Result and Discussion Summary

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D. Method

Based on the purposes of the research above, we know the research questions. The purposes above come from the research questions that are going to search the answers. Therefore, the major research question of this research is: Is there any correlation between students’ age and their English outcomes, Etc. The population of this research was a selected group of students who had learned English for more or less 2 years either at elementary or junior high schools in Palembang. The samples were those who never took any courses other than what they have in class at their school following the curriculum suggested. In this case, the sampling used in this research, seem for me, is purposive sampling. The sample is taken based on the purpose of the research. The data was gathered from the students on the fifth and the eight graders of the schools in Palembang that agreed to participate in this research. In this case, the students of those schools were asked to do a set of English test to measure their English achievement. The test were comprised vocabulary 36 items, reading comprehension 23 items, and grammar 7 items. The form of the test was conducted theoretically with its own reasons. Again, the test in this research was one of the instruments used in collecting the data that is the data of students’ English achievement. In conducting this research, the researcher divided the independent variable in to some levels of variables. These variables are believed have the relation with the students’ age which might affect to their EFL outcomes. The variables considered by the researcher were in relation with the educational process such as the curriculum, intensity of instruction, teacher education level and ELT experience, and class size. The others were in terms of the students’ background; they are parents’ occupation and gender. In analyzing the data the researcher uses descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive used to describe the data and inferential to infer the result of the research. To describe the data, of course the researcher used the measures of central tendency and measures of variability first, however, to assess the relations among variables measures of relationship, the data were analyzed using Pearson Correlation. Regression analyses were used to see which variable had the most dominant correlation with students’ achievement.

E. Result and Discussion

This research aimed at seeing the relationship between students’ age and their English achievement. Therefore, the primary independent variable of this research is students’ age. However, there are some levels of independent variable in this case, for examples, teacher educational level, teacher ELT experience, and parents’ occupation. Hence, the result of this research was divided considering the influents of some levels of independent variables. On the other words, the students English achievement in this research were seen not only based on the ages but also considered other factors such as teacher education level, teachers’ ELT experience, parents’ occupation, and students’ gender. Reading the result of this research, the findings were: 1. There was no significant statistical correlation between age alone and students’ EFL achievement R = -0.007 with p 0.461. 34 2. There was a negative significant correlation between teacher education level and their students’ total achievement R = -0.448 with p 0.000 3. Neither is significant correlation found between the teacher ELT experience alone and students’ EFL achievement R = -0.053. 4. There was a negative significant correlation between the occupation of the students parents and their achievement r = -0.192; p 0.004 5. There was a negative significant correlation between SES parents’ occupation and students’ achievement R = -0.192 with p0,002 Based on the findings above, the correlation between variables have no significant or have negative significant correlation. However, there was a significant correlation between teacher education level and students’ achievement in each component of EFL vocabulary, reading comprehension, and grammar respectively. Furthermore, Teacher education level alone and parents’ occupation alone had significant correlation with student achievement respectively. And, when these two factors were combined, the correlation increase. After that, when ELT experience was added to these two factors, the correlation increased. Finally, when these three factors were combined with age, there was a little increase in explained variation in the achievement of the students, R 2 = 0.644, R 2 = 0.415, p 0.000. The precise score of the correlation based on the component searched can be seen on the tables in the research. Furthermore, based on regression model formed, it is found that parents’ occupation was highly correlated with age R= -0.860. While the other three variables were all significantly correlated with students achievement, the partial correlation between parents occupation and achievement is not high enough for parents occupation to be included in the last model R = -0.074 as compared with others. However, in the summary statistic of correlation coefficient between independent variable and dependent variable table 6, the partial correlation was higher. According to the writer, the younger the students start learning a foreign language the better the achievement will be. In my opinion, the result of this research seems a little bit complex to understand since the independent variable has some levels of variables such as teacher education level, teacher ELT experience, and the occupation of the students’ parents. These variables have the influences to students EFL achievements though the levels of significances are different.

F. Conclusion and Suggestion