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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Research
English is a language used for international communication. It is also admitted as an international language because most of the countries all over the world teach English to their people. It becomes one of the languages learnt widely by the people in this world. In order to learn foreign languages, one of the most important aspects is vocabulary mastery.
To converse well in a foreign language, one should have the appropriate amount of vocabulary and able to use them correctly. The four language skills, which are speaking, reading, listening and writing. And vocabulary is one of the elements that can’t be distinguished from learning language. For both teachers and students, vocabulary is an important matter in learning foreign language.
According to Hornby (1984), vocabulary is total number of words in which by combining them will make up language, or range of word known used by a person then the word arranged in alphabetical order and defined or otherwise identified as in a dictionary or glossary. Vocabulary is a collection of words that are part of a language, used to make a sentence in order to communicate or convey a message. When this vocabulary is combined in several words, it will form a sentence and have a meaning or a message that is used to interact or communicate with other people.
Vocabulary mastery is the one of most important component in learning and teaching English, because vocabulary is one way to improve English skills. This is in accordance with what was said by Samsudin (2020), that vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read, and write. So, to be able to speak English properly, one must master vocabulary. According to Hariyanto & Wulandari (2019), if students master vocabulary, they can easily improve the language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students can learn English easily if they master vocabulary. However, the teacher who teaches must have a strategy for how students can master vocabulary well.
In communicating or using English, you must be able to master the English vocabulary well. Currently, many students could not use English properly and correctly, so it was very necessary for students to master a large English vocabulary.
So, the students' ability in using English depends on the vocabulary that they mastered.
By mastering vocabulary, students can easily create texts or describe something in written or spoken text. All types of texts require vocabulary to be developed. One of the texts learned by students, especially students of tenth grade SMAN 1 Teluk Bintan, was descriptive text. In studying descriptive texts, one must also be able to master a large vocabulary. Therefore, vocabulary is very important for students to master when studying descriptive texts.
Based on preliminary interview with the English teacher and observation in one of the tenth grade class at SMAN 1 Teluk Bintan, it showed that students had problems and difficulties in mastering vocabulary. They were not able to master a lot of vocabularies and they were still confused when they cannot build their English in descriptive texts to be better because their vocabulary was not much. The proficiency in language skill is not achieved yet. The researcher believed that the students lacked of vocabulary but teachers gave new vocabulary to them every meeting. However, some students still had some problems in using the vocabulary. In addition, most of them did not know pronunciation, spelling of vocabulary, grammar, and meaning in terms of vocabulary in descriptive text.
Based on the phenomena describe above, the researcher was interested in conducting research entitled “An Analysis of Students’ Vocabulary Mastery in Descriptive Text at Tenth Grade Students of SMAN 1 Teluk Bintan”.
1.2 Identification of the Problem
Based on the background explained above, the identification of the problems can be written as follows:
1. Some of the students were not able to master English vocabulary.
2. Some of students were not able to identify the meaning of English vocabulary.
3. Some of the students were not interested in learning English vocabulary.
4. Some of the students were not able to use vocabulary in descriptive text.
5. Some of students were still confused to write the spelling of the words.
6. Some of students rarely brought dictionary into English class.
1.3 Limitation of the Problem
After finding out the problems mentioned above, it is clear that there are many problems in this study, it is necessary for researcher to limit the problem to pay more attention to certain problems. This research is focused on students' vocabulary mastery in descriptive text at tenth grade of SMAN 1 Teluk Bintan.
1.4 Research Question
Based on the background of the study above, the problem of the research is formulated as follow: How is the students’ vocabulary mastery in descriptive text at tenth grade of SMAN 1 Teluk Bintan?
1.5 Purpose of The Research
Based on the formulated above, purpose of the research can be indicated as follows: To find out the students’ vocabulary mastery in descriptive text at tenth grade of SMAN 1 Teluk Bintan.
1.6 Significance of The Research
1. Theoretical
Can be added to research references in the field of education, especially in English education, especially the skills in writing descriptive text with vocabulary mastery.
2. Practical
A. For the researcher, the finding can be used as a starting point to increase the researcher knowledge.
B. For the teachers, the result of this study will provide English teacher, especially the English teachers of the school where the researcher carried out this study, a reflection of their achievement of the teaching and learning process of vocabulary.
C. For the students, the finding of the research can increase students’ interest and students’ achievement in vocabulary mastery.
1.7 Definition of Key Terms
1. Analysis
Analysis is an activity or process to solve a problem that is being observed or examined.
2. Vocabulary
Vocabulary is the basic language aspect that must be mastered before mastering English Skills. Such as adjective, verb, noun, antonym, synonym.
3. Mastery
Mastery is learning or understanding something completely and having no difficulty in using it.
4. Descriptive Text
Descriptive text is a kind of text which is used to describe the real object; a person.
