ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 154 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi A Correlation between Self-Confidence and Essay Writing Achievement Roy Mardiansyah A Teacher of English at Junior High School 44 Palembang roymardiansyah092@gmail.com Abstract This study investigated the correlation between self-confidence and essay writing achievement, and investigated the influence of self-confidence on essay writing achievement of undergraduate English education study program students of one University in Palembang. The design was a quantitative research. The sample of this study was taken from all fourth semester students. The total number of the students was 134 students. Since 10 were absent, the sample of this study was 124 students. The data were obtained from self-confidence questionnaire and writing test. Descriptive statistic, Pearson Product Moment correlation and regression analysis were administered to find out the correlation and the influence between variables. The result indicated that there was a significant correlation between students’ self-confidence and essay writing achievement with r-obtained was (.620). It was higher than r-table (.176). Besides, there was also a significant influence of self-confidence on essay writing achievement with 38.5%. This study could have implications for English language teachers or lecturer, learners, and text book writers. Keywords: essay writing achievement, self-confidence Manuscript submitted: August 20, 2018 Manuscript revised: September 3, 2018 Accepted for publication: September 17, 2018 Introduction English is the most important language in the world used as the main tool of communication among people who have different native language. Matsuda (2012) states English is as an important language to learn because it provides people with new international opportunities that are not available to them otherwise, even when they cannot think of any specific ways they might be using the language in the future. As an international language, English is learnt in every country including Indonesia. In the process of learning English, the students study four language skills, namely: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. From the four language skills, Richardson and Morgan (as cited in Marzulina, 2018, p.4)stated that writing is the most complex communication process activity in communicative art. Pasand and Haghi (2013) also mention that the most important skill is writing. In addition, Aydogan and Akbarov claim writing is the productive skill in the written mode which is more complicated and seems to be the hardest of the skill, even for native speakers of a language, since it involves not just a graphic representation of speech, but the development and presentation of thoughts in a structured way (as cited in Saputra & Marzulina, 2015, p. 2). Thus, writing is one of the useful skills that students should be learn and mastered. One of the psychological factors that influences students’ achievement writing is self- confidence. Martinez and Villa (2016) mention “self-confidence is a specific area of psychology related to the language learning process development” (p. 24). Learners are commonly exposed to situations that really block their learning process in a class of English as a foreign language. Zurqoni states “a teacher (lecturer) who taught warmly, communicatively, and familiar with students will http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/ mailto:roymardiansyah092@gmail.com ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 155 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi cause students’ self-confidence, the lesson would be more meaningful and successful if the teaching learning and interaction process, the teacher and lecturer presented are communicative and familiar individuals” (as cited in Astuti, 2016, p. 157). However, these studies are important since they have identified an association between self-confidence in language ability and other language-related phenomena. Some researches had been done dealing with the correlation between self-confidence and writing achievement. Stibravy and Muller (1988) state that task oriented technical writing assignments were found to have a positive effect of a significant increase in self-confidence, an overall improvement in communication ability, a reduction in being manipulated by others, improved analytical ability, and increased control over life circumstances. In addition, Permatasari (2013) in his research indicated that there was positive link between self-confidence and speaking skill and there was positive link between grammar mastery and self-confidence simultaneously and speaking skill. On the contrary, Zikrullah (2017) in his research argued that there was no significant link between self-confidence and paragraph writing achievement. The current study investigated whether there was any significant correlation between self- confidence and essay writing achievement of undergraduate English education study program students at one university in Palembang. The purposes of this research were to find out whether or not there was a significant correlation between self-confidence and essay writing achievement of Undergraduate Students of English Education Study Program students at one university in Palembang and if self-confidence significantly influenced essay writing achievement of Undergraduate of English Education Study Program students at one university in Palembang. Literature Review The concept of writing Writing is a very important capability for being owned by students, and writing is also an excellent communication tool. Through writing, each person is able to convey feelings, ideas, and announcements to others and the students should master it, because writing is very useful to improve English skills of the students itself. Langan (2001) argued “writing is a process that involves the pre-writing, revising and editing” (p. 23). Pre writing will help the writer think about and develop a topic and get words on paper. It helps the writer to create materials, and it is a central part of the writing process. Revising means rewriting a paper, building on what has already been alone, in order to make it stronger. It is like cleaning house getting rid of all the junk and putting things in the right order, after the writer revised the writing for content and style, the writer is ready to edit check for and correct errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Gebhard claims writing process comprises of pre writing activities, composing and editing (as a cited in Astrid, 2015, p. 9). Thus, those processes are very important to help students to improve their writing skill. One way of focusing attention on different aspects of writing is to look at writing as a process. According to Nation (2009), “One possible division of the writing process contains the following seventh sub processes: considering the goals of the writer, having a model of the reader, gathering ideas, organizing ideas, turning ideas into written text, reviewing what has been written and editing (p. 114). Williams (2003) states “the most salient universal features were identified as “stages” of the composing process: prewriting, planning, drafting, pausing, reading, revising, and editing” (p. 54). Tafan finds media can help with many issues such as: motivation, clarity, recycling, drafting, revising, editing, variety, mixed ability classes, updating information in the textbook, giving life and color to classroom procedures and methods (as cited in Pitaloka, 2014, p. 2). Thus at the same time helping the students improve accuracy and fluency. Writing is a process by which we transfer our thinking, our knowledge, our ideas, and our experiences into written form. Graham argues becoming a good writer requires discourse http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/ ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 156 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi knowledge on the various aims and forms of writing and knowledge on the topics of students’ compositions (as cited Mukminin., Ali, & Ashari 2015, p. 1396). Richards and Renandya (2002) add another difficulty in writing is not only in generating and composing the ideas, but also in presenting the ideas into the text. In addition, writing is a way to produce language that comes from our thought (as a cited in Lestari & Holandyah, 2017, p. 46). Thus, the students can share their feeling, ideas and anything that exist in their mind by their writing. In writing, they are some structures that the students should mastery to make good essay writing. Mukiminin (2012) argues that writing is not only about grammar but also about how to organize ideas, correlate, styles, mechanics, and a good flow to make have a good in writing. Moreover, essay writing achievement is the student‘s ability in expressing their ideas, thoughts, and feelings in writing test. The result of the test is assigned in the form of grades. In this study, students writing achievement was the result of essay writing achievement test of EFL students of English Education Study Program students of State Islamic University in Palembang in the academic year 2017/2018 given in a form of an essay writing test. It was conducted to the students who had taken the essay writing course. The concept of self-confidence The word confidence is derived from the Latin word “confidential” meaning “to trust” and “to have faith”. Self-confidence is a personal factor that pays a supportive role in the achievement of foreign language learning. Some studies claim that no language learning activities will be carried out successfully without it (Huitt, 2004 & Khodadad, 2003; as cited in Lasiyah, 2017, p. 18). It may facilitate or debilitate academic achievement. Rubio (2007) argued “when there is low self- confidence, on the contrary, learners suffer from uncertainty, insecurity, fear and social distance” (p. 7). Foreign language learners who possess general self-confidence perform well and most likely believe themselves to be capable learners. A confident person interpret failure as a result of a lack of effort, preparation and others factors they can change, and they can manage negative emotions like upset, down, and pessimistic. Wright maintains mentions characteristics of high self- confident person. They are; (1) ambitious, means someone wants his life more than survive, but to be envision in better surroundings, (2) goal oriented that the person seek challenges of completing the new goals, (3) be communicative person that the person can express the ideas and feeling clearly, (4) living kind, attractive and open to others (as cited in Zikrullah, 2017, p. 15-16). The high self-confidence person has good interpersonal ability. On the other hands, low self-confidence is characterized by fearful, pessimistic, difficult to communicate what is really needed, and insecure in relationship with others. Methodology Research design A correlational research was applied in this study in terms of explanatory and prediction research design to find out the link between variables and explain and interpret the results that may appear. The procedures were, first, questionnaire was used to identify the students’ self-confidence. Second, essay writing achievement test was administered to know students’ essay writing achievement. Then the link and influence between variables was analyzed through Statistical Package for Social and Science (SPSS) based on the results of the tests. The last, explanation and interpretation of the results were discussed. http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/ ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 157 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi Research site and participants The population of this study was all active students of English Education Study Program at one State Islamic University in Palembang in the academic year 2017-2018. The distribution of population are described as follows: Table 1. Distribution of population No Semester Number of Students 1 II 115 2 IV 134 3 VI 113 4 VIII 102 Total 464 Note. English Education Study Program at State Islamic University in Palembang Purposive sampling method was applied in this study. In order to know the students’ essay writing achievement, a group of students who had already taken the essay writing courses from the population were considered as the sample. Nonetheless, most of the eighth semester students have already finished all of the lectures in the class and they are currently working with their thesis. It is quite difficult for the me to collect the data from them. The students of the sixth semester did not become the sample, because they have different level. In contrast, the students of second semester would not be included as the sample because they have not taken and finished essay writing course yet. Therefore, the students of the fourth semester were the participants in this research because, they have taken essay writing subjects and based on preliminary study, I found problems in fourth semester students about essay writing achievement. Thus, the samples of this research were all of the active students in the fourth semester. The distribution of the sample are described as follows: Table 2. The Distribution of sample Class Semester Number of Students PBI A IV 37 PBI B IV 29 PBI C IV 31 PBI D IV 37 Total 134 Note. English Education Study Program of State Islamic University in Palembang Data collection Questionnaire and writing test were used as instruments in this study to get the information about students’ self-confidence. I used the ready made questionnaire taken from a study conducted by Sander and Sanders in 2003. The questionnaire has 24 items based on four sources of self- confidence and allocated time to answer the questionnaire was 20 minutes. This questionnaire used 5 point likert-type scale (1 = No at all confident; 5 = Very confident). The final self-confidence was gotten from average for each domain, ranging from 1 to 5, with the higher scores suggestive of greater confidence. The sample students were asked to write an essay. The sample students had already been taught by their lecturer about how to make a good essay during their previous writing course. In this case, they were asked to make an essay that comprised of 250-300 words and they had 60 http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/ ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 158 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi minutes to do the writing test (see appendix B). After that, I handed out students’ writing to two senior lecturers in English Education Study Program of State Islamic University in Palembang as the raters. The raters examined the students’ writing and made judgment about the sample students’ essay writings. The writing rubric was based on adapted Diablo Valley College (2012) with ideas, organization, sentences, mechanic, and vocabulary. Validity and reliability tests In this research, I used the ready made an adult version of Copper smiths self-confidence questionnaire which was taken from a study conducted by Sander and Sanders in 2003. The validity of the questionnaire was administered to 160 university students. Those samples had the same level and characteristics with the participants in this study. Thus, the self-confidence questionnaire was valid. To find out the validity of writing test, I asked two senior lecturers in English Education Study Program of State Islamic University in Palembang in order to validate the writing test questions whether or not they were appropriate to the students based on the level of appropriateness of writing test items. There were five aspects that were measured: content/ideas, organization, sentences, mechanics, and vocabulary. Validator scored some of items (instructions, topic, time allocation, content, and rubric) for writing test from the result of writing test try out. The result showed that topic, content, and rubric were absolutely appropriate, and instruction and time allocation were appropriate. A good test should be reliable. According to Johnson and Christensen (2012), to check reliability of scores, the coefficient should be more than .70, preferably higher. The reliability of the self-confidence questionnaire has been checked by creator. Sanders and Sander (2003) used Test- retest reliability technique which was brought out by using SPSS to find out the internal consistency reliability of the questionnaire. Cronbach alpha coefficient of .88 was obtained, it was reliable. To make writing test reliable, inter-rater reliability was applied. By using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, the reliability of test was obtained by having the score from two rates. Since it was measured as the result of two raters, the result indicated that this essay writing was reliable. Data analysis The questionnaire was calculated based on the students’ answer. The questionnaire has 24 items based on four sources of self-confidence and allocated the time to answer the questionnaire was 20 minutes. This questionnaire used 5 point Likert-type scale and the response option was a value of (1 = Not at all confident; 5 = Very Confident). Scores average for each domain, ranging from 1 to 5, with the highest score was 120 and the lowest score was 24. Table 3. The categories of Students Self-confidence No Score Interval Categories 1 102-120 Very confident 2 83 – 101 High confidence 3 64 – 82 Average confidence 4 45 – 63 Low confidence 5 24 – 44 Not at all confident Note. Sander and Sanders. (2003). Measuring confidence in academic study: A summary report. The analysis of the students’ essay writing test was done by two raters who validated the essay writing test by using essay writing assessment rubric adapted from Diablo Valley College, (2012). Writing scoring system discussed five aspects of writing and the scale of each aspect was from one http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/ ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 159 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi to six. The result indicated that the highest point was 30. The total points of the students’ essay writing achievement was determined by two raters. The category of the students’ writing achievement was shown in following table. Table 4. The categories of students’ writing achievement Score Interval Categories 25 – 30 Very Good 19 – 24 Good 13 – 18 Average 7 – 12 Poor 1 – 6 Very Poor Note. Diablo Valley College, (2012). Findings The result of students’ self-confidence The total active students in the fourth semester of English Education Study Program were 134 students but only 124 students participated in this study because the other students did not feel disposed to be participants and were not present when I was conducting this study. The 24 items of self-confidence questionnaire by Sander and Sanders (2003) were used to find out the participants’ self-confidence. The self-confidence questionnaire was rated by using Likert scale. In scoring the students’ self-confidence, 24 items were calculated based on the scale (1 to 5). The descriptive statistical analysis of self-confidence questionnaire for the participants was shown in table 8. The maximum score was 105, and the minimum score was 60. The mean score for the participants was83.39 and the standard deviation was 10.738. The data was showed in the following table. Table 5. Descriptive statistics of self-confidence Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Self-Confidence 124 60 105 83.39 10.738 Valid N (listwise) 124 The result of the questionnaire indicated that the five levels of self-confidence were all perceived by the students with different number; “average confidence” as the least perceived and “very confident” as the most perceived one (see appendix G). The details were as follows: Table 6. Distribution of self-confidence Categories Frequency Percentage Very confident 5 4.03% High confidence 59 47.58% Average confidence 56 45.16% Low confidence 4 3.23% Not at all confident - - Total 124 100% http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/ ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 160 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi The result showed that there were 5 students (4.03%) were indicated very confident, 59 students (47.58%) were in high confidence, 56 students (45.16%) were in average confidence, 4 students (3.23%) were in low confidence, and there was no students in not at all confident. In conclusion, it revealed that from the self-confidence questionnaire test, very high confidence level was the most obtained by the students. The result of students’ essay writing achievement The descriptive statistic analysis of essay writing achievement for the participants was shown in the table 10. The maximum score was 26, and the lowest score was 10. The mean score indicated that the level of writing achievement of participants was 17.78, and the standard deviation was 2.918. The data was showed as follows: Table 7. Descriptive statistics of writing achievement Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Writing Achievement 124 10 26 17.78 2.918 Valid N (listwise) 124 The result of the writing test showed that the five categories of writing achievement were all gained by the students with different number: “Poor” as the least obtained category and “Very Good” as the most obtained category. The distribution was presented in the following table: Table 8. Distribution of students’ essay writing achievement No Score Interval Categories Number of Students Percentage 1. 25 – 30 Very Good 4 3,23% 2. 19 – 24 Good 55 44,35% 3. 13 – 18 Average 61 49,19% 4. 7 – 12 Poor 4 3.23% 5. 1 – 6 Very Poor - - Total 124 100% The result showed that there were 4 students (3.23%) who got a very good writing achievement, 55 students (44.35%) got a good writing achievement, 61 students (49.19%) got an average writing achievement, and 4 students (3.23%) got a poor writing achievement. No student got a very poor writing achievement. It implied that good writing level was achieved by the students. Statistical Analyses The result of normality test The data are categorized as normal if p> .05. If p< .05, it means the data are not normal. To find out whether the data distribution is normal or not, Kolmogrov-smirnov was used to see the normality. The results of indicated that the data from each variable were normal and appropriate with coefficients .099 for self-confidence and .167 for writing achievement. http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/ ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 161 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi The result of linearity test For linearity test, deviation of linearity was obtained. If it is more than .05, the two variables are linear. Based on the data, the result showed that the deviation from linearity between self- confidence and writing achievement (sig) was .086 or higher than .05, which the result could be assumed that the data were linear. Correlation between self-confidence and essay writing test This part answered the first research problem by analyzing the result of descriptive statistics for the self-confidence questionnaire and writing achievement. The result of Pearson Product Moment in this research can be seen in the following table: Table 9. Correlation between students’ self-confidence and their essay writing achievement Correlations Self-Confidence Writing Achievement Self-Confidence Pearson Correlation 1 .620** Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 124 124 Writing-Achievement Pearson Correlation .620** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 124 124 The result of Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficients indicated that the pattern of correlation between self-confidence and writing achievement was positive. The correlation coefficients or the r-obtained (.620) was higher than r-table (.176). Then the level of probability (p) significance (sig. 2-tailed) was .000. It means that p (.000) was lower than .05. Thus, there was a significant correlation between the students’ self-confidence and essay writing achievement of the Undergraduate Students’ of English Education Study Program at one state Islamic university in Palembang (see appendix K). Based on the correlation coefficients proposed by Lodico et al. (2010), the degree of correlation coefficient was fair relationship. Influence of students’ self-confidence on their essay writing achievement This part answered the second research problem by analyzing the result of descriptive statistics for the self-confidence questionnaire and writing achievement. In addition, since there was a significant correlation between the self-confidence and essay writing achievement, it can be said that students’ self-confidence had significant influence on their essay writing achievement. However, regression analysis was still used to find out if students’ self-confidence influenced their essay writing achievement. The result was described in the table below: Table 10. The regression analysis of students’ self-confidence and essay writing achievement Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients T Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 3.729 1.622 2.299 .023 Self-Confidence .169 .019 .620 8.733 .000 http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/ ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 162 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi The result showed that the students’ self-confidence influenced essay writing achievement significantly with tvalue (8.733) was higher than ttable (1.993) with sig. Value (.00) was lower than probability (.05). Therefore, there was significant influence between self-confidence toward essay writing achievement of the Undergraduate Students of English Education Study Program at State Islamic University of Raden Fatah Palembang. Table 11. Model summary Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate 1 .620a .385 .380 2.298 Moreover, to find out the percentage of self-confidence influence on essay writing achievement, R- Square was obtained. The result of the analysis indicated that the R Square (R2) was .385. It means that students’ self-confidence gave significant effect in the level of 38.5% toward essay writing achievement, and 61.5% was unexplained factor value. Discussion In order to strengthen the value of this study, the interpretations are made based on the result of data analyses. Based on the findings, there was a significant correlation between self-confidence and essay writing achievement. Also, there was a significant influence of students’ self-confidence on their essay writing achievement. First, based on result of Pearson-Product Moment correlation, it was known that there was a positive and a significant correlation between self-confidence and essay writing achievement of the fourth semester students’ of English Education Study Program of State Islamic University in Palembang (r-obtained.620). It was also found that self-confidence significantly influenced students’ essay writing achievement (38.5%). This means that self- confidence had relationship and influence on the students’ performance in essay writing. The explanation to support this finding was that from the beginning of the first semester, the participants had been involved in English writing practices and writing assignments or explored to English writing materials and interactions from printed textbook, online media, English writing environment, and social network. It is supported by Camacho (2005) who claims that “good writer tend to read more frequently and widely and to produce more syntactically complex writing” (p. 29). Furthermore, it might be because EFL students of English Education Study Program of State Islamic University in Palembang are aware of their self-confidence performance. Self-confidence impacts on the students’ comprehension or proficiency. It can be identified that students with high self-confidence usually set higher goals for themselves and become more willing to continue in spite of failure. Moreover, students who are confident in their academic skills believe in high scores of examinations and quality of their work to earn personal and professional benefits. The result of this present study is in agreement with Stibravy and Muller (1988) in their study. Their study showed that those task oriented technical writing assignments were found to have a positive effect of a significant increase in self-confidence, an overall improvement in communication ability, a reduction in being manipulated by others, improved analytical ability, and increased control over life circumstances. Al-Hebaish’s (2012) study showed that there was positive correlation between general self-confidence and academic achievement. Those who scored high in General Self-Confidence Questionnaire (GSCQ) also had high scores in the oral achievement test. Language instructors were recommended to enhance building up their students’ self-confidence in order to develop their oral performance achievement. Gurler (2015) indicated that there was a http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/ ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 163 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi positive statistically significant correlation in the level of .01 between self-confidence and speaking achievement with (r=.35). Furthermore, participants who were aware of their own abilities, love themselves or aware of their own emotions. Ikhlas (2015) states that self-confidence influence students’ reading skill. On the other hand, students who were lack confidence in their academic skill visualize a low grade even before they start examinations or enroll in course. Therefore, this process will build students confidence and subsequently improve students’ academic achievement. Nevertheless, students’ writing achievement showed various result. First, 3.23% (4) students obtained poor category. The students conveyed simplistic ideas, lack vocabulary and transitions in essay writing. The students used simple sentence and made mistake in structure with limited ability to organize every paragraph. Next, 49.19% (61) of the students obtained in average category. It contained some common mistakes in punctuation, capitalization spelling and usages. Then, they conveyed basically intelligible ideas in their essay writing although their organization unevenly developed but its transitions generally lacking. After that, 44.35% (55) of the students obtained in good category. It displays clear thinking and expresses ideas clearly and expresses ideas clearly. The students were in a good competence in organization but lack appropriate transitions. Occasionally, they made mistake in using punctuation, and capitalization spelling. The last, 3.23% (4) of the students obtained in very good category. Their essay writing displayed original and depth of thought and expresses ideas fluently. Their essay writing contained organization and linked paragraph with effective transitions. They also had sophisticated vocabulary range. In relation to the result of writing achievement, the whole data of students’ writing achievement were culculated by using descriptive statistic in SPSS 23th, and the mean score was (17.78). In other words, the level of students’ writing achievement were in the average level. To make them better on their essay writing, the students can choose the best way in their learning to improve their essay writing. The most important was the students must practice writing a lot in order to make them express their ideas and make their essay writing well organized and link paragraph smoothly with effective transitions. Based on the result of questionnaire, (4.03%) of the students had low self-confidence. Students who had low self-confidence were feeling shy and fear making mistake, they only wrote what they could write by using their vocabulary and then they just kept silent because they were afraid of making mistake. (45.16%) of the students had average self-confidence. Students with average self-confidence probably did not focus when they did something in some situations like assessment because they would be afraid to express their ideas in their essay writing. Goel and Aggarwal claims students with average self-confidence are likely to think about goals that are extremely low and would protect them from the anxiety of failure (as cited in Lasiya, 2017, p. 54). To teach the students who had average and low level of sel-confidence, the lecturer and language instructor could devide them in some groups and could give them some topics which could be discussed with group. Furthermore,during the process of teaching and learning writing, the language instructors should maintain a relaxed and humorous atmosphere; design interesting activities and give more time to practice. It would make them more active in process of learning and teaching and could reduce their shyness and they would not have fear in making mistakes.Then, (47.58%) of the students had high self-confidence category. The result indicated that most of the students who had high confidence would have belief in performing their ability. Goel and Anggarwal (2012) argues that “students who had high confidence would have positive and realistics perseption of themselves and their ability” (p. 90). The last, (4.03%) of the students had very confident category. The result indicated that the students had very confident were enjoyable and believe their ability, were not nervous, were motivated, and believe on their ability, in process of teaching and learning, theses kinds of students prefer to work individually and independently. http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/ ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 164 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi The result of this present study was in line with Stibravy and Muller’s (1988) study which showed that task oriented technical writing assignments were found to have a positive effect of a significant increase in self-confidence, an overall improvement in communication ability, a reduction in being manipulated by others, improved analytical ability, and increased control over life circumstances. Al-Hebaish’s (2012) study showed that there was significant correlation between self-confidence and academic achievement in oral presentation course. Those who had high score in GSC (general self-confidence questionnaire) also had high score in the oral presentation achievement test. By knowing this result, the instructors were recommended to enhance building up his students’ self-confidence in order to develop their oral performance achievement. Second, students’ self-confidence influenced their essay writing achievement. The students’ who enjoy higher levels of self-confidence were more sociable, having willingness to take risk, flexibility in behavior, positive mind-set, motivated and more prepared to share their opinions with others. Sara (2015) assert that students who own good self-confidence also control all what learners do in all domain, especially their success which they all hope to gain. Students who are highly self- confident in learning English especially in writing usually have higher writing achievement compare to those who are low or negative self-confidence. The result of this present study was in line with Arango (2015) who found that self- confidence was one of the most influential variables that affect foreign language learning in the tenth grade students at recourse school (as cited in Lasiyah, 2017, p. 54) since they were having high confidence and able to do things as well as most other people. The students almost did not have negative response to themselves and felt that they have number of qualities. Due to the fact, Goel and Aggarwal (2012) claim that the students who have high confidence will have positive and realistic perception of themselves and their ability, and students with low self-confidence are likely to think about aims that are extremely low and would protect them from the anxiety of failure. In short, the total contribution of students’ self-confidence and their essay writing achievement gave significant correlation and influence. However, the unexplained factors also had contribution on students’ writing ability. The findings of this study may have some pedagogical implications for teacher or lecturer, students, and next researcher. Finally, this study was successful in investigating the correlation and the influence between self-confidence and essay writing achievement of Undergraduate English Education Study Program Students’ of one University in Palembang. Conclusions and Recommendations Based on the findings and interpretations of the study, there are some conclusions can be drawn: 1) There was a significant correlation between students’ self-confidence and their essay writing achievement r-table (.620). The finding showed that be alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted and the null hypothesis (H0) was rejected. 2) Based on the finding, it showed that there was significant influence (38.5%) of students’ self-confidence on their essay writing achievement. It means that students’ self-confidence give dominant effect on essay writing achievement of Undergraduate English Education Study Program students. Seeing all the explanation and the conclusion above, I intended to give some recommendations related to English teaching learning as well as the future studies. Firstly, for students, since the self-confidence is important for themselves, they have to be aware and explore themselves in the certain learning so that they can achieve more in learning not only in writing subject but all subjects. Furthermore, these findings can imply that lecturers still need to know and understand their students’ self-confidence. Due to this fact, since self-confidence contributed to the students of English Education Study Program. It is suggested that lecturer should focus on the self- confidence as a non-linguistic factor or as writing psychological factor. http://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/ ISSN |2355-3669|E-ISSN|2503-2518|Volume 5|Number 2|December 2018| 165 Available online athttp://jurnal.radenfatah.ac.id/index.php/edukasi Second, for the teachers and the students, they do not have to pay much attention to the self- confidence in teaching-learning. Teacher should give more encouragement to the students beside giving or transferring knowledge. Teacher should be more creative in giving a lesson and using various teaching method especially in teaching writing, in order the students can be more comfortable and more interest in learning English. The last suggestion was the further researcher. 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