Factors Influencing English Majors' Achievement at An-Najah University as Perceived by Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative influence of socio-economic status, test anxiety, study habits and gender on achievement in English of the English Department students at An-Najah National University in Nablus- Palestine, during the academic year 1999 - 2000. The sample of the study comprised (94) students - 25 males and 69 females. The instruments used for data collection were: "A" test anxiety Inventory (Alpha = 0.84) b) Study Habits Scale and c) Socio - economic status questionnaire . Data analysis showed statistically insignificant correlations between the dependent variable - achievement - on the one hand and each of the four independent variables - "socio-economic status; test anxiety, study habits and gender on the other. The only significant difference was shown between mother education, a domain of Socio-economic Status - and students' achievement. Scheffe' Post-hoc test showed that the difference was in favor of students whose mothers got low and moderate education (illiterate, elementary, preparatory, secondary),the mean of those students a achievement was (75.7); whereas the mean of achievement scores for students whose mothers got university education was (59.4). Sex differences between domains of study habits: a-delay avoidance; b.work method c. education acceptance d-teacher approval, and domains of test anxiety -.emotionality and worry" -were investigated. But results of Independent T-test showed no significant difference at (α = 0.05) The computed T-test values for achievement variable and Test Anxiety domains for both males and females were respectively: (-0.53, - 0.32, 0.09, and - 0.12) which are less than the critical T-value (1.98). Results also indicated that the computed T-test values for Study Habits domains were respectively: (-1.43, -0.24, -0.09, -0.22, and -0.81) which are again less than the Critical T-value (1.98). However, results showed significant correlation at (α = 0.05) between Anxiety domains - Emotionality and Worry - on the one hand and the total score of anxiety. The magnitudes of these significant correlations where respectively: (0.95, 0.94) which are too close to the total score of anxiety "1". Findings of this study also showed significant correlations at (α =0.05) between study habits domains and the total score of study habits. The magnitudes of these correlations were respectively (0.78, 0.71, 0.65, and 0.73) for DA, WM, EA and TA. The results of this study seem to be different from the findings reported by a number of previous studies in this field. Finally, these findings were discussed and some recommendations were suggested. It was suggested that students should be trained on the effective study habits. In addition, teachers should develop tests that allow each examinee to perform up to his/her potential. The researcher suggested these recommendations which are included in chapter five.