A CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ READING STRATEGIES AND THEIR VOCABULARY COMPETENCE (A Study at The Third Semester Students of English Department of Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto Academic Year 2015/2016) - repository perpustakaan

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Reading

  1. Definition of Reading Learning English is not something new for university students.

  They often speak and write. In English, there are four skill be mastered by students: reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

  Reading is an activity in which readers respond to and make sense of a text being read connected to their prior knowledge (Spratt, Pulverness, and William: 2005: 21). The activity is done by the readers as they want to get information and knowledge from the text. In the process of getting information and knowledge, the readers try to connect what they read in the form of written language to what they have already known about the text. Making sense of a text is done by understanding meaning of words, sentences, and even a text.

  Reading can also be defined as the process in which readers learn something from what they read and involve it in academic context as a part of education (Grabe, 2009: 5). Learning happens when there is a change in mind from an unknown thing to the known one. As reading is included in learning, the readers try to grasp the texts being read by interpreting, synthesizing, evaluating, and selecting the important information.

  Grabe (2009: 15) states that “Reading is the strategic process in that a number of the skills and processes used in reading call for effort on the part of the reader to anticipate text information, selecting key information, organize and mentally summarize information, monitor comprehension, repair comprehension breakdowns, and match comprehension output to the reader goals.”

  From the statements above, it can be concluded that reading is an exercise dominate by eyes and brain to get message that is conveyed by the writer in written symbols.

  2. There are some Aims of reading. it is. There are many purposes of reading in our daily life. That purposes are used for helping understand the content of a text. Reader use their own ways to get their purposes in reading. Some of them read very slowly and carefully when reading for studying or setting information such as news, science or same line. Meanwhile, they will read either quickly or slowly based on the way they like or feel in reading for pleasure or for pure recreation and enjoyment.

  Anderson as cited in Nunan (2003 :74) said that there are seven aims or reading. They are as follow: a. Reading for details and facts

  Reading for details and facts are reading to get the information that is done by figure or to solve the problems which are made by figure. b. Reading for main ideas Reading for main ideas is reading to get the topic, the case of the story, something which is learned or experienced, summarize something that has been done by the figure.

  c. Reading for squence or organization Reading for squence or organization is reading to understand the parts of the story from the beginning until the end of the story.

  d. Reading for inference Reading for inference is reading to understand the figure do something or the author‟s mean of the passage.

  Reading for classifying is reading to understand something unusual, to find something that is it fact or not.

  f. Reading for evaluating Reading for evaluating is reading to evaluate to know the figure is success or not, whether we want to imitate what is done by the figure in the story.

  g. Reading for comparing of contrast Reading to compare is reading to know the differences or similarities of two things outside the text.

  The various aims of reading explained previously indicated that the every expert have own perspective about the goal of reading. Thus, it can be concluded that the aims of reading are to know the content of the text. In other word, comprehension is the main aim of reading.

  3. There are some proccess of Reading Comprehension.

  As it is mentioned above, reading comprehension is the process of getting knowledge and information by using comprehension skills connected with the prior knowledge of the reader. Understanding the process of reading is closely related to the way how the readers construct meaning from a text. The ways of constructing meaning may be vary based on the readers‟ reference. According to Hudson (2007: 33-57) and are as follow:

  a. Bottom-up processing Bottom-up processing views the process of reading as phonemic units.

  The readers construct meanings by scanning from letters to letters. It is continued by recognizing the words from one to another. The process is furthered by associating among phrases, clauses, and sentences. Finally, it is processed into phonemic units representing lexical meaning and attains some comprehension of the text. This process mainly focuses in a linier processing which allows the readers‟ ability in recognizing words into mental lexicon. It concerns more in the way the readers read a text than that of comprehend it.

  b. The top-down processing

  In top-down processing, the readers involve their knowledge of syntax and semantic to create meaning of a text (Goodman cited in Hudson, 2007: 37). On the beginning of the process, the readers make some prediction of the text. It is followed by taking samples which will be confirmed or not to the predictions having made. These are the process in which meanings are created by transforming the text. In the end of the process, the readers do some correction on the predictions. The top-down processing, indeed, takes the background knowledge of the readers as the most important thing in reading.

  c. Interactive processing interaction between the information of a text with the readers‟ prior knowledge. This process combines the two previous processing i.e. the bottom-up and top-down processing. As the process of reading happen, the readers arouse what they have on their background knowledge connected with the written information in the text. So, in interactive process, the readers both recognize words and predict the implied information in creating meaning.

  From the discussion above, it can be concluded that there are three types in the process of reading. Those are bottom-up processing dealing with recognizing the words, top- down processing using the readers‟ background knowledge, and interactive processing combining words recognition and background knowledge of the readers. Those approaches help the readers in reading comprehension.

  4. There are some strategies in Reading Comprehension Reading comprehension cannot be done instantly. There must be some strategies that are used by the students to reach their comprehension in reading. The strategy that is used by the students must be different from one another. It depends on which strategy they fit in. Students can also use some strategies in reading comprehension proposed by Brown (2001: 306- 310), they are as follows:

  The purpose of reading is important in reading. The readers need to know the aim of what they are reading before they read the passage. It is the same as the students. Students have to know the purpose of the reading as it can help them in comprehending the text.

  b. Using grapheme rules and patterns to aid in bottom-up decoding.

  This strategy is mainly addressed to beginning learners. The learners are introduced to some patterns of both in oral language and written language. This will help them in understanding the text.

  c. Using efficient silent reading techniques for relatively rapid comprehension.

  Silent reading is appropriate for intermediate and advanced students. This strategy leads the students to try inferring meanings from context. It is also best practices to make the students become efficient readers.

  d. Skimming Skimming is done by the students to grasp the information by reading the text at glance. It is useful for the students as they can practice on prediction. For example, they predict the aim of the text, the main idea, and even supporting details.

  e. Scanning Like skimming, scanning is included in fast reading. In contrast, the information they need without reading the whole text.

  f. Guessing when the readers are not certain This strategy is useful to encourage the students to be accurate guessers. In guessing, the students try to guess the meaning of a word, a grammatical relationship (for example pronoun references), a discourse relationship, a cultural reference, content messages, and infer implied meaning.

  g. Analyzing vocabulary In analyzing the vocabulary, the students have to notice the prefixes, suffixes, roots, grammatical contexts, and semantic contexts. Prefixes give the clues to the meaning of a word. Suffixes indicate the part of speech the word brings. Grammatical contexts give signals of information and semantic contexts can be clues for the topic.

  h. Distinguishing between literal and implied meaning This strategy is closely related to the top-down processing skill. The meanings are got not only from its literal but also from the surface structure. i. Capitalizing on discourse markers to process relationship.

  To relate among ideas, the students need to pay attention to the discourse markers in the text. They have to notice on the phrases, clauses, and sentences as those usually bring discourse markers. to achieve their comprehension in reading. They can identify the purpose of reading, use bottom-up approach, use semantic mapping, guess, do skimming and scanning, and analyze the vocabulary. They can also pay attention to the literal meaning, implied meaning, and discourse markers to help them in achieving the reading comprehension.

  5. There are some kinds of Reading.

  Depending on the purposes of reading, Nunan (2003 :74) classified reading into two types of activities, they are as follows: a. Intensive Reading

  Harmer (2007 :286) says that intensive reading is an activity while teacher are encouraging students to read for general understanding, without worrying about the meaning of every single word. The goal of intensive reading is comprehension the text. The use of translation makes sure that learners understand, and when the learners do some of the translation themselves, it allows the teacher to check whether they understand.

  Here are the aspects, according to Tarigan (2008 : 12) says that commonly there are two aspects of reading, they are as follows: a. Mechanical skill that can be called as a lower order, this aspect covers:

  1) Letter from introduction.

  3) Linking introduction. 4) Speed of reading to show standard.

  b. Comprehension skill that can be called the higher order, this aspect covers: 1) Knowing the simple meaning (lexical, grammatical, rhetorical).

  2) Knowing the meaning. 3) Evaluation or assesment (content, form). 4) The flexibility speed of reading. Based on the statement above, it can be concluded that intensive reading means reading shorter texts to extract specific information.

  b. Extensive Reading During extensive reading learners should be interested in what they are reading and should be reading whith their attention on the meaning of the text rather than on learning the language features of the text, Nation (2009 :50). This explanation makes readers deal with a longer text as whole, which requires the ability to understand the component part and their contribution the overall meaning, usually for one‟s own pleasure.

  Based on the statement above, it can be concluded that extensive reading is a form of learning from meaning-focused input.

B. Reading Strategies

  conceive a task, what textual cues they attend to, how they make sense of what they read, and what they do when they do not understand (Block, 1986). Reading strategies refer to "the mental operations involved when readers purposefully approach a text and make sense of what they read" (Barnett, 1988). In short, reading strategies are deliberate, conscious techniques that readers employ to enhance their comprehension or retention of the textual information. Specifically they have the following characteristics: (1) deliberate, conscious plans, techniques and skills; (2) aiming to enhance reading comprehension and overcome comprehension failures; and (3) behavioral and mental. They are of interest for what they reveal about the way readers manage their interaction with the written text and how these strategies are related to text comprehension (Carrell, 1989).

  It covers three sub-categories: Global Reading Strategies, Problem- Solving Reading Strategies and Support Reading Strategies. Global

  

Reading Strategies represent a set of reading strategies oriented toward a

  global analysis of text. Examples include “evaluating what to read or ignore, noting text characteristics, guessing what the material is about, etc.” These strategies can be thought of as generalized, intentional reading strategies aimed at setting the stage for the reading act. The second subcategory (Problem-Solving Strategies ) that appear to be oriented around strategies for solving problems when the test becomes difficult to read. Examples of these strategies include re-reading for better thinking about reading etc. These strategies provide readers with action plans that allow them to navigate through the text skillfully. Such strategies are localized, focused problem- solving or repair strategies used when problems develop in understanding textual information. The third subcategory (Support Reading Strategies) primarily involves use of outside reference materials, taking notes, underlining or circling information and other practical strategies that might be described as functional or support strategies. These strategies provide the support mechanisms aimed at sustaining responses to reading. Kouider Mokhtari and Ravi Sheorey (2002)

C. Vocabulary

  1. Definition of Vocabulary Learning English is not something new for university students.

  They often seak and write. In English, there are four skills that should be mastered by students: Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. One of the ways how to master English is mastering vocabulary. However students do not have a lot of vocabulary they have limited in four skill in English.

  “Vocabulary” is the stock of words used by people; a list or collection of words of language. Besides that, according to Rivers in Nunan (1991), vocabulary is essential for supporting the study of the second language. It means that vocabulary is the key of success of someone in learning English as a second language. Pieter A Napa (1990:5) states that vocabulary is one of the basic components of language and that is no language exist without words. According to Hatch and Brown (1995:368) proposed that the term “Vocabulary” referring to a list or set of words that individual speakers of language might use, since vocabulary is list, we may thing that the only system involved is that of alphabetical order.

  It can be concluded that vocabulary is knowledge of words and word meanings in both oral and print language and in productive and receptive forms.

  2. There are some types of Vocabulary There are three types of vocabulary used in English (Richard and

  Joanne Vacca, 1989 : 299), they are as follows:

  a. General vocabularies, which consist of everyday words widely, acknowledged meaning in common usage.

  b. Special vocabulary, it is made up from everybody‟s general vocabulary, which is taken on specialized meaning when adapted to particular content area.

  c. Technical vocabulary, in which consist of word that have usage and application only in particular subject matter field.

  a. Content words. The content word can be learned in small groups around “life” situation. Content words include: 1) Nouns example: table, student, information 2) Verbs example: tell, choose, walk 3) Adjectives example: happy, tall, beautiful 4) Adverb example: slowly, carefully, often b. Function words.

  1) Preposition example: on, in, at etc. 2) Auxiliary example: can, must, should etc.

  3) Conjunction example: and, but, because etc.

  4) Pronoun example: me, you, him etc.

  5) Articles example: a, an, the.

  6) Modifier This research focuses on the content vocabulary dealing with Noun, Verb, Adjective and Adverb.

D. Previous Studies

  There are some research findings related to reading strategies. The previous studies showed positive result.

  Fenfang Li (2010) in his science entitled “A Study of English Reading

  Strategies Used by Senior Middle School Students

  ” found that were several suggestions can be made to help teachers improve their teaching and help the students improve their reading efficiency. Nurazila Abdul Aziz, Suzana Ab Rahim, Etty Harniza Binti Harun, Nor Aslah Adzmi, Hasfazilah Ahmat, Samsiah Bidin, Mohd Rizaimy Shaharudin (2011) in their study entitled “The Reading Strategies

  Awareness among English as a Second Language (ESL) Learners in Malaysia’s University” , found that there The data also provided evidence

  that they were able to practice them.

  Ana Cristina Lahuerta Martínez (2008) in her study entitled

  “Analysis of ESP university students’ reading strategy awareness”,found that there

  was a moderate to high overall use of reading strategies and find that students show higher reported use for problem-solving and global reading strategies.

  Humeyra Genc (2011) in his study entitled “Reading Strategies Used

  by Low-P roficient EFL Learners” found that was reading is similar to

  those used in paper- based reading such as “using reference materials”.

E. Basic Assumption

  To a student, reading strategies are important in order to awareness and to develop the new words and the meaning, because it is one of the factors affecting the vocabulary competence. the mental operations involved when readers purposefully approach a text and make sense of what they read" (Barnett, 1988). In short, reading strategies are deliberate, conscious techniques that readers employ to enhance their comprehension or retention of the textual information. Specifically they have the following characteristics: (1)deliberate, conscious plans, techniques and skills; (2) aiming to enhance reading comprehension and overcome comprehension failures; and (3) behavioral and mental. They are of interest for what they reveal about the way readers manage their interaction with the written text and how these strategies are related to text comprehension (Carrell, 1989).

  The previous studies showed positive result, it is proved that reading strategies is the crucial thing in increasing students‟ vocabulary competence and the students‟ reading strategies and their vocabulary competence is important to be investigated.

F. Hypothesis

  The hypothesis of this problem is based on the basic assumption that there is a influence between student‟s reading strategies and their vocabulary competence of third semester students of English department of Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto academic year 2015/2016.