THE INFLUENCE OF LEARNING MOTIVATION AND ANXIETY LEVELS ON STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of learning motivation and speaking anxiety on students’ speaking performance. The participants of this study are 40 postgraduate students in the English Education Master’s Program at the University of Makassar. This research was designed in the form of a quantitative study using multiple linear regression analysis to examine the effect of the two independent variables on the speaking performance of the students. The data were collected using questionnaires for each variable, with learning motivation based on Self-Determination Theory and anxiety levels based on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). The results of this research showed that learning motivation and anxiety levels are simultaneously able to explain around 31.1% of the variation in speaking ability. Learning motivation was found to have a significant positive effect, where greater enthusiasm correlates with improved speaking ability. In contrast, language anxiety has a significant negative effect, where the higher the anxiety, the lower the speaking ability.