b. Reader abilities
Besides knowledge, the abilities to process the printed information and to learn new knowledge from the text are also needed.
31
Fluent readers are capable to use the abilities properly and effectively in reading.
c. Motivation and Emotional State
Motivation also affects the quality of the outcome reading. Someone who lacks motivation to read or to improving their reading ability will
become the poor reader.
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In addition, emotional state such as anxiety, also might affect reader’s performance. Anxious readers, for example
during study reading, suppose to have threatening conditions. Based on two explanations above, an interaction between motivation
and anxiety is established. According to Fransson, people who have anxiety during the reading showed weak intrinsic motivation because
the intrinsic motivation is interfered by the anxiety.
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Those factors which influence the reading ability mentioned above are not the whole factors. There are still many factors that affect the
reading ability. However, the three of them are the most major and have covered the other factors.
D. Relevant Study
As a matter of fact, some researchers have investigated the issue of the correlation between foreign language anxiety
and students’ reading skill in learning English. These are several studies which are relevant to this study.
In 1999, Saito, Garza and Horwitz conducted a study entitled “Foreign
Language Reading Anxiety ”. The participants are 30 first-semester classes of
Spanish, Russian, and Japanes. The questionnaire used in this study is Foreign
31
J. Charles Alderson , Op.cit., p. 48.
32
M. Cooper, “Linguistic Competence of Practised and Unpractised Non-Native Readers of English”, in J. Charles Alderson, Assessing Reading, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2000, p.53.
33
A. Fransson, “Cramming or Understanding? Effects of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation on Approach to Learning and Test Performance”, in J. Charles Alderson, Assessing Reading,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, p.55.
Language Classroom Anxiety Scale FLCAS. S tudents’ score in every target
language classes is taken to find its relationship with language anxiety. The results show that language anxiety and reading score are negatively related to
each other.
34
Then, in 2004, Andri from Islamic State University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta conducted
“The Students’ Anxiety in Correlation with Achievement in Their Final Reading Test
” with 60 students from the second term of English Education department of Islamic State University Syarif
Hidayatullah Jakarta. The result indicates that there is negative correlation between students’ anxiety and their reading score in English learning in
moderate level.
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E. Conceptual Framework
Anxiety plays a role in foreign language learning, in this case English. Anxiety can be defined as an expression of apprehension and tension in
particular situation that people worry about in unspecific time. Anxiety influences students’ performance and achievements, as an example in
students’ reading performance. Reading is described as a process of getting
meaning from the written symbols —letters or words in the texts, in order to
obtain some information. Students with higher level of anxiety tend to be harder in comprehending the reading text and opposed. It can be seen that
several studies showed the negative significant correlation between students’
anxiety and their reading skill in learning English. It seems like anxiety is important enough to be identified because it determines students’ success in
learning the English. Thus, the writer thought that it is interesting enough to discuss such
phenomenon further. In addition, the explanation above seemed to be the
34
Yoshiko Saito, Thomas J. Garza, and E.K. Horwitz, Foreign Language Reading Anxiety, The Modern Language Journal, vol. 83, 1999, pp. 202-218.
35
Dafitri Andri, “The Students’ anxiety in Correlation with Achievement in Their Final
Reading Test A Case Study at the Second Term Students of English Department UIN ”,Skripsi in
UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, Jakarta, 2004.
