ABSTRACT
THE CORRELATION BETWEEN VOCABULARY MASTERY AND STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ABILITY AT SMA N 1
SIDOMULYO
I Nyoman Satria I.P.
Theoretically, reading is complex subject to master, this study to reason for reading has some crucial elements; identifying specific information, reference, inference, and vocabulary. Vocabulary also has crucial elements: noun, verb, adverb, and adjective and vocabulary enlargement.
This present study was aimed to find out whether there was correlation between students’
vocabulary mastery and students’ reading comprehension. The media was vocabulary and reading test. Which are useful to know the correlation of vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension, it is a common phenomenon that vocabulary is considered as the complicated aspects of language to study. Therefore, SMA students were not able to appropriate master certain types of vocabulary this is because vocabulary has number of crucial elements, such as noun, verb, adjective, adverb and translation. In other variable, reading is also complicated caused of reading has also crucial aspects such as. Identifying specific information, reference, inference, and vocabulary.
The research was conducted at SMAN 1 Sidomulyo in academic year 2014/2015. The research took place in second grade of MIA 3 and there were 30 students as the sample. The instrument used to gather the data between vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension. ex post facto
design was used when the study does not have control over the selection and manipulation of independent variables.
The instruments were vocabulary test and reading test. The result of SPSS calculation showed the average percentage of reading ability was 63.4% and the average percentage of vocabulary mastery is 60%, and the result score by SPSS for correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading ability was 0.989. The coefficient correlation is higher that the critical value of table (.989>.32). The statistical analysis also showed that the correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and their reading comprehension was significant (p< .01; p= .000). Therefore, the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and the alternative hypothesis (H1) is accepted. It means H1 was
accepted, that there was correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and students’ reading comprehension. It also revealed that most of students’ vocabulary mastery correlated with their reading comprehension.
By
I Nyoman Satria I.P
A Script
Submitted in a Partial Fulfillment of
The Requirements for S-1 Degree
In
The Langauage and Arts Departments of
Teacher Training and Education Faculty
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF LAMPUNG
CURRICULUM VITAE
I Nyoman Satria Indra Pebriawan was born in Sidowaluyo, South Lampung, on February 9th 1994. He is third child from two siblings of a couple, Drs. Nyoman Sade and Ni Komang Sukarningsih. He has one sister named Ni Wayan Sri Yendri, S.Pd.
He started his education at SDN 1 Sidomulyo in 1999 and graduated in 2005. In the same year, he continued his Junior High School at SMPN 1 Sidomulyo and graduated in 2008. Then, he decided to continue his study at SMAN 1 Sidomulyo in 2008 and finished in 2011.
DEDICATION
In the name of Ida Shang Hyang Widhi Wasa, the most Beneficient and Merciful This script is proudly dedicated to:
My beloved parents Drs. Nyoman Sade and Komang Sukarningsih who always pray for me, give me full of love, kindness, spirit, and never ending sincerity
My beloved sister Ni Wayan Sri Yendri, S.Pd My dearest friends in English Department 2011
Motto
“
If you can't make it good, at least make it looks good.”
Praise is merely to the Almighty Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa for the gracious mercy and tremendous blessing that enables me to accomplish this bachelor thesis entitled the correlation between vocabulary mastery and students’ reading comprehension ability of students at SMA N 1 Sidomulyo.
I would like to express my special appreciation to :
1. My advisor, Drs. Basturi Hasan, M. Pd. and Drs. Sudirman, M.Pd., for their valuable assistance and inspiration to the completion of this bachelor thesis. I also would like to express my deep gratitude to my inspiring examiner, Hery Yufrizal, M.A., Ph.D., who has given me valuable input for the improvement of this bachelor thesis.
2. The greatest honor and appreciation would be finally dedicated to my Beloved Parents, Drs. Nyoman Sade and Ni Komang Sukarningsih, my sister Ni Wayan Sri Yendri, S.Pd. Thank you so much for your affection, advices, guidance, instruction and help in all my life.
3. Big thanks to head master and teacher in high school and an English teacher of SMA N 1 Sidomulyo who gave me permission and support for this research. I thank to all students of XI MIA 3 for their participations as the subject of this research.
4. All lecturers in English Department of FKIP Lampung University, who have transferred much knowledge to me. For guidance, instruction and help during study at the university.
5. Special Thanks to my beloved friends in English Department 2011 generation, Afif, Aria, Barry Afriando, S.Pd, Bagus Alghani, S.Pd, Chairul, Hamdan, Kharis, Siwi, Kinanti, S.Pd, Fauzan, Novaliana C. Amelia, S.Pd, Tri Widioko, S.Pd, Anggi, Yuni, Luh Ayu F.M., S.Pd., Komang Mega Susanti, S.Pd., Sofia Permatasari, S.Pd., Revi M. SPd, and all members of A and B Class in ED 2011 and my friends in UKM-Hindu 2011 generation. They all have given me a cheerful and joyful world and beautiful togetherness.
Finally, may God receive all their works and kindness.
Bandar Lampung, December 2015
CONTENTS
2.2.2 Concept of Reading Comprehension ... 10
2.2.3 Concept of Vocabulary in Learning English ... 14
2.2.4 Concept of Vocabulary Mastery ... 15
2.2.5 Concept of Vocabulary Test ... 19
2.3 The Correlation between Vocabulary mastery and Reading Comprehension ... 24 4.1 Result of Students’ reading comprehension try out test... 39
Comprehension ... 49
4.6 Discussion of Findings ... 53
4.6.1 Relation to the theories ... 54
V. Conclusions and Suggestions 5.1 Conclusions ... 58
5.2 suggestions ... 59
REFFERENCES ... 61
LIST OF TABLES
page
1. Table specification of reading test …………...………. 30
2. Table specification of vocabulary test……… 31
3. Table regression noun toward reading………….……….. 51
4. Table regression verb toward reading ………...……… 51
5. Table regression adjective toward reading ……… 52
LIST OF APPPENDICES
Page
1. Table of total percentage vocabulary mastery and reading
Comprehension ... 64
2. Result of vocabulary mastery try out test ... 65
3. Distribution of tryout reading comprehension test upper students ... 66
4. Distribution of tryout reading comprehension test lower students ... 67
5. Reliability analysis of try out reading comprehension test ... 68
6. Reliability analysis of half and whole try out test of reading Comprehension test ... 69
7. Distribution of students’ tryout vocabulary mastery test upper ... 70
1. Distribution of students’ tryout reading comprehension test lower ... 71
2. Reliability analysis of try out vocabulary mastery test ... 72
3. Reliability analysis of half and whole try out test of vocabulary mastery Test ... 73
4. The difficulty level and discrimination power of reading comprehension Try out test ... 74
5. Result of students’ reading comprehension test ... 75
6. Result of students’ vocabulary mastery test ... 76
7. Distribution of students’ reading comprehension upper test ... 77
8. Distribution of students’ reading comprehension lower test ... 78
9. Reliability analysis of reading comprehension test ... 79
10.Reliability analysis half and whole of reading comprehension test ... 80
11.Distribution of students’ vocabulary mastery upper test ... 81
12.Distribution of students’ vocabulary mastery lower test ... 82
13.Reliability of vocabulary mastery Test ... 83
14.The score of vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension ... 84
15.Test of Reading Comprehension ... 85
16.Test of Vocabulary Mastery ... 95
I.INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses introduction of the research used in this study. That are,
background, formulation of the problems, objectives of the research, uses of the
research, scope of the research and definition of terms.
1.1Background of The Problem
Teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia, in accordance to SMA 2006
English curriculum, requires students to achieve working knowledge of target
language. It also means that the learners can accordingly use the language in daily
needs or also for their needs to study.
Basically, there are four language skill to be mastered, they are: listening,
speaking, reading and writing skills. Specifically, reading in SMA English
curriculum has important role, because it will be important for the students to
continue to the Tertiary Educational Institution. Reading forces the reader’s brain cells to work on a regular basis to keep the development of the reader. Moreover,
by reading someone may get wider information, for example someone who reads
a newspaper will get more information than someone who watches news on
Ordinarily, readers can read the text again when he forgets or tries to get detail
information, while listener cannot. This is so as supported by Willis (2008) who
states that by reading, someone can find the specific information he needs specific
information. In the case of helping the students to understand the text without
understanding all the vocabulary items available in the text is by finding key
words. It is in line with Lehr and Osborn (2001) who assest that to understand a
text, we need to find the key words of the text. By doing so, students can cover
their vocabulary weaknesses since key words functions as the core of whole
message conveyed in the text (Roehrig and Guo, 2011). Liu and Nation (1985)
have conducted study about the success of guessing meanings of a text. The
results show that the participants who have high reading proficiency level could
successfully guess of the unknown words, and the participants who have low
reading proficiency level found some difficulties in understanding words.
In fact, during pre-observation it was found that still could not achieve sufficient
reading skills. Vocabulary mastery in most cases can help students to learn other
language skills, e.g., listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. This stands to
reason for vocabulary mastery is used to know the meaning of the text. To get the
meaning of the text and to read easily, the students should know the structure and
vocabulary items. In learning vocabulary, it does not mean that the learners only
memorize an amount of the words.
Vocabulary is one of the aspects in English language that should be mastered by
the students in learning English. Mastering vocabulary requires the students to
difficulties in comprehending the text. The English teachers should have the
effective technique in teaching English for example silent way.
On the other hands, some of students feel that learning English is a burden, the
researcher know this problem by the experience and what students feel.. They are
not able to acquire reading comprehension. In other word, the find crucial of
difficulty in some aspects of reading comprehension for examples identify
specific information, finding reference, inference and understanding vocabulary.
In teaching and learning English, the teacher should facilitate students to use or
communicate in English. Moreover, the students could not achieve the results of
reading comprehension.
So, the students can have the knowledge of English language and use English
language for communication and to face the problems in many aspects such as
technology, economy, social and education. Teaching English as a foreign
language should be conducted properly by English language teacher.
1.2Identification of problem
Referring to the background of problem above, this study intends to identify the
problems in SMA N 1 Sidomulyo that may cause serious difficulties in learning
reading comprehension, they are cited as follows:
1. Vocabulary mastery of students is still not sufficient.
2. The students’ reading comprehension score is fairly low.
3. Students have low motivation to read the text, because it is difficult to
4. Students cannot have maximal score in reading class because their vocabulary
mastery is limited.
5. Students are not enthusiastic with the teaching learning especially in reading
class..
1.3Limitation of The Problems
There are possibility students’ problems that make vocabulary mastery is not sufficient. First, because students the meaning of uncommon word that they
found, second possibility students are lazy to read the text and it made students
reading ability decreased. Third possibility was students had no motivation from
himself and other near people in life. Motivation is important to build students’
self confidence in learning activity especially in reading comprehension. Fourth
possibility was the effect of all is students got bad score in vocabulary and
reading. Fifth possibility was students felt bored in reading class, students felt
reading class was not funny and it made students lazy to follow the class.
1.4Formulation of the research Questions The question in this research is:
1. Is there any correlation between vocabulary mastery and their reading
comprehension ability in micro skills at SMA N 1 Sidomulyo ?
2. To know how the correlation between each aspects of vocabulary mastery
1.5Objectives of the research
In relation to the research problem above, the objective of this research is to
investigate whether there is positive or negative correlation between students’’
vocabulary mastery and students’ reading comprehension.
1.6Uses of the research
The uses of this research might be beneficial both in terms of:
1. Theoretically
The result of this research is by mastering the vocabulary, that students’ vocabulary can grow to maximum level and students’ reading comprehension
also develop.
2. Practically, this study can be used as:
a. Information for student, to improve their vocabulary mastery correlated to
reading comprehension.
b. The result of this research can be used as reference for teacher of English
language to develop students’ active and passive vocabulary as a important
part in English language learning.
.
1.7Scope of the research
This research focuses on the correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading
comprehension. The researcher chose second grade of SMA N 1 Sidomulyo in
2015/2016 academic year as the population and took only 1 class consisted 30
students as the sample, and there has been no research on this study at the school
mastery toward reading comprehension. This study used some test to collect the
data, that is vocabulary test and reading comprehension test. The vocabulary test
deals with the contents word (verb, noun, adjective and adverb). Reading
comprehension test concerns with determining idea, finding specific information,
finding reference, finding inference and understanding vocabulary.
1.8Definition of Terms
In order to know of term in this study and definitions of conceptual word
presented in order to have similar perception.
1. Vocabulary is reffer to parts of speech in English including nouns, verbs,
adverbs, and adjectives.
2. Reading comprehension is the ability to read text, process it and understand
its meaning. An individual's ability to comprehend text is influenced by their
traits and skills, one of which is the ability to make inferences.
3. Micro skill is specific part of reading, the use of this are recognizing a core of
words, and interpreting order patterns and their significance information,
recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), finding inference,
and reference.
4. Correlation is a statistical measure that indicates the extent to which two or
more variables fluctuate together. A positive correlation indicates the extent
to which those variables increase or decrease in parallel; a negative
correlation indicates the extent to which one variable increases as the other
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter discusses about the review of previous research, and also the review
of related literatures used in this study, such as concept of reading comprehension,
concept of vocabulary mastery and concept of vocabulary test.
2.1 Review of Previous Researches
In general, there are several studies about the correlation between vocabulary
mastery and reading comprehension previously done by other researcher. The
results of their research are reviewed as follows:
The study was done by Liu and Nation (1985: 77). About the success of guessing
meanings of a text and the results of this study shows that the participants who
have high reading proficiency level can successfully guess 85% to 100% of the
unknown words,
In addition, Hirsch (2003: 96) found that knowing at least 90 percents of the
words of a text enables the reader to get the main idea from the reading and guess
correctly what many of the unfamiliar words mean, which will help them learn
new words. Qian (2002: 34) further investigated the relationship between
vocabulary knowledge academic reading performances with 217 students
indicates that students’ vocabulary knowledge is positively related to the
performance on reading tasks. In other words, vocabulary is a critical component
in reading assessment.
Vocabulary has important role in reading comprehension ability, it also
determines how well students are able to comprehend the texts. Furthermore,
Lubliner and Smetana (2005: 76) declare that student with larger vocabularies will
reading easier, read more widely, and do better in school.
The finding of the research is students who have high scores in reading also have
high score in vocabulary (Fajar, 2013: 77). The result shows that the factors are
students’ background knowledge and experiences. Those factors may help
students comprehend reading materials. When they found unknown words they
could guess the meaning of unknown words by referring them to the text.
Likewise Ali (2010: 114) has analysed the correlation between vocabulary
mastery and the reading comprehension done in university students of the second
semester of the English Department, the faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training
Syarif Hidayatullah, State Islamic University Jakarta. He found that there is
significant correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and their reading
comprehension. By having vocabulary, it significantly affects the comprehension
of students’ reading comprehension.
Owing to the previous descriptions, this study tries to find out the influence
vocabulary mastery toward students’ reading comprehension achievement. This
study can give complete information about the correlation between vocabulary
2.2 Review of Related Literature
For further explanation in relation with theories of the correlation between
vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension, this study explained the concept
of reading comprehension and concept of vocabulary mastery.
2.2.1 Concepts of Reading Skills
Reading is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and getting
meaning from them. When we read, we use our eyes to receive written symbols
(letters, punctuation marks and spaces) and we use our brain to convert them into
words, sentences and paragraphs that communicate something to us. Reading can
be silent (in our head) or aloud (so that other people can hear). The ability to
understand the content of the text is an essential thing in reading activity. Reading
is a receptive skill - through it we receive information. But the complex process of
reading also requires the skill of speaking, so that we can pronounce the words
that we read. In this sense, reading is also a productive skill in that we are both
receiving information and transmitting it (even if only to ourselves).
Dechan (1986: 260) states that reading is a progressive understanding of the
meaning and ideas presented by a sequence words. Reading is the best way to
increase vocabulary. It gives you background knowledge and helps students
experience life through other. In turn this background knowledge and experiences
give the ideas and concept associated with words. By this way, you can
understand the words easily and better. The more words students know the better
and faster students can understand what students read (Wassman and Rinsky,
So, reading is an activity to get the core of the text in order to understand the
content of text (identifying specific information, finding infeneren, finding
reference and vocabulary) through a series of alphabets and words into a sentence
that has the information to be conveyed to the reader.
2.2.2 Concepts of Reading Comprehension
Reading is the process of combining textual information with the information a
reader brings to a text (Widdowson, 1979: 220). In this view, reading is viewed as
a kind of dialogue between the reader and the text. It means that the reading is the
process of exchanging information between the writer who bring new information
and the readers who combine the new information with the previous information.
Moreover, Bamford (1998: 12) defines reading as he constructing meaning from a
printed or written message. The constructing of meaning involves the reading
connecting information from the written message with previous information from
the written message with previous knowledge to arrive at meaning and
understanding.
The ability to understand the content of the text is an essential thing in reading
activity. Dechan (1986: 260) states that reading is a progressive understanding of
the meaning and ideas presented by a sequence words. In addition Dallman (1982:
23) says that reading is more than letter of alphabet stand for; reading involves
more than word organization; the comprehension is essential of reading; that
From the statement stated previously, it is inferred that reading is the process of
perceiving meaning of written material while comprehension itself is needed in
reading in other to get the idea from the written materials.
Reading comprehension is a complex construction process in which reading
comprehension is needed. Alderson (2000:28) defines reading as “an enjoyable, intense, private activity, from which much pleasure can be derived, and in which
one can become, totally absorbed.” Besides Alderson, Clark and Silberstein (1987: 2) also define reading an active cognitive process of interacting with print
and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. Furthermore, Nuttal (1992)
states that there are some short reading skills that should be mastered by the
reader to comprehend the text deeply.
Furthermore, Hughes (1991: 116) asserts that reading skills basically consist of
macro skills, and micro skills. As mentioned previously, this study primarily
focuses on micro skills. Logically, theoretical frame works entirely related to this
skill. Hughes points out that micro skill in reading compression, among other
things are follows:
1. Finding the specific information or part of text
Finding the specific information or part of the text means looking for the information that relevant to the goal in mind and ignores the irrelevant. It is supported by Mc. Whother (1986: 36) which state that supporting detail or specific information develops the topic sentence by giving definition.
2. Finding References
Latulippe (1986: 20) reference is word or phrase use either believe or after the reference in the reading material.
3. Finding Inference
Inference is good guess or conclusion drawn based on the logic of passage. Finding inference means the reader implies the sentence or passages understand and conclude it logically. Likewise Kathlen (1986: 31) states that inference is an educational guess or prediction about something unknown based on available facts and information.
4. Understanding vocabulary
Understanding vocabulary means comprehend what the words mean. Since comprehend is the ultimate goal of reading, the reader cannot overestimate the importance of vocabulary development. In addition, Barnhart (2008: 697) vocabulary is stock of words used by person, class of people, profession or a collection or list of words, usually in alphabetical order and defined. Furthermore, Marchado (2012: 56) understanding vocabulary is strongly related to his comprehension and ease of learning to find the main idea of text..
Here is a text picturing the components of reading skills above:
I live in a small house. It has five rooms: there are two bedrooms, a living
room, a bathroom, and a kitchen. Indeed it is a small house; but I like living in
here for wasting my spare time. When the door is open, I can see the living room.
It is so small with only three chairs and a table, nothing else. I prefer reading a
novel in this room. My bedroom is in the left side of the living room. In this room
there is a night table next to the bed, a TV, a radio, and a computer. When being
bored of reading, I usually play online games, chat with my friends via Facebook
and so on. Next to my bedroom is my mother's. I do not know what is inside
because I never come in to see it. In the right side of the living room there is the
pleasure when my mother cooks; the smell fills my whole house. I know it is a very
small house; but it is the best place I have ever seen.
The followings are the aspects as illustrated above:
a. The specific information of text above is about part of house: bedroom, living
room, kitchen and sentence “I know it is a very small house; but it is the best
place I have ever seen” from that sentence we get the specific information.
Because, bedroom, living room are elements of house and every house. So, the
answer is house. And the main idea of that text is small house.
b. The reference of the text above is available in sentence “When being bored of
reading, I usually play online games, chat with my friends via Facebook and
so” because that sentence relates two objects the house and the human.
c. The inference of text above is about place which can make people comfort.
And logically we can take conclude by the text above is house. From the
sentence “I know it is a very small house; but it is the best place I have ever
seen.” we can conclude that the human is comfort with that house.
d. The vocabulary in the text above is general, such as live, house, and room, but,
there are some uncommon words for example: spare is synonym to give, and
the antonym of it is to take. Waste is synonym to economize ad the antonym is
spent.
The theory above the five reading skills to comprehend the text, they are
2.2.3 Concept of Vocabulary in Learning English
Mainwright (2006: 33) states that vocabulary is important factor in reading. He
also says that the larger vocabulary the easier to make the sense of the text.
Without vocabulary, it is difficult for students to obtain any kind of news and
information that stated in any printed material. By having numbers of vocabulary
this kind of difficulty can be solved. Vocabulary refers to the words and phrases
that people know and use. It includes an understanding of how words work in
relation to each other and within specific contexts. Vocabulary, much more than
grammar, is the key to your child understanding what she hears and reads in
school; and to communicating successfully with other people. For this reason it is
very important for her to quickly build up a large store of words. Research studies
have shown the strong links between having an extensive vocabulary and
achieving school success.
Furthermore, Grigg (2012: 66) divides vocabulary into two parts passive and
active. The distinction of active and passive vocabulary is particularly important
in the early stages of learning language, before we can start to acquire vocabulary
and improve naturally. Cited from Hugh Grigg’s (2012: 66) article, active
vocabulary is vocabulary that we can recall and use at will when the situation
requires it. We are choosing to use the word and actively retrieving it from
memory. Then, the one when students hear it used to recall its meaning; or
students are being made to recall it, is called passive vocabulary.
According to Nation Institute for literacy (2006:2) vocabulary is the words that
achieve the communication purpose and become meaningful when a person had
the same knowledge of words as his interlocutor.
2.2.4 Concept of Vocabulary Mastery
Nation (1990: 87) defines vocabulary knowledge in terms of form, position,
function, and meaning and he also divided the word knowledge into two aspects,
receptive and productive process. First, word form involved the pronunciation and
spelling of lexical items. Second, word position dealt with syntactic issues in
regard to the usage of word such as the rules for words combination. Third, word
function is to discuss the proper way of using words in specific contexts. Finally,,
word meaning referred to vocabulary depth and its associates. So, in simple word
after students involved and dealt with pronunciation, spelling and syntactic issues
it would be combined to result vocabulary score for students.
There are some definitions of mastery. Ellis (1998: 502) states that mastery is
comprehensive knowledge or use of a subject or instrument. This idea is
supported by Horby (1995: 721) who defines the word „mastery’ as a complete
knowledge e or complete skill. It can be said that vocabulary mastery is the
competence or complete knowledge of a list or a set of words that make up
language which might be used by particular person, class, or profession.
Vocabulary mastery means the students having ability in understanding and using
the vocabulary. Vocabulary mastery itself deals with words and meaning.
Furthermore, Byrne (1972: 10) says that in order to communicate effectively, the
learners needs adequate numbers of vocabulary. Furthermore, Rivers (1972: 402)
without vocabulary the learners cannot reach his purpose in learning a language
for communication either in oral or written form.
There are some types of vocabulary in English used in a text. Essentially, they are
classified into four groups (Fries, 1974: 45) content words, function words,
substitute words, and distribute words.
2.2.4.1Concept of Content words
Content words are words that convey information in a text or speech act and also
known as lexical words, such as nouns, most verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
Example: air as noun, “The air is quite clear today”. Drink as verb, “He drinks
water too much”. Beautiful as adjective, “They live in a beautiful house”. Lifeless
as adverb. “Tears began to fall as he saw the completely lifeless body of his wife”.
2.2.4.2Function words
Function words are the words we use to make our sentences grammatically
correct pronouns, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs are examples of function
words. Examples: She as pronoun, “She was my girlfriend”,
2.2.4.3Substitute words
Substitute words are those which represent individual things or specific action as
substitutes for whole form classes of words, that is indefinite. Examples: anybody,
“anybody can help citizen of Riau from disaster”, everybody “everybody should
3 Distributed words are distributed in use according to grammatical matter as
the presence or absence of negative, such as: either and neither, examples:
“The house has a door at either end”, “Neither journalist could finish their
articles, there wasn’t enough time”.
The classification of words of a language depends on their function in
communication (Hatch and Brown, 1995: 218). Words are classified based on
content words and functional words. In the study of words classification, the
writte limits on nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and translation.
a. Noun
Noun is a word that functions as the name of some specific thing or set of
things, such as living creature for examples, 1) human, ”human needs oxygen
in respiration process”, 2) plants, “human needs plants in life as food
resource” , examples of object are 3) hospital, “my father went to hospital last night”, paper, ”paper is important thing in office’’.
b. Pronouns
Pronoun is a word that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase. For examples:
1) she, “She has long and shiny hair”, 2) he “he will go to cinema at 7pm” , 3) her “her boyfriend is my uncle”, 4) him “tell him about the clash last
night”, c. Verbs
The part of speech (or word class) that describes an action or occurrence or
indicates a state of being. Hatch and Brown (1995) places verbs into four
classes: activities, for examples: 1) run, “my sister will run if see a
of accomplishment are 3) build, “my father build a house dog’, 4) kill “He
will kill a snake in the branch”.
d. Adjective
An adjective is a word that modifies a noun (or pronoun) to make it more
specific, the types of adjectives are:
1) Determiners
They are articles like the, a, an, examples of demonstrative adjectives are
1) this, “this movie is so nice for children” 2) that,”I remember that Tomy will visit me tomorrow” and possessive adjectives are 3) my,”my car is
bigger than others” 4) your, “your car is brighter than before”. numeral
examples of adjectives are 5) four, “four of five man is normal”, 6) first,
“She is the first woman flying with ballons”. 2) Descriptive adjective
descriptive adjective is an adjective that ascribes to its noun the value of
an attribute of that noun e.g., `a nervous person' or `a musical speaking
voice' as descriptive adjective. It can be seen that that descriptive
adjectives are nervous and musical.
e. Adverbs
An adverb is a word that changes or simplifies the meaning of a verb,
adjective, other adverb, clause, or sentence. Adverbs are similar to adjectives
in many ways although they tipically assign attributes to verbs, to clauses or
normally after accident”, the adverb is normally because it modifies the verb
act. 2) ”Butterfly moves the wings up and down beautifully”, the adverb is beautifully. Because it modifies the verb move.
Preposition
Preposition is word (or group of word) which is used to show the way in
which other words are connected. For examples, 1) in,”there is a cake in that
box” and 2) between, “there is no border between you and me”. f. Conjunction
Conjunction is a word that connects sentences, phrases, or clause. For
example: 1) and, “you and me is best friend”, 2) so,”so, you can forgive me or not ?”
The theories presented above, lead us to infer that vocabulary is a set of word that
is used to make communication among people that contain useful ideas,
information and meaning. In this research, the focus in this study is consisting of
the content words (noun, verb, adverb and adjective). Because, only four of them
are often apply and they are employed since. Naturally each of them has complete
meaning in the reading text
2.2.5 Concept of Vocabulary Test
Vocabulary learning is not only a quantitative issue. Researchers distinguish
breadth or size of knowledge (the number of words of which the learner knows at
which they refer to the quality of vocabulary knowledge, namely how well a
particular word is known. Although both measures are considered
important-knowledge of words progresses from superficial to deep at various stage of
learning a lot of work on vocabulary testing has focused on vocabulary size.
The vocabulary test is usually divided into two types, breadth and depth of
vocabulary knowledge as the size of learners’ vocabulary (how many words are
known). Whereas depth of knowledge involves a consideration the quality of
learner’s vocabulary knowledge ( how well are particular words are known).
Likewise Nation (1990) described a method of sampling from dictionary to make
a test on it. One way to do thisis by taking the first word in every tenth page of the
dictionary. Depending on how many words are needed for the test. From these
word we can make vocabulary test, for example multiple choice test and the
students are intended to find the meaning of the words either in English or in
students’ native language. If we want to find arough estimate of students’
vocabulary size we can take a representative dictionary and open the page in
dictionary randomly and then ask a students to explain the meaning of the more
uncommon word on one page. If a dictionary contain 30.000 wods and students
know about two-third of the words, then we can roughly estimate that the
students’ vocabulary size is about 20.000 words (Nation, 1990)
Another way of measuring students’ vocabulary size is based on words frequency
count. Multiple-choice question (MCQ) used as the kind of the vocabulary level
test. MCQ is one of the most common formats in profesionally –developed
comprehension levels (Coome, Folse, and Huble, 2007). MCQ takes many forms
but their basic structure is stem, and response option,which include the key or
correct answer and the distracters or incorrect responses. In this research the
vocabulary level test is divided into some levels.
Vocabulary enlargement is a process in stages to develop into a more extensive
vocabulary than before. It can be multiple choice test or translating language.
According to Nation (1990: 78) there are two steps to consider when looking at
the test of total vocabulary size, they are:
1. Selecting Criteria Levels of Vocabulary Test Items
Usually it is not possible to test all words within in a particular group. First, it
must exclude all the words that we cannot easily test, for example a, the, of be.
In fact the test could be easier to make if we tests only nouns, verbs, adjectives,
and adverbs. Second, after we have excluded the words we cannot test, we
must find a good way of choosing the test item from the words left. The best
way is to number the words and then to choose every tenth word if give enough
word for the test. For example, every number of the try out test will be
processed by difficulty power and level formula to find out the best criteria
levels.
2. Testing of Vocabulary Mastery
According to Nation (1990: 116) confirms that types of vocabulary test include
multiple choice test, translation, and word in simple defining context. Since,
this study was on two types, they were multiple choice test and translation.
Multiple choice test is a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to
select the best possible answer (or answers) out of the choices from a list. And
the definition of a translation is an interpretation from one language or situation
to another or in other wordsTranslation is the communication of the meaning
of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text.
Translation divides into two types, literal and free translation. Literal
translation is the rendering of text from one language to another one word at a
time (Latin: "verbum pro verbo") with or without conveying the sense of the
original whole. And free translation is a translation that reproduces the general
meaning of the original text. It may or may not closely follow the form or
organization of the original.
There are recognition and recall test. In recognition test, we want to see if
learners know the meaning of word after they hear or see it. While in recall
test, we are interested in the learner’s producing the word. In such tet the
learners hear or see a mother tongue word or simple English synonim or
definition,or they see a picture and then they write or say the English word.
In this research, the writer recognition of vocabulary using MCQs
(multiple-choice Question) test. MCQs item test the students have to identify the correct
or best response choice. So, it was not give the chance for the students just
recognize the words. The aim of the test is to measure student’s recognition of
the word.
Type 1
This test leads students read the question carefully and then answer the questions on the correction option (A,B,C,D)!
Here is the example:
1. What is the purpose of defibrillation? a) removing fibrous matter from vegetables b) removing bodily hair
c) restoring the rhythm of the heart d) reducing a fever using medication correct: c
Type 3
Pairs the Opposite word test
This study used vocabulary test type 2. Because, the type 2 was common type that
used in Senior High School. Besides that, this type saved the time and also
suitable for students in SMA grade. According to the definition above, this study
assumes that the vocabulary knowledge is the number of words that student
master based on the context area.
2.3The correlation of Vocabulary mastery and Reading Comprehension Achievement
We know that vocabulary and reading have a close relationship. According to
Nation (1990) vocabulary is clearly an important skil in reading. The students
have to master vocabulary because it will help them to succeed in reading.
The function of vocabulary in reading skill is to comprehend what the author
passages in their writing and for students need vocabulary to help them
understand the idea and when learning vocabulary, students need a lot of practice
of reading because reading is the active way in learning vocabulary. It is
imposible for the students to understand the passage without mastering
vocabulary. It is clear that the students’ vocabulary is needed to face
thedifficulties in learning Eglish, especially to understand reading materials. In
reading also have grammar and syntax, the role of grammar is an important tool in
reading. Grammar is a useful tool, especially for weak readers to help students
find the time (past, present and future) the verb in the sentence then the subject
and the object. So, by grammar students will easily understand the text. So, good
The vocabulary is the most important thing in reading skill. Most of us if find the
difficult word, we still just continue our reading in the hope that the word we read
is not really important or that it's meaning will become clear later on. But,
sometimes the word that we usually passed is the key of our reading and
understanding. We cannot catch and grasp the idea from our reading as well as
possible.
In fact, it is beneficial for English learners to master vocabulary and reading
comprehension. With their mastery of vocabulary and reading comprehension,
learners will be able to catch the message of the text they read. So, they also can
understand scientific books written in English to get information and advancement
because reading comprehension is a bridge to understanding scientific books
written in English either obtain information and advancement or to enjoy them or
just for relaxation.
2.4 Theoretical Assumption
Based on the theories reviewed previously, the researcer assumes that the students
need to master vocabulary to comprehend the text in reading passage. It is clear
that the students’ vocabulary is needed to face the difficulties in understanding
reading materials. There is strong correlation between reading comprehension and
vocabulary knowledge. Students need a large vocabulary knowledge in order to
understand concepts and implied meaning, and make informed prediction of a
reading text. Vocabulary knowledge is of crucial importance to understanding and
critical role in developing vocabulary knowledge. So, if students vocabulary
mastery well, their reading ability will be better:
Vocabulary mastery Reading comprehension
This illustration describes that the higher of vocabulary mastery score is also
affect to the ability of reading comprehension score, and the score of reading
comprehension is high the ability to master the vocabulary is also good.
2.5 Hypothesis of the research
This study proposes the hypothesis as follows:
H1 : There is positive significant correlation between senior high school
student’s vocabulary mastery and their reading comprehension ability.
H0 : There is no positive significant correlation between senior high school
III. RESEARCH METHODS
This chapter describes the method that used in conducting the data of the research
such as design, population and sample, research instruments, variables, and
procedure of the research, data collecting technique, instruments data analysis,
and hypothesis testing.
3.1 Research Design
This study used quantitative because it was focused on the product (result of the
test). In this research there was no control and no treatment to the subject. Hatch
and Farhady (1982: 26) State that ex post facto design is often used when the
study does not have control over the selection and manipulation of independent
variables. The subject of the research was only one group, therefore the design of
the research was ex post facto design, and the formula can be seen as follows:
X Y Note:
X : Vocabulary mastery test (independent variable)
Y : Reading comprehension test (dependent variable)
By using design above, this research found whether students’ vocabulary has
3.2 Population and Sample
The population of this research was the second year students of SMA Negeri 1
Sidomulyo. This research was conducted in SMA Negeri 1 Sidomulyo, because
the researcher is one of the alumni from that school. This study was interested in
conducting a research in this school. This study used class XI in 2015/2016
academic year, consisting of 30 students. In this research, this study used
individual simple probably random sampling. By using it, every student in the
class in population gets the same opportunity to be chosen or to be the sample.
The first of test gave vocabulary test covering; noun, verb, adverb and adjective
that they have learned in class X. The researcher gave reading comprehension test.
The test was about determining idea, identifying specific purpose, inference,
reference, grammar and vocabulary. These are all they have learned in previous
class. After testing vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension, the researcher
analysed and interpreted the correlation between those variables.
3.3 Variables
In this research there were two variables, dependent and independent variables.
They were vocabulary mastery as independent variable (X) and reading
comprehension as dependent variable (Y). The score showed data of students’
vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension which can be used to identify the
3.4 Research Procedure
Below are the procedures in administering the research:
1. Determining research problem
This study determines the problem based on the real observation, and then
refers to the previous research; there was one issue that should be resolved.
2. Designing Research Instrument
In designing the reading instrument, the writer took from the student’s text
book. The designing process considered materials that had been taught to
the students based on curriculum.
3. Determining Subject and Sample of the Research
The Subject of this research was the second year of SMA Negeri 1
Sidomulyo. This study determined the sample using simple probably
random sampling. In statistics, a simple random sample is a subset of
individuals (a sample) chosen from a larger set (a population). Each
individual was chosen randomly and entirely by chance, such that each
individual has the same probability of being chosen at any stage during the
sampling process, and each subset of individuals has the same probability of
being chosen for the sample as any other individuals.
4. Administering the Test
The research was held in two meetings. The first to conduct the vocabulary
5. Analysing the Data
This study made steps after conducting research by using tests, this study
analysed the data by using correlation in SPSS (Statistical Program for
Social Science). This study collected the data by looking at the result of test
of vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension to find out the result of
students’ vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension achievement.
After getting the result, this study analysed the correlation between students’
vocabulary and their reading comprehension.
3.5 Data Collecting Technique
This study administered the test as the instrument to the students for gathering
data on students’ vocabulary mastery and their reading comprehension ability.
The table of specification of reading comprehension test and vocabulary mastery
test can be seen as follows:
Table 1. Specification of Reading Comprehension Test Items
The specification above was for try out test, consisting of 50 numbers that
conducted in SMA N 1 Sidomulyo. After try out, the question selected to be 35
numbers after try out.
Table 2. Specification of Vocabulary Test Items
No. Word Class Item Number Percentage of Item
1. Noun 17., 21., 24., 25., 34., 35., 45, 48,
The specification above was consisted of 80 numbers that conducted in SMA N 1
Sidomulyo and each of them had a different percentage score.
3.5.1 Vocabulary Test
The test was prepared for measuring the deepth of students’ vocabulary mastery.
The primary aim of this test was to investigate students’ ability in vocabulary. The
test consisted of 80 items. The student’s vocabulary mastery was gained by
multiplied by 20. From this vocabulary test can found the proportion of correct
answer. Then, this study estimated the number of student’s vocabulary mastery by
multiplying it with the population 1000 words level. The formula was:
Note:
S: the score of test
C: the total of right answer of vocabulary level test.
3.5.2 Reading Comprehension Test
There are 40 items for reading comprehension test. It was multiple choices with 5
options (a, b, c, d, e) with one correct answer and four distracters. There were five
reading skill, they were: determining main idea, identifying, specific information,
inference, reference, and vocabulary. The scoring criterion is determined around
0-100. The formula was;
Note:
S : the score of the test
r : the total of the right answer
3.6 Criteria of Good Test
Test is a tool that contains a series of tasks that must be done or the questions that
must be answered by learners to measure a certain behavioural aspects. Thus, the
function test is as a measuring tool. A test can be said to be good as a measure
must meet the test requirements such as validity, reliability, level of difficulty,
discrimination power and scoring system.
The description of the criteria of the tests
3.6.1 Validity of the Test
A test can be said valid if the test measure the object to be measured and suitable
with the criteria (Hatch and Farhady, 1982: 250). Every test whether it is a short
informal classroom test or a public examination test, it should be valid as the
constructor can make it. The test used for collecting the data covers three
validities: content, construct and face 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.
Content validity is intended to know whether the test items are good
reflection of what will be covered. The test items are adapted from the
materials (Heaton, 1975: 60). To get the content validity, the items is
b. Construct Validity
Construct validity is concerned with whether the test is actually in line
with the theory of what it means to know the language (Shohamy, 1985:
74). It means that construct validity can be found by relating the
instrument with the theory of what it means to know certain knowledge
skills. Then the instrument for measuring vocabulary mastery is
vocabulary level test in the context. Then the instrument for measuring
reading comprehension, there are five reading skills they are: determining
main idea, identifying, specific information, inference, reference, and
vocabulary.
3.6.2 Reliability
Reliability refers to the whether the test is consisted on its scoring and gives us
an indication of how accurate the test score are (Shohamy, 1985: 70). This study
used the Pearson Product Moment. The formula was:
Rxy=
Notes:
Rxy: coefficient of reliability between the first half and the second half items
X : the total numbers of odd items (variable)
Y : the total numbers even items (variable)
Y2 : square of Y
(Lado, 1997)
The criterion of reliability as follow:
- 0.90-1.00 : high
- 0.50-0.89 : moderate
- 0.0-0.49 : low
To know the reliability of the whole tests, this study used Spearman Brown’s
Prophecy Formula (Hatch and Farhady, 1982). The formula was as follows:
2 rl
rk=
1 + rl
In which,
rk : the reliability of the test
rl : coefficient of reliability between the first half and the second half items
(Hatch and Farhady, 1982:247)
3.6.3 Level of Difficulty
Level of difficulty related to how easy or difficult the item taken from the point of
view of the students who take the test. It was calculated by the following formula:
R
LD =
N
Where:
R : the number of students who answer correctly
N : the total of students following the test
The criteria as follows:
<0.03 : difficult
0.03 – 0.70 : average
> 0.70 : easy
3.6.4 Discrimination power
Discriminations power refers to the extent to which the items are able to
differentiate between high and low level students on that test. A good item
according to this criterion is “one in which good students do well and bad student
fail” (Shohamy, 1985: 81).
The discrimination power was calculated by this following formula:
Where:
D : Discrimination power
U : The number of students from the upper level who answered correctly
L : The number of students from the lower level who answered correctly
N : The number of students
(Shohamy, 1985: 82)
0.00 – 0.20 : poor
0.21- 0.40 : satisfactory
0.41-0.70 : good
0.70-1.00 : excellent\
-(negative) :bad items
3.6.5 Scoring System
To get the score of the students’ result of the test, the score of vocabulary and
reading comprehension was calculated by using formula as follow:
S=
×
100
Where
S : score of the test
r : number of right answer
n : total number of items on test
3.7 Data Analysis
Data analysis is the process of organizing the data in order to gain the regularity
of the pattern and other form of the regularity of the research, while the data
interpretation is the process giving meaning to the founded pattern and regularities
(Setiadi, 2006: 255), in order to know the students’ progress in mastering
1. Scoring vocabulary and reading comprehension test.
2.
Tabulating the result of vocabulary mastery, reading comprehension andscoring the data.
3. Analysing, interpreting and discussing the tabulated result.
4. Drawing conclusion from the tabulated result of the test.
3.8Hypothesis
In hypothesis testing data from upper and lower score, level of difficulty and
discrimination power were processed into the score and analysed by using SPSS
16 program for windows. Finally, the researcher can take the conclusion based
on score from the result of SPSS 16.
This alternative hypothesis test is tested in null hypothesis (H0) to be tested:
H1: There is a positive correlation between vocabulary mastery and students’
reading comprehension. In terms of concept reading skill there are four
aspects (identifying specific information, reference, inference, and
vocabulary) that correlate to vocabulary mastery (noun, verb, adjective,
adverb and translation).
H0 : There is no positive correlation between vocabulary mastery and students’
reading comprehension. In terms of concept reading skill there are four
aspects (identifying specific information, reference, inference, and
vocabulary) that correlate to vocabulary mastery (noun, verb, adjective,
V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter presents the conclusions of the research and suggestions based on
the data presentation and analysis from the previous chapter. This chapter is
di-vided into two parts, the first is conclusions and the second is suggestions.
5.1.Conclusions
In line with the result of the data analysis and discussion in chapter IV, the
re-searcher concludes that:
1. There is a significant correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and
their ability in reading comprehension at the second grade of SMAN 1
Si-domulyo. It can be seen from the result of the hypothesis testing which
showed that the coefficient correlation was higher than critical value of
rtable (.989 > .32) at significance level .01. The null hypothesis is rejected
and the alternative hypothesis is accepted, which shows that there is
signifi-cant correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and their reading
comprehension ability. It means that the higher of vocabulary mastery, the
2. Specifically, vocabulary has correlation with the following elements:
a. Identifying specific information up because the percentage was up to 67.8
%, It means that students were able to identify specific information that
supported detail or specific information and developed the topic sentence.
b. The percentage of reference was up to 58,2 %, because the students could
determine which one was object designates, or acts as a means by which
to connect to or link to, another object.
c. The percentage of reference was up to 57,6 %, because the students could
identify which one was about educational guess or prediction about
something unknown based on available facts and information.
d. The percentage of translation was up to 70,1 %, This also means that
stu-dents were able to differentiate, understand and analyze which one was
noun, adjective, adverb by their own language and between the answer of
students and the purpose of the text reading looks seem and it is god
enough.
5.2.Suggestions
The relevant suggestions, some points of conclusions can be seen as follow:
1. The English teacher should give more explanation and attention to the
stu-dents about the aspects of reading comprehension. T he teacher may give
more practice of reading by giving exercises on those aspects for example,
teachers can read the text and write the main idea of the text and the difficult
2. In order to increase the students’ vocabulary mastery, the teacher should
give more attention and explanation about groups of words. The teacher may
give some interesting game of vocabulary to the students, e.g. scrabble game
and guess the words used in the game.
3. The teacher should give students motivation to make students happy and
more understand about learning vocabulary and reading. The teacher may
give some interesting stories that correlated to the vocab and reading
sub-jects, for example, telling the interesting story about famous figures.
Furthermore, for next research linguistic aspects in reading are not only
vocabu-lary but there are many others. Therefore, the researcher suggests for further
re-searchers to find another aspects in reading such as guessing the main idea by
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