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Abstract

This present study was conducted to reexamine motivation and attitude of language learners and its correlation to their learning achievement. Low English language proficiency among Malaysian students has drawn researchers' attention to conduct the study within higher learning institution. This cross-sectional study was carried out involving 329 participants those were required to respond for selfadministered questionnaire and taking four language skills test which was developed by researchers with the assistant of experience language lecturers. Descriptive and inference analysis were adopted to answer the research objectives. The finding has demonstrated that participants of the study have higher integrative motivation (8.07) and moderate level attitudes towards the learning of English language (6.81). However correlation test has shown a there is a low correlation (r = 0.111) between students' motivation and English language achievement tests. Whereby there is a moderately low correlation (r = 0.224) between students' attitude and English language achievement tests. In future investigations it might be possible to study other types of motivation such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in order to determine the success for language learners. 1. Introduction Many Malaysian students have poor command of English even after graduation (Engku Suhaimi, E.A., Zailani, J., Alia Nabila, A., 2012). Poor English proficiency may affect employment prospect since English is undoubtedly widely used in IT Communication and in commerce and industry not only internationally but also locally (The Star, Sept. 11/2013). Following this statement, The Federation of Malaysian Manufactures (FMM) requested that English be made a must-pass subject by 2018 (The Star, Sept. 11/2013). Low English language proficiency among Malaysian students is a never ending issue. Marlyna, Siti Hanim and Mohamad Subakir (2012) indicate that through their study a majority of the students' proficiency levels in English were below the entry level of the university's requirement. Education Minister II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh claims that many English language teachers are "incapable" or "unfit" to teach the subject in schools when the results for the English Language Cambridge Placement Test sat by them showed that 70% out of the 60,000 performed poorly (The Star, Sept. 11/2013). Therefore this research is carried out to observe students' English language achievement in terms of their four basics English skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) at one of the universities in Terengganu. Many researchers have shown that students' attitudes towards the learning of English language are negative and less interest (