CORRELATION BETWEEN READING INTEREST AND ENGLISH ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT ON SIXTH SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDY PROGRAM AT UNIVERSITY OF BENGKULU

This study aims to investigate how is reading interest and English academic
achievement as well as the correlation between reading interest and English
academic achievement of English Department study program students at the
University of Bengkulu. The population of this study were students of the English
Department Study Program at the University of Bengkulu with a sample of 35
students. This research is correlational research with quantitative methods, and
uses questionnaires and documentation as instruments. The results of this study
are, the reading interest of students in semester 6 of English education was quite
high, as could be seen from a total of 88% of the 35 samples who had a reading
interest score which is categorized as high. For English Academic Achievement,
the majority of students have scores that are also high, namely 97% of the 35
samples are categorized as having very high scores. For the correlation between
reading interest and English academic achievement, a strong correlation was
obtained with a score of 0.556607. It also shows if Ho is rejected and Ha is
accepted. Moreover, several suggestions for teachers, students and future
researchers are addressed in the present study.
Keywords: Correlational research, reading interest, English academic
achievement