IJLRES - International Journal on Language, Research and Education Studies ISSN: 2580-6777 (p); 2580-6785 (e) DOI: 10.30575/2017/IJLRES-2020050812 Vol. 4, No. 2, 2020 Page: 348 - 356 348 THE INFLUENCE OF READING INTEREST ON ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION OF ENGLISH LITERATURE STUDENTS OF BINA DARMA UNIVERSITY IN PALEMBANG Fitria Aprilia Language Education Postgraduate Program, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Indonesia FitriaAprilia_7317167644@mhs.unj.ac.id Ninuk Lustyantie Language Education Postgraduate Program, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Indonesia ninuk.lustyantie@unj.ac.id Zainal Rafli Language Education Postgraduate Program, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Indonesia zainal.rafli@unj.ac.id Abstract. Reading interest becomes one of the most substantial issue in the latest research nowadays. This research aims to investigate the influence of reading interest on students’ achievement motivation of the undergraduate students of English Literature Study Program of Bina Darma University in Palembang. To achieve the aim, the questionnaires of reading interest and achievement motivation were administered to a group of 60 students who became the sample of the study. The questionnaires before had been piloted to other students out of the sample in order to check the validity and reliability. To analyze the data, path analysis was used and the result showed that there was a positive direct effect of reading interest on English literature students’ achievement motivation with the coefficient value 0.449. In addition, the magnitude of the direct effects of reading interest on students’ achievement motivation was 20.2%. Finally, the interpretation, implications and recommendation of the results were also discussed. Keywords: Reading Interest, Achievement Motivation, English Literature Students INTRODUCTION Motivation is a conscious effort to move, direct and maintain one's behavior so that he/she is compelled to act to do something so as to achieve certain results or goals (Hamdu & Agustina, 2011). There are several things related to motivation, first is the existence of a change in energy within the individual. This change can occur if there is motivation from within oneself. If previously there was no desire to do something, then there was a change to do it, this means that the motivation existed in that person. Second is that motivation will also be marked by effective encouragement and reactions from mailto:FitriaAprilia_7317167644@mhs.unj.ac.id mailto:ninuk.lustyantie@unj.ac.id mailto:zainal.rafli@unj.ac.id The Influence of Reading Interest on Achievement Motivation of English Literature Students of Bina Darma University in Palembang Doi: 10.30575/2017/IJLRES-2020050812 349 individuals who get the motivation. The reaction can be in the form of attitudes, feelings, behavior and so on. Third is that the reaction occurs because of a desire to achieve the goal. People who are motivated will usually show an effort or reaction in achieving the desired goals. Thus, motivation is the main support for humans in achieving all their dreams and life goals in various ways (Santosa, Damayanti, & Dewi, 2016). The problem of low achievement motivation was something that needed to be researched or investigated. This problem could be addressed, of course, by identifying what factors could influence the achievement motivation of the students. Starting from the internal factor, it could be seen that one of the internal factors that could influence the achievement motivation of the students was reading interest. Interest is a student's tendency to approach rather than avoid involvement in certain content or actions, for instance reading and writing, from time to time (Abbott et al., 2017). Following Nurhaidah and Musa (2016) individuals who have an interest in reading will be encouraged to pay attention to any kinds of reading activities. Previous studies have shown that reading interest could be one of the factors which influenced the students’ achievement motivation. Reading interest plays major role in a second or foreign language learning since students’ high or low interest largely determine the achievement motivation of the students. The uniqueness of this study was on the focus of the study which was the achievement motivation of English literature students at the tertiary level. Therefore, the authors in this study would like to find out whether reading interest can serve as predictor of achievement motivation of the undergraduate students of English Literature Study Program of Bina Darma University in Palembang. Particularly, the research aims to answer the question “Does reading interest influences students’ achievement motivation?”. In line with the problem of the study, the objective is to investigate whether reading interest influences students’ achievement motivation. Hopefully, this study will give beneficial information for students, teachers, and parents to understand the concept of reading interest as a factor that can affect the students’ high or low motivation in learning. By understanding the importance of interest and motivation, it is hoped that the students will become more successful and independent for their future. Fitria Aprilia, Ninuk Lustyantie, Zainal Rafli 350 LITERATURE REVIEW In relation to learning, motivation is very closely related to the needs of self-actualization so that motivation has the greatest influence on student learning activities. If students has no motivation to learn, it will cause a sense of laziness in following the teaching and learning process and doing individual tasks. Motivation has a very substantial function in the learning process of students, because motivation will determine the intensity of the learning effort done by the students. The students who have high motivation learn better than students who have low motivationThis means students who have high learning motivation will be diligent in learning and continue to learn continuously without knowing despair and can put aside things that can interfere with learning activities (Prasetyaningrum, 2018). Meanwhile, achievement is closely related to an expectation where expectations are formed through learning in their environment and always contain a standard of excellence which is a frame of reference for someone when working on assignments, solving problems and learning other skills. Bayanie (2013) explains that achievement is an indicator of motivation where individuals who are bound to the task will try harder and persevere so that they will be more successful. Achievement motivation is an individual factor that comes from within the students. Good motivation in learning will show good results (Bagiarta, Karyasa, & Suardana, 2015). Sahidin and Jamil (2013) suggest that students who have good achievement motivation are characterized by several things: students are responsive to challenges, especially in learning, rational in thinking, responsible in this case always being honest and enthusiastic in learning, trying to excel in group, and can always adjust themselves when interacting with friends. Achievement motivation is an impulse related to how to do things better, faster, more efficiently than what has been done before, as an effort to achieve success or succeed in competition with a measure of excellence that can be the achievements of others or one's own achievements (Septianti, 2017). Students with high levels of achievement motivation tend to be smarter as they become adults (Sudarsa, Karyasa, & Tika, 2013). Achievement motivation is one of the factors that also determines the learning success. The size of the influence depends on its intensity. Students who have high achievement motivation are also more diligent in dealing with assignments, resilient, and do not give up easily when facing the difficulty, have a high interest in various problems, work independently, can defend opinions and The Influence of Reading Interest on Achievement Motivation of English Literature Students of Bina Darma University in Palembang Doi: 10.30575/2017/IJLRES-2020050812 351 are happy to find and solve problems. All learning activities including reading will be done with high motivation and enthusiasm so that students will more easily understand the contents of the reading and achieve the goals in the learning process. Unfortunately, the achievement motivation of the students is not categorized in a high level yet. According to Santosa and Us (2016) there are some factors that cause the low motivation of the students, for example dynamic elements in learning, student conditions, student abilities, environmental conditions, and student ambitions. In this study, the low level of students’ achievement motivation could be seen from the results of preliminary observations in Bina Darma University in Palembang. The authors found various problems faced by undergraduate students of English literature study program of Bina Darma University in relation to their achievement motivation. The problems which appeared in the classroom such as low attendance in the class, students did not do the assignments well, students were quickly discouraged in facing difficulties, students were not enthusiastic in following the lessons, students were not active in learning, students were not enthusiastic about answering questions given by the lecturer, and the students’ grades did not reach the passing grade. According to Retariandalas (2017) interest has a strong driving force in the realization of an activity. It is the same as motivation. If someone has no motivation then he has no goals, so that what is done will not be maximized. Students are motivated to excel and want to read because they have high interest. When a student has been motivated, then what he/she will do will also be well directed. Students who are motivated to learn a topic tend to engage in various activities that they believe will help themselves learn, such as paying close attention to the lessons, organizing and memorizing material to be learned, taking notes to facilitate subsequent learning activities, checking their level of understanding and asking for help when they do not understand the material. Students who are interested in reading activities understand the importance of reading in their lives so that they are more motivated to excel in learning, because one way of learning is through reading activities (Safitri, Kaswari, & Syamsiati, 2013). By having interest in reading, it is expected that the students are able to arouse their achievement motivation and finally enhance their achievement in learning. Fitria Aprilia, Ninuk Lustyantie, Zainal Rafli 352 METHODOLOGY The method used in this study was survey method with path analysis technique. The population was all students of English literature study program of Bina Darma University in Palembang. Meanwhile, the sample of the study was determined by using simple random sampling technique on the students who were considered meeting the requirements in conducting the study. Therefore, the total number of the sample was 60 students. The sample of the study was not subject to any kinds of treatment but was given questionnaires to obtain the data of achievement motivation (Y) and reading interest (X). To check the validity and reliability of the instrument, the questionnaires had been piloted to other students who were not involved as the sample of the study. The validity analysis used in this study was corrected item-total correlation. On the other hand, the reliability analysis used in this study was Cronbach’s Alpha. The result of the analysis showed that both of the questionnaires were reliable. The reliability of the reading interest questionnaire and achievement motivation were 0.975 and 0.981 respectively. Meanwhile, there were 34 valid items for reading interest and 33 valid items for achievement motivation questionnaires. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The data gathered from the questionnaires were analyzed by using SPSS 20 application. To test the hypothesis, the inferential statistical analysis was used. Normality and linearity test functioned as the requirement analyses had been done before testing the hypothesis. The normality test used in this study was One Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with the probability value higher than 0.05. In addition, the linearity test used was Test of Linearity with a significance level of 0.05. From the analyses, it was found that the data in this study were distributed normally with significance value 0.189 and linear for the variables of reading interest and achievement motivation with significance value 0.001. Furthermore, based on the analysis, the direct influence of reading interest on students’ achievement motivation could be seen at the table below: Table 1. Result of the Analysis R Squar e Standardized Coefficients (Beta) t Sig. 0.202 0.449 3.829 0.00 0 The Influence of Reading Interest on Achievement Motivation of English Literature Students of Bina Darma University in Palembang Doi: 10.30575/2017/IJLRES-2020050812 353 From the table above, it could be seen that the determination coefficient value (R2) was 0.202 which means that 20.2% of the variability of the achievement motivation variable could be explained by reading interest. The positive direct effect could be seen from the path coefficient shown by Beta (Standardized Coefficients) column. The error was 1 - R2 = 1 - 0.202 = 0.79. Furthermore, the value of Fo = 14.663; with the degree of freedom df1 = 1; df2 = 58, and p-value = 0.000 less than 0.05 or H0 was rejected. Thus, the reading interest variable affects the achievement motivation variable. It was also known that the path coefficient value shown in Beta (Standardized Coefficients) column was 0.449. From the coefficient table, the value of t0 = 3.829 and p-value = 0.000 / 2 = 0.000 less than 0.05 or H0 was rejected. In conclusion, the variable of reading interest has a positive direct effect on achievement motivation. The effect of reading interest on students’ achievement motivation was proved by the t-test value of 3.829 with the significance of 0.000 which was smaller than 0.05, which means that there was a significant influence of reading interest on achievement motivation. Regression coefficient of 0.202 indicated a positive influence, meaning that the higher the interest in reading, the better the achievement motivation and vice versa. This coefficient value also means that the achievement motivation will increase by 0.202 in one improvement of reading interest. The magnitude of the coefficient of the direct effect of reading interest on achievement motivation was 0.449. In this study, it was found that reading interest had a positive direct effect on students’ achievement motivation. Thus, an increase in reading interest will lead to an increase in achievement motivation. One of the internal factors that could influence the achievement motivation was reading interest. Interest is the key aspect which determines how a person selects and processes the types of information that will be chosen among other information. Any type of interest (individual or situational) tends to facilitate individual understanding and recognition of the object of interest. Interests that are individual in nature are usually formed long and will last a long time, including reading interest. As part of the academic community, students have a reading obligation. The tertiary education environment is a strategic place to develop reading interests and habits. Reading activities should be a daily routine activity of the scientific and academic community, because their tasks require them to continue reading. Learning, researching, writing, joining the seminar and discussion activities require students to always read Fitria Aprilia, Ninuk Lustyantie, Zainal Rafli 354 and obtain relevant and up-to-date knowledge and information so that the quality of their learning outcomes continues to improve.In order to graduate properly, students must study and read a number of reading materials, especially those recommended by their lecturers. Students as human resources really need ideas and opinions to develop the country. The quality of human resources is very much related to the reading interest of the students (Siswati, 2010). One of the factors influencing reading interest is motivation (Fitrianingsih, Muharram, & Suud B, 2017). Motivation is a key factor in reading. The key to motivation is simple and quite easy to achieve. The key is that educators must demonstrate to students / individuals teaching practices with individual interests and experiences, so that individuals understand the reading itself as a need. The results of the research from Nursalina and Budiningsih (2014) stated that interest is a motivational tool in learning, besides that interest is a psychological potential that can be utilized to explore motivation. Achievement motivation is a desire that is high and better than others. This desire is realized by reading activities that can broaden knowledge and can be useful in life. Interest has a relationship to reading, because if the reading or writing material to be read is not in accordance with the interests of students, then students will not read it with all their heart and feelings, because there is no appeal from the reading material. In doing reading activities, students really need encouragement, stimulation, motivation and reinforcement. Provision of reading reinforcement to students will have a positive impact that is making students motivated to repeat reading activities continuously. Based on the theories and experts’ view before, it could be concluded that the students’ achievement motivation was influenced by reading interest. Therefore, the finding of this research empirically supports the theories or findings of the experts that have been described previously. CONCLUSION In this research, it was concluded that reading interest had a positive direct effect on the students’ achievement motivation. In other words, reading interest significantly affected the level of achievement motivation of the students. The higher the interest in reading, the better the achievement motivation of the students. Based on the finding of the research, it could be concluded that the research hypothesis which stated "there was a positive direct effect of reading interest on the students’ achievement motivation" was accepted. 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