CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Previous studies

Previous research is the result of research conducted by previous

researchers which have been tested for correctness using the method used.

Previous research can serve as a reference for current researchers.

1. Emma Novianthi research, entitled “correlation between

vocabulary and reading comprehension of the eighth grade students

of SMP Negeri 5 Palu” She said that by comparing the value of

rtable and rcounted, it can be obtained that rcounted is higher than

rtable. It means that there is positive correlation between

vocabulary and reading comprehension of the eighth grade students

of SMP Negeri 5 Palu.

2. Irwan Ro’iyal Ali research, entitled “The correlation between

students’ vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension”. she

said that to find the objective condition from the correlation

between students’ vocabulary mastery and their reading

comprehension which was observed and analized from the

university students of the second semester of English department.

The faculty of tarbiyah and teachers training Syarif Hidayatullah

State Islamic University Jakarta.

3. Nadya Aprilia research, entitled “The correlation between students’

vocabulary mastery and their reading comprehension in descriptive

text at state senior high school 2 Pekanbaru”. She said that based

on the preliminary research. It was found that students’ vocabulary

mastery is not good at the school. Then considering some factors

influencing vocabulary, it was also found that they still have a

mistake to use content words, consists of noun, verb, adjective, and

adverb. and function words, it consists of preposition, article, and

pronoun. So, this research was aimed to find out the correlation

between students’ vocabulary mastery and their reading

comprehension in descriptive text at state senior high school 2

Pekanbaru.

Table 2.1 diffrences and similarities with previous research

NO Researcher Research title Differences similarities

Name

1 Emma correlation a. Research place a. Dependent

Novianthi between b. Object of variable

vocabulary and research reading

reading c. Research time comprehensio

comprehension of d. Research n

the eighth grade sample and b. Independent

students of SMP population variable

Negeri 5 Palu vocabulary

mastery

2 Irwan The correlation a. Research place a. Dependent

Ro’iyal Ali between students’ b. Object of variable

vocabulary research reading

mastery and c. Research time comprehensio

reading d. Research n

comprehension sample and b. Independent

population variable

vocabulary

mastery

3 Nadya The correlation a. Research place a. Dependent

Aprilia between students’ b. Object of variable

vocabulary research reading

mastery and their c. Research time comprehensio

reading d. Research n

comprehension in sample and b. Independent

descriptive text at population variable

state senior high vocabulary

school 2 mastery

Pekanbaru
B. Theoritical Review

1. Understanding about vocabulary

The definition of vocabulary is the words of a language, including

single items and phrases or chunk of several words which present a

particular meaning according to each individual. Vocabulary can be

defined as the knowledge of the language and the ability to use it in

context. The group of words that an individual knows is vocabulary. The

interpretation of know includes all the words that a person recognizes, all

the words with the meaning, especially words accompanied by a textbook.

Vocabulary is one of the language system components that is crucial to be

learned.

Vocabulary becomes the central part of English with the parable

‘vocabulary as bricks in the building while the building is the language.’

To learn English, vocabulary is the main concern. People cannot use

English well without a good amount of vocabulary. Learning vocabulary is

the first step to understand or learn other skill; listening, speaking, writing,

and reading. The knowledge of vocabulary is also essential for reading

comprehension and becomes an essential factor in improving the ability.

Vocabulary is one of the most obvious components of language and

one of the first things applied linguists turned their attention to. It means

that vocabulary will make the students easy in learning language. If the

students have a good vocabulary mastery, they can read or listen English

clearly and then write or speak the sentences in English.

Lehr (2004) stated the vocabulary was knowledge of word and word

meaning in both oral and written language and in productive and receptive
 form.11 Good mastery of vocabulary was important for anyone who learns

the language either in listening, speaking, writing, or reading. A foreign

language learner will speak fluently and accurately, or write easily,

understand what he or she reads or hears if he or she has enough

vocabulary. More importantly, he or she should have the capability of

using it accurately.

Vocabulary as one of language aspects have to be learned when

people are learning a language. Good mastery of vocabulary was

important for anyone who learned the language use in listening, speaking,

writing, and reading besides grammar. A learner of the foreign language

will speak fluently and accurately, write easily, or understand what he or

she reads or hears if he or she has enough vocabulary and has a capability

of using it accurately. Burton said: without a large vocabulary, it was

impossible to use English language precisely and vividly. According to

collier when a student has mastered the fundamental grammatical patterns

of language, his next task was to master its vocabulary, or at least that of

its vocabulary that he needed.

It was obvious that vocabulary was very important in learning a

language. Especially English, because the English vocabulary was

extremely large and varies as well. Therefore, it was highly essential for

English teachers to help their students in mastering vocabulary.

2. Kinds of vocabulary

English vocabulary is classified grammatically according to

terminological traditionally (angela, 2006). There are two classification of

word classes or part of speech, as open class and close class. The open

11
Lehr, F., Osborn,J., and Hiebert, E. H. (2004). A focus on vocabulary. Honolulu, HI:
pacific Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved July, 7, 2009.
class included as follow; preposition, conjunction, pronoun, and

determiner. Thornbury (2002; 3) states that English word fall in to of

eight different word classes. They are; noun, verb, adjective, adverb,

pronoun, preposition, conjunction, and determiner.12 However, the

researchers limits his explanation only in open classes which are divided

into groups, namely: nouns, verbs, adjective, and adverb, even though this

research only limits in using noun and verb.

Ruth (2005: 8) stated noun was a word that names something, a

thing or a person, or a place, or even a feeling or a state of mind. For the

example; man, conference, book, work, coffee, Saturday, jessica, office,

girl, boy, bed, etc. noun can be divided into four kinds of noun, such as

common noun, proper noun, collective noun, and count noun. First

common noun is the names of ordinary things than can we see or touch,

for the example: house, chicken, people, stone, book, table, eraser, pillow,

banana, boy, girl, etc. second is proper noun, it was the name of particular

or special things or person or place or capitalized, for the example:

Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Michael, Christmas, Australia, etc. Third

was collective noun that refers to a group of person or things that is

generally thought of as one unit, for example: class, gang, bunch, family,

animal, group, plan, etc. And the last is count noun that refers to name of

person, things, or ideas that can be counted, for example: books, two,

tables, boys, etc.

Verb was a word that expresses action, events, process activities

etc. DeCapua (2008: 121) stated that verb express what that subject does

or describes something about that state or condition of the subject. Verb is

12
Thornbury, Scott. (2002). How to Teach Vocabulary. Pearson Education Limited.
seriously important; it caused by there is no way to have a sentence

without them. There are several kind of verbs, such as transitive verb,

intransitive verb and auxiliary verb. First, transitive verb is a verb that

followed by object, for example: I borrow a book. Second, intransitive

verb is a verb that does not need followed by object, for example: I am

cry. The last was auxiliary verb is a verb that helps another verb or the

principle verb to express action or condition or state being. For example:

is, am, are, do, does, have.

Huddlesto & Pullum (2005: 112) stated that adjective was a word

typically denotes property of object, person, places, etc. An adjective can

be divided into there types based on the their meaning, such as physical

qualities of color or shape (small, green, black, white, oval), psychological

qualities of emotion (angry, sad, happy, worry, brave), evaluating qualities

(good, bad, excellent, lucky, ungly).

Altenberg & Vago (2010: 103) stated that adverb provide extra

information about the action in a sentence, adjective and about other

adverb. For example: I live here. There some types of adverb as follows:

(1) adverb of manner, (2) adverb of place, (3) adverb of direction, (4)

adverb of time, (5) adverb of duration, (6) adverb of frequency, and (7)

adverb of degree.

Language experts classify vocabulary into some different type; in

relation to kinds of vocabulary, Nation (2001) stated that there were four

categories of vocabulary in the non-fiction text they are:

1) High frequency words. These words are almost 80% of the

running words in the text.

 2) Academic words. Typically, these words make up about 9% of

the running words in the text.

3) Technical words. These words make up about 5% of the

running words in the text. It is use by people working in a

specialized field.

4) Low-frequency words. There were the words of moderate

frequency that does not manage to get into the high-frequency

list. They make up over 5% of the words in an academic text.

The explanation above we can concluded that there were some

kinds of vocabulary. They were received vocabulary and productive

vocabulary, general vocabulary and special vocabulary, active and

recognition vocabulary such as high frequency words, academic words,

technical words, and low-frequency words.

3. Teaching Vocabulary

According to octaviany (2007) there were six principle on which

teaching vocabulary was to be based, they were:

a. Aims

In teaching learning process, a teacher has to be clear about the

aims of teaching leaning process itself. He has to decide on what is

involved in vocabulary learning. He has to decide the words which should

be mastered by the student. He should consider how many lists of words

he expects the learners to achieve and what kind of word they are.

b. Quantity

Teacher may have to decide the number of vocabulary items to be

learn. How many new words in the lesson can be achieved by the learners.
If there were too many words, they may be confused, discouraged, and

frustrated.

c. Need

In teaching vocabulary, teachers has to choose the words really

needed by the student. The student should be put in situation where they

have to communicate and get the words they need.

d. Frequent exposure and repetition

In teaching vocabulary of a foreign language teachers can not only

teach new words once. They have to repeat them to make sure the students

have remembered and understood them. There must be a certain amount of

repetition until there is evidence that the student have learnt the target

words.

e. Meaningful presentation

The learners must have a clear and specific understanding of what

it denotes of refers to, i.e. its meaning involves many other things as well.

This requires that the words can be presented in such a way that is

denotation of reference is perfectly clear and unambiguous.

f. Situation presentation

The choice of words can be various according to the situation in

which we were speaking and according to how well we know the person

whom we were talking to (from formal to informal). Therefore, students

should learn words in situations that are appropriate to them.

Based on the explanation above we could concluded that teaching

English especially teaching vocabulary, needs a relevant technique, so a

teacher can use one of the techniques which are related to the topic and

curriculum. There were several techniques in teaching vocabulary such as

 aims, quantity, need, frequent, exposure and repetition, meaningful

presentation, and situation presentation.

C. Concept of reading comprehension

1. Definition of reading comprehension

Before defining what reading comprehension, it was better to know

first what was meant by reading. Reading is processing the meaning of a

text through some interactive process with print (Alderson 2000: 1).

Reading is also defined as a the process understanding a written text. It

was a complex operation that involved and perception and thinking.

Reading consists of two interrelated processes: word recognition and

understanding. Word recognition refers to a process to see how written

symbols correspond to spoken language. It was also said that word

recognition is a process of access and recognition individual words (Lems,

Miller and Soro,2010: 65).

Hornby (1974:711) explains that reading was the action of the

reader; book knowledge, ESP: the ways in which something has been

interpreted, understanding, the ability of the mind to do so understand

procter in Rahman (1998:6) Evision in Tahir (2001:8) explains that

understanding was the power of ability of the mind to understand to

understand.

There have been several definitions of reading comprehension.

Snow (2001:11)define reading comprehension as” a simultaneous process

extract and contruct meaning through intraction and participation written

language how to argue the definition of reading itself, readers extract

information from printed texts to construct the meaning of the texts.

 Vaughn and Boardman (2007) argued that reading was a process

construct meaning through dynamic teaching from the following aspects;

the previous knowledge of the reader, knowledge proposed from the text

and the context of the reading situation. It was also supported by McEntire

(2003) who defines reading as a constructive process whose prior

knowledge and experience influence the reader’s understanding from the

text. Prior knowledge and experience appear to be important correctly

understand the information contained in the text. Suitable understanding is

possible because the content of the text is close prior knowledge of the

reader. For example, a doctor reading a medical article understands the

text better than a peasant.

Thinker (1975;5) states that reading comprehension is not just

about reading out lout, but also confirms and understands the meaning of

the words, sentence and paragraph know the relationship between ideas.

As such, if a the student only reads aloud, but does not understand the

content of the paragraphs that means he doesn’t understand.

According to Ophelia (1989;205), reading comprehension entails

comprehending, assessing, and using the information shared between the

author and reader. It appears that the author and reader are able to

communicate. It implies that the reader in this instance is making an effort

to comprehend what he is saying.

Smith and dale (1980:7) defined reading comprehension as

“understanding, evaluating, utilizing, and gaining through interaction

between reader and author”. Reading comprehension is a type of

communication between reader and author in which the written language

serves at the channel via which the two people communicate. Reading
comprehension is defined as reading with comprehension. Thus, reading

comprehension was reading by comprehension the meaning of a passage

or what is or has been read. Reading comprehension is when a person

reads something and understands it.

Grabe and stoller (2002), comprehension is the process of parsing

words, creating a mental model of the essential ideas, and incorporating

that model into new knowledge. It was implied that a reader had

understood anything when they had successfully extracted relevant

information from a text and assembled it into a fresh understanding of

their own.

Snow (2002), asserts that there are three main components that

make up comprehension: readers, texts, and activities. The factors that

contribute to comprehension are the readers. To understand the texts, they

make use of their abilities-both macro and micro. The texts have to be

understood as components. All written texts are addressed in reading

activities. It enabled readers to understand. The factors that allow readers

and texts to interact are reading-related activities.

Furthermore, reading comprehension involves considerably more

than just readers’ responses to text, according to Klinger, Vaughn, and

Boardman (2007:8). Reading comprehension is a multi-faceted, extremely

complicated process that incorporates interactions between readers and the

knowledge they bring to the text (prior knowledge, method use), as well as

factors specific to the text itself (interest in text, understanding of text

types). Furthermore, according to Duke and person (2002:205), a lot of

research on the process of reading comprehension has been based on

analyses of what proficient readers do while they read:

1. Good readers were active readers

2. From the outset they have clear goals in mind for their reading. Then

look over the text before reading, noting such things as the structure of the

text and the text sections the might be most relevant to their reading goal.

3. As they read, good readers frequently make predictions about their

reading, what to read quickly, what not to read, and what to read.

4. Good readers tried to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and

concepts in the text, and they deal with inconsistencies or gaps as needed.

5. They draw from, compare, and integrate their prior knowledge with

material in the text, and also monitor their understanding of the text,

making adjustment in their reading as necessary.

6. Comprehension was a consuming, continious, and complex activity,

but one that, for good readers, it both satisfying and productive.

Related to reading comprehension, according to Lems, Miller, and

Soro (2010:170), the ability to comprehend reading was the capacity to

derive meaning from a given written text. Reading comprehension is not a

constant skill; it changes depending on the reading task at hand and the

content being read.

From the perspective presented above, it was possible to draw the

consclusion that reading required the reader to actively engage in though

as they attempted to absorb the information the author had provided.

2. Aims of reading

There are many reasons why someone might read, and each one

contributes to a deeper understanding of what is read. He could read either

rapidly or slowly depending on how he liked or felt if he were reading for

amusement or just pur recreation. However, if he was reading for research

or information-such as news, science, or some line-that was a part of his

study or assignment, he would read extremely slowly and carefully, with

the general intent of extracting some information from the text.

The purpose of reading is the learner understands the written

language. In other words, how the learner get the information or the

message from the writer’s symbols. One of the most important tasks of the

reader was to dig out and find out what the writer would like to say.

According to Anderson, reading has seven different purposes:

reading for specifics and facts, reading for key concepts, reading for

organization sequence, reading for interference, reading for classification,

reading for assessing, and reading for contest comparison.

a. Reading for detail and facts

The students read to get or know the invention that have been

done by the writer or solve the problem of the writer. Its mean that

ther students was reading to know what is done by the subject of

the story.

b. Reading for main ideas

The students read the text to know “ why is the topic good or

interest, next analyze the problem on the story and then

summaries of the story.” Its mea that the students was reading to

get the problem statement on the story.

c. Reading for requences organization

The students read the text know” what is happening in each part

the story in every episode ; solve the problem of the story.” Its

mean that the students was reading to know each part of the story

d. Reading for inference

 The students read in order to find out the counclusion on from the

action or ideas in the text. Its mean that the students was reading

to know what is the writer mean bay its story.

e. Reading fordassifyng

The students read the text to classify some information or action

of the writer in the text paragraph. Its mean that the student was

reading to find unusual things.

f. Reading for comparing or contest

The students read to compare the plot of the story or content

whether having similarity with him or even contrast. Its mean that

the student was reading to compare the way of the story from the

way life of the reader.

Antoner that, there are some experts explains the meaning of

sequence and inference in reading comprehension that are

a. Inference

According to beech (2005) stated that inference is when a reader

adds information that he or she already knows to what is stated, the reader

is making an inference. In other words the readers can make condusion on

after reading the next.

b. sequence

According to fox and Allen (1983) stated that sequence is one of

many skill that contributes to the student`s ability to comprehend what

they read. Sequence refers to identification of the components of a story

souch as the beginning, middle, and end, and also to the ability to retell the

events within a given text in the order in which occurred.

3. Levels of reading comprehension

The following are levels of reading comprehension according to

Day and park (2005) :

1) Literal comprehension was to have a straight forward

understanding meaning of a text, such as vocabularies and facts,

which was not explicated in the text.

2) Inferential comprehension was to conclude information from a

text and build new information which was not explicitly stated in

text.

3) Reorganization was rearranging information from various parts of

a text in order to get new information.

4) Predictive comprehension was integrating reader’s understanding

of a text and their own knowledge about that text in order to

determine what might happen next or after it was finished.

5) Evaluative comprehension was like inferential comprehension the

difference was that evaluatived comprehension requires readers’

comprehensive judgment about some aspects in a text and ability

to redevelop an understanding by using related issues.

6) Appreciative or personal comprehension was reading in order to

gain an emotional or other value response from a text, and it

demands reader to respond a text also with their feelings.

The following are levels of reading comprehension according to

Smith (1969) and Carnine (1990) :

a. Level of reading comprehension according to Smith (1969) and

Wayne (1979) are:

 1. Literal comprehension; that is the skill of getting primary direct

literal meaning of a word, idea, or sentence in context.

2. Interpretation; that is to identify ideal and meaning that are not

explicitly stated in the written text.

3. Critical reading; that is to valuate what is read, and examines

critically the thought of the writer.

4. Creative reading; that is to apply ideas from the text to new

situations and to recombine author’s ideas with other ideas to

from new concepts or to expand old ones.

b. Level of reading comprehension in Carnin (1990) are:

1. Comprehension skill for the primary level consists of

2. Literal comprehension: that is to receive information stated in a

passage

3. Sequencing comprehension; that is to under several from a

passage according to when they happened.

4. Summarization: that is to receive information stated in a

passage.

4. Reasons for Reading

According to Harmer (1998). There are four reasons for reading,

they were:

a. Reading in language learning

Reading was an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain. The
eyes receive message and the brain then has to work out the
significance of these message. The reading to confirm expectation
technique is highly motivation and successful since it interest students,
creates expected, and gives them a purpose for reading.
 b. Reading for language learning

In real life people generally read something because they want to

and they have a purpose, which is more fundamental than involved in
some language learning tasks seem only to be asking about details at
language. People read to language because they have a desire to do so
and a purpose to achieve.

c. Reading for information

In most cases, reading for information is relevant to current study

of the reader they read to find out information, to reduce their
uncertainties.

d. Reading for pleasure Reading for pleasure was done without other
people’s order but according to an individual reader’s wish, and taste.

5. Kinds of Reading

According to Hikmawati (2008: 12) that reading is classified into

four kinds, they were:

a. Silent reading

Silent reading was the activity we normally engage in when read

books, newspapers, road signs, etc. it involved looking at silence and
understanding the message they convey. We could develop our
understanding in silent by giving short reading passages in the
beginning and by asking questions about after word.

b. Reading aloud

Reading aloud was a completely different activity. Its purposes were

not only to understand a text, but also to convey the information
someone. Reading aloud was very useful. Reading aloud was important
 thing to do in reading process where the students who know as the
reader were required to read.

c. Guided Reading

Teachers scaffold students' reading to teach reading strategies.

Guided reading was conducted with small groups of students who
read at the same level

d. Shared Reading

Students follow along as the teacher reads a selection aloud.

Primary grade teachers often use big books-enlarged versions of the
selection-for shared reading.

6. The Strategy of Reading comprehension

Successful reading also related to the skill and strategy that reader
use. Gebhard (2000: 199) states, what reader say about their own
strategies for comprehending reading materials‟ research on the eye
movements of fluent readers show another reason for success: they read
most word on a page, including 80 percent of the content words and 40
percent of the function words. They do not simply sample a small piece
of text and tried to guess what the rest of the test it about. Instead, they
read in a very precise way even when reading fast, identify the majority
of the words. Also, readers who consistently read with success do not
read once in a while but spend much time. Therefore, successful reader
also learns basic reading skill, in the following there are some skills that
can be used in comprehending a text.

According to Yaltes (1982) who stated that here were some points
to keep in mind:

a. Skimming
 Skimming was the kind or reading in which the reader glance
quickly through the reading material and gain general impression of a
book, story, essay or article and determine whether or not to read it
more carefully and to get general idea of passage. It is suited these
purposes:

1) Ascertaining whether certain topics, date or names are

mentioned. Getting a bird’s eye to see whether the material
sound interesting enough for more careful reading.

2) Keeping up with current news the daily paper.

b. Scanning

Scanning was quick reading to locate specific information. For

example, we could telephone books, catalogs, dictionaries event
calendars, boo indexes, and menu. Basically any source in which we
need to locate specific information.

c. Critical reading

The critical reading requires the renders to evaluate what they

read, considering whether or not they share the author’s point of view
or re convinced by the author’s argument of position.

d. Extensive reading

The goal of extensive reading was to improved by processing a

quantity of material that can be comprehended and pleasurable. The
teachers who implement extensive reading seat up and open library (in
the class room or school library) where the students could select from
an assortment of reading materials. The teachers that were
comprehensible, and have the student interview each other through the
use of question prompts.
D. Relationship between Vocabulary Mastery and Reading
Comprehension

The correlation between reading comprehension and vocabulary

mastery has been discussed by many experts. Hirsch (2003) found that
knowing at least 90 percent of the words of a text enables the reader to get
the main idea from the reading and guess correctly what many of the
unfamiliar words mean, which will help them learn new words. Yildirim,
Yildiz and Ates (2011) found that there was a significant correlation
between vocabulary and comprehending expository texts as well as
vocabulary and comprehending narrative texts.

The findings also show that vocabulary was a predictor of

comprehending narrative and expository texts. Roehrig and Guo (2011)
explain that vocabulary knowledge was the one of the major factors that
influence reading comprehension. It was also supported by Sedita (2005)
who stated that vocabulary knowledge was crucial in reading
comprehension and determining how good the students were in
comprehending the texts.

Vocabulary and reading cannot be separated, because both of them

realte to each other. As the writer explain before, by having and mastering
vocabulary it will know the meaning of vocabulary in the context. It can
also help to avoid making mistake in understanding. Vocabulary was very
important to reading comprehension. Readers cannot understand what they
were reading without knowing what most of the word mean. As the
children learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of
the new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary.

E. Conceptual Framework

The correlation: Students’ Vocabulary Mastery

and Reading Comprehension
Vocabulary Mastery Reading
Comprehension

Vocabulary Test Reading Test

CORRELATION

Figure 2.1 Conceptual Framework

The theoretical framework above represents the two components of

teaching English they are vocabulary and reading comprehension. the
author will conduct two tests in this study. The first test is a vocabulary
test. after that, the writer will give a reading test to the students. This
activity will be carried out to find out whether there is a correlation
between students' vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension in
learning English.

F. Hypothesis
 In this research, the writer purpose hypothesis as follow:

Ho: there is no correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading

comprehension at the seventh grade of SMP Negeri 6 Palu.

H1: there is correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading

comprehension at the seventh grade of SMP Negeri 6 Palu.