement. The finding of this study is a level of correlation between English achievement and mathematics achievement. To calculate the correlation value of the two variables stated, it was needed to compute the data.

 

 

1. As mentioned in before, the variable X was English achievement and the variable Y was Mathematics achievement. The correlation value (correlation coefficient) can be known by calculating it using Pearson product moment correlation formula as follows:

 

 

 

Where:

N                     : 52

∑XY                : 342066.2

∑X                   : 4101,6

∑Y                   : 4336,31

∑X²                 : 324495.9

∑Y²                 : 362535.85

(∑X)²               : 16823123

(∑Y)²               : 18803584

 

So,

 

 

 

 

 

 

= 0,327

 

1. Based on the result of the computation using Pearson product moment correlation formula above, it was found that the level of correlation between English achievement and mathematics achievement based on the LHBS (laporan hasil belajar siswa) was 0,327. In order to know whether the coefficient of correlation is significant or not, the table of significance or the r table is used. This table functions to interpret the significance of the coefficient of correlation at 0,05 level of significance. To get apparent illustration of the interpretation, the following is the 0,05 level of significance for 52 students with r critical value df (N-2) (adapted from Ary, 1979)

 

N	0,05
50	0,2732

 

According to the table of significance above, the coefficient correlation obtained from the computation was significant, because the r observed was 0,327 that was greater or higher than the r critical 0,2732 at 0,05 level of significance.

 

The correlation coefficient in this research result is 0,327. Consequently, the value of correlation coefficient is higher than r-critical (0,2732). The finding of this study concludes that there is a positive and significant relationship between students’ English achievement and students’ Mathematics achievement in the first year students at internationally standardized class at SMPN 1 Kraksaan Probolinggo.

Pursuant to the result of the finding, the null hypothesis (H0) which states that there is no correlation between English achievement and Mathematics achievement is rejected. While the research hypothesis (H1) stated in chapter 1 which states that there is a correlation between English achievement and Mathematics achievement is accepted, because r-observed was higher than r-critical.

There are three ways of interpreting a correlation coefficient (Mistar 2007: 23-24). Those are, in term of size, in term of significant and in term of variance.

• In term of size

In term of size, the correlation between two variables may be one of the following categories:

–         Very high (very strong), if the coefficient is higher than 0,80 (0,80 < r)

–         High (strong), if the coefficient is between 0,60 and 0,80 (0,60 < r < 0,80)

–         Moderate, if the coefficient is between 0,40 and 0,60 (0,40 < r < 0,60)

–         Low (weak), if the coefficient is  between 0,20 and 0,40 (0,20 < r < 0,40)

–         Very low (very weak), if the coefficient is lower  than 0,20 (r < 0,20)

Pursuant to the classification of the degrees of correlation, the computed r- value 0,327, indicates a low (weak) correlation between the students’ English achievement and students’ Mathematics achievement at internationally standardized at SMPN 1 Kraksaan Probolinggo.

• In terms of significance
  • Correlation coefficient (r) ≥ r-critical, it means the correlation between two variables is significant
  • Correlation coefficient (r) ≤ r-critical, it means the correlation between two variables is not significant

Theoretically, the correlation between two variables based on the term of significance was significant, because the correlation coefficient is higher than critical value which is the level of correlation is 0,327 and the critical value is 0,2732.

• In terms of variance
  • The shared variance is the proportion of variance in variable Y that may be attributable to variance in variable X. the shared variance is found by squaring the observed correlation coefficient. In this research, researcher found that the coefficient of the correlation between English achievement and Mathematics achievement is 0,327. The proportion of English achievement and Mathematics achievement is 0,327²  which is 0,107. Thus the contribution of English achievement subject to mathematics achievement is only 10,7%.

 

Based on the theory, explanation and computation of correlation between English achievement and Mathematics achievement, it can be said that there is a positive and significant correlation between English achievement and Mathematics achievement of the first year students at internationally standardized class at SMPN 1 Kraksaan Probilinggo, but the correlation of the English achievement and Mathematics achievement is low (weak).

Language is used as means of communication (Dinneen, 1974: 6-11). It is used among the people to communicate one another or to convey a massage, so that, the speaker and listener have the same idea. In this case, foreign language is used in the formal institution –school which takes international standard.

Students’ achievement refers to anything that is gained through certain effort, either from process of the study or work. In term of this research context, the intended meaning of achievement is the result of teaching and learning process reach by students. The researcher related the finding with the discussion in chapter two. It is found that the English achievement is very important to understand another lesson especially Mathematics at internationally standardized class which use English as the tool of communication between teacher and student.

After conducting a process of computation on the English achievement (X) and mathematics achievement (Y) on the first year students at internationally standardized class at SMPN 1 Kraksaan, the researcher found that the level of correlation coefficient (r-observed) was 0,273. It is, then, compared with the critical value (r-critical) at the table with N=52 at 0,05 level of significant it is found that the value of r-observed was higher than r-critical.

Mistar (2007) said that the correlation is significant if the correlation coefficient (r-observed) is the same or higher than critical value (r-critical). Therefore, the hypothesis stated that there is a positive and significant correlation between English achievement and mathematics achievement at internationally standardized class is accepted. It means that the students who have high score in English tend to hive high score in mathematics.

Ary, et-al (1979:129) defines that the value of coefficient of the relationship can be inferred from numerical value of the correlation coefficient. Value near zero implies a weak relationship, whereas value closer to either + 1 or – 1 indicates a stronger relationship. In this research, the correlation coefficient is 0,327, it means that the relationship between these two variables is weak.

In conclusion, it s very important to master English at internationally standardized in order to make easy in understanding the lesson that deliver in English. English achievement takes very important role in influencing the score of another lesson, because the correlation is positive, means that the higher score of English, the higher score of Mathematics.

 

D. Conclusion and Suggestion

D.1 Conclusion

It can be concluded that there is a positive and significant correlation between English achievement and mathematics achievement. Pursuant to the data analysis, the researcher concludes that English achievement of the students influence the mathematics score of the student at internationally standardized class which use English as their media in teaching learning. This conclusion is drawn through the result of the computation which shows that the value of the coefficient of correlation (r) between two variables, i.e. English achievement as the first variable and mathematics achievement as the second variable, is greater that that of the product moment table with 5% level of significance. It means that the alternative hypothesis is accepted and the null hypothesis is rejected. It can be said that there is a positive and significant correlation between the students’ English achievement and students’ mathematics achievement at internationally standardized class at SMPN 1 Kraksaan.

It is important to note that this correlation does not find out the correlation with causation but it is emphasized of the linear relationship between two variables. So, the researcher uses the correlation coefficient that has been calculating by using Pearson product moment correlation.

 

D.2 Suggestion

From the forgoing discussion on the theoretical framework, the methodology, and the result, some suggestions are primarily addressed to the DIKNAS and further researcher.

 

D.2.1 For DIKNAS

As we know that, DIKNAS is the government institution that runs in managing the educational system in this country.  The researcher notes some suggestion to DIKNAS which is take important rule in conducting this program – Internationally standardized school. The first is, since the correlation is positive, so this program is running well, but the problem is the correlation is low. So, researcher suggests to DIKNAS to increase the quality of the teacher, since the thing that most affect the quality of students is the teacher. As mentioned in chapter II that RSBI have to conduct workshop to increase and absorb the system from other overseas school and conducting workshop, so, Researcher also suggest to DIKNAS to conduct the training program / workshop for the teacher and for every aspect of the school.

As mentioned in earlier that the finding of this research shows a weak relationship between the two variables. Therefore, researcher suggests DIKNAS to change the curriculum by adding the time for English subject in order that students have more explanation about English major.

 

D.2.2 For the Further Researcher.

Researcher suggest to the further researcher to use the bigger and more representative sample to reach and reliable result. Besides that, the use of different population and sample are recommended to find the general ability of the result.

 

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