The Impact of Language Proficiency and Other Factors on Students’ Academic Performance: In Case of the Accounting Study of NUM

Abstract

Students’ academic performance is widely recognized as a critical indicator of the effectiveness of educational institutions. Prior empirical studies consistently highlight the role of English language proficiency as a significant determinant of academic achievement. At the same time, researchers have emphasized that academic performance is a multidimensional construct, influenced by a range of cognitive, social, and institutional factors, including student motivation, teacher competence, school governance, curriculum design, and individual attitudes.

This study investigates the combined effects of English language proficiency and other contextual variables on the academic performance of undergraduate accounting students at the National University of Mongolia (NUM). Primary data were obtained from accounting majors and subsequently analyzed by the researchers using both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques.

The study specifically examined the influence of English language proficiency, family support, career orientation, institutional environment (infrastructure and faculty), peer influence, and student attitudes. The average age of respondents was 20.5 years, with 81% of participants aged between 18–21 years and 19% aged between 22–25 years. Male students accounted for 75% of the sample, while 25% were female. Approximately 70% of respondents reported a parental monthly income of up to 3 million tugriks. In terms of family size, 55.6% of students came from households with 3–5 members, while 30.6% reported more than six members. With regard to academic achievement, 88.5% of students demonstrated average to good performance, 8.6% exhibited high performance, and 2.9% performed poorly.

Regression analysis was employed to determine the relative impact of the independent variables on students’ academic success. The model yielded an R² value of 0.199, indicating that approximately 20% of the variance in academic performance could be explained by the selected predictors. The findings revealed that English language proficiency accounted for the largest share of positive variation (45.6%) in student performance. Student attitude contributed 5.1%, career orientation 5.8%, peer influence 5.7%, and the institutional environment (infrastructure and teaching quality) 1.7% positive variation. Family support, however, showed a negative effect (–8.3%), although its level of statistical significance was relatively low.

Overall, the results underscore that English language proficiency is the most influential factor, explaining 45.6% of the variation in the academic performance of accounting students at NUM.