The Correlation between Motivation and Students’ Achievement in Reading Comprehension at SMP Negeri 8 Grade VIII Pematangsiantar

Abstract

This research deals with the correlation between motivation and students achievement in reading comprehension at SMP Negeri 8 Pematangsiantar. The problems are: (1) “Is there any correlation between motivation and students achievement in reading comprehension and (2) what kind of motivation does dominantly influence the students‟ achievement in reading comprehension at SMP Negeri 8 grade eight Pematangsiantar? This research uses quantitative method to find the correlation between students‟ motivation and their achievement in reading comprehension. The population of this research is the eighth grade of SMP Negeri 8 Pematangsiantar, and thesample is the students of VIII-8. After getting the data, they are analyzed by using Pearson Product Moment Formula. The finding shows that Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted (rxy> ttable). And after calculating the scores between intrinsic motivation andextrinsic motivation, it is found out that the highest score is extrinsic motivation. It means that extrinsic motivation dominantly influences the students‟achievementin reading comprehension. Therefore, it can be concluded that motivation has the significant correlation with the students‟ achievement in reading comprehension at SMP Negeri 8 Grade VIII Pematangsiantar. As suggestion to readers especially teachers, motivation should be given before teaching learning process begins to encourage students tohave spirits and effort to follow teaching and learning process well.