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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATUARE

A. Theoretical Review

1.Theory of Vocabulary and Grammar Mastery

A. The Definition of Vocabulary

According to Richards (2002:255), vocabulary is the core component of

language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners

speak, listen, read, and write. Jackson and Amvela (2000:11) say that the terms

of vocabulary, lexis, and lexicon are synonymous.

The vocabulary of language always changes and grows. As life become

more complex, people devise or borrow new words to describe man’s activities.

No one knows exact numbers of words in the English vocabulary today. From

the interpretation above, we can conclude that vocabulary is the core component

of language proficiency that consists of a set of lexeme, including single words,

compound words, idioms; provides much of the basis for how well learners

speak, read, listen, and write; and has similarities with the term „lexis‟ and

„lexicon‟.

In language learning, vocabulary takes place in building the language

proficiency. The objective of the vocabulary mastery is to make the students

have a good language proficiency in the language skills. It depends on the

quality and quantity of the vocabulary that they have mastered.

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Talking about vocabulary, Lehr, Osborn, and Hiebert (in Kamil and

Hiebert, 2005: 2-3) define vocabulary as knowledge of words and words

meaning in both oral and print language and in productive and receptive forms.

More specifically, they use it to refer to “the kind of word that students must

know to read increasingly demanding text with comprehension.”

Harmer (1991: 158) summarizes that knowing a word (vocabulary)

means knowing about meaning, word use, word formation, and word grammar.

Word meaning is also governed by metaphors and idioms, e.g., the word

hiss refers to the noise of snake and to someone’s threat to others. In

collocation, a word goes with each other, such as, headache, earache, and so on.

In addition, style and register is applied by differentiating the language to be

used by someone either in a formal or informal context, for example hello

(formal) and hi (informal).

Learning vocabulary is not only learning about the words or new

vocabulary, but also about how to use the vocabulary into correct usage. What is

meant by the meaning of a word, is determined by the context where it is

formed and also determined by its relation to other words. The word book

sometimes means the kind of thing you read from, but it can also mean a

number of other things. The example of the second context is vegetables which

has general meaning whereas carrot is more specific.

From the definitions above, it can be concluded that vocabulary is the

knowledge of words and word meanings. It is about the words in language used
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to express meaning. Therefore, learning vocabulary is a crucial matter in

developing their English.

B. Vocabulary Mastery

Vocabulary is one of the language aspects which should be learnt.

Learning it is important because in order to be able to speak, write, and listen

learners have to know vocabulary first. A person said to „know „a word if they

can recognize its meaning when they see it (Cameron, 2001: 75). It means that

in learning vocabulary learners have to know the meaning of it and also

understand and can use it in sentence context.

According to John (2000: 16), vocabulary is knowledge of knowing the

meanings of words and therefore the purpose of a vocabulary test is to find out

whether the learners can match each word with a synonym, a dictionary – tape

definition, or an equivalent word in their own language. In learning vocabulary

automatically they have to know the meaning of words themselves and can use

it in sentences.

The vocabulary mastery is not a spontaneous process which is easy to be

done. The process of vocabulary mastery begins when someone is still an infant.

Basically, the baby’s first language comes from the mother tongue. They will

master the vocabulary through the simple words by listening the words which

are uttered by someone else. It is known that English vocabulary learning

cannot run successfully without English ability (English skills) because both of

them are very important in English teaching and learning process. The students

cannot do well in comprehension without large vocabulary, for the passages and
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questions involve a range of words much wider than that of daily conversation.

To make the discussion clearer, Harmer’s opinion can be added. In his

book, Harmer (2001: 16) says that there are some aspects that have to be

discussed in vocabulary, namely: word meaning (synonym, antonym,

connotation, and denotation), extending word use such as idioms, word

combination or collocation, and the grammar of words which comprises noun,

verb, adjective, and adverb.

C. Evaluation of Vocabulary Mastery

In testing vocabulary mastery, it is needed to determine type of test

which will be used. According to Hughes (1989 : 147), there are two kinds of

evaluation namely recognition and production. Those are described as follows:

a. Recognition

This is a type of testing vocabulary in which the test takers are provided

with several alternatives to which they only need to recognize and choose which

one is suitable with the word that is being asked. This is one testing problem for

which multiple choices can be recommended without to many doubtful. In this

kind of evaluation, items may involve a number of different operations as

follows:

1) Synonyms

The test-takers are supposed to choose the alternative which has the

closest meaning to the words being asked. It is suggested that all the options are

the words that the candidates are expected to know.

2.) Definitions
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It is a type of recognition test in which the test-takers need to know the

notion or description of the word that is being asked. What the test writer needs

to note is that all the options must have the same length.

3.) Gap Filling

It is the test in which the test-takers are required to fill the gap in a

sentence having certain context with available options. The test writer needs to

notice that the context should not contain itself words that the test takers are

unlikely to know.

b. Production

It is a type of vocabulary testing which different from the first one. The

testing of vocabulary productively is so difficult that it is practically never

attempted in proficiency test. Several types of productive vocabulary testing are

described as follows:

1.) Pictures

By using pictures, the test takers are expected to write down the name of

given pictures. This method of testing is restricted to concrete nouns which can

be unambiguously drawn.

2.) Definitions

This method requires the test-takers to give a definition or a term of

given clues.

3.) Gap Filling

This is a bit similar to the gap filling method in recognition vocabulary

test, but there is no alternative here. The test takers need to find the missing
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word by themselves. To avoid unexpected answer from the test-takers, it is

suggested to give the first letter of the missing word or an indication of the

number of letters.

The vocabulary mastery test which will be utilized in this research is the

Vocabulary Level Test which is often called Vocabulary Size Test in controlling

productive vocabulary that is developed by Batia Laufer & Paul Nation. This

kind of test is designed to measure both first language and second language

learner’s ‟written size in English (Nation, 2012).

D. The Definition of Grammar

According to Lock (1997: 4) grammar can be defined as the study of the

syntax-how the words are combined to form meaningful sentences, and

morphology- the system of rules that cover the formation of words. Besides,

Huddleston in Rohani (2007: 18) sees grammar as consisting of morphology

and syntax. Morphology deals with forms of words while syntax deals with the

ordering of the words to form sentences.

Cobbett in Rohani (2007: 18) regards grammar as constituting rules and

principles that help a person to make use of words or manipulate and combine

words to give meaning in a proper manner. It concerns with form and structure

of words and their relationships in sentences. Cambridge Advanced Learner’s

Dictionary defines grammar is the study or use of the rules about how words

change their form and combine with other words to make sentences.

Based on those definitions above, it can be concluded that grammar is

the study of rules and principles that cover the arrangement and combination of
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words to form grammatically correct and meaningful sentences.

Lock (1997: 4) defines grammar as the study of the syntax-how the

words are combined to form meaningful sentences, and morphology- the system

of rules that cover the formation of word. Lock points out that grammar covers

two main aspects, they are morphology and syntax. Lock argument is supported

by the argument from Carter and McCarthy (2006). They state that grammar is

concerned with how sentences and utterances are formed. In a typical English

sentence, we can see the two most basic principles of grammar, the arrangement

of items (syntax) and the structure of items (morphology). Huddleston in

Rohani (2007: 18) sees grammar as consisting of morphology and syntax.

Morphology deals with forms of words while syntax deals with the ordering of

the words to form sentences.

In her study, the writer prefers to discuss the scope of grammar

involving morphology and syntax. Morphology and syntax can be considered as

the two most basic elements of the language.

a. Morphology

In Etymology, the word “morphology” is derived from the Greek which

means "shape, form". It refers to the study of the form of words. In linguistics,

the term 'morphology' means the study of the structure of words, and of the

systematic form-meaning correspondences between words.

Morphology in English means devising ways of describing the

properties of such disparate items (Crystal, 2003). It studies about how to

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differentiate the words a, cat, ran, unbelievable, and washing machine. The field

of morphology can be grouped into two domains:

1) Lexical or derivational morphology.

It discusses about the arrangement of new items of vocabulary from the

combinations of elements. For example: unbelievable is the combination of

elements un-believe-able.

2) Inflectional morphology.

It studies about the change of the words in which the new form of the

words will influence its meaning. For example: the word cat changing into cats

brings the change of the meaning. A cat indicates singular and cats indicate

plural.

Huddleston and Pullum (2002) argue that morphology consists of two

branches namely inflectional morphology and lexical word-formation.

Inflectional morphology studies about the change of the form of a word which

shows a change in the way it is used in sentences. For instance: the word „finds

and found’ are inflected forms of word „find‟. Lexical word-formation is related

to the dictionary. It is a list of words used in a particular language. It explains

about the process of creating a new lexicon. Usually, the new lexicon is

composed from more than one morphological element.

b. Syntax

In Etymology, the word “syntax” is derived from the Greek which

means "arrange together". Chomsky defines syntax as the study of the principles
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and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages.

Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a

grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the

sentences of the language under analysis (Chomsky, 1971).

Crystal in Sidik (2011: 13) infers that syntax is the way in which words

are arranged to show relationship of meaning within (and sometimes between)

sentences. According to him most syntactic studied have focused on sentence

structure, for this is where the most important grammatical relationship are

expressed. A sentence itself is defined as the largest unit to which syntactic

rules apply. Then, he suggests three aspects of sentence syntax including

clauses, phrases and coordination vs. subordination. The following is the brief

explanation of each.

1) Clauses

Altenberg and Robert M. Vago (2010: 207) defines clause as a free-

standing sentence or a sentence within a sentence; a clause or sentence contains

at least a subject and a main verb. For example:

The little boy laughed. ( S + V)

The clause consists of S and V but it can be wider such as:

She bought a dress. (S + V + N)

Nina studied hard. ( S + V + Adv.)

I will put the paper away. (S + V + N + Adv.)

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2) Phrases

Funk in Sidik (2011: 14) argues that a phrase is group of related words

that does not contain a predication. The underlined portions of the sentences

below are all noun phrases and anyone of them can replace the little boy in the

sentence.

The little boy laughed.

1. Audiences laughed.

2. Younger audiences laughed.

3. The girl laughed.

4. The little girl laughed.

5. The cute little girl laughed.

6. John laughed.

In sentences 1 - 6, the noun phrases all have something in common: each

consists of at least a noun. You can also see, in sentences 2-5, that a noun phrase

can have other words in addition to just a noun. Those other words can be:

Younger audiences : adjective + noun

The girl : determiner + noun

The little girl : determiner + adjective + noun

The cute little girl : determiner + adjectives + noun

From explanation above can conclude that a noun phrase can consist of:

1. A noun alone, for example, audiences, John.

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2. A determiner, one or more adjectives, and a noun. The determiner and

adjective(s) are optional. For example: cold water (adjective + noun), a

teacher (determiner + noun), a smart teacher (determiner + adjective(s)

+ noun.

3. A noun phrase can consist of just a pronoun, for example she, he or

them.

3) Coordination vs. subordination

Coordination is one of two main ways of making sentence more

complex; the other is known as subordination or „embedding‟. The essential

difference is that in the former the clauses that are linked are of equal

grammatical status, whereas in the later, one clause functions as part of another

(the „main‟ clause). For example:

Coordinate clause:

My father worked on Monday and my mother worked on Friday.

Subordinate clause:

My father worked on Monday when I studied.

The phrase on Monday is part of the clause, giving the time when the

action took place. Similarly, the unit when I studied is also part of the clause,

for the same reason. But when I studied is additionally a clause in its own right.

E. Grammar Mastery

Kilfoil and Walt (1997: 13) define the grammatical competence as

correct application of rules of grammar but not explicit knowledge of

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grammatical rules. According to them it is also referred to as linguistic

competence. Savignon (1997: 40) in Sidik (2011: 18) says that person

demonstrates grammatical competence not by stating the rules, but by using

rules. It involves the ability to apply grammatical rules to form grammatically

correct sentences. Furthermore, Richards and Schmidt (1983: 7) who say that

such competence focuses directly on the knowledge and skill required to

understand and express accurately the literal meaning of utterances. For them,

the grammatical competence is concerned with features and rules of language

such as vocabulary, word formation, sentence formation, pronunciation, spelling

and linguistic semantics.

2. Essay Writing Skill Theory

A. Definition of Writing

Writing is a system of recording language by means of visible or tactile

mark, so that people can read, perform or use it (Coulmas, 2004:1). It means

that besides using the spoken language, human being also using written

language to express their feeling, idea and thought. It is in line with Tarigan

(1994:21) says that writing is the activity describing graphic symbols that

depicts a language that can be understood by somebody, so that the others can

read that graph symbols, and understand the language and the graph description.

Writing will help someone to explain their feelings. In writing, there is any idea

that must be supported with specific reasons or details.

B. Definition of Essay Writing

Essay is a short of writing about particular subject, especially one

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written by a student and writing itself is the skill or activity of producing words

on a surface (Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary: 2007). It means that essay

writing is the activity of producing short of written text that can be understood

by the readers.

Essay provides a very different challenge to that experienced in all

earlier form of study. Students should be able to recall, organize, integrate their

ideas, and express one in writing. Completing good essays requires a broad

range of skills, which is why so many degree programs build them into their

assessment patterns. A good essays demand that a student show the ability to

plan, time-manage, research, summarize and develop cohesive and balanced

arguments before reaching clear, concise conclusions.

C. Benefits of Writing an Essay

Mastering essay writing offers at least three benefits. First of all,

mastering an essay writing skills will help students make a better writer. For

other courses, students will often do paper that will be variations on the essay

form. For examples: examination, essays, reports, and research papers. The

basic structure of an essay with its emphasis on a clear point and well-

organized, logical support will help the students in almost every kind of writing.

Second, the discipline of writing an essay will strengthen the students‟

skills as a reader and listener. As a reader, students will become more critically

aware of other writers‟ idea and the evidence they provide (or fail to provide) to

support those ideas.

Most important, essay writing will make students be a stronger thinker.

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Writing a solidly reasoned essay requires mental discipline and close attention

to a set of logical rules. The students will learn to discover and express just what

their ideas are and to develop those ideas in a logical and reasoned way. Essay

writing in short will train their mind to think clearly, and that ability will solve

problems in every phase of the life.

D. Element of Essay Writing

Writing ability is more than the understanding of graphic system

because good writing required knowledge of grammar and the act of using

theories such as arranging word, phrases, sentences and paragraph such a way

that they attract the reader’s attention. Nunan (1991: 6) give some tips how to

succeed in writing as followed:

1. Mastering the mechanics of letter formation and obeying conventions of

spelling and punctuation.

2. Using the grammatical system to convey one’s intended meaning.

3. Organizing content at the level of the paragraph and the complete text to

reflect given/ new information and topic/ comment structures.

4. Polishing and revising one’s initial efforts.

5. Selecting an appropriate style for one’s audience.

It is clear that writing process must be done by step. It needs more

exercises. Writing is a long and often painful process, so that the final text

emerges through successive drafts.

E. Evaluation of Essay Writing

Evaluation in written language is more complex than others. It is

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difficult to consider some aspect of complex achievement in essay test. There

are five assessment aspects of error in writing composition that are usually

made by the students, they are as follows:

1. Content (the idea that expressed).

2. Organization.

3. Vocabulary.

4. Language mastery (grammar)

5. Mechanics (spelling).

(Nurgiyantoro, 2001:308)

F. Structure of Essay Writing

Essay writing should be arranged well, According to Langan, (2001: 11)

gives example structure for essay writing. Here is an example essay structure

that would be appropriate for most other subject.

Title The essay title is a key part of the essay itself.

Make sure to understand and stick to the
question asked.
Introduction Explore the essay question or title, make a line
of argument clear, summarize the conclusion and
state briefly the evidence that are going to
examine to demonstrate this.
Main Parts of In this part, develop the argument. Break
Essay different ideas down into paragraphs, making
sure there is a logical sequence from each one to
the next, and that overall a persuasive line of
reasoning is developed.
Conclusion Summarize the main ideas in an essay ( don‟t
introduce any new ideas at this stage), clearly
stating the conclusions, or showing why these
are important.
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G. Types of Essay Writing

Before talking deeply about essay writing, it is important to know the

types of essay writing. Essay writing has been divided into several patterns.

Langan ( 2001 ) has been divided into the following patterns of development,

they are :

1. Description

A description is a verbal picture of a person, place, or thing. Because the

function of a descriptive essay is to provide the readers with vivid and real

pictures as possible in words, students should choose a topic that appeal

strongly to at least one of their sense. Then, observe and record specific details

that appeal to the readers‟ senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch). More

than any other types of essay, a descriptive essay needs sharp and colorful

details.

2. Exposition

In exposition, the writer provides information about and explains a

particular subject. Patterns of development within exposition include giving

examples (exemplification), detailing a process of doing or making something,

analyzing causes and effects, comparing or contrasting, defining a term or

concept, and dividing something into parts or classifying it into categories.

1. Exemplification

In daily conversations, it is needed to provide examples- details,

particulars, and specific instance to explain the statements that has been made. It

is important to help the students in understanding the truth of the statement. In

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explanatory examples also help audience fully understand the points.

2. Process ( Procedure )

In everyday life, there are many activities that are processes. That series

of steps is carried out in a definite order. Many of these processes are familiar

and automatic. An essay process requires the writer to think through the steps

involved in an activity. The students may be painfully conscious of the whole

series of steps involved in the process. The purpose of this text itself is to

instruct someone on how something can be done.

3. Cause and Effect

The best essays are often written about a topic that the author genuinely

cares about. In everyday life, there are many actions do not occur without

causes. It is realized that those action have good or bad effect. When

constructing an explanation text it may be necessary to show a cause and effect

relationship. By examining the causes or effects of an action, it explain someone

to understand things that happened.

4. Comparison and Contrast

A comparison or contrast essay emphasizes how two things are alike or

how they differ. Comparison and contrast are two thought processes constantly

in everyday life. When comparing two things, there are show how they are

similar; when contrasting two things, there are show how they different. The

purpose of comparing or contrasting is to understand each of the two things

more clearly and, at times, to make judgments about them.

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5. Definition

In a definition essay, the writers provide the reader about their personal

understanding of a concept of term. As with other essay forms, students should

think in terms of supporting definition with two or three paragraphs, each of

which has its own topic sentence. Such a definition typically starts with one

meaning of a term, the meaning then illustrated with a series of details.

6. Division-Classification

When writing a division-classification essay, the purpose itself is to

present audience with a unique way of dividing and classifying a particular

topic. To write a successful essay, students need to choose a topic first that

interests the readers and lends itself to being divided and classified.

3. Argumentation

Argumentative essay belongs to essay which is often used by the people

to persuade others by making a point in a class discussion. In argumentative

essay, the writers attempts to support a controversial point or to defend a

position on which there is a difference of opinion. They will have a chance to

judge the statements from others. Giving logical reasons can help other see

through faulty arguments that others may make. Students will become a better

critic of advertisements, newspaper articles, political speeches, and the other

persuasive appeals in every day.

H. The Relevant Related Research

As far as the writer knows, there are some researches which are the same

as this research which tries to find out the effect of vocabulary and grammar
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mastery toward students’ writing skill at senior high school. However, this

research is very useful. It is because this research will find out effect of

vocabulary and grammar mastery applied to the students in learning

achievement of writing skill in English.

I. Conceptual Framework

Based on the literature review, vocabulary and grammar are the

components in language learning that must be mastered. Without vocabulary

and grammar mastery, English as foreign language (EFL learners) cannot attain

the four macro skills in English, such as listening, reading, writing and

speaking. If they cannot achieve the macro skills, it means that they cannot

achieve the language proficiency.

The tittle of the effect of vocabulary and grammar mastery toward

students’ writing skills at senior high school in Tangerang regency. Vocabulary

and grammar are very important skill for the students. It is because they have to

know the words used for writing. Beside that when they have chosen the words.

They have to know how to arrange the words. They have to know about

grammar. So, they can write English correctly by using grammar. Thus,

vocabulary and grammar are very important to be studied and mastered by the

student.

Based on the theories explained previously and the background of the

research, a conceptual framework is constructed on the description of the

difficulties to understand English vocabulary and grammar mastery. This

conceptual framework is aimed at focusing this research on the problem

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concerned.

As mentioned above, the students should master vocabulary and

grammar. Those are the knowledge of the words how to use and write English

correctly.

The culmination of the language is not simply in the mastery of the

forms of the language and the rules of languages but the mastery of vocabulary

and grammar in order to accomplish the communicative functions of the

language. Vocabulary is basic to communication. It is also essential for students

to learn English but they often face difficulties in writing English. It is because

the students use foreign language in their writing the essay.

Students know that vocabulary and grammar are the essential for them to

learn English, but they often do not have a clear understanding of how to go

about really learning vocabulary and grammar. For students, remembering new

words is hard because words are slippery things. That is why interactive

teaching is of great help. Beside that grammar is the rule of language that must

be used in writing process. They can do anything they want to improve their

vocabulary and grammar mastery. Moreover, using use the media can give help

the students relax and remember things faster and better. They encourage,

entertain, teach, and promote fluency and correct based on the grammar.

J. Research Hypothesis

Referring to the theoritical description and conceptual framework,

research hypothesis can be formulated as follow:

1. There is a significant effect of vocabulary mastery toward students’

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writing skill.

2. There is a significant effect of grammar mastery toward students’

writing skill.

3. There are significant interaction effects of vocabulary mastery and

grammar mastery toward students’ writing skill