CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study English as an international language has an important role in the world.

Since its role its really important in the world, most countries use it either as a second language or foreign language. It is used in some events such as: international forums, world organization, and other important role in English for instant learning science and technologies because most of book about these matters are written in English In this era of free trade we should be able to speak and communicate in English. There are too many Medias in improving or learning English, and we can find it everywhere and every time we want. The kind of media that may be assisted the learners to obtain the skills of English as the second language is particularly in progressing the reading skills, such as

newspaper,magazine,internet,film or Movie and so on. In which the main function of those Medias as the alternative way of getting the information, entertainment, and learning by using several languages but one of the most language that used by the people especially for international communication. As consequences, the important devices in a language are word. According to Hornby (1989:959), the total number of words which (with rulers for combining them) make up language is called Vocabulary.

After having the vocabulary; we must understand and able to recognize the vocabulary of the language in communication because without understanding and recognizing the vocabulary of the language, the verbal communication will not be running well for the learner who want to communicate in this effort they have to master the rule each other or understanding vocabulary of the target language. Especially in Indonesian country, the government has been trying hard to overcome this problem by including the English language in the curriculum as one of the subject. The support of this case was declared by Minister of Education and Culture Degree No. 0486/4/1984. That the main program is in Senior High School Curriculum consists of 15 subjects one of them is English (Depdikbud, 1984; 8) Meanwhile, the Indonesian Curriculum of 1984, English is taught integratedly with place emphasis on Reading Comprehension with some targets which consists of 1500-2000 words. Base on the statement above, it is very clear that vocabulary is one of the main factor to build up students competence either orally or in written form of English as a foreign language. According to the aim of teaching vocabulary itself, it is expected to the students of SMPN 3 Gunugsari understand the meaning of the word contextually and use them

accurately and correctly. So, student mastery on vocabulary and reading comprehension are important factor that enable then to use English Literature. The whole students of SMPN 3 Gunungsari have to study and learn English in their school but they never use English at their home. Their ability in English subject still under the curriculum target, in this case, it can be seen from the result of the report book on its pure evaluation result. In contrary previously, the students in the language classroom emphasized in acquisition of linguistics and structure of vocabulary result; otherwise the student who may know the rule of language usage will be unable to use the language (Larsen, 1983:124). Starting from statements above, the writer decides to investigate the correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension at second year students of SMPN 3 Gunungsari in academic year 2011/2012. B. Statements of the Problem This study tries to find out the answer to the following questions below: 1. Is there any correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading

comprehension at the second year students of SMPN 3 Gunungsari in academic year 2011/2012 C. Purpose of study The study is aim at finding out whether there is a correlation between vocabulary mastery and their reading comprehension or not. First of all, the writer 3

needs to know the students vocabulary mastery and their reading comprehension. Next, the writer would like to find correlation between the students mastery on vocabulary and their reading comprehension. D. The Scope of the study The scope of study in this writing is limited to the following points: 1. The study is conducted to investigate the correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension. 2. The content of reading comprehension is limited on the main idea and supporting sentences in detail. E. Assumption of the Study This research base on the following assumptions : 1. The second semester students of SMPN 3 Gunungsari in academic year 2011/2012 have been taught vocabulary and reading comprehension. 2. The procedure of sampling and collecting data analyzing are appropriately by referring to technique suggestion by the expert in their field. F. Definition of the Key Terms Before coming further discussing to this study, the writer needs to define terms use as follow: a. Correlation is defined by Hornby (1974:251) as a mutual relationship between two or more thing and part etc.

b.

Vocabulary is list of thematic words which should be mastered by the second year students of Junior High School mandated by the Indonesian curriculum 1994.

c.

Mastery is defined as a great skill or knowledge of master (Oxford students Dictionary of American English; as Hornby, 1974:366). In this study, these terms refers to the students understanding and use certain amount of vocabulary in real communication.

d.

Comprehension is a power of understand, (Hornby, 1989: 1043), furthermore, Siahan (1986: 48) states that reading comprehension is a process of conveying the meaning of symbol: an act of receiving a written material to utter the sentences or words for their correctly written.

e.

Reading is an action of a person who reads or a way in which something is interpreted or understood, etc ( Hornby 1989: 1043). In this study, the writer will find the relationships between Vocabulary mastery and Reading comprehension in classroom by students in SMPN 3 Gunungsari in academic year 2011/2012

G. The Significance of the Study The result of this study will be used for theoretically and practically. 1. Theoretically The theoretically uses of this study that the result can be as the knowledge for further research in analyzing the correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension.

2. Practically - To know there is any correlation between students vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension. - To provide the basic consideration for teaching material design in preparing learning material. - To inform English teacher and practitioners of this study as one consideration in selecting of teaching techniques to developing the students vocabulary and reading. H. The Hypothesis of study For the statistical analysis the null hypothesis is employed. The null hypotheses state that there is no influence or correlation between the two variables. If the result data analysis rejected the null hypothesis, it can be said that there is no any correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension as the second years of SMPN 3 Gunungsari in academic year 2011/2012 The writer will be use the alternative hypothesis. So, it can be said that there is significant correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension for the second years students of SMPN 3 Gunungsari in academic year 2011/2012