The Causal Factors Influencing English Achievement of Prathom Suksa 6 Students under Yasothon Primary Educational Service Area Office 1

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the model of causal relationship and the influence of the factors toward Prathom Suksa 6 students’ English achievement. The samples consisted of 351 Prathom Suksa 6 students from school under Yasothon Primary Educational Service Area Office 1 in the second semester of academic year 2013, selected by the stratified random sampling.  The instruments consisted of an English achievement and the verbal aptitude and the attitude toward English test,  and the parents’s supporting, the achievement motivation, and the learning  intention questionnaire. The reliability values ranged from 0.78 to 0.92, and the construct validity using confirmatory factor analysis with the factor loading ranged  from 0.61 to 1.00. The statistical procedures employed in the data analysis included path analysis.

The research findings were as follows:

1. The model of causal factors influencing English achievement was conformity with an empirical data. All six causal factors accounted for 67% of the variations of English achievement.
2. Attitude toward English learning indirectly influenced English achievement through verbal aptitude, learning intention, and background knowledge. Parent’s supporting indirectly influenced English achievement through attitude toward English learning, achievement motivation, background knowledge, learning intention and verbal aptitude. Background knowledge and achievement motivation directly influenced English achievement. And verbal aptitude directly and indirectly influenced English achievement through background knowledge.