I. INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the introduction of the research which deals with the following points: background of study, identification of problems, limitation of the problems, formulation of the problems, objectives of the research, the uses of the research, scope of the research, and definition of terms.
1.1. Background of Study
As one of the basic skills of language, reading is no doubt a means of gaining knowledge and information. In the process of reading, people receive information through the eyes, discriminate letter shapes, associate the letter with language and associate the text with meaning. Most of information is presented in written language such as manual book, newspaper, magazine, internet and so on. Although there are many televisions that ease human to receive the information, they do not provide more practices for our brain. By reading we can develop our creativity, critical thinking, and even writing skill. People have to imagine the characters what they read in novel, and they can have opinion on someone’s writing in newspaper or magazine. Reading can also develop students’ spelling
in the early years through invented spelling and direct spelling instruction help them to decode new words in their reading. The use vocabulary correctly also can help students working easier and more rewarding.
To master reading people must learn about grammar and vocabulary, how they put into a sentence and use it to express their thought and feeling. To understand the nature of language learner must understand the nature of this internalized, unconscious set of rules which is part of every grammar of every language. Grammar and vocabulary has important role in learning English, so it also has a big influence to reading comprehension ability. Students who want to get a text message have to know about how the text is form or they will not able to have a complete understanding about what the writer was mean.
Based on Yunita’s research finding in SMKN 3 Bandar Lampung, SMK students
still had low ability in reading comprehension (Yunita, 1999). According to the curriculum 2004, the students’ score in reading comprehension should reach the
KKM is 65, but the fact shows that the students can only reach the score around 55-60.
Study done by Widiono (2007) at SMAN 1 Natar indicated the same problems. He found that students had difficulty in comprehending reading text. Some aspects that caused the students had difficulty in comprehending the text which he found in his research were: students’ lack of vocabulary and grammar, students’
interest in the reading text, teachers’ ability in guiding and managing their class and inappropriate reading strategy.
Based the description above, these problems commonly happen in every student, because their ability in reading skill is very low. The way the learners use their reading skills significantly determine how they can achieve the objectives. It implies that if the learners have good reading skills, they be able to comprehend reading text well. There are factors that are probably play important role to improve the students’ reading skill are grammar and vocabulary mastery. Beside such basic skill, the student has to master some vocabulary and know the grammar as well as possible to determine the type of the text.
idea, and when learning vocabulary, students need a lot of practice of reading, because reading is the active way in learning vocabulary. So if the students know a lot of vocabulary, they can comprehend the written text with ease. On the other side grammar also the important things in reading. Because it is important to students to understands the meaning of the text that they read. If students’
grammar mastery is good so they can read and comprehend the text correctly.
Grammar and vocabulary skill have consistently produced a strong correlation to reading ability. For vocabulary it is widely accepted that the 2.000 most frequent vocabulary items are crucial for basic reading as they cover approximately 80 % of the words in a text in general (Cobb, 2007). Vocabulary learning through reading entails an array of boot strapping process of noticing on unfamiliar word, recognizing the need to discover the meaning of the word, inferring the meaning from context with the aid of linguistic and non linguistic cues, and integrating the new lexical item into one’s developing vocabulary knowledge, which all
necessitate a certain level of surplus attentional resources. Meanwhile, how grammar has correlation in reading ability, it can be found in several research, for example Kuhn and Sthal’s (2003) review the roles of words, dissect sentences into
meaningful chunks and recognize the syntactic structure of a sentence seem to contribute to the construction of meaning from the text.
1.2 Identification of the Problems
Based on the background above, the following problems can be identified: 1. Students’ lack of vocabulary
2. Students’ lack of grammar
3. Students are still poor in finding out the main idea, supporting ideas and details in a reading text .
4. Students do not have any strategic way in answering the question based on the genre of the text.
5. Students' lack of good self confidence and understanding in learning English.
1.3 Limitation of the Problems
Based on the identification of the problem above, the focus of the research is limited on students’ mastery of grammar and vocabulary and their reading ability. So the writer wants to determine students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery whether they correlates with their reading ability.
1.4Formulation of the Problems
Based on the limitation of the problems above, the writer formulates the research problems as follows :
1. Is there any correlation between students’ grammar mastery and their reading ability?
3. Is there any shared correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability?
1.5Objectives of the Research
Based on the formulation of the problem above, the objectives of the research are to investigate whether:
1. There is correlation between students’ grammar mastery and reading ability at SMAN 1 Bandar Lampung.
2. There is correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and their reading ability at SMAN 1 Bandar Lampung.
3. There is shared correlation between students’ grammar mastery and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability at SMAN 1 Bandar Lampung.
1.6 Uses of the Research
The results of this research may have the following uses :
1. Theoretically, the results of this research are expected to verify the theories which indicate that there is correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability at SMAN 1 Bandar Lampung.
2. Practically, the results of this research hopefully can be used as a contribution for an English teacher to be aware, if there is a correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading
1.7 Scope of the Research
The research focuses on the students’ reading ability. This research is quantitative that is to find out the correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary
mastery and their reading ability at the first grade of SMAN 1 Bandar Lampung. The writer gives three kinds of test to student, they are grammar test, vocabulary test, and reading comprehension test in order to gain the data from students. The grammar items are focused on identifying adjective clauses, identifying verb, and identifying adverb connectors. Vocabulary test items are focused on verb, noun, adjective, adverb, and prepositional phrase. The reading comprehension items focuses on determining main idea, identifying specific information, inference, reference, and vocabulary.
1.8 Definition of Terms
1. Reading comprehension is understanding a text that is read, or the process of “constructing meaning” from a text, covering main ideas, finding reference,
finding inference, understanding vocabulary.
2. Vocabulary is the number of words that should be mastered by the students in learning English as a foreign language. It deals with knowing the meaning, form and use of the words. Here vocabulary covers, noun, verb, adjective, adverb, prepositional phrase.
3. Grammar is the rules that show how words are combined, arranged, or changed to show certain kinds of meaning.
II. FRAME OF THEORIES
This chapter discusses review of related previous researches and some theories that support the research. They are concept of reading comprehension, purpose of reading, concept of grammar, grammar test, concept of vocabulary mastery, vocabulary test, correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery
and their reading comprehension test.
2.1Review of Related Previous Research
The writer has curiosity to conduct a research about grammar, vocabulary mastery in their reading comprehension. The previous research done Alfiah (2006) in her research states that understanding of sentence pattern is important in reading. It can help the students to comprehend the text. In adequate interpretation of sentence pattern or ignoring it altogether may also hinder reading comprehension.
other words, to support their reading habit, the teachers have to motivate students to read more because it is very useful for them.
Nurmala (2012) in her research that the students can improve their reading ability by reading interesting short story such as folktale or another story. Students also have better comprehension after reading the story. Besides that, According to Nation (1990) vocabulary is clearly an important skill in reading. The students have to master vocabulary because vocabulary is important aspect that makes them success in reading.
Based on the statements above the writer assumes that students face the confusion in comprehending the text, because their ability of grammar and vocabulary is still low. So, to improve their reading such as short story or short story teachers give the questions about reading text in order to get their more knowledge about the grammar, vocabulary and the result the students’ achievement in reading comprehension.
In addition, students face the difficulties to learn about reading text, because not only one or two genres of the text that they learn in school, but they learn more genre of the text that have the different grammar, and also the students have to know more vocabulary to comprehend the text itself.
first stage to learn and to know the text itself. Because, if the student have a little vocabulary they found difficult to understanding about grammar in text reading. Especially for regular and irregular verb in vocabulary to express their text in reading. So, the student must master grammar formations if they want to improve their skill in reading. The writer expect students recognize and realize that mastering grammar and vocabulary is useful to have a good skill in reading.
2.2Concept of Reading
Reading is a means of language acquisition, of communication and sharing information and ideas. Reading is complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of deriving meaning (reading comprehension) and construction meaning. So, reading is one of the important skills which are needed by students from elementary school to university, and reading text is an important way for the general population in many societies to access information and makes meaning.
As Bamford (1998:12) define reading as the constructing meaning from a printed or written message. The constructing of meaning involves the reading connecting information from the written message with previous knowledge to arrive at meaning at understanding.
Based on definitions above it can be stated that the aim of reading process is to understand the meaning which is informed by the writer to the reader. The reader tries to interpret word per word, sentence per sentence based on its context and clues given by the writer on the text. In the process of getting idea of the text, the reader uses his skills to recognize the language or genre of the text.
In addition, Loban, Ryan, and Squire (1969:378) express reading comprehension is indeed a very elaborative procedure, involving a balance of many elements in a passage and their organization in the proper relation to each other comprehension in reading depends upon knowing the literal meaning of words in various context. The reader must also be able to perceive the relation of each part to the other and each of the wholes.
Rubin (1993:194) states that reading comprehension is a complex intellectual process involving a number of abilities. The two major abilities involve world meaning and verbal reasoning, there could be no reading comprehension, and there would be no reading.
2.3Purposes of Reading
Students have their own purposes of reading. Some of them consider reading as a facility to get information. Some others as a means to have entertainment and pleasure. Whatever their purposes of reading, by reading students need some information, knowledge to put in their mind.
There are some experts proposing the purposes of reading. Some of them are Grabe and Stoller, Harmer (2001). Their ideas are similar to each other. In the first place Grabe and Stoller suggests some purposes of reading, reading to search for simple information and reading to skim, reading to learn from texts, reading to integrate information, write, and critique text, and reading for general comprehension. In the same ideas, Harmer (2001) proposes six reading purposes: (1) reading to identify the topic, (2) reading to predict and guess, (3) reading for general understanding, (4) reading for specific information, (5) reading for detailed information, and (6) reading to interpret the text.
Based on definitions above it can be stated that the purpose of reading for understanding more what is read by people. Studying involves reading to comprehend concepts and details. Besides that, reading for pleasure gives people the opportunity to enlarge the knowledge and allow us to express our imagination.
Furthermore Nuttal (1985) states that there are five kinds reading skills that should be mastered by the reader to comprehend the text deeply, which is as follow:
1. Determining main idea
Main idea is the most important piece of information the author wants you to know about the concept of that paragraph. Determining idea is a skill to grasp and find the main point of the passage by summarizing the passage and look for repetition of ideas / words (Kelly, 2004)
2. 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.
3. Finding reference
unit, on the other hand, refers to another unit that was introduced earlier on in the text. To understand the unit referred to by an anaphoric reference you would need to look back in the text.
4. Finding inference
Inference is a good guess or conclusion drawn based on logic of passage. Finding inference means the reader imply the sentence/ passage understand and conclude it logically.
5. Understanding vocabulary
Understanding vocabulary means comprehend what the words mean. When vocabulary mastery improves, people know deeper about comprehension. Since comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading, the reader cannot overestimate the importance of vocabulary development.
The example of a text that contain five points in reading skill:
Nitrogen fixation is a process by which nitrogen is continuously fed into biological circulation. In this process, certain algae and bacteria convert nitrogen into ammonia (NH1). This newly created ammonia is then for the most part absorbed by plants.
1. Determine main idea
The questions: Which of the following would be the best title for this passage? a. The process of nitrogen
b. Two Nitrogen Processes
c. The Return of Nitrogen to the Air d. The Effect of Nitrogen on Plant Life
In a passage with with more than one paragraph, you should be sure to read the first sentence of each paragraph to determine the subject, title, or main idea. In example, the first process of nitrogen fixation. If you look only at the first
paragraph, you might choose the inccoret answer (A), which would be a good title for the first paragraph only. The first sentence of the second paragraph indicates that the process of denitrification is discussed In the second paragraph. Answer (C) is inccorect because the return of nitrogen to the air is the process of
denitrification, and this is discussed in the second paragraph only. Answer (D) is incorrect because the effect of nitrogen on plant life is not discussed in this passage. The best answer to this question is (B).; the two nitrogen processes are nitrogen fixation, which is discussed in the first paragraph, and denitrification, which is discussed in the second paragraph.
2. Vocabulary
The question: What is “convert” in line 2 in first paragraph? a. Give
b. Run c. Move d. Exchange
from this sentence we can see there is exchange from certain algae and bacteria to nitrogen into ammonia.
3. Finding the specific information
The question: Where in the passage does the author state about process of denitrification?
a. Line 1 – 3 b. Line 2 – 4 c. Line 3 – 4 d. Line 4 – 6
The best answer is (D), beause line 4 until 6 give information about process of denitrification.
4. Finding the inference
The question: According to the passage, we can reasonably infer how the process of the opposite of deitrification returns nitrogen to the air?
a. Bacteria cause some of the nitrates from the soil to convert into gaseous nitrogen or nitrous oxide (N2O).
b. Effect of nitrogen on plant.
c. Algae and bacteria convert nitrogen into ammonia (NH1). This newly created ammonia is then for the most part absorbed by plants. d. nitrogen is continuously fed into biological circulation.
5. Reference
The question: How the new ammonia can be formed? a. From the return of nitrogen to the air
b. From to certain algae and bacteria change into nitrogen
c. Some of the nitrates from the soil to convert into gaseous nitrogen d. Algae and bacteria convert into nitrates
The right answer is (B), because the sentence provides the information to interpret the other.
Based on the statement above, the writer assumes that to master reading comprehension the students have to know the reading skills such as determining main idea, finding the specific information, finding the reference, finding inference and understanding the vocabulary. But the more important is understanding the vocabulary, because to know reading comprehension the students have to know the meaning of vocabulary itself, and after that the student can get the reading skill easily.
2.4 Concept of Grammar
There are several reasons that learn about grammar, some of them are that grammar helps with understanding what makes sentence and paragraph clear, interesting and precise. It names the type of words and word groups that comprise sentences in English. It lets us understand that all language and all dialects follow grammatical patterns.
An English lesson for high senior high school is different than the previous school levels. Learning English for senior high school students should be more comprehensive and more emphasis on the ability to construct English sentences with appropriate grammatical. Students should be able to master grammar such as past tense, present tense, present continuous tense. Besides that, students should be able to identify adjective clauses, verb, and other adverb connectors, because it is step learning English as second language.
There are three grammar points that should be mastered by SMA students: 1. Subject-verb agreement, the rule is singular subjects go with singular
verbs and plural subjects go with plural verbs. The only verb form that is affected by this rule is the third person simple present; but since this verb form is the one students use most in their studies, it is essential that students master the subject-verb agreement rule as quickly as possible. The example of subject- verb agreement. The subject is in bold typeface and the verb is in italics:
- The Prime Minister and the President are meeting at the White House (plural subject: PM and President; plural verb are meeting).
2. Correct word class (noun, verb, adjective, and adverb). Words must be used in their correct form according to what they are doing in the sentence. A word being used as a subject or object must be in noun form, a word being used to describe a noun must be in adjective form, a word being used to qualify a verb must be in adverb form
Example of correct word class:
- These managers differ1; one difference2 between these different3 managers is that they manage differently4.
1
differ is the verb in this part of the sentence. 2
difference is being used as a subject, so it is noun form. 3
different describes the managers, so it is in adjective form. 4
differently tells us how the managers manage, so it is in adverb form. 3. Verb tense consistency, it means that all of the verb tenses must be the
same. For example, when you are describing something that is happening now, stick to the present tenses, and when you are describing something that happened in the past, stick to the past tenses.
Present tenses: present simple, present continuous, present perfect. Past tenses: past simple, past continuous, past perfect.
- The shop assistant was telling the customer that the shop had not yet received goods she needed urgently; he said he was going to send them as soon as they arrived.
Harmer (1999), states knowing about grammar offers people potentially unlimited linguistic creativity. Knowledge of the regularities can function as a machine to generate potentially enormous number of original sentences, in addition, knowledge of grammar is also important because it can function as an advance organizer. In the process of acquisition, advance organizer plays a crucial role because the learner with grammar knowledge subconsciously organize and notice the input exposed to them.
As Larsen- Freeman (2001:251) states grammar is about form and one way to teach form is to give students rules, however grammar is about much more than form, and its teaching is still served if students are simply given rules.
Richard and Renandya (2002:145) states the role of grammar is perhaps one of the most controversial issues in language teaching. Based on Swan (in Richard and Renandya 2002:150) grammar involves rules, and rules determine “correct behavior”.
It means grammar is the factor that students need if we want to make a sentence in a good structure therefore the students should have a good grammar mastery. By mastering grammar the students can understand easily how to make sentence and composition in a good order.
Meanwhile, Fromkin and Rodman (1983:12), states to understand the nature of language learner must understand the nature of this internalized, unconscious set of rules which is part of every grammar of every language. That’s why grammar plays very important roles for people who want to learn another language. Nunan, David (2005:3) described grammar as the ways in which units of language (principally, but not exclusively, words) combine together to form sentences. If the students understand the text, the researcher only knew that grammar is a mean to combine words into sentences.
Chomsky and Halle in Fromkin and Rodman(1983:11) have another description about grammar. They stated that people use the term “grammar” with a systematic ambiguity. On the one hand, the term refers to explicit theory constructed by the linguist and proposed as the description of the speaker’s competence. On other
hand, it refers to this competence itself.
they do not master grammar well, they will have difficulty mastering reading comprehension too.
2.5Grammar Test
By now it should be clear that the teacher begins the process of deciding how to test something by trying to decide what that something is, by asking what the construct is that we are trying to measure. According Rea (1991) presents the various definitions of grammar that have provided the basis of the constructs of grammar underlying different approaches to the testing of it. She begins with a quotation from Close 1982 defining grammar as knowledge of sentence level form. “English grammar is chiefly a system of syntax that decides the order and patterns in which words are arranged in sentences.” Such a definition excludes
context beyond what a single sentence provides, considers meaning a separate matter, and is not concerned with the ability to use such a sentence. This sort of understanding of grammar, this construct, led to multiple-choice items of the type we are all familiar with. There might be some quibble over which of the following is the best of the type (that is, has the best construct validity) but all are reasonably good examples.
In this research the writer gave three types of grammar test, they are: 1. Adjectives clauses
function is to qualify a noun, pronoun or noun equivalent in another clause. Similarly, the adjective clause is also called relative clause used to form one sentence from two separate sentences. The relative pronoun replaces one of two identical noun phrases and relates the clauses to each other. Commonly, the relative pronouns that refer to the person or thing are who, whom, which, that, and whose.
For examples:
I don’t like people who lose their tempers easily.
From the definitions above, the writer concludes that adjective clause is a clause which modifies or describes noun or pronoun as antecedent that uses relative pronouns or relative adverbs as subordinator conjugation describing people and thing whose position as subject, object and possessive.
2. Grammatical tense
languages have different verb forms or constructions which manifest relative tense, such as perfect ("past-in-the-past") and "future-in-the-past".
3. Used adverb connectors
Adverbial connectors signal logical relations in a discourse and help the reader to connect different units and paragraphs and this way make sense of the text. Several studies have tried to illustrate how connectors contribute to a better understanding of text. The results have shown to be contradictory, but some studies have shown that appropriately used, connectors can facilitate reading comprehension and have a positive effect on the clarityof a text (Altenberg and Tapper, 1998: 80). In addition, it has been found that even if connectors do not necessarily improve a text’s readability and coherence, they have a
rhetorical effect and can make a difference with respect to the effect of the text (Mauranen 1993: 162–168). The use of connectors is found to be problematic both for foreign language learners as well as native speakers, and is often shown as under- , over- and misuse of connectors in written products. The use of connectors is sensitive to discourse type which might create problems especially for foreign language learners. Connector usage can vary also from one language to another and not all languages mark connectors explicitly in the way English does.
In general, grammar test try to assess students’ use of language in its totality as
compound sentences and sentence corrections as well as writing correct sentences and paragraphs. In this research writer using multiple choice format. The questions of multiple choices have several choices and one of them being the correct choice.
2.6Concept of Vocabulary Mastery
Vocabulary is one of the language elements that has an important role in learning language. The next paragraph would present definitions of vocabulary from several resources.
Napa (1991) says vocabulary is one of components of the language and there is no language without words. It can be assumed that vocabulary is the component of the language in form of word in which it make language meaningful because without vocabulary speaker cannot convey meaning and communicate with each other.
Nation (1994: 02) states that both learners and teachers see vocabulary as a being a very important element in language learning. It means that vocabulary is the most important part in language and the learner should master a large number of vocabularies in order to perform language well.
not have any knowledge on its vocabulary, they cannot communicate or to express their idea using that language.
Wainwright (2006: 33) states that vocabulary is the important factor in reading. He also says that the larger vocabulary the easier it is to make the sense of text. Without vocabulary, it is difficult for students to obtain any kind of news and information that stated in any printed material. By having number of vocabulary, this kind of difficulty can be solved.
According to nation (1990) vocabulary is clearly an important skill in reading. The students have to master vocabulary because it will help them to succeed in reading.
Based on the definition above, it can be stated that vocabulary is the number of words that students master based on the context area. By having lot of vocabulary knowledge, it can help students to understand the text. So, if the students know a lot of vocabulary, they may able to comprehend the text easily. It is impossible for students to understand the passage without mastering vocabulary. It is clear that the students’ vocabulary is needed to face the difficulties in learning English,
especially to understand reading materials.
There are some types of vocabulary in English. Fries (1974:45) classifies English words into four groups, namely:
Content words represent the name of objects or things that are the concrete nouns (dog, motorcycle, and box); action down by with those things, that is: verb (drive, hit, push); the qualities of these things that is adjective (charming, beautiful, heavy, tall); and the indication such meanings as frequency, degree, manner and place, that is adverbs (carefully, here, now).
b. Function words are those words, which are used as means of expressing relation of grammar/structure. Such as conjunction (and, however, but), article (a, an, the), auxiliaries (do, does, did).
c. Substitute words
Function words are those which represent individual things or specific action as substitutes for whole from classes of words, that is, indefinites (anybody, anyone, somebody, and everybody).
d. Distributed words
Distributed words, those are distributed in use according to grammatical matter as the presence or absence of negative, such as, any, either, and neither.
more ideas they have. Therefore, people can communicate with others effectively. In this research, the researcher used the content words (nouns, verbs, and adjectives).
2.7Vocabulary Test
A test of vocabulary measures students’ knowledge of the meaning of certain
words as well as the pattern and collocations in which they occur. Such their test active vocabulary (the words they should be able to use in speaking and writing) or their passive vocabulary (the words they should be able to recognize and understand when they are listening to someone or when they are reading). It proves that vocabulary is really needed in the students’ learning language activity by knowing the students’ mastery of vocabulary students can also measure their
language skills they are; listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
According to Nation (1990:78), there are two steps to consider when looking at tests of total vocabulary size, they are:
1. Selecting
Usually it is not possible to test all the words within a particular group. First, teacher must exclude all the words that they cannot easily test, for example a, the, of, be. In fact, the test will be easier to make if the test only nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Second, after teacher exclude the words they cannot test, they must find a good way of choosing the test items from the words left. The best way is to number the words and then to choose every tenth word if this will give enough words for the test.
2. Testing
There are recognition and recall test. In recognition test, teacher want to see if the learners know the meaning of word after they hear of see it. In such tests the learners hear or see an English word then write or say a mother tongue word, or English synonym or definition, or they see a picture and then they write or say the English word.
From the text above, vocabulary test is to measure students’ knowledge and want
2.8Correlation between Students’ Grammar and Vocabulary Mastery and their Reading Ability
One reason why students find reading in some subject fields difficult because of their lack of vocabulary and grammar. Whereas in fact of vocabulary and grammar are the most important thing in reading skill. Most of us, if find the difficult word, they still just continue our reading in the hope that the word their read is not really important or that its meaning become clear later on. But sometimes these word that people passed usually as the key of our reading and understanding. People cannot catch and grasp the idea from our reading as well as possible. So looking up the difficult words in dictionary is better for us.
In other side, vocabulary, grammar and reading have a close relationship. When reading students need vocabulary and grammar to help them in understand the idea, and in learning vocabulary, students need a lot of practice of reading because reading is the active way in learning vocabulary. So, if the students know a lot about vocabulary, they can comprehend the reading easily.
According to Nation (1990) vocabulary is clearly an important skill in reading. The students have to master vocabulary because it can help them to succeed in reading. Based on Murcia (2001:149) states grammar and vocabulary have been viewed as competing elements in language teaching. It means that grammar and vocabulary have a great influence to the students’ language skills, in this case the
to listen, speak, read and write English well. Especially in reading, the students must master grammar and vocabulary.
2.9 Theoretical Assumption
Based on the frame theories, the writer assumes that vocabulary and grammar are two thing that cannot be separated in reading text. Understanding the vocabulary and grammar are important in reading. It can help the students to comprehend the text. If the student failed to understand vocabulary and grammar, they cannot catch the idea from the paragraph and they also cannot answer the question because they do not know the strategic to answer the question. It is clear vocabulary and grammar is needed to face the difficulties in understanding reading text.
2.10 Hypothesis
Based on the theories and assumption above, the writer proposes the hypothesis as follows :
1. H = Th0 ere is no correlation between students’ grammar and their reading
ability.
1
H = There is Correlation between students’ grammar and their reading ability.
2. H0= There is no correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and their
1
H = There is Correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and their
reading ability
3. H0= There is no correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary
mastery and their reading ability.
1
H = There is Correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery
III. RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter discusses the design of this research, how to collect data, population and sample, data collecting technique, the procedures of the research, scoring system and data analysis.
3.1Research Design
This inferential quantitative research relied on second language learning to examine the relationship between grammar mastery and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability. The writer used ex post facto research design because she did not give any treatment but collected the data and saw the correlation of cause and effect that happened. Ex post facto design involved only one group and does not use any control class. Hacth and Farhady (1982:26) state that an ex post facto
The research design of Ex post facto co-relational study is formulated as follows:
T1 T2
Where:
T1 : The test of understanding grammar and vocabulary mastery. T2 : The test of reading comprehension.
(Hatch and Farhady, 1982:27)
3.2Population and Sample
The population of this research was the first year students of SMAN 1 Bandar Lampung. There were nine classes of the first grade students and whole of classes consisted of about 290 students. In this research, the writer determined the sample by using simple random sampling technique, because every student in the population got the same opportunity to be chosen or to be sample of the research. The writer took class X-5 consisting of 38 students as the sample and class X-6 consisting of 40 students as the try out class.
3.3Variables
The correlation of the variables is illustrated as follows:
X1 Where: X1 = grammar mastery
Y X2 = vocabulary mastery
X2 Y = reading ability
(Hatch and Farhady, 1982:27)
3.4Data Collecting Techniques
The procedures of collecting data were such the following: 1. Grammar test
Grammar test was administered to know grammar mastery and usage. The test of grammar was multiple choices, which consists of 30 items.
2. Vocabulary test
A test of vocabulary was used to measure the students’ vocabulary mastery. Type of vocabulary test was multiple choices, which consists of 30 items.
3. Reading comprehension test
3.5Research procedure
In conducting the research, there were some procedures that applied for taking the data :
1. Determining the problem
In order to determine the problem, the writer read the books that were related to the topic under discussion.
2. Determining the instrument
In this research, the writer used instrument in order to be able to be interpreted. The instruments were vocabulary test, consisting of 30 items, grammar test consisting 30 and reading comprehension which consists of 30 items.
3. Finding the sample
The sample of this research determined though simple random probably sampling. There were nine class of the first year of SMAN 1. However only class X.5 and X.6 had a chance to become the sample of this research. 4 Try out the instrument
Before distributing the instruments, the writer distributed the try out test to them in order to guarantee the result to be more valid.
5 Distributed the instrument
Both of the instruments would be distributed on the same day. 6 Scoring the students’ work
7. Analyzed the data
The writer analyzed the data whether there was correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability.
3.6Try Out Test
Try out test was administered to determine the quality of the test that would be used to collect the data. In order to determine the quality of the test whether the instruments were valid, the writer tried out the instruments to measure the validity, reliability, discriminating power and level of difficulty. The writer gave 90 items for tryout test. After giving a try out test, the writer would find if the question was significant or not. Furthermore the significant questions would be tested again to find the correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability.
3.6.1 Result of the Try out
In this research, the try out test would be categorized into three types of question, they were grammar test, vocabulary test, and reading test.
3.6.1.1Grammar test
Meanwhile the mode was 76 which there were three students scored 76 in completing the test. Below is the table of students’ score in try out class;
Table 1. Distribution of Students’ Grammar mastery in Tryout Class No Class Interval Frequency Percentage Level
1. < 59 4 11% Unsatisfactory
2. 60 – 69 5 13% Very Weak
3. 70 – 79 7 18% Satisfactory
4. 80 – 89 13 34% Very Good
5. 90 – 100 9 24% Excellent
Total 38 100%
3.6.1.1.1 Reliability of the Grammar
The grammar test that used in this research consisted of 30 items. In order to find out whether the test was suitable to be used in real research, the test was tried out to 38 students of X-6 class of SMA N 1 Bandar Lampung. So that, there were no items of questions that had to be dropped out since the reliability was sufficient (0.795) (see Appendix 4). The reliability of the test was gained by using
cronbarch’s alpha.
From the calculation, it was found that the grammar test is suitable to be used in the real sample because the reliability was high (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:22)
3.6.1.2Vocabulary test
was 87 which there were six student scored 87 in completing the test. Below is the table of frequency of students’ score in tryout class.
Table 2. Distribution Frequency of Students’ Vocabulary in Tryout No Class Interval Frequency Percentage Level
1. < 59 16 42% Unsatisfactory
2. 60 – 69 6 16% Very Weak
3. 70 – 79 2 5% Satisfactory
4. 80 – 89 11 29% Very Good
5. 90 – 100 3 8% Excellent
Total 38 100%
3.6.1.2.1. Reliability of Vocabulary Tryout
The writer gave the try out test to the first SMAN 1 Bandar Lampung. The writer got class X-6 which consisted of 38 students. It is found that the reliability of grammar test (r) is 0.811 (see Appendix 4). The reliability of the test was gained by using cronbarch’s alpha.
From the calculation, it was found that the grammar test is suitable to be used in the real sample because the reliability was very high (Setiyadi, 2006).
3.6.1.3 Reading test
Table 3. Distribution Frequency of Students’ Reading Ability in Tryout No Class Interval Frequency Percentage Level
1 >59 4 11% Unsatisfactory
2 60-69 5 13% Very Weak
3 70-79 7 18% Satisfactory
4 80-89 19 50% Very Good
5 90-100 3 8% Excellent
Total 38 100%
3.6.1.3.1 Reliability of the Reading
The reading test that used in this research consisted of 30 items. In order to find out whether the test was suitable to be used in real research, the test was tried out to 38 students of X-6 class of SMA N 1 Bandar Lampung. The result of the test presented in the appendix 3, it is found that the reliability of reading test (r) is 0.678 (see Appendix 4). The reliability of the test was gained by using
cronbarch’s alpha.
From the calculation, it was found that the reading test is suitable to be used in the real sample because the reliability was high level (Setiyadi, 2006)
3.7Reliability and Validity of the Instruments 1. Reliability
The reliability of grammar test, vocabulary test and reading test was found out by using split-half method. It was done by dividing the number of test items into two groups (odd and even) and correlated by using Pearson Product Moment Correlation, the formula is as follow:
2
After being correlated, the calculation was continued by using formula of
Spearman Brown. This formula was used to measure the reliability coefficient of all items. The formula as follow:
xy
rxy = Coefficient of reliability between odd and even number
The criteria of coefficient correlations are: 0.00 – 0.19 = Very low
0.20 – 0.39 = Low 0.40 – 0.59 = Average 0.60 – 0.79 = High 0.80 – 1.00 = Very high (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:122)
2. Validity of the Test
a. Validity of Grammar Test
The validity of the grammar test referred to the content and construct validity in which the questions represented three sorts of grammar skills, they were identifying adjective clauses, identifying verb, and identifying the sentences. They were parallel to the skill required by the language curriculum. The test tried out to the students whose level was equal to sample of the research.
Table 4. Specification of grammar test No Questions of grammar
2 Grammatical tense 3,5,6,7,10,11,19,20,21,22,23, 24,25,26,27,28,29,30
18 60%
3 Adverb connectors 1,2,8,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 10 33%
Total 30 100%
b. Validity of Vocabulary Test
The validity of the vocabulary test referred to the content and construct validity in which the questions represented three kinds of vocabulary. They were Verb, noun, and adjective.
Table 5. Specification of vocabulary test
No Part of speech Items number Total
5 Prepositional Phrase 12,17,20,22,24,26 6 20%
Total 30 100%
c. Validity of Reading Test
idea, identifying specific information, inference, reference, and vocabulary. They were parallel to the skill required by the language curriculum. The test tried out to the students whose level was equal to the subject of the research.
Table 6. Specification of reading comprehension test
No Skills of reading Items number Total items
%
1 Determining main idea 13,16,21,26,29 4 13% 2 identifying specific
information
c. An item with FV 0.71 – 1.00 = easy
3.9Discrimination Power
Discrimination power refered to the extent to which the item differentiates between high and low level students on the test. A good item according to this criterion was “one in which good students do better than the poor.” (Shohamy, 2985:81). To calculate the discrimination power (DP) of the test items, the writer uses the following formula:
N L U DP
2 1
Where: DP = discrimination power index
U = the proportion of upper group students L = the proportion of lower group students n = total number of students
(Shohamy, 1985:82)
Classifications:
1. 0.00 – 0.20 = poor 2. 0.21 – 0.40 = satisfactory 3. 0.41 – 0.70 = good 4. 0.71 – 1.00 = Excellent
3.10 Scoring System
Scoring system is used to find the reliability of grammar, vocabulary and reading test. Mikado and Matsumoto in Danahar (1994:4) suggest that in order to improve the reliability of vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension, the number of questions is added and also the number of multiple choices is multiplied. Thus, the writer used multiple choices in order to gain the objectivity of the result, in form of eighteen multiple choice and four alternative answers. One was as key answer and the other three were the distracters. In evaluating the students’ grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension scores were calculated by using formula as follows:
100
N R S
Notes:
S : the score of the test
R : the total of the right answers N : the total items
3.11 Data Analysis
Ho : the data is not distributed normally H1 : the data is distributed normally
In this research, H is accepted if p > 1 α ( p = the significant score of students, α =
the significant level), and the writer used level of significance of 0.05.
The data were correlated by using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (SPSS) in order to investigate whether there was any correlation or not.
3.12 Hypothesis Testing
The hypotheses of this research are:
1. H0= There is no significant correlation between students’ grammar and their
reading ability.
1
H = There is significant correlation between students’ grammar and their
reading ability.
2. H0= There is no significant correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery
and their reading ability.
1
H = There is significant correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery
and their reading ability
3. H = There is no significant shared 0 correlation between students’ grammar
1
H = There is significant shared correlation between students’ grammar and
vocabulary mastery and their reading ability.
In order to prove the hypotheses of this research, the writer used the following steps:
a. Used the Product moment correlation in order to investigate the first and second hypothesis. The formula is as follow:
2
2 2
r = Coefficient correlation between students’ understanding of grammar
and their reading ability.
x2y
r = Coefficient correlation between students vocabulary mastery and their
reading ability.
N = Number of students in sample
1
x
= The total score of students’ grammar
2
x
= The total score of students’ vocabulary
∑y = The total score of reading comprehension
Y 1
x
= The total score of students’ understanding grammar and reading
Y 2
x
= The total score of students’ vocabulary mastery and reading
comprehension
(Hach and Farhady, 1982:198)
b. In order to investigate the third hypothesis multiple correlations formula was used. The formula can be seen as follows:
1 12
Ry.12: The coefficient correlation between students’ grammar, vocabulary and
their reading ability.
1
y
r The coefficient correlation between X1 and Y
2
y
r The coefficient correlation between X2 and Y
12
r The coefficient correlation between X1 and Y2
(Sudjana, 1992:385)
Setiyadi (2006: 167) states that coefficient correlation is always between -1 up to +1
The coefficient correlation (r) value from the formula is intended to compare with critical value of the Pearson Product Moment Coefficient Correlation from the table.
c. Determine the degree of freedom (df). The formula is N-2
d. Determine the level of significance. In this case the researcher used significance level α 0.05
e. Determine the result of correlation in order to investigate the first and second
hypothesis. It is achieved by comparing the result of rxywith the critical value
of r in the rtable
1. If xy
r ≥ rtableit means that H1 is accepted and the null hypothesis (H0) is
rejected.
2. If xy
r ≤ rtable it means that H1 is accepted and the null hypothesis (H0) is
IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
This chapter discusses the activities after collecting the data. It deals with the results of the data analysis and discussions. The results of the data analysis are divided into four sub sections, that is, the results of the try out, results of grammar test, results of vocabulary test, results of reading comprehension test, normality test, and the correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading
ability.
4.1. Result of The Research
4.1.1. Result of the Correlation between Students’ Grammar Mastery and Reading Ability
In order to know the coefficient correlation between students’ grammar mastery and
reading, the writer organized the data by using Pearson Product Moment Correlation
Table 7. Correlation Between Students’ Grammar Mastery and Reading Ability
X1 Y
X1 Pearson Correlation 1 .654(**)
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 40 40
Y Pearson Correlation .654(**) 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 40 40
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
From the calculation of the SPSS, the writer found the correlation between students’ grammar mastery and reading ability is .654.The coefficient correlation is higher than the critical value of rtable (.654 > .393) at significance level 0.01. The result of this research shows that students’ grammar mastery correlates positively with reading ability.
4.1.2 Result of the Correlation Between Students’ Vocabulary Mastery and Reading
To see how far the correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and reading
ability, the writer analyzed the data by using Pearson Product Moment Correlation
(SPSS).
Table 8. Correlation Between Students’ Grammar Mastery and Reading Ability
X2 Y
X2 Pearson Correlation 1 .730(**)
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 40 40
Y Pearson Correlation .737(**) 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 40 40
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
From the table above, N shows the total of the students who took part in the test where the coefficient of correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and
4.1.3 The Correlation between Students Grammar Mastery and Vocabulary Mastery and Their Reading Ability
In order to determine whether there is significant correlation between the students’
grammar and reading ability, and whether there is correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading ability, the variables were calculated by using Pearson Product Moment Coefficient Correlation. Then, to determine whether there is any significant correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading
ability or not the writer used multiple correlations in order to investigate the third hypotheses.
Here is the formula for Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient.
2
The correlation of the variables that is, students’ grammar (X1), vocabulary mastery (X2) and reading ability (Y) can be seen as follow:
Table 9. Correlation Between Students’ Grammar Mastery and Vocabulary Mastery and Their Reading Ability
No
1 0.62 0.728 0.803
From the result of data calculation above, it can be seen that the correlation coefficient (rx1y) of the two variables was 0.62 at the significant level of 0.01. It means that there was high correlation between students’ grammar and reading ability.
Meanwhile the result of correlation coefficient ( )
2y
at the significance level of 0.01. It means that there was high correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and reading ability. The result of the multiple correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading
ability showed
12
y
r = 0.803 which was categorized as very high correlation. They
were higher than critical value taken from the table (rtable = 0.393) where degree of freedom (df) is 40 at the significance level 0.01. It means that there is positive significant correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability.
From the result of this research shows that students’ grammar mastery and vocabularry mastery correlate positively to reading ability. It indicates that students’
grammar mastery and vocabulary mastery are interrelated and seemed unseparately. In other words, the writer verifies that there is significant correlation between students’ grammar mastery and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability at the
first year students of SMA I Bandar Lampung.
4.1.4. Normality Test
Before calculating the correlation of the three variables, students’ grammar,
Table 10. Normality test X1
One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test
X1
N 40
Normal Parameters(a,b) Mean 8.2632
Std. Deviation .94649
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .138
a Test distribution is Normal. b Calculated from data.
From the table 4.10, it can be seen that the data are normally distributed through
Kolmogorov-Smirnov, with the level of significance 0.01. According to Kolmogorov-Smirnov, the test significance value of the data for students’ grammar mastery was 0.138. It means p > 0.01 and data X1 have normal distribution.
Table 11. Normality Test X2
One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test
X2
N 40
Normal Parameters(a,b) Mean Std. Deviation 7.1930 1.20965
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .424
In the normality test for X2, vocabulary mastery, it could be seen from data on table 4.8 above that the result of vocabulary mastery was 0.424. It means that the variable X2 was bigger than 0.01 and could be stated as normally distributed.
Table 12. Normality Y
One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test
Y
N 40
Normal Parameters(a,b) Mean 7.5526
Std. Deviation 1.06339
Most Extreme Differences
Absolute .181
Positive .121
Negative -.181
Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z 1.119
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .164
a Test distribution is Normal. b Calculated from data.
According to Kolmogorov-Smirnov, the test significance value of the data for students’ reading comprehension was 0.164. It means that p > 0.01 and data Y has normal distribution. Since the data from students’ grammar, vocabulary mastery, and
their reading ability are normally distributed, this research used Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient which found out the correlation between
4.1.5. Hypotheses Testing
In this research, result of hypothesis was based on correlation computation. The value of ry12 was 0.803 with significance level 0.01. the correlation coefficient (rvalue) is higher than rtable (0.803 > 0.393). because of it, the Ho in this research can be rejected. It means that the hypothesis was H1, there were significant correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability of the first grade
of SMA Negeri 1 Bandar Lampung.
4.2 Discussion of the Results
This section deals with the discussion of the research’s result based on the data that has been presented above.
4.2.1 Discussion of the Correlation between Students’ Grammar and Reading It is obvious that grammar mastery plays an inportant role for the students to comprehend the text (reading). Based on the data of this research, it was found that there was positive correlation between students’ grammar and reading. The coefficient of the correlation between students’ grammar mastery and reading is 0.62 at the significance level 0.01. It means that the students’ grammar mastery positively correlated with students’ reading ability.
mechanics of reading, which what makes the connection between grammar and reading is important.
According to Brown (2001: 362) states that grammar is the system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence. Considering that a correct grammar is important because grammatical mistakes can lead to misunderstanding what one is saying or writing. In addition, Jeffery (1990 : 120) states that grammar is needed in order to gain control of written language for thought has to be organized in order to make meaning clear to readers.
There are also researches done by Donald F. Moores & Catherine Sweet (1990) For both groups there were high correlations between reading and the two measures of English grammar/structure. Based on Richard (1992) reading comprehension refers to the understanding that results from perceiving a written text. Thus, when language is spoken or written, it is well-patterned and follows certain rules otherwise the messages conveyed will not be understood. Further, Hornby (1989:542) says that grammar is the rules for forming words and combining them into sentences.
4.2.2 Discussion of the Correlation between Students’ Vocabulary and Reading The coefficient correlation between students’ vocabulary and reading ability is 0.728 at the significance level 0.01, it means that students’ vocabulary mastery positively
correlated with their reading ability. Nation (1990 : 22) contends that the main goal of vocabulary is to increase the students’ vocabulary mastery in order to master the four
language skills : listening speaking, reading, writing. As mentioned previously it can be obviously seen that students’ vocabulary mastery takes a big part in acquiring
reading ability.
Gleason and Ratner (1998 : 1425) argues that development of vocabulary knowledge represents a continuum in which individual words move from unfamiliar to acquainted, and to established categories. This vocabulary development both pushes and is pushed forward by reading acquisition. The interconnectedness of reading and vocabulary development is shown by the influence of each to the other where advances in each influences the other. The reciprocal causation relationship exists in older impaired readers where these readers developed problems in vocabulary knowledge as the result of delays in reading, which then became further impeded because of increasing vocabulary deficits.
4.2.3. The Correlation between Students’ Grammar and Vocabulary Mastery and their Reading Ability
As writer mentioned before, each student had different rate of grammar mastery and vocabulary mastery to reading ability, whether it was high, moderate or even low and those results of students’ grammar mastery and vocabulary were correlated with their
reading ability. Based on the data of the research, it was found that there was positive correlation between students’ grammar mastery and vocabulary and their reading ability. The coefficient correlation between students’ grammar mastery and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability is .803.
As a result, grammar, vocabulary, and reading have correlation one to the other. For understanding reading comprehension students must know the vocabulary first because it is a basis of language. It is impossible for the students to read a foreign language without having enough knowledge of vocabulary. Besides that, grammar has important role in learning English, so it also has a big influence to reading comprehension. Students who want to get a text message, have to know about how the text is form or they will not able to have complete understanding about the text was mean. So, when their score of grammar and vocabulary is high, their score in reading comprehension is also high.
teachers’ ability in guiding and managing their class and inappropriate reading
strategy. This statement is also supported by Finnochiaro (1983) who defines that reading comprehension is the ability which depends on the accuracy and speed of graphic perception, that are perception of writer symbol, control of language relationship and structure, knowledge of vocabulary items and lexical combination, awareness of redundancy, the ability to use contextual clues and recognition control illusion.
Based on the statement above it is revealed vocabulary and gramma rwhich are the important in learning language especially in reading. Vocabulary is the first stage to learn and to kow the text it self. Because, if the student have a little vocabulary they found difficult to understanding about grammar in text reading. Especially for regular and irregular verb in vocabulary to express their text in reading. So, the student must master grammar formations if they want to improve their skill in reading.
V. CONCLUSIONS 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 divided into two parts, the first is conclusions and the second is suggestions.
5.1 Conclusions
Based on the result of the data analysis and discussion in chapter IV, the writer draws the following conclusions:
1. There is a significant positive correlation between students’ grammar mastery and their reading ability at the first year of SMAN 1 Bandar Lampung. It can be seen from the result of the hypothesis testing which showed that the coefficient correlation was higher than critical value of rtable (0.6117259> 0.393) at significance level 0.01. The null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted, which shows that there is significant correlation between students’ grammar mastery and their reading ability.
mastery and their achievement on reading ability is found to be very high with index correlation ( 0.728 > 0.393) at significance level 0.01.
3. There is a shared correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability at the first grade of SMAN 1 Bandar Lampung. It can be seen from the result of the hypothesis testing which shows that the coefficient correlation was higher than the critical value of rtable (0.803 > 0.393) at the significance level 0.01. the null hypothesis is rejected and the research hypothesis is accepted, which shows that there is a significant correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability.
5.2 Suggestions
Based on the conclusions of the research, the writer puts forward some suggestions, they are:
1. The English teacher should give more explanation and attention to the students about the aspects of reading comprehension especially in the aspect of determining main idea. He teacher may give more practice of reading by giving exercises on finding the main idea.
2. The teacher should encourage the students to have and use dictionary as a tool to help them with difficult words.
