ABSTRACT
CORRELATIVE STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN INFERRING WORD MEANING FROM CONTEXT AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENT ON READING COMPREHENSION OF FIRST YEAR
STUDENTS AT SMA N 1 KIBANG EAST LAMPUNG
By: Syofian Hadi
The present research is aimed at investigating the correlation between students‟
ability in inferring word meaning from context and their reading comprehension achievement. Forty first year students from SMA N 1 Kibang East Lampung were selected using a sample random sampling by using lottery. The data gained by administering a set of inferring word meaning from context test and reading comprehension test.
From inferring word meaning from context test, it was obtained that the highest score was 90, the lowest 33.33 and average was 64.27. It means that the students have good performance in inferring word meaning from context. While for
reading comprehension test, it showed the average of students‟ achievement on
reading comprehension was 70.08. The highest score was 93.3 and the lowest score was 46.7. It means that the students have excellent performance in reading comprehension.
The result showed that the coefficient correlation was 0.819 and it was significant where r-value (0.819) > r-table (0.312) and it was found that students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context influenced their reading comprehension
achievement with 67%; that is, students‟ ability in inferring word meaning had a
CURRICULUM VITAE
Syofian Hadi was born in Bukit Kemuning, North Lampung on October 31st, 1985. He is the fifth child of Syafruddin and Salma.
He graduated from SD Negeri 2 Bukit Kemuning in 1998. He continued his study to SMP Negeri 1 Bukit Kemuning and graduated in 2001. At the same year he continued at SMA Negeri 1 Bukit Kemuning and graduated in 2004.
DEDICATION
This script is dedicated to:
My beloved father and mother My beloved sisters and brothers
My great friends in 2004 English Department My teachers and lectures
MOTTO
Buy for yourself (through doing good deeds)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Praise is for Allah SWT, the Almighty God, for tremendous blessing that enable
the writer to accomplish his script entitled “Correlative Study between Students‟
Ability in Inferring Word Meaning from Context and Their Achievement on Reading Comprehension of First Year Students at SMA Negeri 1 Kibang East
Lampung” as a partial fulfilment of the requirements for S-1 Degree.
The writer would like to address his deep gratitude and respect to his first advisor, Prof. Dr. Cucu Sutarsyah, M.A. and his second advisor, Dra. Edhita G.
Simanjuntak, who have given their expertise, guidance, patience and
encouragement during the completion of this script. The writer also would like to express his deep gratitude and respect to his examiner, Prof. Dr. Patuan Raja, M.Pd., for his enthusiastic encouragement and contribution during the
examination until this script is finished. His grateful appreciation is also rendered to whole lecturers of English Education Study Program.
Most importantly his special words of indebtedness and love go to his beloved parents, (Apa and Ama’) Syafruddin and Salma, who never stop praying and giving their support for the writer. His sincere thanks and love are also dedicated to his beloved brothers and sisters, Marfalinda, Afwan Syofian, Julsafwanda, Marfanita, Nidia Oktarisa, his respectable brothers and sisters in law, his funny and cute nephews and nieces, Alifa, Zidan, Syafa, Fathir, Keysha and Farras, for their love, prays, support, and encouragement.
Special appreciation and thanks go to these names that always give me support and pray, Yayan Candra, Imam Forandes, Wisnu Kurniawan, Suresmiyati, Eko Zainuri, Decky Krist, Rully Saputra, “weekly circle” brothers, Arif Budiman, and BKB Nurul Fikri crews.
His countless thanks are also devoted to the whole 2004 colleagues of English Education Study Program of Lampung University, Habi Septiawan, Darwasih, Bevita Noviane, Eka Mayasari, Gilang Santoso, Muhammad Firdaus, Anwar Irawan and to everyone involved in accomplishing this script.
Bandar Lampung, December 2011
CORRELATIVE STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN INFERRING WORD MEANING FROM CONTEXT AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENT ON READING COMPREHENSION OF FIRST YEAR
STUDENTS AT SMA N 1 KIBANG EAST LAMPUNG (A Script)
By
SYOFIAN HADI
UNIVERSITY OF LAMPUNG BANDAR LAMPUNG
CORRELATIVE STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN INFERRING WORD MEANING FROM CONTEXT AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENT ON READING COMPREHENSION OF FIRST YEAR
STUDENTS AT SMA N 1 KIBANG EAST LAMPUNG
By
SYOFIAN HADI
A Script
Submitted in a Partial Fulfilment of The Requirements for S-1 Degree
In
The Language and Arts Department of Teaching Training and Education Faculty
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY UNIVERSITY OF LAMPUNG
Research Title : CORRELATIVE STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS‟ ABILITY IN INFERRING WORD MEANING FROM CONTEXT AND THEIR ACHIEVEMENT ON
READING COMPREHENSION OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT SMA N 1 KIBANG EAST LAMPUNG
Student‟s Name : Syofian Hadi
Student‟s Number : 0413042049
Department : Language and Arts Education Study Program : English Education
Faculty : Teacher Training and Education Faculty
APPROVED BY Advisory Committee
Advisor Co-Advisor
Prof. Dr. Cucu Sutarsyah, M.A. Dra. Edhita G. Simanjuntak NIP 19570406 198603 1 002 NIP 19480123 197703 2 003
The Chairperson of
Language and Arts Education Department
ADMITTED BY
1. Examination Committee
Chairperson : Prof. Dr. Cucu Sutarsyah, M.A. ...
Examiner : Prof. Dr. Patuan Raja, M.Pd. ...
Secretary : Dra. Edhita G. Simanjuntak ...
2. The Dean of Teacher Training and Education Faculty
Dr. H. Bujang Rahman, M.Si. 19600315 198503 1 003
TABLE OF CONTENT
C. Components of Reading Comprehension ... 12
D. Description of Word Meaning in Context ... 14
E. Description of Inferring Word Meaning from Context ... 16
F. Parts of Speech as Specification of Vocabulary ... 18
G. Correlation between Inferring Word Meaning from Context and Reading Comprehension ... 22
D. Validity and Reliability of the Instruments ... 29
1. Validity ... 29
E. Difficulty Level and Discrimination Power of the Instruments ... 34
1. Difficulty Level ... 34
2. Discrimination Power ... 36
F. Data Treatment ... 38
G. Research Procedure ... 39
H. Data Analysis ... 40
I. Hypothesis Testing ... 42
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ... 44
A. Result of the Research ... 44
1. The Result of Inferring Word Meaning from Context Test ... 45
2. The Result of Reading Comprehension Test ... 46
3. The Correlation between Students‟ Ability in Inferring Word Meaning from Context and Their Achievement on Reading Comprehension ... 49
4. The Contribution of Students‟ Ability in Inferring Word Meaning from Context to Their Achievement on Reading Comprehension ... 51
5. Hypothesis Testing ... 52
B. Discussion ... 52
V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ... 56
A. Conclusion ... 56
B. Suggestions ... 57
REFERENCES ... 59
LIST OF TABLES
Page
1. Specification of Inferring Word Meaning from Context Test ... 28
2. Specification of Reading Comprehension Test ... 29
3. Difficulty Level of the Inferring Word Meaning from Context Test Items ... 35
4. Difficulty Level of Reading Comprehension Test Items ... 36
5. Inferring Word Meaning from Context Score ... 45
6. Reading Comprehension Score ... 46
7. Reading Skills Score ... 47
8. The Value of Pearson Product Moment Correlation ... 50
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
1. Example of Text and Reading Comprehension ... 63
2. Inferring Word Meaning Test ... 64
3. Reading Comprehension Test ... 70
4. Reliability of Instruments ... 80
5. Reliability Analysis Cronbach Alpha Correlation for Inferring Word Meaning Test ... 81
6. Reliability Analysis Cronbach Alpha Correlation for Reading Comprehension Test ... 82
7. Homogeneity of Population ... 83
8. The Normality Test Data ... 84
9. The Random Test Data ... 85
10. Inferring Word Meaning Test Tabulation ... 86
11. Reading Comprehension Tabulation ... 88
12. Students‟ Inferring Word Meaning Score ... 90
13. Students‟ Reading Comprehension Score ... 92
14. Students‟ Inferring Word Meaning and Reading Comprehension Score ... 94
15. Person Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient Table of Critical Values ... 96
16. Pearson Product Moment Correlation ... 98
17. SPSS Product Moment Correlation ... 100
18. SPSS Regression Table ... 101
19. Students‟ Skills of Reading Comprehension Score ... 102
20. SPSS Product Moment Correlation and Regression Table (X-Y1) ... 104
21. SPSS Product Moment Correlation and Regression Table (X-Y2) ... 105
22. SPSS Product Moment Correlation and Regression Table (X-Y3) ... 106
23. SPSS Product Moment Correlation and Regression Table (X-Y4) ... 107
24. SPSS Product Moment Correlation and Regression Table (X-Y5) ... 108
25. Surat Izin Penelitian ... 109
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Problem
In English teaching-learning program there are four skills required to achieve and must be taught to SMA/MA students; that is listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Grellet (1981) stated that reading as the process of understanding a written text, means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible. It means the readers are expected to be able to get a lot of information based on what they read in the text, so they can interpret the idea implied by the author. Therefore, beside those three skills, reading is also very important for the students to learn since it is one of receptive skills, which is usually called as cognitive process of deriving meaning from written or printed text.
In reading, a reader confronts with the text that consists of written symbol, letters, words, and sentence structure. In order to gain a comprehension, a reader does not merely see and identify the written symbols but he or she also must be able to interpret what he or she reads. Since the purpose of reading is to comprehend the content of a text, then word knowledge is one of the important things which should be possessed. Adams and Huggins (1985) in Nation and Coady (1987: 101) claim that word recognition abilities are the single best class of
discriminators between good and poor reader. It means that word knowledge is strongly related to reading comprehension achievement Furthermore, Pearson (1978: 15) states that there is good evidence to suggest that people all levels of development have more difficulty understanding passage composed of
infrequently used rather than frequently used words. It means that word
knowledge affect the readers comprehending the passage. . In other words, trying to comprehend a text without sufficient knowledge of vocabulary is assumed impossible.
Based on the researcher‟s experience in the three-month-teaching training program at SMA Negeri 15 Bandar Lampung, he found his students finding difficulty to get messages or comprehend the text well. In other words, it is difficult for the students to understand what the researcher really intends to say. Most of students read slowly and put too much attention on the word rather than on the entire text and stopped at each unfamiliar word which they were unsure about the meaning. Encountering unfamiliar words often annoyed the excitement
to look up the word in the dictionary. Therefore, they spent time more for looking through all the definition and then deciding the appropriate meaning. Furthermore, encountering unfamiliar words in a text is a problem that also may cause
misunderstanding of the idea of the text. Grellet (1985: 15) stated that if the reader does not understand some words in the passage, some of the facts and idea will probably escape him. Thus, reading is the result of interpretation between perception or graphic symbols and knowledge of the world.
Dictionary is a good source in finding more detail and specific word meaning. But
interrupting students‟ reading trip to the dictionary to look through each unknown
word seems annoy and waste the time since there are many words which have more than one meaning and definition listed in the dictionary. It is also supported by Nuttal (1985: 69) who stated that every time the reader breaks off reading to consult a dictionary, the reader not only slow down the reading speed because of the time involved, but more seriously interrupt thought processes which should be engaged in following the continued development of thought in the text.
the author. It also supported by Nuttal (1985: 69) who suggested the reader to develop the skill of inferring the meaning of a word by considering its context.
A reader must be able to create personal and implied meanings from sentence that
he or she is reading. A reader concludes the author‟s meaning using his or her
background knowledge and clues from text. Context, words, and sentences surrounding an unknown word can be used to figure out the word meaning. Context usually gives the readers with clues that allow them to figure out the meaning of the word while the words and sentences surrounding the word influence its meaning. In other words, inferring word meaning from context is assumed to be appropriate way someone wishes to read extensively. The more a reader recognizes reference word in written material, the higher his or her reading comprehension achievement will be.
Herlina (1997) has done a research to investigate the effect of teaching reference
word towards students‟ reading comprehension achievement. She conducted her
research on second year students of SMA Negeri 9 Bandar Lampung. As the result of her research, she found that there is a positive effect of teaching reference
word towards students‟ reading comprehension achievement. As she stated:
“Based upon the calculation of pretest and posttest, the researcher found
the progress of students‟ reading comprehension achievement after they
were taught of reference words. The comparison between the result of
pretest and posttest below shows the increase of students‟ reading
comprehension achievement. The mean of pretest is 5.79 and posttest is
Based on the background above, the researcher is challenged and intends to find
out the correlation between students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from
context and their achievement on reading comprehension on the first year students at SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung. Mr. Eko Noprianto, S. Pd., English teacher of first year students there, told that his students have the same problem with the researcher‟s experience at SMA Negeri 15 Bandar Lampung. The problem commonly encountered by the first year students of SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung is the difficulty in comprehending the text because of encountering unfamiliar words. Thus, the researcher does expect to find the correlation between students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context and their achievement on reading comprehension, in order the result of the research can give the real contribution for the teacher of SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung in teaching reading.
B. Formulation of the Problem
In line with the background and explanation above, the problem is formulated as follows:
1. Is there any significant correlation between students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context and their achievement on reading
2. How far does students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context contribute to their achievement on reading comprehension of first year students at SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung?
C. Objective of the Research
In relation to the formulation of the problem above, this research has objectives as follows:
1. To investigate the possibility that there might be significant correlation
between students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context and their achievement on reading comprehension of first year students at SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung.
2. To analyze how far students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context contribute to their achievement on reading comprehension of first year students at SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung.
D. Uses of the Research
By conducting this quantitative research, the researcher expects it will be useful as:
1. Theoretically, this research can be used as verification and contribution for the previous research.
2. Practically, the result of this research gives information to the English
meaning from context has significant correlation toward their achievement on reading comprehension, therefore, it is also expected to give contribution to the process in learning English, especially in reading skill.
E. Scope of the Research
This research is intended to investigate whether students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context has significant correlation toward their achievement on reading comprehension. To gain the data, ability in inferring word meaning from context and reading comprehension, the researcher will administer the tests. They are inferring word meaning from context test and reading comprehension test. As it is a correlation study, the researcher will look at the relationship between the two variables.
F. Definition of Terms
1) Inferring word meaning from context is the ability of knowing the meaning of a word by considering its context. (Simanjuntak, 1988: 73)
2) Reading is the process of grasping the main idea and scanning pieces of information from a text.
3) Reading Comprehension is as a matter of “making sense” of text, of relating written language to what we know already and to what we want to know. It means that a passage and a series of questions are presented that test the
readers‟ comprehension of the passage.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter presents the concepts the researcher will use to do his research. By
referring to those concepts that come from the experts‟ and the previous
researchers‟ theories, the researcher formulates his assumptions. The researcher wishes much that those related concepts may contribute well for the finding of his research.
A. Concept of Reading
Reading is the cognitive process of deriving meaning from written or printed text. It is supported by Clark and Silberstein (1987) who defined that reading is an active cognitive process of interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. In line with this, Grellet (1981) mentioned that reading as the process of understanding a written text, means extracting the required
representing language and the reader‟s language skills, cognitive skill, and the knowledge of the world.
Reading is a complex cognitive process. It is stated by Simanjuntak (1989: 5) that the complex reading process consists of two majors sub process. The first level is
simple „identification‟ as the way of determining rapidly and accurately just what
the text says. At this level, reading is a kind of information processing, the
transferring of specific „bits‟ of information from one system to another. The
second level is interpretation as the cognitive skill required for the interpretation of the text, which mainly depend on knowledge of the subject matter of the texts, and of the way that information is organized in discourse. Those ideas tell us that through reading process, we bring the meanings that exist in our mind from written materials to get the idea from it.
minds or in written material. It means that reading is a process that requires interpretation and comprehension aspects to the idea needed.
B. Concept of Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is the first point should be made in the process of reading. It is supported by Simanjuntak (1988: 47) who stated that the first point in reading needs is comprehension, so the readers will gain the information from the readers read. Furthermore, Hornby (2000) argued that comprehension is as exercise that trains students to understand a language. It means that the reader are required being able to comprehend the text to get a lot of information or ideas from the text.
Reading comprehension is a passage presented to the reader, which they must read either silently or aloud. Then a series of questions are presented that test the
readers‟ comprehension of the passage. In line with it, Smith (1981) conveyed that
reading is a process of understanding the text in term of question that the reader formulates about the text. He also stated that in reading, the reader should be able to comprehend the text and memorize what they have read.
communication that occurs between the author of the text and the readers during reading process. This is because reading is a process of conveying meaning, information, ideas, etc from the author to the readers.
C. Components of Reading Comprehension
According to Philips (2000: 243), there are some types of question in reading comprehension, such as question asking about the ideas of the passage, specific information, references, inferences, vocabulary, tone, purpose, course, etc. The researcher explains five components that were applied in the research instrument as follows:
1) Main Idea
2) Supporting Details
McWhorther (1986: 82) in Simanjuntak (1988: 106) states that supporting details are those facts and ideas that prove or explain the main idea of the paragraph. They develop the topic sentence by giving definition, examples, facts, comparison, analogy, cause and effect statistics and quotation. For example in text in Appendix 1, the specific information is that the story happened on a train journey.
3) Inference
McWhorther (1986:31) states that an inference is an educational guess or prediction about something unknown based on available facts and information. The reader will be able to do this by making use of the context in which the story occurred in order to give him a rough idea of prediction. For example in text in Appendix 1, the reader can create a prediction based on the facts he finds in the story. Inference will lead to the conclusion that the young man get up from his seat in a great hurry to buy a meal and drink.
4) References
Latulippe (1987:20) defines references as words or phrases used either before or after the reference in the reading material. When such words are used, they are signals to the reader to find the meaning elsewhere in the text. For
example in text in Appendix 1, „she‟ in sentence ‘she hurried after him’ refers to the researcher‟s daughter as the sentence occurs after „after a minute my
5) Vocabulary
According to Wallace (1982:30), vocabulary is the stock of words used by people. Vocabulary is fundamental for everyone who wants to speak or to produce utterances for reading. In reading, the reader guesses the meaning of a word by making use of the context in which the word occurred in order to give him a rough idea of its meaning. For example in text in Appendix 1, the
reader would know that „hurtled‟ means moved very fast after reading the
sentence that builds the context for the word „hurtled‟.
D. Description of Word Meaning in Context
As Adams and Huggins (1985) in Nation and Coady (1987: 101) claim that word recognition abilities are the single best class of discriminators between good and poor reader, understanding words meaning becomes the important component of reading comprehension. These symbols are cues to the readers in which they are identified and interpreted to understand the message.
Context in which the word occurred is considered as an important aid to word identification and interpretation. It is a practical way that gives the readers a rough
idea of a word‟s meaning and enables them to identify it immediately. It is supported by Nation and Coady (1987: 102) who stated that context can be viewed as morphological, syntactic, and discourse information in a given text which can be classified and described in terms of general features. It is means that the readers take advantage of such background knowledge in processing the text, and in creating expectation about the kind of vocabulary that will occur.
Furthermore, words have multiple meanings and require context for definition. It is also supported by Nation and Coady (1987: 72) who stated that most words have more than one meaning. It is through the use of sentence and paragraph context that we are able to decide which alternative meaning to assign a word. It means that by identifying the words or sentence surrounding the unfamiliar or difficult word, a reader can infer the meaning. The following example describes
the influence of context in determining word meaning of „run‟.
Don’t run so fast.
She has a run in her stocking.
Soon there will be a run on the banks. He batted in a run when it counted. The car will run better now.
The word „run‟ in the sentences above may have different meanings. The word
„run‟ in the first sentence means move at a speed faster than walk; in the second
sentence the word „run‟ means a broken mend in stocking; in the third sentence
fourth sentence the word „run‟ means a track made or regularly used; in the last
sentence the word „run‟ means operated. It means that words have multiple meaning based on the context in the sentence or passage.
E. Description of Inferring Word Meaning from Context
According to Simanjuntak (1988: 73), inferring word meaning from context is the ability of knowing the meaning of a word by considering its context. The reader infers the meaning of the word by making use of the context in which the word occurred in order to give the reader a rough idea of its meaning. It also supported by Nuttal (1985: 70) who stated that inferring meaning is a skill of meeting the words frequently and in concrete situations, the reader gradually assimilated their meanings. In expressing the idea of inferring meaning from context, Nuttall
(1982:70) provides examples defining the word „tock‟ (a nonsense word).
She poured the water into a tock Then, lifting the tock, she drank.
Unfortunately, as she was setting it down Again, the tock slipped from her hand and broke.
Only the handle remained in one piece.
After reading the first sentence, the reader considers how much information he has
about the meaning of the word „tock‟. Then go on to find out how much more the
reader knows after reading the second sentence and so on. Finally, the reader is
able to infer the word „tock‟. It means that this example shows how context can
Furthermore, in reading, context is provided not only by preceding words or sentences but also topics, titles, as well as preceding and following paragraph, illustrations, tables, and so on. It is also supported by Nation and Coady (1987: 102) who asserted that there are two types of context. The first type is general context in terms of the readers‟ background knowledge of the subject matter of a given text, and the other type is context within the text in which context is viewed as morphological, syntactic, and discourse information in a given text.
Inferring word meaning from context is practical but it is not an easy task. It needs a strategy. The following strategy is an elaboration description by Clarke and Nation in Nation and Coady (1988: 104). The strategy consists of five steps that represent a procedure that learners can use to ensure that they are making good use of the available context clues. The steps are:
1. Finding the part of speech of the unknown word.
2. Looking at the immediate context of the unknown word and simplifying this context if necessary.
3. Looking at the wider context of the unknown word; looking at the relationship between the clause containing the unknown word and surrounding clauses and sentences.
4. Guessing the meaning of the unknown word. 5. Checking that the guess is correct.
grammar and reading skills in order to achieve basic comprehension of the text, and secondly that the learners bring some relevant background knowledge to the text.
F. Parts of Speech as Specification of Vocabulary
According to Frank (1972: 1), the words that form the central core of the sentence are the parts of speech known as nouns (or pronouns) and verbs; the word that modify the central core words are the parts of speech called adjectives and
adverbs; the words that show a particular kind of connecting relationship between these four parts of speech are called prepositions and conjunctions. The researcher explains some parts of speech as the base for specification in the research
instrument as follows:
1) Nouns
The noun is one of the most important parts of speech. Its arrangement with the verb helps to form the sentence core which is essential to every complete sentence. Classified by meaning, some nouns may belong to more than one of the types given below.
a. Proper Nouns
A proper noun begins with a capital letter in writing. It includes personal names such as John Smith; names of geographic units such as Holland, Paris; names of nationalities and religions such as Dutchman,
of times units such as Saturday, June; words used for personification such as Nature, Liberty.
b. Concrete or Abstract Nouns
A concrete noun is a word for a physical object that can be perceived by the senses–we can see, touch smell the object such as flower, girl. An abstract noun is a word for a concept–it is an idea that exists in our minds only such as beauty, justice, mankind.
c. Countable or Noncountable Nouns
A countable noun can usually be made plural by the addition of –s such as one girl, two girls. A noncountable noun is not used in the plural. They are words for concrete objects stated in an undivided quantity such as coffee, iron.
d. Collective Nouns
A collective noun is a word for a group of people, animals or objects considered as a single unit such as audience, committee, class, family, government, group, majority, nation, public, team.
2) Verbs
a. Predicating or Linking Verbs
A predicating verb is the chief word in the predicate that says something about the subject such as cry, write. A linking verb is a verb of incomplete predication such as become, remain, seem.
b. Transitive or Intransitive Verbs
A transitive verb takes a direct object such as read, send; an intransitive verb does not require an object such as sleep, walk. Only transitive verbs may be used in the passive voice.
c. Reflexive Verbs
A reflexive verb requires one of the compounds with –self (reflexive pronoun) as its object such as express oneself, wash oneself.
3) Adjectives
The adjective is a modifier that has the grammatical property of comparison. It is often identified by special derivational endings or by special adverbial modifiers that precede it. Its most usual position is before the noun it modifies, but it fills other positions as well. The types of adjectives are explained below:
a. Determiners
1. Articles – the, a, an
2. Demonstrative adjectives – this, plural these; that, plural those 3. Possessive adjectives – from pronouns such as my, your, one’s; from
nouns such as John’s, the girl’s
4. Numeral adjectives – cardinal such as four, twenty-five, one hundred; ordinal such as fourth, twenty-fifth, one hundredth
5. Adjectives of indefinite quantity – some, few, all, more 6. Relative and interrogative adjectives – whose, what, which
b. Descriptive adjectives
Descriptive Adjectives usually indicate an inherent quality such as beautiful, intelligent, or a physical state such as age, size, color. Some
descriptive adjectives take the form of:
1. Proper adjectives – a Catholic church, a French dish
2. Participial adjectives – an interesting book, a charming view 3. Adjective compounds – with present participles such as a
good-looking girl, a heart-breaking story; past participles such as a
turned-up nose, new born kittens; with –ed added to nouns such as
absent-minded, ill-tempered.
4) Adverbs
meanings as time and place) to those that are used merely for emphasis. The types of adverbs are explained below:
a. Adverbs of manner – quickly, neatly, awkwardly
b. Adverb of place and direction – here, away, outside, left, straight c. Adverb of time – definite time such as yesterday, today, tomorrow;
indefinite time such as recently, nowadays, soon, already, before, later d. Adverb of frequency – usually, always, sometimes, never
e. Adverbs of degree – very, too, quite, extremely, more, almost, entirely, partially, wholly
5) Verb-Preposition Combination
A preposition may combine with a verb to form a new vocabulary item. This verb-preposition goes by several names-two-part verbs, composite verbs, phrasal verbs. For example bring about (cause), call up (telephone), give up (surrender), and hand in (submit), bear up under (withstand).
G. Correlation between Inferring Word Meaning from Context and Reading Comprehension
infrequently used rather than frequently used words. It means that word knowledge is strongly related to reading comprehension achievement.
Moreover, Davis (1968) in Nation (1988: 98) did empirical correlational studies and factor analysis arriving at four factors: (1) recalling word meaning, (2) determining meaning from context, (3) finding answer to explicit questions, and (4) drawing inferences. Of all the factors, vocabulary was the most important and had the strongest effect. It means that trying to comprehend a text without sufficient knowledge of vocabulary is assumed impossible. Therefore, many alternative ways to solve this problem proposed by the experts, one of the efforts is by learning the meaning of a word through its use in a sentence. Nuttal (1985: 69) also suggested the reader to develop skill of inferring the meaning of a word by considering its context. It means that the reader infers the meaning of the word by making use of the context in which the word occurred in order to give the reader a rough idea of its meaning. In other words, vocabulary knowledge affects reading comprehension, thus, as one of the solution toward reading gap, ability in inferring word meaning from context has strong correlation with reading comprehension achievement.
H. Theoretical Assumption
From all literatures reviewed above, the researcher assumes that students‟ ability
(1985) claimed that word recognition abilities are the single best class of
discriminator between good and poor reader. It means that trying to comprehend a text without sufficient knowledge of vocabulary is assumed impossible.
The researcher assumes that if the learners have the ability in inferring word meaning from context, they will be able to read effectively and efficiently in terms of obtaining a good comprehension of the text in a small amount of time. As Herlina (1997) found that teaching reference word increased students‟ reading comprehension achievement. The researcher, therefore, assumed that by having the ability in inferring word meaning from context, students will be able to achieve the learning objective maximally, especially in reading comprehension of first year students of SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung.
I. Hypothesis
Concerning with the theories and the assumptions above, the researcher would like to formulate the hypothesis as follows:
“There is significant correlation between students‟ ability in inferring word
III. METHODS OF RESEARCH
A. Research Design
The objective to be achieved in this research is to find out the possibility that there
might be significant correlation between students‟ ability in inferring word
meaning from context toward their achievement on reading comprehension. To gain this objective above, the researcher conducted quantitative research by using ex post facto design. Hatch and Farhady (1982: 26) state that:
Ex post facto design is often used when the researcher does not have control over the selection and manipulation of the independent variable. This is why the researchers look at the type and/or degree of relationship between two variables rather than at a cause-and-effect relationship.
The data of this study are students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context
and achievement on reading comprehension. Inferring word meaning from context that was tested is symbolized as „X‟ variable. Reading comprehension is one of the language skills that was tested and the result is students‟ reading
comprehension achievement symbolized as ‟Y‟. This is illustrated as follows: X Y
X = inferring word meaning test Y = reading comprehension test
To find the coefficient correlation between students‟ ability in inferring word
meaning from context and their achievement on reading comprehension, the researcher used Pearson Product Moment Correlation. While to analyze how far the contribution of students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context and their achievement on reading comprehension, the wrier used Simple Regression.
B. Population and Sample
The population of this research was the first year students of SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung. There were five classes of the first year students with the total number of 157 students. According to Arikunto (2002: 107), if a number of samples are more than 100, it is suggested to take 10-15% or 20-25% of the samples. The selection of the sample was done through probability sampling, by using simple random sampling, where every individual in population had
probability to be chosen as sample. The researcher took 8 students for each class to be chosen as sample by using lottery. The use of this method was to fulfill the external validity aspect and to get normal distribution data. Therefore, the total number of sample was 40 students.
C. Research Instruments
study are the objective test in the form of multiple choices. The researcher used this kind of the test because the scoring could be done quickly and no judgment was involved. Each of the correct items was scored 1 and for the item that was incorrectly answered was scored 0. Then the score for each test was changed to the scale of 1-100. It was based on Arikunto‟s formula in which the ideal higher score was 100. The scoring system formula was as follows:
S = 100
Where:
S : the score of the test
R : the total of the correct answer N : the total items
1. Test of Inferring Word Meaning from Context
The test was particularly aimed at discovering the students‟ achievement in inferring word meaning from context in which they were required to choose one of the words that best define the target words (bold) presented in the sentence and paragraph.
World 1 English for Senior High School Students Grade X, and Steps to Academic Reading 5 (see Appendix 2)
Table 1. Table of Specification of Inferring Word Meaning from Context Test
No. Part of Speech Item Numbers Percentage
1 Noun 2, 4, 8, 15, 21, 27 20%
2 Verb 5, 7, 10, 11, 14, 29 20%
3 Adjective 1, 3, 9, 13, 17, 28 20%
4 Adverb 6, 16, 19, 23, 25, 30 20%
5 Prepositional Phrases 12, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 20%
Total 30 100%
2. Test of Reading Comprehension
The test of reading comprehension was intended at describing students‟
The researcher specified the aspects to be tested as in the table of specification as follows:
Table 2. Table of Specification of Reading Comprehension Test
No. Skills of Reading Item Numbers Percentage
1 Main Idea 1, 5, 11, 14, 17, 24, 20%
2 Supporting Detail 6, 7, 10, 18, 27, 29 20%
3 Inference 4, 9, 12, 15, 21, 26 20%
4 Reference 3, 13, 16, 19, 23, 28 20%
5 Vocabulary 2, 8, 20, 22, 25, 30 20%
Total 30 100%
D. Validity and Reliability of the Instruments
1. Validity
a. Content Validity
Content validity is the extent to which the test measures a representative sample of the subject matter content. The focus of the content validity is adequacy of the sample and not simply on the appearance of the test (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 251).
b. Construct Validity
The purpose of construct validity is to examine whether the test is a good representation of the material that needs to be tested (Shohamy, 1985: 75). It means that the test is a good reflection of what has been taught and of the knowledge which the researcher wants the students to know.
A test, a part of a test, or a testing technique is said to have construct validity if it can be demonstrated that it measures just the ability which is supposed to be
measured. The word „construct‟ refers to any underlying ability (or trait) which is hypothesized in a theory of language ability (Hughes, 1991: 26).
2. Reliability
Reliability is a measure of accuracy, consistency, dependability or fairness of scores resulting from administration of particular examination. Hatch and Farhady (1982: 243) state that the reliability of a test can be defined as the extent to which a test procedures consistent result when administered under similar condition.
Therefore, to estimate tests reliability the researcher used Cronbach Alpha, that was measured based on the average questions correlation and estimated using the following formula based on item variances:
where
: the number of items : the variance of an item
: the variance of the totals for each participant
A slightly different Cronbach‟s alpha called the standardized Cronbach‟s alpha
where
: the number of items
: the average inter-item correlation
criteria range from 0.90 to 1.00 indicating high reliability, from 0.50 to 0.89 indicating moderate reliability, and from 0.00 to 0.49 indicating low reliability (Hatch and Farhady, 1985:247).
Based on the calculation of reliability analysis for inferring word meaning from context test, alpha is 0.810 (see Appendix 4). It means that the instrument of inferring word meaning from context test has moderate reliability. It can be interpreted that the instrument is proper to be used for a research. The analysis of each item showed that if the item deleted, it will make alpha lower. For example,
Item 1 on column of “cronbach‟s alpha if item deleted” column (see Appendix 5), the alpha is 0.806. It means that, if item 1 deleted, alpha will be lower than 0.810. The higher the alpha is the better the test instrument is.
Another example, Item 2 of “cronbach‟s alpha if item deleted” column, the alpha is 0.805. Alpha of this item (0.805) did not make the alpha of coefficient
reliability (0.810) increased if this item is deleted. With alpha 0.810, the researcher reported that this inferring word meaning from context test has significant reliability and reliable to be administered.
example, Item 1 on column of “cronbach‟s alpha if item deleted” column (see Appendix 6), the alpha is 0.777. It means that, if item 1 deleted, alpha will be lower than 0.790. The higher the alpha is the better the test instrument is.
Another example, Item 2 of “cronbach‟s alpha if item deleted” column, the alpha is 0.786. Alpha of this item (0.786) did not make the alpha of coefficient
reliability (0.790) increased if this item is deleted. With alpha 0.790, the researcher reported that this inferring word meaning from context test has significant reliability and reliable to be administered.
E. Difficulty Level and Discrimination Power of the Instruments
1. Difficulty Level
To see the level of difficulty, the researcher used the following formula:
LD =
Where:
LD : level of difficulty
The criteria are;
< 0.30 : difficult 0.30 – 0.70 : average > 0.70 : easy (Shohamy, 1985: 79)
The results of the difficulty level for inferring word meaning from context test are available on Appendix 10. Based on the criteria above, inferring word meaning from context test consisted of eight easy items (1, 7, 8, 10, 20, 23, 24, 27), one difficult items (14) and the rest items (twenty one items) were average in the level of difficulty. The result is shown in the table below, which summarizes the
difficulty level of inferring word meaning from context test items.
Table 3. Difficulty Level of the Inferring Word Meaning from Context Test Items
No. Item Number Value Range Criteria
1 14 < 0.30 Difficult
2
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30
0.30-0.70 Average
While in reading comprehension test, the results of the difficulty level for reading comprehension test are also available on Appendix 11. It consisted of sixteen easy items (2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 18, 21, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30) and the rest items (fourteen items) were average in the level of difficulty. The result is shown in the table below, which summarizes the difficulty level of reading comprehension test items.
Table 4. Difficulty Level of Reading Comprehension Test Items
No. Item Number Value Range Criteria
1 - < 0.30 Difficult
2
1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 26, 28
0.30-0.70 Average
3
2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 18, 21, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30
> 0.70 Easy
2. Discrimination Power
To see the discrimination power, the researcher used the following formula:
Where:
DP : discrimination power
U : the proportion of the upper group students L : the proportion of the lower group students N : total number of the students
The criteria are:
a. If the result is positive, it means the number of high students who have given correct answers is more than the number of low students who have given correct answers. But if the result is zero, it means there is no discrimination. b. If the result is negative, it means there are more low students who have given
correct answers than high students.
c. In general, the higher the discrimination index, the better. In classroom situation most items should be higher than 0.20 indexes.
(Shohamy, 1985: 81)
F. Data Treatment
The researcher used the procedures to treat the data as follows:
1. Normality Test
Normality test is used to test whether the data has normal distribution. According to Setiyadi (2006: 168:169), one of the assumptions should be fulfilled in using T-test is that the data should have a normal distribution.
The criteria are as follows:
H0 : the data is distributed normally
H1 : the data is not distributed normally
In this research, H0 would be accepted if Sign>α and the researcher used the level
of significant 0.05. Based on the result (see Appendix 8), we can see that the
classes gave sign > α. Therefore, it proved that H0 was accepted and the whole
data were distributed normally.
2. Random Test
Random test is used to ensure whether the data is random or not, as stated by Setiyadi (2006: 168-169), one of the assumptions should be fulfilled in using T-test is that the data should be taken from random sample in a population. The criteria are as follows:
H0 : the data is random
In this research, H0 would be accepted if Sign>α and the researcher used the level
of significant 0.05. Based on the result (see Appendix 9), we can see that the
classes gave sign > α. Therefore, it proved that H0 was accepted and the whole
data were random.
G. Research Procedure
In conducting the research, researcher used the steps as follows: 1. Determining the sample of population
The researcher took the first year students at SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung as the sample in this study. There were 5 classes consist of 30 to 35 students. The researcher took 8 students in each class to become
sample.
2. Preparing the test of inferring word meaning from context
The test consisted of 30 items of multiple choices. The students were required to choose one of the words that best defines the target words (bold) presented in the sentence and paragraph.
3. Preparing the test of reading comprehension.
4. Administrating the test of inferring word meaning from context
The researcher gave the test of inferring word meaning from context to the students. It was administered in 60 minutes.
5. Administrating the test of reading comprehension
The researcher gave the test of reading comprehension. It was administered in 60 minutes.
6. Collecting the data
After administering the test, the data from both tests was collected.
7. Analyzing the data
The data was analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 18. to investigate whether there is any significant correlation or not.
H. Data Analysis
The research has two variables, dependent and independent. Since this research was a correlative study, in collecting the data the researcher only used tests for those two variables. They were the test of inferring word meaning from context
language achievement; reading comprehension achievement. The data from reading comprehension test was classified as a dependent variable because the achievement is influenced by inferring word meaning from context ability.
After analyzing the result of students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from
context, the researcher correlated it with the result of their achievement in reading comprehension in order to investigate whether there is any correlation or not by using Pearson product Moment Correlation as follows:
r
xy=
(Hatch & Farhady, 1982: 198)
Note:
r : the coefficient correlation
x : inferring word meaning from context score y : reading comprehension score
∑x : the sum of scores in X-distribution
∑y : the sum of scores in Y-distribution
∑xy : the sum of products of paired X and Y distribution
∑x2
: the sum of the squared scores in X distribution
∑y2
After that, Simple Regression was done to find how far the contribution of
students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context to their reading
comprehension achievement. With the formulation as follows:
R = r2 Note:
R : Regression
r : coefficient correlation
I. Hypothesis Testing
After finding the coefficient correlation between the students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context and their achievement in reading comprehension, the researcher found out the criterion of the hypothesis acceptance. To determine whether the first hypothesis was accepted or rejected, the following criterion acceptance was used:
H0
= r
value< r
tableH1
= r
value> r
tableWith the explanation as follows:
a. H0.There is no significant correlation between the students‟ ability in
b. H1. There is significant correlation between the students‟ ability in inferring
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Results of the Research
As mentioned in chapter one, the research was conducted in order to know the
correlation between students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context and their achievement on reading comprehension. The researcher conducted the research at the first year students at SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung. There were five classes with the total number of 157 students. The sample of the
research was chosen by probability sampling used lottery. The researcher took 8 students for each class, so the total number of sample was 40 students.
The data were collected through tests; inferring word meaning from context test on January 9th 2012 and reading comprehension test on January 10th 2012. Inferring word meaning from context test was particularly aimed at discovering the students‟ achievement in inferring word meaning from context while reading
comprehension test was used to know the students‟ achievement on reading
comprehension
comprehension, students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context contribution to their achievement on reading comprehension and hypothesis testing.
1. The Result of Inferring Word Meaning from Context Test
The researcher gave inferring word meaning from context test to 40 students of the first year students at SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung. As it was mentioned, the test consisted of 30 items and it was administered in 60 minutes
From the result of inferring word meaning from context test, it was obtained that the highest score was 90 and the lowest score was 33.3 and the average was 64.27 (see Appendix 12). The researcher categorized the students who got score from 80 to 100 into excellent performance, from 60 to 79 into good performance, from 50 to 59 into average, and under 50 into poor performance.
Table 5. Inferring Word Meaning from Context Score
Interval Score Category Frequency Percentage
80 – 100 Excellent 14 35%
60 – 79 Good 9 22.5%
50 – 59 Average 7 17.5%
It was found that, 35% students have excellent performance, 22.5% students have good performance, 17.5% students have average performance and 25% students have poor performance. From the table, it can be seen that almost the students have good performance in inferring word meaning from context.
2. The Result of Reading Comprehension Test
For reading comprehension test, the researcher gave the test to 40 students of the first year students at SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung. As it was mentioned, the test consisted of 30 items and it was administered in 60 minutes
From the result of reading comprehension test, it was obtained that the highest score was 93.3 and the lowest score was 46.7 and the average was 70.08 (see Appendix 13). The researcher categorized the students who got score from 80 to 100 into excellent performance, from 60 to 79 into good performance, from 50 to 59 into average, and under 50 into poor performance.
Table 6. Reading Comprehension Score
Interval Score Category Frequency Percentage
80 – 100 Excellent 13 32.5%
60 – 79 Good 15 37.5%
50 – 59 Average 11 27.5%
It was found that, 32.5% students have excellent performance, 37.5% students have good performance, 27.5% students have average performance and 2.5% students have poor performance. From the table, it can be seen that almost the students have excellent performance in reading comprehension.
Furthermore, based on the students‟ reading comprehension score, the researcher
also gained the students‟ score for each reading skills. As stated in the previous discussion that the test consisted of 30 items in which the researcher provided 6 items of each reading skills; Main Idea, Supporting Detail, Inference, Reference, and Vocabulary. The scores were provided in the table as follows:
Table 7. Reading Skills Score
Correct
Answer
Main Idea Supporting
Detail Inference Reference Vocabulary
F % F % F % F % F %
0 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 1 2.5% 0 0%
1 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 4 10% 0 0%
2 5 12.5% 0 0% 2 5% 10 25% 2 5%
3 11 27.5% 5 12.5% 7 17.5% 9 22.5% 7 17.5%
4 10 25% 9 22.5% 12 30% 8 20% 12 30%
5 7 17.5% 9 22.5% 11 27.5% 3 7.5 8 20%
6 7 17.5% 17 42.5% 8 20% 5 12.5% 11 27.5%
From the result of Main Idea, it was found that from 6 questions 12.5% students answered 2 questions correctly, 27.5% students answered 3 questions correctly, 25% students answered 4 questions correctly, 17.5% students answered 5 questions correctly, and 17.5% students answered all questions correctly. From the table, it can be seen that almost the students have good performance in answering questions of Main Idea.
For another skill of reading, that was Supporting Detail, it was found that from 6 questions 12.5% students answered 3 questions correctly, 22.5% students
answered 4 questions correctly, 22.5% students answered 5 questions correctly, and 42.5% students answered all questions correctly. Therefore, it can be
concluded that almost the students have good performance in answering questions of Supporting Detail.
For Inference, it was it was found that from 6 questions 5% students answered 2 questions correctly, 17.5% students answered 3 questions correctly, 30% students answered 4 questions correctly, 27.5% students answered 5 questions correctly, and 20% students answered all questions correctly. It can be concluded that almost the students have good performance in answering questions asking Inference.
correctly, 20% students answered 4 questions correctly, 7.5% students answered 5 questions correctly, and 12,5% students answered all questions correctly. It can be concluded that almost the students have average performance in answering
questions asking Reference.
The last, from the result of Vocabulary, it was it was found that from 6 questions 5% students answered 2 questions correctly, 17.5% students answered 3 questions correctly, 30% students answered 4 questions correctly, 20% students answered 5 questions correctly, and 27% students answered all questions correctly. It can be concluded that almost the students have good performance in answering questions asking meaning, synonym, and antonym of the words.
3. The Correlation between Students’ Ability in Inferring Word Meaning from Context and Their Achievement on Reading Comprehension
Each student performed differently in both inferring word meaning from context test and reading comprehension test. In order to know the coefficient correlation
between students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context and their
Table 8. The Value of Pearson Product Moment Correlation
From the calculation above, the researcher found that the coefficient correlation
between students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context and their
achievement on reading comprehension was 0.819 at significant level of 0.01. Manual calculation also shows the same result that the value of correlation is 0.819, for detail see Appendix 17. It means that correlation between students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context and their reading comprehension achievement is significant.
Furthermore, the researcher found that the coefficient correlation between
students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context and their achievement on
4. The Contribution of Students’ Ability in Inferring Word Meaning from Context to Their achievement on Reading Comprehension
After knowing the coefficient correlation between students‟ ability in inferring
word meaning from context and their achievement on reading comprehension, then Simple Regression analysis was used to see how far the contribution of
students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context to their achievement on reading comprehension.
The following table will show the computation of simple regression analysis of the two variables:
Table 9. The Value of Regression
The table showed that the coefficient influences value of X toward Y was 0.670, which classified into significant influence. It means that the contribution of
students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context to their reading
comprehension achievement was 67%, while other 33% was influenced by other factors.
Appendix 20-24). It means that the contribution of students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context to their reading comprehension achievement in such skills as Main idea was 45.9%, Detail was 43,2%, Inference was 31,4%,
References 35.1%, and Vocabulary was 45.8%, while other percentages were influenced by other factors.
5. Hypothesis Testing
The hypothesis testing is the last step in this research to prove whether the hypothesis proposed by the wrier was accepted or not.
The result calculation for the first hypothesis showed that the coefficient correlation was 0.819, which was classified into significant correlation. The critical value of r-table was found 0.312. The coefficient correlation is higher than the critical value of r-table (0.819>0.312). Therefore, for the first hypothesis, the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and the research hypothesis (H1) is accepted. It means that there is significant correlation between students‟ ability in inferring
word meaning from context and their achievement on reading comprehension of first year students at SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung.
B. Discussion
(see Appendix 12). The researcher categorized the students who got score from 80 to 100 into excellent performance, from 60 to 79 into good performance, from 50 to 59 into average, and under 50 into poor performance. It was found that, 35% students have excellent performance, 22.5% students have good performance, 17.5% students have average performance and 25% students have poor performance.
Based on the result of inferring word meaning from context test administered, the
students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context was considerably good.
It was indicated by the average score of the test, that is 64.27 (see appendix 12). As stated by Simanjuntak (1989: 73) that inferring word meaning from context is the ability of knowing the meaning of a word by considering its context, it means that there were several contributions to the students‟ performance in inferring word meaning from context as follows:
1. The students‟ ability in making use the closeness of the contextual information in which the word occurred. Therefore, the students reading the sentence got a rough idea of its meaning.
2. The students‟ background knowledge of the subject matter of a given text. Context is provided not only by preceding words or sentence but also topic. Therefore, it allowed the student the students to construct their understanding of unfamiliar words meaning.
70.08 (see Appendix 13). The researcher categorized the students as who got score from 80 to 100 into excellent performance, from 60 to 79 into good
performance, from 50 to 59 into average, and under 50 into poor performance. It was found that, 32.5% students have excellent performance, 37.5% students have good performance, 27.5% students have average performance and 2.5% students have poor performance. From the Table 6, it can be seen that almost the students have excellent performance in reading comprehension.
The results of this reading comprehension test show that the ability to comprehend
the texts happened because of the students‟ sufficient knowledge of word meaning
and their ability in drawing inferences or implying the information on the text. Students who got the contextual information as a means of activating their background knowledge could give a correct response to the questions. It means that the students successfully combined their prior knowledge about the topics and contextual information. Those are the grounds that predictably contributed to the
students‟ achievement on reading comprehension. Meanwhile, the results of
reading comprehension test also show that the students who got low score in inferring word meaning from context test would get the low score in reading comprehension test. Therefore, we can take a stand that the students‟ reading failure is suspected by the lack of background knowledge and of effort to make use the contextual information in inferring word meaning.
ability of the first year students at SMA Negeri 1 Kibang, East Lampung. Based
on information of students‟ inferring word meaning from context test result, it
could be concluded that students‟ ability inferring word meaning affects their achievement on reading comprehension. The result is shown when the researcher counted the coefficient correlation for those variables. It was found that the coefficient correlation was 0.819 categorized as significant correlation.
It also proved when the researcher found the contribution value that showed the
students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context contributes 67% to their
achievement on reading comprehension. As Adams and Huggins (1985) in Nation and Coady (1987: 101) claim that word recognition abilities are the single best class of discriminators between good and poor reader, understanding words meaning becomes the important component of reading comprehension. It means that these symbols are cues to the readers in which they are identified and interpreted to understand the message. It can be concluded that the students‟
ability in inferring word meaning from context plays important role in students‟
V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusion
The purpose of the research is to find out the correlation between students‟ ability
in inferring word meaning from context and their achievement on reading comprehension. Based on the previous chapter, the researcher comes to the following conclusions:
1. The average score of students‟ ability in inferring word meaning from context is 64.27, where it is in good performance category. It means that the students were able to make use the closeness of the contextual information in which the word occurred to get a rough idea of its meaning. The average score of
students‟ achievement on reading comprehension is 70.08. It means that the
students have good performance in reading comprehension. The students
have good ability to comprehend the texts because of the students‟ sufficient
knowledge of word meaning and their ability in drawing inferences or implying the information on the text.
