Sebuah Kajian Pustaka: English Language Teaching Educational Journal (ELTEJ) Vol. 2, No. 2, 2019, pp. 70-78 E-ISSN: 2621-6485 The Correlation between Self – Esteem and Student’s Reading Comprehension 1Elsa Rosalina, 2Nasrullah 1,2Lambung Mangkurat University E-mail: 1elsa.rosalina@ulm.ac.id, 2nasrullah01@ulm.ac.id Abstract The aim of this study was to know the correlation between self-esteem to student’s reading comprehension. This study employed quantitative approach in the form of correlation design to identify the correlation between self-esteem and students reading comprehension. The population of the present study was English department students of ULM academic year 2018/2019. Data collection involved 35 students who took part in the reading course. There are two kinds of the instrument used: test and questionnaire. The data in this study were analyzed by using Pearson product-moment. The result of the study reveals that there is a correlation between self-esteem and student’s reading comprehension. The result showed that the r of the first calculation was .0457. It meant that H0 was rejected and self-esteem has a correlation to the reading comprehension with significance tailed 0.006< 0.05 Keywords: correlation study, self-esteem, student’s reading comprehension. How to Cite: Rosalina, E. & Nasrullah. (2019). The correlation between self-esteem and student’s reading comprehension. English Language Teaching Educational Journal, 2(2), 70-78. INTRODUCTION Graham (1997) stated that in order to be an advanced language learner, students need both cognitive and affective aspects. The cognitive which is the ability to adapt to new demands and approaches involve new learning strategies and patterns of working to adjust the situation. However, she also emphasises the influence of affective factors on how well a foreign language is acquired. According to Gardner and MacIntyre (1992), affective factors are those emotionally relevant characteristics of the individual that influence how she/he will respond to any situation. The affective domain is the emotional side of human behaviour and involves a variety of personal factors and feelings (Brown, 2014). Affective factors which may have impacts on foreign language learning have been researched since around the late 1980s (Takahashi & Takahashi, 2013). These factors include motivation, anxiety, attitudes, tolerance of ambiguity, risk-taking tendencies, and so forth. This research deals with the above factors in order to achieve the maximal result in the field of teaching English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL). Brown & Lee (2015) stated that reading is as much an emotional as a cognitive process so that the affective factors strongly impact all phases of the writing process. Juyandegan (2016) stated that the lower standards of reading proficiency could be due to many various factors including cognitive or affective ones. Reading is a combination of cognitive and affective processes and to optimise learning, and equal attention should be given to the two sides: cognitive and affective. Learning English as a foreign language is one aspect of broad processes of learning. Therefore, if there is no balance between those two domains, the English learning process will be negatively affected. Andres (2002) argued that language learning is affected by both domains which are the mental and emotional sides of human behaviours. Branden (1994) stated that those facets can be motivation, attitudes, anxiety or self-esteem. They can be positive or negative factors. Self –esteem is an emotional factor which influences the students when they learn mailto:1elsa.rosalina@ulm.ac.id mailto:2nasrullah01@ulm.ac.id ELTEJ ISSN: 2621-6485 ◼ Rosalina & Nasrulloh 71 about language. Brown (2014) stated that self-esteem is probably the most pervasive aspect of any human behaviour. It could be easily be claimed that no successful cognitive or affective activity can be carried out without some degree of self-esteem. In the previous study, Andres (2002) argued that in recent years, the importance of affective factors such as anxiety, inhibition, motivation and self-esteem has been of interest in the field of language learning because of their high effects on learning a foreign or a second language. Therefore, Kaniuka (2010) stated there seems to be little evidence that increasing a student’s level of self-esteem will raise their level of achievement. Suharmanto (2006) investigated the patterns of relationships among some selected affective factors affecting students’ EFL reading comprehension. The study reveals some finding which verified patterns of path relationship among some selected factors which are covered as the cognitive aspects and EFL reading comprehension. In contrast, the present study will see from the other perspective, which is the affective factors and correlates them to students reading comprehension. Cahya (2015) investigated selected affective factors and EFL proficiency of college students. This study reveals some findings that the only significant path with a direct contribution to EFL proficiency is from attitude. The significant path is initiated by motivation and self-esteem significantly contribute to attitude. In contrast, this present research tries to focus on the affective factors and their contribution to the reading aspect. Based on this previous study, this study tries to analyse the correlation of self-esteem to students reading comprehension, and it is to detect the effect of affective factor on reading comprehension to student’s reading comprehension. Self-Esteem refers to the evaluation which individuals make and customarily maintain with regards to themselves; it expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval and indicates the extent to which individuals believe themselves to be capable, significant, successful, and worthy. The aspects of self-esteem include language ability, actual in-class language use, in-class relationships, and attitude toward / behaviour in the foreign language class. In this study, it is indicated by the score in Self - esteem questionnaire adapted from The Foreign Language Self - Esteem Scale ( FLSES ) in the study conducted by Takahashi and Takahashi (2013). Reading comprehension means the student’s reading score which is gotten from the result of the TOEFL reading test of English Department Students for one hour. The model of the test is multiple choice includes 50 questions. Correlation means the value obtained from the calculation of Pearson product- moment analysis were analysed using SPSS 20 program. Factors Affecting Language Learning Lightbown and Spada (2006) referred to the performance on certain kinds of tests. They narrate that some years ago, it was thought that the higher learner’s IQ, the more likely that this learner will succeed in language learning. However, Lightbown and Spada (2006) disagree on that saying that tests like IQ are mostly related to metalinguistic knowledge and cannot predict success in second language acquisition. The next significant factor in SLA is the so-called affective domain. The affective domain is the emotional side of human behaviour and involves a variety of personal factors and feelings (Brown, 2014) It is comprised of socio-cultural, egocentric and motivational factors. Therefore, it will discuss each other such as socio-cultural factors can distinguish the attitude towards Second language culture, which usually results in a culture shock. Another critical factor in SLA, according to Yorio (1976) is input. In this research, it means how a learner acquires a second language: as a free learner or as an instructed one. Concerning the free learner type, the essential factors are the place of learning and the type 72 ◼ E-ISSN: 2621-6485 of language contact. Some learners acquire the second language in a foreign setting, second language environment or bilingual environment, in a family setting or with peers. All these factors play a decisive role in second language acquisition since many learners and teachers believe that the best way to learn a foreign language is by living in an environment where this language is daily spoken. Affective Factors Affective refers to the emotions, feelings, and attitudes that individuals bring to the learning experience and the role these play in motivation (Dornyei, 2001; Hurd, 2008). As Hurd (2008) pointed out, findings in neuroscience indicate that both affective and cognition are fundamental and interdependent aspects of human brain functioning. The role of affective factors in learning has been outlined by Schunk, Pintrich and Meece (2008). Brown (2004) stated there is no doubt at all about the importance of examining personality factors in building a theory of second language acquisition. Understanding how human beings feel, respond, believe, and value is an exceedingly important aspect of a theory of second language acquisition. Among affective factors, this research takes Self-Esteem, Inhibition, and Anxiety factors it is because based on students problem which explains in chapter one and Krashen (2003) who stated that fourth point of affective factor which refer to the children’s emotional states. This study deals with the inhibition that the children might encounter, such as the following situations: the students feel anxious, they have low self- esteem, and they do not consider themselves to be potential members of the group who speak the language. Self-Esteem Brown (2014) stated that Self-esteem is probably the most pervasive aspect of any human behaviour. It could easily be claimed that no successful cognitive or affective activity can be carried out without some degree of self-esteem, self-confidence, knowledge of yourself, and belief in your own capabilities for that activity. Based on the theory above it means that in the learning process self-esteem is one important affective factor in improving students knowledge in language learning. Self-esteem is one of the psychological factors which influence the students to learn about language. Anders (2002) claimed that language learning is affected by both domains which are the mental and emotional sides of human behaviour. Farley (1970) stated that the role of personality had been much less a concern of researchers. Self-esteem is another factor in SLA. Learners with low self-esteem are less likely to participate in a class or practise the language (Brown, 2014) . Some of these students do not like to speak aloud in front of the class. They may also think to be less critical and that their contributions are not valuable. Reading Comprehension Reading comprehension is a process of understanding the information in the text by using a reader’s background information (Facharyani, Masrupi & Rahmawati, 2018). According to Klingner, Vaughn, and Boardman (2007), reading is the process of constructing meaning that achieved through effective instruction taking into account the aspects of previous reader's knowledge, the information provided by the text, and the context of the reading situation ELTEJ ISSN: 2621-6485 ◼ Rosalina & Nasrulloh 73 It is also supported by McEntire (2003) who argued that reading as a constructive process of prior knowledge and experience that affects the reader's understanding of the text. It can be concluded from the theory above to gain a correct understanding of information in the text; the reader needs both experience and the prior of knowledge. Brown (2014) stated that reading is as much an emotional as a cognitive process so that the affective factors strongly impact all phases of the writing process. Juyandegan (2016) stated that the lower standards of reading proficiency could be due to many various factors including cognitive or affective ones. Reading is a combination of cognitive, affective, and more psychomotor processes, and to optimize learning, equal attention should be given to the three sides: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. Based on the theory above it can conclude that reading comprehension is the cognitive process with impact by affective factors and more psychomotor processes. Cognitive when students try to understand the text, main idea, etc. Affective is the student emotional factors, such as self- esteem, inhibition, and anxiety when they try to comprehension the text, and psychomotor domain as well when considering the eye movements in any reading and mouth movements in reading aloud activity. Kaniuka (2010) stated there seems to be little evidence that increasing a student’s level of self-esteem will raise their level of achievement. However, in his study of elementary students, those showing academic success possessed more positive attitudes towards reading and higher levels of reading-related self-esteem. Andres (2002) argued that in recent years, the importance of affective factors such as anxiety, inhibition, motivation and self-esteem has been of interest in the field of language learning because of their high effects on learning a foreign or a second language. Brown (2014) also stated that reading is an emotional factor with strong impact by affective factors. Suharmanto (2006) investigated the patterns of relationships among some selected affective factors affecting students’ EFL reading comprehension. The study reveals some finding which verified patterns of path relationship among some selected factors which are covered as the cognitive aspects and EFL reading comprehension. Furthermore, this presents research to prove the theory and to know the correlation between self – esteem and student’s reading comprehension. RESEARCH METHOD This research used a correlation research design with the Pearson Product moment analysis. The design was implemented because this research was to find the correlation between self-esteem to student’s reading comprehension. This research tried to identify, analyse, and describe the correlation of self-esteem, to reading comprehension. The purpose of this research to verified about the correlation of self-esteem to student’s reading comprehension with quantitative research design especially in correlation design using Pearson product-moment analysis. This research was taken the data from Lambung Mangkurat University on 15 October 2019. At the beginning of the data collection, the first step is administration. The students were gathered in the room and are asked to work on the test as they are doing a reading test. They were given one hour to work on the test. All questions are multiple-choice and students answer questions by filling in an answer sheet. All of the 35 students participated in this research before estimating the degree of students self-esteem. English reading test administrated to the students and then the self- esteem questionnaire (FLSES). It includes (FLSES) questionnaire 14 items. The first step for collecting the data, the students were gathered in one classroom. After the student gather in the classroom, then distributed the reading test item and gave one hour to the students to answer the test. 74 ◼ E-ISSN: 2621-6485 The questionnaire was carried out later after the students take a short break. Before distributing the three questionnaires to the students, they are given brief information about the purpose of the questionnaires, their scope, and their significance for English teaching and learning. Then the questionnaire is distributed to the participants. They are asked to fill identity question before start answering the questionnaires. They were given 35 minutes to answer all set of questionnaires by the students. Table 1. The Administration of the Instrument in Data Collection No Time Activity 1 14.35 - 14.40 Introduction 2 14.40 - 15.40 Reading Test 3 15.40 - 15.55 Break 4 15.55 - 16.05 Distributing Questionnaires 5 16.05 - 16.40 Filling Questionnaires Data Analysis The data analysed using Pearson product-moment to find the correlation of self- esteem to the student’s reading comprehension. The data computation used SPSS 20.0 version. The steps of analysing the data are stated as follows: First is checking students’ response, this step for identifying students answer in affective questionnaire and reading test. Second is coding the students’ identity and recap each data using Microsoft excel. This step to make simple and easy when the data input in SPSS 20 program. The third is scoring students’ response in reading test and questionnaire. The score is as follows: Self-esteem questionnaire is scored 1 for answer strongly disagree, 2 for disagree, 3 for neither agree nor disagree, 4 for agree and 5 for strongly agree. Questionnaire minimum score is 0 and the maximum score is 64, for self-esteem. Reading comprehension test was scored 1 for the right answer and 0 for the wrong answer. This scoring using the standard scoring which applied in TOEFL test and converted them to standardise of TOEFL reading score. The fourth step is describing the data. The fifth step is the fulfilment of statistical assumptions. Correlation Pearson Product moment was used as a test in this research. The sixth step is establishing the statistical hypothesis. There are two kinds of hypotheses. H0 state that there is no significant correlation between self-esteem and reading comprehension. H1 states that there is no significant correlation between self-esteem and reading comprehension. The seventh step is establishing the criteria of rejecting the null hypothesis (H0). The criteria are as follows: Null Hypothesis is rejected if the probability or significance level is lower than 0.05. After knowing the result, hypothesis testing was conducted. From SPSS correlation table, the significance is noticed. If the significance level shows greater than 0.050 (p>0.05), it means that the data cannot reject the null hypothesis, so the null hypothesis is accepted. If the significance value shows lower than 0.05 (p<0.05), it means that data can reject the null hypothesis, so the alternative hypothesis is accepted. ELTEJ ISSN: 2621-6485 ◼ Rosalina & Nasrulloh 75 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION This point serves the result of a descriptive statistic of each variable. There were two variables in this research, and there were two statistical findings which were served in the SPSS standard tables. The results were as follows: Descriptive Statistic of Self-esteem The second variable was self-esteem personality. The table of descriptive statistic for this variable was shown in the following statistical table: Table 2. Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation SelfEsteem 35 34 60 47.23 4.759 Valid N (listwise) 35 The table contained of number of learners, minimum score and maximum scores, mean statistically and standard deviation. The total number of learners were 35 learners. The minimum score was 34 and the maximum score was 60. The mean was 47.23. The standard deviation of it was 4.759. Descriptive Statistic of Reading Comprehension Test The second variable was Reading Comprehension. The table of descriptive statistic for this variable was shown in the following statistical table: Table 3. Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation ReadingTest 35 20 43 32.54 6.766 Valid N (listwise) 35 The table contained the number of learners, minimum score and maximum scores, mean statistically and standard deviation. The total number of learners were 35 learners. The minimum score was 20, and the maximum score was 43. The mean was 32.54. The standard deviation of it was 6.766. 76 ◼ E-ISSN: 2621-6485 Table 4. The Hypothesis Testing Correlations Self-esteem ReadingTest SelfEsteem Pearson Correlation 1 .457** Sig. (2-tailed) 0.006 N 35 35 ReadingTest Pearson Correlation .457** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) 0.006 N 35 35 ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). If the significance level shows greater than 0.050 (p>0.05), it means that the data cannot reject the null hypothesis, so the null hypothesis is accepted. If the significance value shows lower than 0.05 (p<0.05), it means that data can reject the null hypothesis, so the alternative hypothesis is accepted. The result showed that the r of first calculation was .0457 with significance tailed 0.006 < 0.05. Affective factors which may impact on foreign language learning have been researched since around the late 1980s (Takahashi & Takahashi, 2013). Sikhwari (2008) conducted research to investigate the relationship between affective factors and the academic of the students at the University of Venda. In the study, the affective factors selected are self-concept, motivation, and attitude. The general aim of the study is to determine the role of self-concept, motivation, and attitude in student’s academic achievement and ultimately come up with some recommendation for enhancing these factors. The theoretical investigation indicates that there is a relationship between students’ self-concept, motivation, attitude, and academic achievement. Similarly, the empirical investigation has revealed that there is a significant correlation between self-concept, motivation, and academic achievement of students. The study conducted by Sikhwari (2008) who had brought the idea of the importance of affective variables toward language learning output. However, there is also a need to investigate the interrelatedness of affective factors which has not been studied in the study. Therefore, in this current research, the selected aspects of affective factors which are self- esteem will be taken into account. This research investigated the correlation between self- esteem and student’s reading comprehension. Based on the result, the significant tailed of the research is 0.006 or > 0.05, and it means that data can reject the null hypothesis, so the alternative hypothesis is accepted. CONCLUSION The conclusion of the present study was presented in accordance with the data which had been analysed in the previous chapter. Based on the data analysis taken from the reading test and questionnaire, it can be concluded that there is a correlation between self- esteem and students reading comprehension. The result showed that the r of first calculation was .0457 with significance tailed 0.006 < 0.05. It was lower than .05.the hypothesis stated that there is a significant correlation between self-esteem and student’s reading comprehension was accepted. ELTEJ ISSN: 2621-6485 ◼ Rosalina & Nasrulloh 77 REFERENCES Andres, H. P. (2002). A comparison of face-to-face and virtual software development teams. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 8(1/2), 39-48. Branden, N. (1994). The six pillars of self-esteem. New York: Bantam Books Brown, D. (2014). Principles of language learning and teaching. New York: Pearson Education Brown, D. (2004). Language assessment: principles and classroom practices. New York: Pearson Education. Brown, D. & Lee. H. (2015). 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