THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY AND THEIR READING OF NARRATIVE TEXT ABILITY AT THE SECOND
SEMESTER OF THE TENTH CLASS AT SMA NEGERI I PRINGSEWU IN 2015/2016
Riska Alfiawati
STKIP PGRI Bandar Lampung riskaalfiawati@gmail.com
Abstract: The objective of this research was to know and describe the correlation between students‟ vocabulary mastery and their reading ability of narrative text at the second semester of the tenth class at SMA Negeri I Pringsewu in 2015/2016. This research, the writer used descriptive quantitative method. The population in this research was the students at the second semester of the tenth class at SMA Negeri I Pringsewu in 2015/2016 consisting of 289 students in 9 classes. The sample of this research was X2 consisted of 31 students. In determining the sample, the writer used cluster random sampling technique. In data collecting technique, the writer used objective test in the form of multiple choice test consisting of 40 items test with 5 options A, B, C, D and E. In analyzing the data, the writer used Product Moment formula. The result of this research showed that the result of calculation by using Product Moment formula got rxy was 0.76. After consulting, the writer knew that 0.76 was taken place between 0.600 – 0.800 that showed that the correlation was high. Furthermore, rxy was consulted with rtable with significant 5% with N=31 was 0.355 so rxy was higher than rtable (0.76 > 0.355). It means that the writer proved that there is a significant correlation between students‟ vocabulary mastery and their reading ability of narrative text at the second semester of the tenth class at SMA Negeri I Pringsewu in 2015/2016.
Keywords: Vocabulary Mastery, Reading Narrative text
INTRUDUCTION
Language has very important role in life because language is a tool for communication. Human being uses language as a means of expressing ideas, feeling, and acceptation to the others. In Indonesia English is a foreign language and it has been taught to the students from the first year of junior high school up to university. English is also taught for elementary school as a local content.
English is an international language which is used by almost all people in the world. English is not only useful for the present time but it will be needed in the
much time to use it in daily life. English is only found in English teaching and learning process in the classroom.
The purpose of teaching English as foreign language is to enable the students to use English in communication both in oral and written form. Vocabulary is very important because in learning English the students should prepare the words in their mind, and then express those words in communication both in oral and written form.
By reading people can absorb a lot of information, since much information can be gained from books, magazines, newspaper, and bulletins. It can be assumed that the success of obtaining information depends on reading itself. Reading, as one of the four important skills in learning language, is a cognitive process of interaction with printed material. In this interacting process, one is undergoing a stream of comprehension by which he gets the meaning or understands the information contained in the printed material. Reading not only assigns foreign language sounds to written words, but it also requires the comprehension of what is written. Comprehension here is meaningful interpretation of printed or written symbols or words that require a combination of word recognition, intellect, and emotion interrelated with prior knowledge. Interest has influenced the learning achievement of someone.
Learning reading is very important for the students, because there are many advantages from learning reading. By reading, they will be able to increase their knowledge on culture. If they read every rule in written English, they will know what their country is like. For instance reading novel from another country get more knowledge about the other country with its culture. In learning English, they study English not only master of grammar or vocabulary but also master the culture of the target language. If they do not know about the culture, they will get difficulties to understand and to
communicate with a native speaker. Although, they may learn about English words through the dictionary, they still need to learn the English culture, so the communication can be understood and avoid misunderstanding.
In the context of English language teaching, reading is one of the four language skills that should be mastered by the English students; it is a receptive skill and it is an interactive process between the reader and the text. An interactive process happens when the readers try to understand the text. While understanding the text, the readers want to communicate with ideas proposed by the writers. Therefore, reading is the process of communication between the readers and the writer.
Based on the writer‟s experiences and observations, the students still did not use the effective and good strategies suggested by some experts yet in their reading. Actually, the students in the Senior High School level should know various strategies in reading. They should also be able to apply the strategies in their reading activities. In fact, most of them still did not have the ability to use appropriate reading strategies well. They did not use the effective and good reading strategies, whereas, reading strategies will make them better in understanding and comprehending the texts. Thus, it is necessary to do the research about reading strategies to help the students know their reading strategies and also expect them to use those strategies in their reading activities.
Reading has much relationship to vocabulary; it is impossible for the readers to understand the text without having or mastering vocabulary. If the students did not have enough vocabulary, they will be difficult to comprehend what they have been read. It is seen from their ability in answering the questions about reading.
Vocabulary mastery can help the students have good speaking, reading and writing ability. The student that has enough vocabulary will understand the meaning of words so that they are easier to know the meaning of the text. To get the meaning a text and to read easily, the student should know the structure, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Vocabulary does not mean that the learners only memorize an amount of the words but also their meanings and how they are contracted.
Vocabulary is important thing and one of the aspects that should be mastered by the students in learning English. Mastering vocabulary is required to make the students easier in comprehending the text or speaking in English. In other word, lack of vocabulary in learning English will cause difficulties in comprehending the text. It means that the English teacher should have some techniques or good teaching in English.
To master English, students need vocabulary to support them to produce and use meaningful sentences. For that reason, the students have to have vocabulary so that they are able to communicate in spoken and the written English. Vocabulary is one of the language aspects which should be learnt. Learning vocabulary is important because the people are able to speak, write, and listen nicely they have to know vocabulary first. (Cameron, 2001: 75) states, “A person said to „know‟ a word if they can recognize its meaning when they see it”. It means that in learning vocabulary we have to know the meaning
of it and also understand and can use it in sentence context.
According to John (2000: 16) that vocabulary is knowledge involves knowing the meanings of words and therefore the purpose of a vocabulary test into find out whether the learners can match each word with a synonym, a dictionary – tape definition, or an equivalent word in their own language. In learning vocabulary automatically we have to know the meaning of words it self and can use it in sentences. Wilkins (1992: 130) states that vocabulary learning is learning to discriminate progressing the meaning of words in the target language from the meanings of their nearest „equivalent‟ in the mother tongue. It is also learning to make the most appropriate lexical choices for particular linguistic and situational context. Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language. However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: for example, post office and
mother-in law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea. There are also multi-word idioms such as
call it a day, where the meaning of the phrase cannot be deduced from an analysis of the component words. A useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking „items‟ rather than „words”.
Understanding the vocabulary knowledge and its development process contributes to the understanding of how second language learners process and produce a language. Knowing a word involves understanding of numerous aspects of the vocabulary which s a multidimensional and complex construct.
effectively. Knowing a lot of words in foreign language is very important. The more words we know, the better our chance of understanding or making ourselves understood.
Wallace (1984:9) stated that learning a foreign language is basically a matter of learning the vocabulary of that language. Reading is the fundamental skill upon which all formal education depends. Grabe et.all (2002:9) states that reading is the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret this information appropriately. Reading can be broadly divided into two academic skills: (1) word decoding, or accurate and rapid reading of words, and (2) comprehension, or understanding the intended message of a written passage. Both decoding and comprehension are facilitated by a combination of neurodevelopment functions.
Reading is one of the English skills that should be mastered by the students in teaching English. It is one of the receptive skills which is very significant nowadays. It is not just always a visual activity, nor a simple matter of decoding to sound. That there are two sources of information that are essential for reading, visual information and non visual information. Strategy is also important to have since it can help the students to understand and comprehend the reading text. When seen from the term of strategy itself, it has many meanings. It is suitable for the context when the term is used.
Talking about reading strategies directly it is the procedures or ways to reach goal in understanding text. Reading strategies are applied skills; they are plans of action that students (and adults) take when they come across a problem during reading. So, reading strategies are ways to reach goal in understanding written text or printed materials for solving the problems in constructing meaning.
Reading is a complex process made up of several interlocking skills and processes. These skills and strategies are
employed before, during, and after reading. So, it can be concludes that reading is a process by which the reader makes personal connections with a text to construct meaning. Reading and responding to a text are integral parts of language learning. Effective readers employ a wide repertoire of meaning-making (comprehension) strategies that they can deploy independently with a range of texts. Effective readers understand and remember what they read. They can summarize and discuss the content and demonstrate their comprehension of the text. They can analyze and evaluate what they have read. Effective readers recognize words quickly and efficiently. They demonstrate high word recognition. They possess strong fluency skills. They read with good expression, intonation, pitch, and phrasing Knowledge of the language in which a text is written is the first requirement of reading. It is not enough for a person to be able to sound out what is in print. He needs prior knowledge of the language in which a text is written to make sense of it. Just as language learning is a life-long process, learning to read too is process. It does not stop when you learn to convert printed words to sounds.
Based on Stoller and Grabe (in Murcia, 2001:192) states that the reading strategies that can be used by the students in each stage are variously. All three components must be used by the students or the readers integrated to make them be good readers with good and appropriate reading strategies. The readers or the students are free to use reading strategies that appropriate to their ability and style of learning. The more reading strategies used the more better the result of reading comprehension.
It is important for teachers to understand the critical elements of reading instruction. Students who have a reading disability will require intensive direct instruction. The critical elements of reading instruction include:
a. Strategies for reading comprehension;
b. Strategies for building meaning using the cues and conventions of language (including phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, awareness of sentence structures, awareness of text structures and organizational patterns, and the pragmatics of text); and
c. Reading fluency (Saskatchewan, 2004:35).
Al-Jawi (2010:14) explains that Reading involves knowledge of certain reading mechanism as follows:
a. The direction in which a text is to be read varies from language to language. For example, English script is to be read from left to right, whereas Arabic script is read and written from right to left across a line of print.
b. The Eye Movement Drill in which Arabs are used to move their eyes from right to left while reading an Arabic text. They are not trained, to moving their eyes, in contrast, from left to right while reading the English script. This habitual style of reading constitutes a great problem
in developing effective perceptual skills of reading English and in increasing reading speed in English. This drill is very essential to improve the pre-reading skill. A language learner should be drilled in how to move his eyes properly during reading a text. The eye movement drill includes only two or three bars across the line. The student is required to move his eyes from left to right quickly and make a fixation only on the bars of each line. Timing should be identified in each drill to assess the reader's progress. There are three objectives for using this type of technique:
o To improve the student's ability to move his eyes accurately across the line. This will improve visual perception of words and phrases.
o To eliminate the number of unnecessary stops a language reader makes while reading along the printed line.
o To speed up the language reader's perception of words/phrases by recognizing the shapes of words correctly while pupil is reading, the language reader should make rapid and accurate eye fixations. Slow and inaccurate eye pauses result in slow
reading and low
comprehension. This drill should be timed in order to evaluate the progress of the readers. Similar to the former drill the recognition should be made on groups of words or phrases.
on groups of words and phrases. Language learners should be asked to read chunk by chunk, and phrase by phrase, not word by word and make at the most three fixations on them per line. Hence, to develop accurate perceptual skills the language learner should be trained extensively to use the following drill.
c. The way meaning is represented in print varies from language to language. English have an alphabet in which each letter and letter combination has a sound and a word can be made up by putting together letters that together combine to make the sound of the word.
d. Even when languages share the same alphabet, the letter-sound correspondences are not always the same. Teacher should use many drills to improve the visual discrimination of .
Beginning readers develop their concept of letters and the alphabet. The recognition and naming of letters is foundational to using the graph phonic cueing system. By noticing letters in environmental print, singing, and recognizing their own name, students begin to explore and understand this relationship. Narrative is a kind of text to retell the story that past tense. The purpose of the text is to entertain or to amuse the readers or listeners about the story.
Narrative is form of writing used to relate the story of acts or events. Narration places occurrences in the time and tells what happened according to natural time sequence. Narration is a story told to make a point. It can be used in an abbreviated form to introduce or illustrate a complicated subject – that is, writers often use narration to lead into the body of their writing – or in an extended form
to provide a detailed, personal account of “what happened”.
The narrative text short story is telling of a story or an account of a sequence of events. One of the four traditional forms of composition (along with description, exposition, and persuasion). Narration differs from exposition, which can also relate a sequence of events, in that narration need not be factual and may be written from the perspective of a character in the text.
METHOD
In conducting the research, the writer will use descriptive quantitative method. The research method is used to analyze and investigate the data. Besides that, by using this method the writer wants to know the correlation between students‟ vocabulary mastery and their reading ability. This research will be conducted by using descriptive quantitative method. In this case the writer will give the tests to the students to know the students‟ vocabulary mastery and their reading ability. In this research, the writer will use 40 multiple choice test. So, the writer will give 2.5 score for the correct answer and 0 for the wrong answer. The highest score will be 100 and the lowest score will be 0. the writer uses cluster random sampling technique because the students‟ achievement is homogeneous the writer uses cluster random sampling technique because the students‟ achievement is homogeneous.
RESULT
Table 1
The Score of Students’ Vocabulary
mastery
N X N X
1 75 17 70
2 60 18 75
3 85 19 82.5
4 85 20 67.5
5 57.5 21 85
6 90 22 82.5
8 55 24 75
9 85 25 90
10 80 26 70
11 55 27 72.5
12 65 28 52.5
13 75 29 52.5
14 60 30 82.5
15 90 31 70
16 85
Source: The Data Analysis
Normality of Vocabulary Test
Normality of test was conducted to know the data from the sample are normal or not. In testing the data, the writer used Liliefors formula as follows:
1. Normality Test for Students‟ Vocabulary mastery (X)
The data after being put in order: 52.5 52.5 55 55 57.5 60 60 65 67.5 70
70 70 72.5 75 75 75 75 77.5 80 80 82.5 82.5 82.5 85 85
85 85 85 90 90
90
Lowest score : 52.5 Highest score : 90 Hypothesis:
Ho : The data have normal distribution
Ha : The data do not have normal distribution
Criteria test:
The significant level α = 0.05. Ho is accepted if Lo < Ltab. In this case, Ho is rejected. The calculation was done by
using the following table: Zi = ̅̅̅
F (Zi) = If the score of Zi is negative, the formula is 0.5 – (Ftable)
If the score of Zi is positive, the formula is 0.5 + (Ftable) S (Zi) =
Notes:
N = Total number of sample S = Deviation standard
̅ = The average of students‟ vocabulary score
Xi = The students‟ vocabulary score
F = Frequency
FX = Frequency cumulative (Sudjana, 1992:468)
X =
N X
=
31 5 . 2287
= 73.79
S2 = (∑ ) (∑ )
( )
= ( ) ( )
( )
=
( )
=
= √ = 11.78
Table 2
The Normality Test of Students’
Vocabulary mastery (X)
Xi F Fk Zi F(Zi) S(Zi)
F(Zi)
–
S(Zi)
52.5 2 2 -1.81 0.0351 0.0645 0.0294 55 2 4 -1.60 0.0548 0.1290 0.0742 57.5 1 5 -1.38 0.0838 0.1613 0.0775 60 2 7 -1.17 0.121 0.2258 0.1048 65 1 8 -0.75 0.2266 0.2581 0.0315 67.5 1 9 -0.53 0.2981 0.2903 0.0078 70 3 12 -0.32 0.3745 0.3871 0.0126 72.5 1 13 -0.11 0.4562 0.4194 0.0368 75 4 17 0.10 0.5398 0.5484 0.0086 77.5 1 18 0.31 0.6217 0.5806 0.0411 80 2 20 0.53 0.7019 0.6452 0.0567 82.5 3 23 0.74 0.7704 0.7419 0.0285 85 5 28 0.95 0.6915 0.9032 0.0743
90 3 31 1.38 0.6915 1 0.0838
Source: The Data Analysis
Lo (0.1048) < Ltable (0.1591). So, Ho is accepted, it can be concluded that the data have normal distribution.
The Data Analysis of Students’ Ability in Reading Narrative Text
Table 3
The Score of Students’ Ability in Reading
Narrative Text
N Y N Y
1 77.5 17 72.5 2 57.5 18 77.5 3 82.5 19 85 4 77.5 20 72.5
5 55 21 85
6 82.5 22 82.5
7 75 23 75
8 57.5 24 80
9 85 25 85
10 85 26 85 11 67.5 27 70 12 55 28 60 13 77.5 29 70 14 62.5 30 80 15 67.5 31 60 16 80
Source: The Data Analysis
Normality Test for Students’ Reading Ability of Narrative Text (Y)
The data after being put in order: 55 55 57.5 57.5 60
60 62.5 67.5 67.5 70
70 72.5 72.5 75 75 77.5 77.5 77.5 77.5 80
80 80 82.5 82.5 82.5
85 85 85 85
85 85
Lowest score : 55 Highest score : 85
Hypothesis:
Ho : The data have normal distribution
Ha : The data do not have normal distribution
Criteria test:
The significant level α = 0.05. Ho is accepted if Lo < Ltab. In this case, Ho is rejected. The calculation was done by using the following table: Zi = ̅
F (Zi) = If the score of Zi is negative, the formula is 0.5 – (Ftable)
If the score of Zi is positive, the formula is 0.5 + (Ftable) S (Zi) =
Notes:
N = Total number of sample S = Deviation standard
̅ = The average score of Students‟ writing ability
Yi = The Students‟ writing ability
F = Frequency
FX = Frequency cumulative. (Sudjana,
1992:468)
Y = N
Y
=
31 2285
= 73.71
S2 = (∑ ) (∑ )
( )
= ( ) ( )
( )
=
=
= √ = 10.02
Table 4
The Normality Test of Students’ Reading
Ability of Narrative Text (Y)
Yi F Fk Zi F(Zi) S(Zi)
F(Zi)
–
S(Zi)
55 2 2
-1.87 0.0307 0.0645 0.0338
57.5 2 4
-1.62 0.0526 0.1290 0.0764
1.37
Source: The Data Calculating
From the calculation and the table above, it was got Lo = 0.1292 with N = 31 and significant level of α = 0.05. It was obtained that Ltable = 0.1591. It means that Lo (0.1292) < Ltable (0.1591). So, Ho is accepted, it can be concluded that the sample was taken from the population that had normal distribution.
The Hypothesis Test
Table 5
The Calculation Data of the Correlation
between Students’ Vocabulary Mastery (X) and Students’ Reading Ability of Narrative
Text (Y) Source: The Data Analysis
From the table above, it was got: N = 31
Then, the data above was included into Product Moment formula as follows:
rxy = ∑ (∑ )(∑ ) between students‟ vocabulary mastery and students‟ reading ability of narrative text, the writer used the following criteria:
1) Coefficient 0.800 – 1.00 is very high
5) Coefficient 0. 00 – 0.200 is very low (Arikunto, 2012:89).
From the result of the calculation using Product Moment formula, we got rcount = 0.76 that is between 0.600 – 0.800 which shows high correlation. Furthermore, rcount was consulted with
rtable with significant 5% with N=31 was 0.355. It means that between students‟ vocabulary mastery and their ability in reading narrative text have positive correlation.
CONCLUSION
After conducting the research, the writer found that there is a correlation between students‟ vocabulary mastery and their ability in reading narrative text. It was proved by the result of calculation by using Product Moment formula got rxy was 0.76. after consulting, the writer knew that 0.76 was taken place between 0.600 – 0.800 that showed that the correlation was high. Furthermore, rxy was consulted with rtable with significant 5% with N=31 was 0.355 so rxy was higher than rtable (0.76 > 0.355). It means that the writer proved that there is a significant correlation between students‟ vocabulary mastery and their reading ability of narrative text at the second semester of the tenth class at SMA Negeri I Pringsewu in 2015/2016. The students‟ vocabulary mastery and their ability in reading narrative text was high. It can be seen from the average score of students‟ vocabulary mastery was 73.79 and the average score of students‟ ability in reading narrative text was 73.71.
There is a positive correlation between students‟ vocabulary mastery and their ability in reading narrative text at the second semester of the tenth class at SMA Negeri I Pringsewu. It was proved by the result of rxy was 0.76 and it was between 0.600 – 0.800 which showed the high correlation. There is a significant correlation between students‟ vocabulary mastery and their ability in reading narrative text at the second semester of
the tenth class at SMA Negeri I Pringsewu. It was proved by the result of
rxy (0.76) was higher than rtable (0.312).
REFERENCES
Al-Jawi, F. D. (2010). Teaching The Receptive Skills: Listening and Reading Skills. Umm Al Qura University. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/url?q=, diunduh pada 28 Januari 2017.
Arikunto, Suharsimi. (2012). Dasar-dasar Evaluasi Pendidikan. Jakarta: Bumi Aksara
Brown, H. Douglas (2007). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. United States of America: Longman
Cameron, Lyne. (2001). Teaching Language to Young Learners. England: Canbrige University Press.
Grabe, William, et.all. (2002). Teacher and Researching Reading. Hongkong: Pearson Education
John, D.- Bauman, J. (2000). Word Identification. New York and London: Longman.
Murcia, Celce M. 2001. Teaching English as the Second Language. University of California. California.
Saskatchewan Learning. (2004). Teaching Students with Reading Difficulties and Disabilities: A Guide for Educators. Regina, Saskatchewan: Saskatchewan Learning.
Wallace, Michael, J. (1984). Teaching Vocabulary. Heinemann Educa-tional Books. London
