Abstract:
The main purposes of this study were to analyze a causal relation model composing of some factors expected to affect the second year students' achievement in learning English and to construct a hypothesized final model. The subjects used in the study were 460 second year students out of 1,006 or 45.72% from 5 faculties of Chulalongkorn University. They were learning EAP II in the second semester of the academic year 1989 and were samples by a multi-stage sampling technique. The instruments used were actual achievement tests, a questionnaire on students' personal backgrounds, motivation and attitudes, a survey of study habits and attitudes and a questionnaire on teachers' personal background and opinions. The data were then analyzed by means of descriptive statistics, multiple regression, F-tests, t-tests, simple correlations, PLS (Partial Least Square test) and W tests. The findings can be summarized as follows: 1. The students' achievement in learning English is directly affected significantly by 10 predictor variables (factors) and their total effect is 58.81%. Their English background has the strongest effect for 40.34%. Their achievement is also affected indirectly by 20 predictor variables and 5 of them have significant effects. They are age, study program, mass media usage, teacher's attitudes and teachers' understanding about teaching methods. Besides, the proportion of direct effects of the factors from the learners, teachers and curriculum is 6:4:1. 2. The trimmed hypothesized causal model is a mixed one and significantly fits a fully recursive model basing on empirical data. This final model is composed of 7 exogeneous variables and 17 endogeneous ones. It can explain 99.69% of the total variance of the whole system.