FINAL PROJECT OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

ACADEMIC AND INTERPERSONAL COMPETENCE

By:

Jihan Khairunisa

1613042019

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND TEACHER TRAINING

UNIVERSITY OF LAMPUNG

2019
 The Correlation between Interpersonal Competence and Academic Achievement of

English Education Students in Lampung University

Jihan Khairunisa
jihankhairunisa30@gmail.com

Abstract

During this time many people were found that to achieve high academic achievement

required high intellectual intelligence (IQ). However, some studies show that IQ is not

the only factor that affects person's academic achievement. The purpose of this study

was to determine the relationship between interpersonal competence and academic

achievement of English Education students in Lampung University. The hypothesis

proposed that there is a positive relationship between interpersonal competence and

academic achievement. The population of this research were students in fifth semester.

The samples are 20 students, taken using cluster random sampling method.

Key words: Interpersonal competence, Academic achievement.

Introduction

Amid the rapid globalization of science and technology, the state experienced

tremendous competition in various fields, such as commerce, education, industry and

and many others. In an effort to answer this challenge, human resources need to be

prioritized. One effort to develop human resources is through education. Education can

be carried out through informal education, such as an experience obtained by a person

everyday consciously or unconsciously in his family or association, and formal

education like in school. Schools as formal education institutions are a means to

achieve these educational goals. Academic achievement is one indicator of the success
of learning in school. According to Azwar (2002) learning achievement refers to what a

person can do and how well he does it in mastering the materials that has been taught.

Dewi (2014) stated that one of the factors that influence students in achieving

academic achievement is interpersonal competence. Spitzberg and Cupach (in DeVito,

2010) provided an understanding of interpersonal competence as the ability of an

individual to communicate effectively. This causes students to build up their

interpersonal relationships and be able to convey the things they want to convey well

to the people concerned, for example their friends, teachers, and parents.

One of the problems in achieving student academic achievement is the lack of activity,

cooperative attitude, and initiative from students in the learning process. Interpersonal

competence is a factor that students should have in building effective relationships

with others and to be able to overcome various demands in the environment.

Therefore, the researcher is interested in knowing the relationship between

interpersonal competence and students' academic achievement.

According to Sudjana (in Kunandar, 2013) academic achievement is the ability

possessed by students after receiving their learning experience. Bloom (in Slavin, 2005)

defined academic achievement or learning achievement as a learning process

experienced by students and produces changes in the fields of knowledge,

understanding, application, power of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Poerwanto

(2007) provided an understanding of learning achievement, namely the results

achieved by someone in a learning effort. Winkel (2008) defines that student learning

achievement is a proof of the success of learning or the ability of a student to carry out

learning activities in accordance with the things achieved.

According to those statements from the experts, the researcher assumed that

academic achievement is the learning outcome of students in a certain period of time

which is then realized in the form of numbers through report cards after going through

certain assessments.

Bierman and Suchy (2000) state that interpersonal competence is one of the important

factors for individual success in pursuing their lives. McGaha & Fitzpatrick (2005)

defines interpersonal competence as appropriate behaviors in relationships such as

initiating contact, emotional support, openness, and coping with conflict. One's

interpersonal competence is shown by the creation of effective social interaction and

communication so that satisfying interpersonal relationships are established.

Interpersonal skills are fundamental to successful relationships at home, at school, at

work and socially. It includes a wide variety of skills, such as listening, emotional

intelligence, verbal communication and affective speaking, and group communication

skills.

Generally, people think that they are effective listeners and therefore they don't need

to improve and develop their listening skills. In reality very few people are truly

effective listeners. Attentive or active listening is not difficult to learn but it does

involve practice and patience - or to break bad listening habits that have been learnt

and reinforced over time.

Emotional intelligence is a measure of how good you are at interpreting, understanding

and acting on your emotions and the emotions of others.Research has shown that

people with higher emotional intelligence enjoy more satisfying and successful careers

and relationships. People with higher emotional intelligence can usually deal with

conflict more efficiently, they can express their feelings accurately, recognise the

emotions of others and cope better with emotionally charged situations.

How you express yourself verbally affects your relationships with others. Verbal

communications are not only about the words we use but how we use them.Verbal

communication is not completely isolated from other interpersonal and

communication skills - it is related to listening, non-verbal communication, emotional

intelligence and sub-skills such as reflection and clarification. How you feel about

yourself - your self-esteem - will also affect how well you communicate verbally.

Group communication skills are often linked to current self-esteem and personal
confidence levels, answer the questions honestly thinking about formal or semi-formal
group situations where possible.

Based on the statements above, it can be concluded that interpersonal competence is

the ability to communicate effectively which includes the ability to initiate an

interpersonal relationship, to open up, to be assertive, empathy and to manage and

overcome conflicts with others.

The hypothesis proposed in this study is that there is a positive relationship between

interpersonal competence and students' academic achievement. The higher the

interpersonal competencies students have, the higher their academic achievements.

This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between interpersonal

competencies and academic achievement.

This research is expected to provide a scientific contribution to education regarding

academic achievement and interpersonal competence. The results of this study are

also expected to provide an overview of the role of interpersonal competence on

students' academic achievement, so that students, the invironment, and parents are

expected to pay attention to the importance of the role of interpersonal competence in

achieving students' academic achievement.

Research Question
In line with the introduction above, the researcher formulated only one main research
question to be addressed, it is as follows:
1. How is the effect of interpersonal competence on students' academic
achievement?
That is the research question that will be found out later in this paper.

Methodology

The population of this research was English Education students in the fifth semester at
Lampung University. The samples are 20 students, taken using cluster random sampling
method. In order to collect the data, the researcher used questionnaire as a tool of
measurement. The questionnaire consisted of 30 items of interpersonal competence.
There are 7 items of listening (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), 9 items of emotional intelligence (8, 9,
10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16), 5 items of group communication skills (17, 18, 19, 20, 21),
and 9 items of verbal communication and effective speaking (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28,
29, 30). The result of this questionnaire was used to group the respondents based on
their types. In this research, the researcher also saw the students’ IPK from the first
semester to the fifth semester in KRS.

Data Analysis

The data analysis is done by knowing the result of the questionnaire. The questionnaire
has 5, 3, and 2 options. It consists of listening, emotional intelligence, verbal
communication and effective speaking, and group communication skills. The listening
and group communication skills are written in bold form. The emotional intelligence
and verbal communication are written in italic form. The scoring system was used as
follow:
Number 1-4, 8-15, 21 : a = 5, b = 4, c = 3, d = 2, e = 1

Number 5-7, 16-20 : a = 1, b = 2, c = 3, d = 4, e = 5

Number 22-26 : a = 3, b = 1, c = 2
Number 27 : a = 1, b = 3, c = 2

Number 28-30 : a = 1, b = 2

Based on the questionnaire above, there are 30 items of interpersonal competence. By

using the result of the questionnaire, the researcher classified the interpersonal
competence of students which is bad (1-43), average (44-86), or good (87-129)

Results of Questionnaire

No. Name Interpersonal Classification of Interpersonal Academic

Score Competence Achievement

1. Sakinah 103 Good 3.62

2. Chisty 79 Avarage 2.90

3. Ajeng Putri 101 Good 3.68

4. Sayu 86 Avarage 3.12

5. Daniel 102 Good 3.87

6. Nabila 115 Good 3.91

7. Intan 97 Good 3.51

8. Maysyaroh 94 Good 3.63

9. Alfilia 114 Good 3.76

10. Firanda 92 Good 3.40

11. Ajeng 109 Good 3.75

12. Abdina 107 Good 3.74

13. Rendra 89 Good 3.33

14. Faizal 90 Good 3.45

15. Afi 112 Good 3.73

16. Yogi 88 Good 3.22

17. Rani 92 Good 3.21

18. Yessi 78 Average

19. Nurul 99 Good 3.66

20. Rika 99 Good 3.50

The table showed that from 20 students, there are 17 students (85%) having good
interpersonal competencies with good academic achievements and 3 students (15%)
belong to avarage of interpersonal competence with avarage academic achievements.

Discussion

The empirical data shown in the table implies that there was a positive relationship
between interpersonal competence and academic achievement in fifth semester
students of English Education program in Lampung University. It indicated that
interpersonal competence has effect to the students' academic achievement. The data
provided evidence that the higher the interpersonal competence, the higher the
academic achievement achieved by students.

Conclusion

Interpersonal skills are the skills we use every day when we communicate and interact
with other people, both individually and in groups.People with strong interpersonal
skills are often more successful in both their professional and personal lives.

Interpersonal skills include a wide variety of skills, though many are centred around
communication, such as listening, questioning and understanding body language. They
also include the skills and attributes associated with emotional intelligence, or being
able to understand and manage your own and others’ emotions.

The results showed that there was a correlation between interpersonal competence
and academic achievement in fifth semester students of English Education program in
Lampung University. The data indicated that the higher the interpersonal competence,
the higher the academic achievement achieved by students.

Research subjects are expected to continue develop their interpersonal competence.

One of the ways that students can do to develop interpersonal competence, for
example by being actively involved in doing assignments in groups.
For furthur researchers who are interested in conducting and developing research in
the same field, it is expected to pay attention and explore other factors that can affect
one's academic performance such as psychological factors which include interest,
motivation, and learning approaches.

References

Azwar, S. (2002). Tes prestasi. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.

Bierman, & Suchy,S. (2000, Oktober 15). Personal change and leadership

development: a process of learning how to learn. Diunduh dari

http://www.city.ac.uk/ictop/suchy.2000.html.m15

Dewi, M. (2014, Oktober 20). Peran faktor psikososial terhadap prestasi

akademik pada siswa. Di unduh dari:

http://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/8985.faktor.psikososial.berpengaruh.terhadap.p

restasi.akademik.siswa.

DeVito, J. (2010). The interpersonal communication book. New York: Harper

Collins College Publisher

Goleman, D. (2009). Emotional intelligence; kecerdasan emosional, mengapaEI

lebih penting dari IQ, PT. Gramedia Pustaka Utama, Jakarta.

Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. (2013). Kurikulum 2013 disesuaikan

dengan tuntutan perbandingan internasional. Diunduh dari:

http://kemdikbud.go.id/kemdikbud/berita/1334
Kunandar. (2013). Penilaian autentik (penilaian hasil belajar peserta didik

berdasarkan kurikulum 2013) suatu pendekatan praktis. Jakarta: PT

RajaGrafindo Persada.

Mc Gaha, V. & Fitzpatrick, J. (2005). Personal and social contributors to dropout

risk for undergraduate students. College Student Journal, 39, 287-297.

Poerwanto, N. (2007). Psikologi pendidikan. Bandung: PT Rosda Karya.

Santrock, J.W. (2007). Psikologi Pendidikan (edisi kedua). Jakarta: Erlangga

Slavin, R. (2005). Educational psychology: theory and practice (6th ed). Boston:
Allyn&Bacon

Srie. (2012, Desember 01). Berapa kali Indonesia bergganti kurikulum?. Diunduh

dari: http://www.srie.org/2012/12/berapa-kali-indonesia-berganti-

kurikulum.html

Winkel, W. (2008). Psikologi pengajaran. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Tama

 Questionnaire

Beri tanda (✓) di kolom yang sesuai dengan pernyataan.

No Statement Always Often Some- Rarely Never

or times or
Nearly hardly
Always ever

1. I finish people’s sentences for them, when they

pause and I know what they are going to say.

2. I make eye contact with others while listening.

3. I offer verbal signals while listening, things like,

‘Go on… ’ or ‘Uh huh’ to encourage the speaker
to continue.

4. When communicating with others, I pay

attention to non-verbal signals - body language,
facial expressions and gestures.

5. When I have something to contribute to a

conversation, I'll interrupt the speaker to make
my point.

6. I will interrupt the speaker if I disagree with a

statement they have made.

7. I get bored with conversations easily - most

people have nothing interesting to say.

8. I'm frequently self-critical of my mistakes.

9. If I'm feeling stressed I know exactly why this is.

10. I understand and respect the views of others –

 even if they are different to my views.

11. I can interpret the mood of others when I

communicate with them.

12. I can tell when someone doesn't understand

what I'm saying.

13. I am usually a good judge of character.

14. I am confident about my existing skills and

abilities and willing to learn new ones.

15. I make new friends easily and generally get on

well with people I have just met.

16. In a meeting or classroom situation, I prefer to sit

at the back.

17. I am nervous about having to answer a question

in front of a group of people.

18. I avoid group situations whenever possible.

19. I do not usually say much when in a group of

people.

20. I feel like I'm an outsider.

21. I can dominate a group and tend to do the

majority of the talking.

Agree Disagree Neither

agree nor
disagree

22. I express my ideas clearly.

23. I speak fluently.

24. People understand what I say.

25. I can restate the essence of what others have said in fewer and
different words.

26. I'm quick to offer advice to people's problems.

27. I like to use uncommon words when talking to others - to show

how intelligent I am.
 True False

28. My friends and family tell me I talk a lot.

29. I have to repeat myself often because people don't understand my message
the first time around.

30. I have difficulty putting my thoughts into words.