THE CORRELATION BETWEEN VOCABULARY MASTERY AND READING COMPREHENSION AT THE THIRD SEMESTER OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENT AT STAIN PONOROGO IN

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN VOCABULARY MASTERY AND

READING COMPREHENSION AT THE THIRD SEMESTER OF ENGLISH

DEPARTMENT STUDENT AT STAIN PONOROGO IN ACADEMIC YEAR

2014/2015

A. Background of the Study

English is the International language. Almost

all countries using English as a compulsory

subject at school. The national of education of

Indonesia has decided that English as a foreign

language taught that started from primary schools

up to university. To get good product, as an

professional English teacher think that teaching

English very important and need much concern to

shoul explore effectiveness of techniques,

methods, and approaches.

The students have to master the four basic

language skills. They are listening, speaking,

reading, and writing. Beside such basic skills,

the student have to master some vocabularies as

well as possible. Having a good vocabulary and

ability to use words correctly and effectively can

help the students’ communication to another. Here

1

vocabulary has important role and is one important

aspect in learning of a language.

Mastering vocabulary is the ability to get or

to receive many words. By having and mastering

vocabulary, we will know the meaning of vocabulary

in context and helping to avoid making mistakes in

understanding. Vocabulary in one of the most

important skills in a language.1 So to achieve the

success in language teaching learning process

especially English, vocabulary is one of important

factors in language teaching.

On the other hand, student in Indonesian to

learn English reading is poor of vocabulary,

whereas in fact vocabulary is the most important

thing in reading skill. Reading is the most

important single in study.2 Reading has an

essential part in English teaching. Many

advantages can be gotten from it. Reading text not

only provides good models for English writing, but

also opportunities to study language:

vocabularies, grammar, punctuation, and the way to

construct sentences, paragraphs and texts..3

1 Norbert Schmitt, Vocabulary in Language Teaching (USA; Cambridge University Press, 1997),402 Harry Madox, How to Study (Greenwich: Faweet Premier, 1963), 763 Jeremy Harmer, How To Teach Reading (England Longman, 2002), 68.

2

According to the explanation above, it can be

concluded that reading is very important skill,

because it can increase the other skill.

Vocabulary is necessary in reading

comprehension.4 It means, vocabulary and reading

have close relation whereas if someone has more

vocabulary, they will easier to understand some

texts. To get empirical data about the

correlation, the writer will organize the test

result to prove the influence of students’

vocabulary mastery and reading ability.

Considering to the explanation above, the

writer would like to take the study under the

title “The Correlation Between Vocabulary Mastery

and Reading comprehension at the Third Semester

of English Departement at STAIN Ponorogo in

Academic Year 2014/2015”

B. Statement of the Problem

This study promotes some problems formulated as

follow :

How is the correlation between vocabulary

mastery and reading comprehension the third

4 M. Eva Sundari Elizabeth, acquisition of English Vocabulary (india: Discovery Publishing Pvt. Ltd, 2008), 8

3

semester of English Departement at STAIN

Ponorogo in academic year 2014/2015?

C. Objectives of the Study

To know the correlation between vocabulary

mastery and students’ reading comprehension of the

third semester at STAIN Ponorogo in academic year

2014/2015

D. Theoritical Background

1. Vocabulary Mastery

a. Definition of Vocabulary

Vocabulary is one of the most obvious

components of language and one of the first

things applied linguist turned their

attention to.5

According to Jack C Richard & Willy A.

Renandya, vocabulary is a core component of

language proficiency and provides much of

the basic for how well learners speak,

listen, read, and write.6

5 Jack C. Richard, Curriculum Development in Language Teaching, (Cambridge University Press), 4.6 Jack C Richard & Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching, (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 255.

4

Vocabulary is essential for successful

second language use because, without an

extensive vocabulary, we will be unable to

use the structures we may have learned for

comprehensible communication.7

Vocabulary mastery is more large the

words or vocabulary, more help to increase

the speaking, listening, writing, and

reading ability.8According explanation above

can conclude that vocabulary is considered

as the most important part in learning

language and in vocabulary does not only

mean memorizing the form of the word but

also understand its meaning to communicate

to each other.

b. The importance of Vocabulary

Vocabulary is obviously very important

element within a language as the

overwhelming majority of meaning is carried

lexically; and therefore, something to be

taken into consideration both in second and

foreign language teaching, although not the

only one that conveys meaning. There are7 David Nunan, Language Teaching Methodology, (London: Longman, 2000), 117.8 Anthony, Mastering Basic English, (Surabaya: Study Group, 1997), 5.

5

certainly the other elements such as

grammar, stress, rhytm, intonation, tone of

voice, etc.

Learning a language can’t be reduced,

of course, to only learning vocabulary, but

it is also true that; no matter how well the

students learn grammar, no matter how

successfully the sound of L2 are mastered,

witout word to express a wide range of

meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot

happen in any meaningful way. Nevertheless,

in spite of the importance this element,

vocabulary is often least systematized and

the most neglected of all the aspects of

learning a second language, not only in

English for General Purposes (EGP) but in

English for Spesific Purposes (ESP) as

well.9

c. English Vocabulary Mastery

English is a kind of language from all

of many kinds language in the world.

Mastering vocabulary is the ability to get

or to receive many words. By having and9 Rosa Lopez Campillo, Teaching and Learning Vocabulary: An Introduction for English Student, 36.

6

mastering vocabulary, we will know the

meaning of vocabulary in context and helping

to avoid making mistakes in understanding.

The mastery of vocabulary of language

will be added, because on four experience in

communication on everyday. Therefore,

vocabulary is an important thing to learn

English language where the mastery of

vocabulary will support the successfulness

of the students in English language.

d. Principles for Teaching Vocabulary

Learners see vocabulary as being a very

important part of language learning and one

of the difficulties in planning the

vocabulary component of a course is making

sure that is does not overwhelm other

essential parts of the course. There are

some principles of teaching vocabulary:

1. Focus on the most useful vocabulary

first

The most useful vocabulary hat every

English language learner need whether

they use the language for listening,

speaking, reading or writing, or

whether they use the language in formal

7

or informal situations, is the most

frequent 1000 word families of English.

2. Focus on the vocabulary in the most

appropriate way

These principles look a how they should

be taught and learned. Here we will

look at the four most important

vocabulary learning strategies of using

word parts, guessing from context,

using word cards, and using dictionary.

3. Give attention to the high frequency

words across the four strands of a

course

High frequency vocabulary needs to

occur in all four strands of a course.

It should get deliberate attention

through teaching and study and should

be met and used in communicating

messages in listening, speaking,

reading, and writing. High frequency

vocabulary should also be fluently

accessible for receptive and productive

use.

4. Encourage Learners to reflect on and

take responsibility for learning

8

There is an important principle that

lies behind choosing and learning and

that is that learners need to realize

that they must be responsible for their

own learning.10

2. Reading

a. Definition of Reading

Reading is crucial our knowledge by

reading activities and the activity of

reading can be found in the internet, book,

etc. students should practice their reading

more and more, so that their reading

experience will be improved. They may find

difficulty and frustrating, but if they keep

practicing, they will have a good sense of

English and will help them to graps the

total meaning of the words.

Another thing should be remembered in

reading that student should not open a

dictionary too often because it will slow

down their reading rate and can make them

bored. If they find new words, they should

10 David Nunan, Practical English Language Teaching, (Asia: MeGraw-Hill,2005), 135-140.

9

try to guess the meanings by trying to find

out any words according to the context in

the passages.

Reading is what the reader does to get

the meaning needs from textual sources.11 It

means that is a process to understand a

written text which means extracting the

required information from it as efficiently

as possible. F. Dubin explained the meaning

of reading is primarily a cognitive process,

which means that the brain does most of the

work.12 Actually the activity of reading is

need power extra.

Those statement above the mean generally

reading is a complex process of thinking in

assigning meaning from printed materials

which involve most of the readers’

intellectual act such as pronounciation and

comprehension in order to receive ideas or

information extended by the text. It can be

seen that reading is not only looking at

word in the form of graphic symbols but also11 Walter R. Hill, Secondary School Reading : Process, Program, Procedure, (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1979), 412 F. Dubin, D.E. Eskey and W. Grabbe, Teaching Second Language Reading for Academic Purposes (California: Edison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1986), 6

10

getting meaning from word to word or line to

line to understand the text content and to

get information have read.

b. Aims of Reading

According to Paul S. Anderson, there are

seven aims of reading, reading for details

and fact, reading for main ideas, reading

for sequence or organization, reading for

inference, reading for classifying, reading

for evaluating and treading for comparing of

contest.

1) Reading for details and fact is reading

to know what the subject of the story

does

2) Reading for main ideas is reading to get

the problem statement

3) Reading for sequence of organization is

reading to know each part of the story

4) Reading for inference is reading to know

what is the writer meant by its story

5) Reading for classifying is reading to

find unusual things

6) Reading for evaluating is reading to

know the value of the story

11

7) Reading for comparing or contest is

reading to compare the way of life of

the story with the way of life of the

rider

Another author said that the aim of reading

is :

1) Reading for pleasure

2) Reading for information (in order to

find out something or in order to do

something with the information you get)13

c. Types of Reading

Depending on the purposes of reading it

also can be classified into two types of

activities, intensive and extensive

reading.14

1) Intensive Reading

Intensive reading means reading

shorter texts to extract specific

information. This activity is likely

more top emphasize the accuracy activity

involving reading for detail. The

process of scanning takes a more

13 Francoise Grellet, Developing Reading Skills, (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1981), 414 Christine Natal, Teaching Reading Skill in A Foreign Language (London: The Nemenn Educational Ltd, 1982), p.23

12

prominent role here than skimming.

Reader is trying to absorb all the

information given.

Example: Reading dosage instruction for

medicine.

2) Extensive Reading

Reader deals with longer text as a

whole, which requires the ability to

understand the component part and their

contribution to overall meaning, usually

for one’s own pleasure. This is a

fluency activity, mainly involving

global understanding. For the example:

Reading a newspaper, articles, short

story, or novel.

In other words Francoise Grellet

defines that skimming is quickly running

one in eyes over a text to get the gist

of it. While, scanning is quickly going

trough a text to find a particular piece

of information. So if a person wants to

get an address, phone number, a date in

book over paragraph in order to locate a

special piece of information, that

activities is called scanning. While if

13

readers reads all the passage in order

to know about what it deals about his

reading, that is called skimming.

In skimming a reader must ask

theirself what the text is talked about.

They must move his eyes quickly over the

text, looking especially at the main

title, the beginning and the end, and

the first sentence of paragraph. In

scanning the reader must ask himself or

not the text contains what he is looking

for and if any, he must find where is

located, he moves also his eyes more or

less quickly over the text specific

items.

d. Reading Comprehension

The essence of reading act is

comprehension: it becomes a primary

challenge in teaching or learning of reading

skill. In order to learn or understand the

massage of the author, the students are

hoped to have the ability to comprehend the

written textbook. Comprehension means

14

anderstanding the meaning or the point of a

topic.

Dorothy Rubin state that reading

comprehension is a complex intellectual

process involving a number of abilities. The

two major abilities concern word meanings

and resoning with verbal concepts.15 English

has been taught as a foreign language in our

country, however, it does not mean that the

result of teaching English in our school is

satisfactory, despite the fact that it is

taught continuously for six years at the

high school, three years at SMP, and three

at SMA.

From explanation before as a teacher

hope their students can apply material that

have gotten. Students can read perfectly and

get information from material that have

read.

e. Factors Affecting Comprehension

As it has already been shown, reading

comprehension need some intellectual ability

to master it. Six basic factors influence

15 Dorothy Rubin, Diagnosis and Correlation in Reading Instruction, (New York: CBS College Publishing, 1982), 207

15

the students’ ability in comprehending

written materials.

1. Background Experiences

Students who have little

experience may have some difficulties in

comprehending many ideas and activities

with which other children are familiar

befor they learn in school.

2. Intellectual Abilities

Intellectual abilities have

important role, although the teacher

gives the same text book and same pupose

of reading, the result of reading may be

different. The number of ideas that they

understand and the depth of their

understanding will be largely dependent

upon their general capacity to learn.

3. Language abilities,

including semantics or word

meaning and graps of syntax.

Understanding of semantics comes from

experience with words in various,

personally meaningful setting. A graps of

syntax is needed to recover the structure

of the language, so the students have to

16

master syntax which links deep and

surface structure.

4. The Purpose of Reading

Students could also have

difficulties to understand the story if

they read it with no particular purpose

in mind. Comprehension is always directed

and controlled by the needs and purposes

of an individual and they must establish

their own purpose before reading and

commits the entire story to memory.

5. Skills of Comprehension

The ability to comprehend develops

gradually from the simple to the complex

skills. The teacher give a balanced

program, include direct teaching of

techniques which will aid the student in

developing attitudes and skill of

thoughtful, purposeful reading.

f. Teaching Reading

Teaching reading is act of guiding

and facilitating learning. The process of

reading is interaction between reader and

text.16 It means that in teaching English16 Peter Luncantoni, Teaching and Assessing Skill in English as a Second Language (UnitedKingdom: Cambridge University Perd, 2005), 29

17

reading the teacher guide the students to

read the text in order to the students

interact directly with the text to

understand the meaning of the text.

Much of what we know about reading is

based on the studies conducted in English

and other alphabetic languages. In reading,

we must know how to say the sound and the

stumble over them.17 In shont, in reading

process we must know how to sound the text

and give the good intonation while we are

reading.

In conclusion, in teaching reading

process the teacher give opportunity for

student to interact with the text and try to

produce the sound. From here students study

about how to sound something and understand

about the meaning of the text.

g. Correlation Between Vovabulary and

Reading

One reason why children find reading

in some subject fields difficult because of17 Marya Finochiano, English As A second Language From Theory To Practice, (New York: Regents Publishing Company,1974), 77

18

their less of vocabulary. Whereas in fact of

vocabulary is the most important thing in

reading skill. Most of people find the

difficult word, we still just continue our

reading in the hope that the word we read is

not important, or that its mean meaning will

become clear later on. However, sometimes

these word that we passed usually as the key

of our reading and understanding.

People cannot catch and graps the

idea from our reading as well as possible.

So looking up the difficult words in

dictionary is better for us. More knowing of

vocabulary will easier to read something.

Here vocabulary have important role in

reading aspects especially.

E. Previous Study

In this research discuss about correlation

between vocabulary mastery and reading

comprehension, the researcher looks at the

previous of research

The first is the thesis of Azizah Dian

Novitasari with the title : “The correlation study

between students’ vocabulary mastery and

19

translation ability at tenth grade students of MA

“Miftahul ulum” Kedungpanji Lembeyan in academic

year 2012/2013. She stated that there is the

correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery

and translation ability at tenth grade students of

MA “Miftahul ulum” Kedungpanji Lembeyan in

academic year 2012/2013.

The second is the thesis of Fajar Furqon with

the title “Correlation between students’

vocabulary mastery and their reading

comprehension”. He stated that there is a strong

correlation between students’ reading

comprehension and their vocabulary mastery.

Although the scores of reading and vocabulary test

are differentbut the correlation is strong. It may

be caused by the difficult vocabulary in test

items. Students who have high score in reading

they also have high score in vocabulary.

The researcher took the correlation between

the vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension

at the third grade of English department at STAIN

Ponorogo 2014/2015 as the title.

F. Theoritical Framework

20

Vocabulary knowledge is crucial in reading

comprehension and determining how well students

are able to comprehend the texts. That is why this

study attempts to find out how strong the

vocabulary mastery influences the reading

comprehension.

G. Hypothesis

Alternative Hypothesis (Ha) :

There is correlation between vocabulary mastery

and reading comprehension of the third semester

at STAIN Ponorogo in academic year 2014/2015

Nol Hypothesis (Ho) :

There is no correlation between vocabulary

mastery and reading comprehension of the third

semester at STAIN Ponorogo in academic year

2014/2015

H. Research Approach

21

The aim of this research is to find out the

correlation between student’s vocabulary mastery

and reading comprehension in third grade of

English department at STAIN Ponorogo in academic

year 2014/2015 . This study is also expected to

give significant contribtion to others, especially

English lectures and future researchers. When the

lectures know the correlation between vocabulary

mastery and reading comprehension, it may help

them to figure out some appropriate strategies in

order to help their students to comprehend the

texts.

I. Research Design

The research applies a quantitative approach.

Quantitative approach provides the form of

description, which uses statistic number.

This research applies a correlative research.

The purpose of the research is to know the

correlation between one variable and other

variable. Correlational research design are used

to measure the correlationship between two or more

continous variables.18

18 Mohammad Adnan Latief, Research Methods on Language Learning An Introduction, (Malang: Universitas Negeri Malang, 2014), 111.

22

This research promotes an alternative

hypothesis that there is a significant correlation

between students’ vocabulary mastery and students’

reading achievement. The hypothesis offers two

variables; variable X (students’ vocabulary

mastery) and variable Y (students’ reading

achievement).

Both the students’ vocabulary mastery and

students’ reading achievement are measured through

test and documentation. The result of the test and

documentation is used to identify whether there is

a significant correlation between students’

vocabulary mastery and students’ reading

achievement.

J. Population

Population is defined as all members of a

real set of people, events, or object that the

results can be generalized.19 From definition of

population, the researcher can say that population

is whole subject of the research. The population

of this research is all students at the third

19 Ibid, 181

23

semester of English departement student of STAIN

Ponorogo in academic year 2014/2015. The total

population is 100 students.

K. Sample

Sample is small group of people selected to

represent the much larger entire population from

which it is drawn.20 There were four classes of

third semester in STAIN Ponorogo in academic year

2014/2015. The researcher use technique simple

random sampling. The total number sample is 100

students.

L. Variable

Those variables are X ( students’ vocabulary

mastery ) as independent variable and Y ( student

reading comprehension ) as dependent variable.

Students’ vocabulary mastery can influence the

students’ reading comprehension.

M. Data Analysis

To know the correlation between vocabulary mastery

and reading achievement the writer use product

moment technique data analysis. Because the

20 Ibid, 181.

24

subject 30 or more than 30, it is more effective

to use map of correlation.21 This formula follows:

rxy=

∑fx'y'

n−Cx'Cy'

SDx'SDy'

rxy = the correlation coefficient

∑fx'y' = number of cross product results

( product moment ) between cell frequency ( f )

with x'and y'

Cx' = the correlation value of X variable, Cx'

= ∑ fx'

n

Cy' = the correlation value of Y variable, Cy'

= ∑ fy'

nSDx' is standard of deviation or X variable that

i=1

SDx'= 1√∑fx'2

N−(∑ fx'

N )2

SDy' is standard of deviation or Y variable that

i=1

21 Retno Widyaningrum, Statistik Edisi Revisi ( Ponorogo: Stain Po Press Page, 2009), 111

25

SDy' = 1 √∑fy'2

N−(∑ fy'

N )2

N = number of cases

Steps :

1. Please determining I ( interval ) od each

variable. The formula is R/1 = k

2. Making map of correlation

3. Determaning Cx'Cy'

4. Determining standard of deviasi

SDx'= 1√∑fx'2

N−(∑ fx'

N )2

SDy' = 1 √∑fy'2

N−(∑ fy'

N )2

5. Determining rxy

6. determining the significant standard 5 % or 1%

N. Technique of Data Collection

26

In this research, researcher collects

quantitative data. The researcher use test and

documentation for collecting data.

1. Test

The students have the external standards

that must be reached. The teacher needs to know

where they stand. Therefore, it is necessary

for the teacher to conduct a test in the

teaching learning process and the overall

purpose of testing is to know their students’

ability and how far the succed in learning

process can work.

To measure is there any correlation or no

and the level of significance of object that is

accurate to be it must use test. Thus, test is

used to measure skills of abilities of the

observed object. Based on the definition above,

it can be conclude that test is a series of

practices of questions that is used to

motivated the students and as means of

measuring skills, knowledge, intelligence, and

talent.

In this research, test is applied to

measure the vocabulary mastery and reading

27

ability to the third semester of English

department students of STAIN Ponorogo in

academic year 2014/2015. The vocabulary test

consists of 20 items in multiple choise and

conducted with 60 minutes.

2. Documentation

Documentation provides the researcher with

information that is ise to support the

available data. Documentation is a way of

getting information or data through notes,

transcripts, book, newspaper, magazine, agenda,

etc. Documentation is used to collect data

through printed material.

In this research, documentation is used to find

the result that students gets at the reading

assessment.

REFERENCE

28

Madox, Harry. (1963) How to Study, Faweet Premier, Greenwich..

Harmer, Jeremy. (2002) How To Teach Reading , England Longman.

Elizabeth M. Eva Sundari (2008) Acquisition of English Vocabulary , india Discovery Publishing Pvt. Ltd.

Schmitt Norbert. (1997) Vocabulary in Language Teaching , USACambridge University Press.

C. Richard Jack, Curriculum Development in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press.

C Richard Jack & Willy A. Renandya. (2002) Methodology in Language Teaching, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Nunan David. (2000) Language Teaching Methodology, London: Longman.

Anthony. (1997) Mastering Basic English, Study Group, Surabaya.

Campillo, Rosa Lopez, Teaching and Learning Vocabulary: An Introduction for English Student

Nunan David . (2005) Practical English Language Teaching, Asia: MeGraw-Hill.

Walter R. Hill. (1979) Secondary School Reading : Process, Program, Procedure, Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

29

F. Dubin, D.E. Eskey and W. Grabb. (1986) Teaching Second Language Reading for Academic Purposes , California: Edison-Wesley Publishing Company.

Francoise Grellet. (1981) Developing Reading Skills, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Christine Natal. (1982) Teaching Reading Skill in A Foreign Language, London: The Nemenn Educational Ltd.

Dorothy Rubin. (1982) Diagnosis and Correlation in Reading Instruction, New York: CBS College Publishing.

Peter Luncantoni. (2005) Teaching and Assessing Skill in English as a Second Language, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Perd.

Marya Finochiano, (1976) English As A second Language From Theory To Practice, New York: Regents Publishing Company.

Amparo S. Lardizabal. (1977) Principles and methods of Teaching, Phoenix Press, inc.

Mohammad Adnan Latief. (2014) Research Methods on Language Learning An Introduction, Malang: Universitas Negeri Malang

Widyaningrum, Retno. (2009) Statistik Edisi Revisi ,Stain Po Press Page, Ponorogo.

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