Identification of the Problems

spoken by someone. The more students have sufficient vocabulary; the better sentences they could create. One should be able to master adequate vocabulary to convey their message. In line with Schmitt that someone must consider the meant by vocabulary, 4 it means that the capacity of vocabulary plays an important part for language. Therefore, it can be concluded that vocabulary not only contains list of words but also contains all information about using word and it also contains meaning of words so that it will be used b y people to communicate to express their ideas. From the definition above, the writer concluded that vocabulary is one of the most important language components that are used to communicate between someone to another. No language exists without vocabularies and words are signs or symbols for idea. The more words we learn; the more ideas we should have. It means that without vocabulary we will be unable to use the language communicatively. Mastery means natural or acquired facility in specific activity; ability, art, command, craft, proficiency, skill, and technique. 5 It can be said that mastery is possession of skill, ability, and technique in conducting a certain activity. It can be concluded that vocabulary mastery means an ability of students to use all the words of language in conducting communication. It means that mastery is regarded as the ability of a students to implant the essence of the lesson given in a whole. Meanwhile, vocabulary is all the words of language. In other words, vocabulary mastery means an ability to use a number of words as means for making communication with others. 4 Norbert Schmitt, Vocabulary in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 1. 5 http:www.answer.comtopicmastery

2. Kinds of Vocabulary

Read in Assessing Vocabulary consists of two, namely, function and content words, those are: 6 a. Function words. These words can be seen in grammatical aspects, such as articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries, etc. b. Content words. These words modify the meaning and provide links to the sentences. The kinds of these words are noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. The other important aspect in vocabulary is the meaning of the words. One word has relation to other words. Thornburry categorizes such as follows: 7 a. Synonym Synonyms are words that share a similar meaning. For example: Smart = Intelligent Beautiful = Pretty Novel = New b. Antonym Antonyms are words with the opposite meaning. For example: Young X Old Big X Small Black X White c. Homonym Homonyms are words with the same spelling called homographs or pronunciation called homophones but with a different meaning. For example: Hoarse sound X Horse animal Can be able to X Can container 6 John Read, op. cit., p. 18. 7 Scott Thornburry, op.cit., pp. 1 —10.