Statement of the Problem Research Question Research Objective Scope of the Study The definition of reading

2. Statement of the Problem

Students in the Reading Across Genres class needed to improve their skill in reading especially to enrich their vocabulary acquisition in English. Certain words have different functions if they are used in a legal context. Accordingly, students in the Reading Across Genres class need to improve their vocabulary to understand the content of the reading topic on the Antasari Azhar’s case.

3. Research Question

The study is aimed to answer the question below: Does the vocabulary learning strategy using narrow reading improve the students’ vocabulary acquisition?

4. Research Objective

The objective of this study is: To investigate the potential contribution of narrow reading in acquiring new vocabulary words for students in the Reading Across Genres class.

5. Scope of the Study

The study focused on the vocabulary activities related to the reading text of Antasari Azhar’s case which was taken from The Jakarta Post. Because there were only two subjects and I attempted to do a research on the subjects, I used the term pre-experimental to investigate the use of narrow reading in learning English vocabulary.

6. Definition of Terms

Reading According to Anderson 2003 reading is a constant process of guessing, predicting, checking, and asking oneself questions. Reading is one of an essential skill to master in learning English. For most learners, reading is the most important skill to master in order to ensure success in learning English. Students tend to make a good progress in other area of language learning if they master reading. Narrow Reading The case for narrow reading is based on the idea that the acquisition of both structure and vocabulary comes from much exposure to a comprehensible context in which learners acquire new structures and words when they understand the main idea of the context. Narrow reading has some processes. First, since every writer has their own expressions and a distinctive style, and each topic has its own vocabulary and discourse, narrow reading familiarizes learners with various styles and vocabulary words. Second, background knowledge is a tremendous facilitator of comprehension in reading activity. Narrow readers gain more contextual knowledge when they read: The more one person read in one area, the more the person learn about the certain area, and the easier one finds subsequent reading in the area and the more one acquires of the language Krashen, 2004. Vocabulary Vocabulary is type of words that divided into three or four levels largely on the basis of how often it occurs in the language its frequency and how widely if occurs in the language its range. The first type is high frequency words which occur very frequently in all the language and they can be in the formal and informal uses of the language. Next, is the academic word which is usually possible to find a vocabulary that consists of words that are not from the most frequent 1000 or 2000 words that come frequent and widely used within that specialized area. Then, the technical words are very important for anyone who specializes in a particular area Nation, 2008, pp. 7-11. EFL students at least in the English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University [ED. SWCU Salatiga] rarely read legal related texts because they think they are very hard to understand. With this preliminary study, it is hoped that some principles of narrow reading as primarily suggested by Krashen will contribute to EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition. Above all, this idea to the best of my knowledge has not been explored in ED-SWCU. Chapter II Review of Literature This chapter discusses the theories that support this study: reading, narrow reading, and vocabulary. Here, I explain the relation between learning vocabulary and narrow reading in order to improve the students’ vocabulary.

A. Reading

1. The definition of reading

According to Anderson 2003 reading is a constant process of guessing, predicting, checking, and asking oneself questions. He also explains that reading is a process of communication from the writer to the reader which involves recognition, interpretation, and perception of the linguistics symbols presented in a written material. Its main purpose is the reader’s comprehension. It includes the understanding of the meaning of the written materials and covers the reader’s strategies that lead to understanding. As the end product, comprehension deals with language content in which the reader negotiates understanding with the writer. Then, to connect with this research idea I will explain about narrow reading.

2. Narrow Reading