ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 68-72, January 2011 © 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/jltr.2.1.68-72 © 2011 ACADEMY PUBLISHER The Relation between Success and Absenteeism at Esogu English Preparatory School Ümit Özkanal Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi, Yabancı Diller Bölümü Çamlık Kampüsü 26010 Eskişehir, Turkey Email: ozkanal@gmail.com Nadire Arıkan Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi, Yabancı Diller Bölümü Çamlık Kampüsü 26010 Eskişehir, Turkey Email: nadirearikan@gmail.com Abstract—Attendance to school where students are expected to be exposed to necessary information, abilities and attitudes required by the community they live in has always been considered as a crucial element in attaining success. This study aims to search if there is any correlation between absenteeism and academic success at ESOGU FLD. The participants were the students who enrolled in the ESOGU FLD during 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 academic years. Analyzing their written records of absenteeism and success, the relation between success and absenteeism were investigated. In addition to this, whether gender and students’ majors were factors in determining students successes in relation to absenteeism was also investigated. The findings show that attendance to the classes regularly significantly contributes to high achievement level. The study also suggests that while students’ major is a significant factor contributing to students’ achievements, gender proved to be an insignificant factor. Index Terms—success, absenteeism, gender , students’ majors, achievement I. INTRODUCTION Although recent developments in information and technology have changed many things in education, school system still seems to be the most important element in it. School system is considered to be the first place where individuals learn to live in a community, which is a crucial step for them. Therefore, any school which is formed to educate and train people should plan what kind of information and abilities are going to be delivered so that the students can become the ideal people that a country needs to develop. The aforementioned information, abilities and attitudes aimed for students are delivered via some teaching techniques at school (Erden, 1998). To what extent students have reached these is evaluated via some evaluation techniques and the result may be called as academic success or performance. It is defined as the level of reaching to the pre-determined, desired objectives (Silah, 2003). In order to reach these desired goals, one must carry out some school based activities and be successful based on the necessary evaluation techniques. II. ABSENTEEISM AND ACADEMIC SUCCESS As mentioned above, school is a kind of social organization in which people start socialization as well as being equipped with knowledge that they will use in their future lives. In order to be academically successful, there are some steps one must follow seriously. One of the most important of them is to attend classes and/or laboratories so that one can get equipped with necessary knowledge and abilities which are crucial academically and for life in the future. As known, there are many factors that affect academic success, but non-attendance or absenteeism is the study objective of this paper since it is thought that absenteeism is a key concept in academic success, especially in the case of higher education as it is at Eskisehir Osmangazi University English Preparatory School. Absenteeism may be defined as not coming to school or not following the courses without having a valid excuse (Wisconsin, 2000). In another definition, it is said that it may be called as school refusal behaviour (SRB) based on the definition of Kearney and Silverman (1990), stating a kind of difficulty attending school or remaining in school for the whole day. Absenteeism may also be viewed as a personal decision related to ability and the motivation to attend (Kottasz, 2005). In the relevant literature, it is stated that absenteeism may be caused by family, school, personal problems, peer and gender related issues (Kadi, 2000). For some students school attendance may be conceived as a kind of punishment acting a negative reinforcement. Similarly, for some, schools and their curricula may be the contributing causes of absenteeism (Williams, 2001). Family health and/or financial concerns, drug and alcohol use, poor school climate, transportation problems and different attitudes towards education may also be mentioned among the causes of absenteeism (Teasley, 2004). Another cause for absenteeism is motivation; there is a crucial difference between a motivated student and an unmotivated one who feels she/he has to go to school (Kottasz, 2005).