Academic Motivation as a Correlate of Academic Achievement in English Language among Senior Secondary School Students in ORLU Education Zone of Imo State

Abstract

This study investigated academic motivation as a correlate of academic achievement in English language among senior secondary school students in Imo State. The study was directed by three research questions, and three null hypotheses were evaluated at a significance level of 0.05. The correlational research design was used in this study. The area of the study is Orlu Education Zone of Imo State Nigeria. The population of the study consisted of all the 1,569 senior secondary year two (SS2) students in the 156 public secondary schools in Orlu Education Zone of Imo State. The whole population size of 1,569 was used as the sample size because it was considered manageable by the researcher. The students’ academic motivation questionnaire (SAMQ) was adapted from ‘Students’ Motivation towards Science Learning (SMTSL) Questionnaire’ which was a 20-item questionnaire. The academic achievement test was measured by English Language examination scores derived from SS 2 English Language students’ termly results for 2021/20222 academic session. The Students' Academic Motivation Questionnaire was an adapted tool, therefore it underwent face validation by professionals. Cronbach Alpha Method was used to determine the internal consistency of SAMQ and a co-efficient of 0.77 was obtained. Frequency counts, percentages and Pearson Product Moment was used to answer the research questions while correlated samples t-test was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 alpha level. The results showed that there is very weak negative and significant association between secondary school students’ academic motivation and their academic achievement in English language. Based on the findings, it was recommended amongst others that since academic motivation did not influence secondary school students’ academic achievement; it is recommended that teachers/parents should find other means of boosting students or their wards’ desire to learn so as to achieve higher academically.