Kinds of Vocabulary Vocabulary

LDEC, a dictionary written for non native speaker. It shows that non native speakers can write by using about 2000 words so that they can understand what they read well. If non native speakers know about 2000 words means that they can understand text about 80, and if they know about 1000 words, they can understand text in 70. 12 Although English vocabulary can be said have large number, but students are not necessity to know all of them. Nation and Laufer in Cognition and Second Language Instruction mention that knowing receptive knowledge of 5000 base words is considered to be a minimal learning target. 13 Another expert such as Thornburry state about the size of vocabulary that should be mastered by second language, it is about 2000 words. 14 It can be stated that if non native students have about 2000 words, it can indicate that they can achieve vocabulary mastery. According to Read, there are three components of vocabulary ability that should be mastered by students, those components are: 1. The background of vocabulary use. Vocabulary ability should draws on the various types of pragmatic, social and cultural situation which are used significantly influence the meaning. 2. Vocabulary knowledge and fundamental processes. This component consist of some aspects of vocabulary which is mentioned in four components, such as vocabulary size, knowledge of words characteristics, lexicon organization and the process to increase vocabulary knowledge by speaking and writing. 3. Meta-cognitive strategies for vocabulary use. This strategy can be used by all language users to manage the ways which they use in communication. Learners have to know and apply this strategy in communication in order to overcome their lack of vocabulary knowledge to function effectively. 15 12 Laurie Bauer, Vocabulary, New York: Routledge, 1998, p. 12. 13 Jan H. Hulstijn, , op cit, p. 262. 14 Schott Thornburry, How to Teach Vocabulary, Edinburgh: Pearson Education, 2002, p. 21. 15 John Read, op cit, pp. 29 —34. It can be said that there are some methods in counting words that is promoted by linguist. Seashore and Eckerson in Measuring Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition stated that every different form of words in the dictionary was counted as a different word. For example, word know, knows, and knowing, all of them are different word and counted separately. 16 However, according to Read, when someone takes a research about counting the number of words in the sense of types, one of the first steps is to lemmatize the tokens the word, so that the inflected words can be counted as the case of the same lemma as the base form. 17 It can be described that words in the same lemma are counted as the base word, for example wait, waits, waited, and waiting, these words are counted as one word, that is wait. Besides size of vocabulary, when students are learning vocabulary, they are hoped to know and use vocabulary in any possible situation. They are hoped to know the meaning in the context, in the connection with other words and in the previous knowledge. Therefore, vocabulary learning can facilitate students to improve their size of vocabulary and to apply vocabulary in any contexts. It can be concluded the way and the strategies of vocabulary learning may affect student’s exposure in getting vocabulary. When students can keep learning vocabulary continuously and can use it in any context, automatically their size and knowledge of vocabulary will increase.

B. Reading

1. The Definition of Reading

According to Alderson and Bachman “reading involves perceiving the written form of language, either visually or kinesthetically using Braille ”. 18 It can be described that reading is an activity which the reader can recognize the word in several kinds of form. 16 James Milton, Measuring Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition, Bristol: Multilingual Matter, 2009, p. 7. 17 John Read, loc cit. 18 J. Charles Alderson and Lyle F Bachman, Assessing Reading, New York : Cambridge university, 2000, p. 13. Actually, reading needs some process and the process may be complex as Harison and Salinger state that “reading is a complex activity and accomplished readers operate at a number of levels simultaneously. They are decoding and establishing meaning at the same time as they are responding to what they read, selecting particular aspects for consideration and evaluating effects ”. 19 Reading can be a complex activity because the reader needs to unite words by words and then try to get the meaning of the text. In addition, according to the National Council of Teachers of English NCTE Commission on Reading in Best Practice for Teaching Reading, reading is: Reading is a complex, purposeful, social and cognitive process in which readers simultaneously uses their knowledge of spoken and written language, their knowledge of the topic of the text, and their knowledge of their culture to construct meaning. Reading is not a technical skill acquired once and for all in the primary grades, but rather a developmental process. A reader’s competence continues to grow through engagement with various types of texts and wide reading for various purposes over a lifetime. 20 It is referred to those definitions that reading is a complex activity that can connects the whole capability to get and understand the meaning of the text. Therefore, the readers should become an active reader. It may be not easy for some people; but it can be achieved by practice. There are many ways to practice and to become an active reader such as the activity of guessing, predicting, checking, and asking oneself question. 21 Therefore, readers are hoped to become skillful because reading consist of many process. Some people may assume that reading is passive activity, in which the reader just sit and read what they want to read; then they get what they want. Then, from those definitions of reading, it has shown that reading is an active activity, so what they assume about passive in reading is wrong. Through reading, people can acquire new ideas and a lot of information; also can develop their reading ability. Many people provide their times to read in 19 Collin Harison and Terry Salinger, Assessing Reading Theory and Practice, New York: Routledge, 1998, p. 89. 20 Randi Stone, Best Practice for Teaching Reading: What Award Winning Classroom Teachers Do, California: Crown Press, 2009, p. 85. 21 Francoise Grellet, Developing Reading Skills, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981, p. 8.