The Background of Study
mastering vocabulary. When we read something it will sound good if we understand the words or vocabularies in our reading.
Vocabulary is one of the problems confronted by English language learners. Because of the limited vocabulary, the learners can not communicate to others clearly. As Norbert
said “……vocabulary is one of the most important skills in language”.
2
Good mastery of vocabulary is important to anyone who learns the language used in listening, speaking,
reading and writing. A learner of a foreign language will speak fluently and accurately, write easily or understand what he or she reads and hears if he or she has enough vocabularies and
has the capability of using it accurately. According to H. G. Tarigan, “Kualitas keterampilan berbahasa seseorang jelas
tergantung pada kuantitas dan kualitas yang dimilikinya maka semakin besar kosakata yang kita miliki maka semakin besar pula kemungkinan kita terampil berbahasa.”
3
The quality of language skill depends on the quantity and quality of vocabulary. The more we have, so
become bigger our possibility to use the language. Vocabulary actually has an important role in improving reading skills. The first thing
that students should learn is some stock of words, vocabulary. Mastering vocabulary is the ability to get or to receive a lot of words. By having and mastering vocabulary we will know
the meaning of vocabulary in the context. Measuring vocabulary helps to avoid making mistakes in understanding. So, to achieve the success in language teaching learning process
especially in English, vocabulary is one of important factors in all language teaching. There are many factors that make the students’ vocabulary low; they came from the
internal factors and external one. The internal factors are from the inside of the students them selves such as motivation, interest, intelligence, etc. And the external factors are from the
outside of the students that effect their learning process such as economic background, learning materials, teachers’ performance including their teaching methods.
Most of us if we find the difficult word, we still just continue our reading in the hope that the word we read is not really important or that it’s meaning will become clear later on.
2
Norbert Schmitt., Vocabulary in Language Teaching New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997 P. 40
3
Hanry Guntur Tarigan., Pengajaran Kosakata Bandung, Angkasa, 1986 P.2
But sometimes the word that we passed usually as the key of our reading and understanding, we cannot catch and grasp the idea from our reading as well as possible. So looking up the
difficult words in dictionary is better for us, but the skillful is the reader can understand as he reads.
Based on the description of vocabulary and reading above, it shows that they have close relation. To get empirical data about it the writer will organize the test result to prove
the influence of student’s achievement in vocabulary and reading. By getting the grades, the writer will try to find an answer that student’s achievement in vocabulary influencing
reading.