word test do not always have high scores in the writing and speaking test, even the students who have low scores in vocabulary test are able to achieve high scores in
writing and speaking skills. In the previous discussion, the twelfth grade students’ mastery of academic
words and its correlation with the students’ productive skills were discussed. It is known that the twelfth grade students’ mastery of academic words in SMA Negeri
1 Wonosari is above the minimal standard, i.e. 583 words. It means that the
students’ mastery of academic words is good because they are able to know the academic words and the meanings well, especially understanding the Indonesian
equivalences. The correlation is counted by using SPSS program based on the source of
data, i.e. the students’ vocabulary test scores and the students’ practice examination scores. The correlation between those two variables is counted by
using Spearman’s correlation in SPSS program and the result shows that the correlation is very low or there is almost no relation between those variables, i.e.
0.027.
4.2.3 Discussion
In this section, the result of finding and the reasons why the correlation is very low are discussed deeply. The data analysis shows that the correlation
between variable 1 and variable 2 is only 0.027. In Spearman’s correlation, 0.027 means that the correlation can be ignored. It is because the correlation is below or
less than 0.20. However, this finding is also followed by several reasons. There PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
are three reasons why there is no correlation between the students’ academic words mastery and their productive skills.
The first reason might be this research is only focused on the academic word mastery, not all kinds of vocabulary, such as high frequency, low frequency,
and technical words. Therefore, 583 words mastered by the twelfth grade students are only academic vocabulary items. The second reason might be this research
was done by using an instrument that is matching test. While matching test is an instrument which can measure one of vocabulary mastery, i.e. knowing the word
meanings and the ability to use and pronounce the words cannot be tested only by using a matching test as stated by Read, 2000. According to Read 2000, if the
students are tested by using matching test, they are only to match the words with the meanings. It means that the students’ mastery of academic words is only
focused on a kind of vocabulary mastery, i.e. knowing the word meanings. The final tests for productive skills were tested in the forms of written and spoken
which were given by the English teachers. The students’ scores of productive skills do not always correlate with their
scores in academic word test. Therefore, the students’ fluency of using academic words is not reflected in speaking and writing skills. This might be the third
reason why the correlation between those two variables is very low. As stated by Nation that the kind of word should be developed fluently is high-frequency
words in order to be able to use the words well when it is needed Richard and Renandya, 2002. Therefore, the relation between academic word mastery and
productive skills cannot be found. Those are the reasons why the relation between PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
the twelfth grade students’ academic words mastery and productive skills, especially in SMA Negeri 1 Wonosari is very low or even can be ignored and it
shows that the students’ mastery of academic words cannot be found by only knowing the word meanings.
