THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ GRAMMAR

MASTERY AND VOCABULARY MASTERY IN THEIR

READING ABILITY OF ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS IN
SMAN 1 SURAKARTA

CHAPTER. I

A. Background of Study

Reading is seen as an essentially active activity since one of the

objectives of reading teaching-learning process for the second grade of Senior
High School ask the students to be able to construct and comprehend meaning of
the text. Basically, it is the same as comprehension of reading text. All students
are expected to be able to understand the main idea of the text, factual
information, stated and unstated information in the text as well as the vocabulary
in the text.
Most educators agree that the major purpose of reading should be the
construction of meaning comprehending and actively responding to what is read.
Therefore, if a student says words in a passage without understanding their
meaning, one will hesitate to call that reading. Relating to the aim of reading,
Willis(2008) states that by reading, someone can find the information he/she
needs with the specific information. Reading help the reader get what they want
to know.
In addition, by reading we are learning much about the meaning of
culture, practice and forms of culture. Nuttal(1985) states that there are five
reading skills that should be mastered by reader to comprehend the text deeply;
they are as follow:
1. Determining main idea
Determining idea is a skill to grasp and find the main point of the passage by
summarizing the passage and look for repetition of ideas/words.
2. Finding the specific information or part of text
Finding the specific information or part of text means looking for the
information that relevant to the goal in mind and ignores the irrelevant.

1
3. Finding reference
Reference is the intentional use of one thing to indicate something else in
which one provides the information necessary to interpret the other. Finding
reference means interpreting and determining one linguistic expression to
another.
4. Finding inference
Inference is good guess or conclusion drawn based on the logic of passage.
Finding inference means the reader imply the sentences or passages
understand and conclude it logically.
5. Understanding vocabulary
Understanding vocabulary means comprehend what the words mean. When
vocabulary mastery improves, comprehending will be deeper. Since
comprehension is ultimate goal of reading, the reader cannot overestimate the
importance of vocabulary development. Reading a book, an article, or
passage in English for some students is (sometimes) not an easy work. It
relates to some factors, one of them is their lack of vocabulary.

As we know, vocabulary is very important to support the development of

the four skills of the language. Tarigan (1986) states that the quality of one’s
language depends upon the quantity of his or her knowledge of vocabulary, the
richer one’s vocabulary is the more one master a language. Fries (1970)
classified English vocabulary or word into four groups, they are:
1. Content word
Content word represents the name of the subject or thing, that is concrete
noun (book, scissors, and bag) action done by with these things, that is verb
(go,find, and run), and the qualities of these things, that is adjective (small,
tall, and far).
2. Function word
Function word are those word which are used as a means of expressing
relation grammar structure, such as conjunction (but, or, and), article (a, an,
and the), and auxiliaries (are, be, is).
3. Substitute word
Substitute word are those, which represent the individual things or specific
action as substitute for whole from classes of words, that is, identifies
(anything, anyone).

4. Distribute word
Distribute word are those are distribute in use according to grammatical
matter as presence of a negative such as either, too, or, yet. Another
important factor is the knowledge of grammar. The knowledge of grammar is
important in mastering a language because grammar intersects and overlaps
with the four language skills. The lack of knowledge of grammar will result
in the grammatically incorrect sentences which can lead to misunderstanding
of what one is saying or writing. Further, knowledge of grammar is important
in comprehension because complexity of grammar can cause difficulty.
Baldwin (1985) states that reading a text is an interactive process of the
grammar competence owned by the reader. It is also to say that grammar
gives high contribution to students’ reading comprehension as well.
Regarding to the explanation above, it is reasonable because reading
comprehension is naturally different skill to achieve, because of some crucial
factors such as grammar,vocabulary, reading interest, etc.

As we know in Indonesia, grammar is related to the structure of

sentence. Jeremy Hermer (1998) states that when considering sentence
grammar, we need to know various things, they are:
a. Part of speech
What words can be used for subjects? How do we join different sentences?
What can come before and after nouns? This is one of the groups into which
words are divided.
b. Noun types
In English, there are many types of noun in order to make a sentence, like
countable and uncountable, plural and singular, collective nouns, compound
nouns, and noun phrase.
c. Verb types
There are three important types of verb to be aware of auxiliary verb, main
verb and phrasal verb.
d. Verb forms
This is kind of verb related to the time when we do the activity. In
grammar,people called it tenses.
e. Pronoun
There are four basic types of pronoun; those are personal pronoun, reflexive
pronoun, possessive pronoun, and relative pronoun.
f. Adjectives
Adjective can be used before and after nouns. They can have many
forms,those are comparative and superlative (better and best, more interesting
and most interesting, etc), adjective order, adjective and preposition
(interested in, keen on, etc), and adjective as nouns (the blind, etc).
g. Adverbs
Adverb can be of time (early, late, etc), manner (he played well, she ran
quickly, etc) and place (in the room, in the kitchen, etc). Adverb can appear
at the end of the sentence, at the beginning, or in the middle. It also can
modify adjectives, like a wonderfully physical performance, an unusually
large cucumber, etc.
h. Prepositions
A word put before a noun or pronoun to show how it is related to another
word. Preposition usually comes before a noun but can also come at the end
of a clause with certain structures.
i. Articles
Articles (the, a, an) belong to a class of words called determiners. Other
examples of determiners are “this”, “that”, “these”, “those”, “some”, “all of”.
j. Conjunctions and conditionals
Conjunction is a word that connects sentences, clauses, or words (and,
but,or). Conditional sentences are formed when the conjunction “if” is used
to preface a condition, for example “if it is rains (condition), you will get wet
(result)”.
 Therefore, it can be concluded that comprehension is achieved from the
knowledge of vocabulary. The comprehension of also resulted from achieving
the meaning originated from the knowledge of grammar that is the knowledge of
word form and relation among words in sentences. The superior amount of
vocabulary mastery is needed in comprehending texts.
Grammar mastery is also not least important. The variables are aspects
supporting the comprehension of texts. If a student has mastery of vocabulary
and grammar, it is expected that the student is able to comprehend texts. If a
student does not have mastery of vocabulary and grammar, the comprehension is
far from expectation.
Grammar rules the word from and sequence of words in a sentence.
Sentences in a text are ruled according to grammar rules which influenced
meaning. Sentences are arranged by following the grammar rules give meaning
to the reader as intended by the author. Thus, it can be assumed that there is
positive correlation between vocabulary and grammar mastery in reading
comprehension simultaneously. In other words, the higher one of vocabulary
and grammar mastery, the higher of reading comprehension will be.
Based on the explanation above, the researcher is interested in
investigating the possible correlation between students’ vocabulary and
grammar mastery in their reading comprehension.

B. Research Question
1. Is there any correlation between students’ grammar mastery and their reading
ability?
2. Is there any correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and their
reading ability?
3. Is there any shared correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary
mastery and their reading ability

C. Objectives of the research

1. To identify correlation between students’ grammar mastery and their reading
ability.
2. To describe correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and their
reading ability.
3. To find correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and
their reading ability.
 CHAPTER II

A. LITERATURE REVIEW
The Definition of Reading
There are many definitions of reading, Spratt, Pulverness and Williams
(2005:21) defines reading as the one of the four language skills (reading,
listening, writing and speaking) that is categorized as a receptive skill. It is so,
due to it involves responding rather than producing the text.
According to Nunan (2003:68), reading is a fluent process of readers
combining information from a text and their own background knowledge to
build meaning. Therefore, the goal of reading is comprehension.
Another definition of reading is stated by Celce-Muria (2001:119), that
reading skill is a process of trying to understand a written text. The reader has to
perform a number of simultaneously tasks: decode the message by recognizing
the written sign interpret the message by assigning meaning to the string of
words and understand what the author‘s intention was.
According to Grellet, reading is an active skill, it constantly involves guessing,
predicting, checking and asking oneself questions. (2003:8) Further, reading is
considered as an interactive process between a reader and a text that leads to
automaticity or reading fluency (Alyousef, 2005:144). In this process, the reader
interacts dynamically with the text as he/she tries to elicit the meaning, and
various kinds of knowledge being used are linguistic or systemic knowledge
(through bottom up processing) as well as schematic knowledge (through top
down processing).
In support to the definition above, Griffiths, Sohlber, and Biancarosa
(2011:6) propose reading as an iterative, interactive process. It combines two
processes, i.e. bottom up and top down processes that are simultaneously related
to word identification and comprehension. Regarding comprehension, this
argument is reinforced by Anastasiou and Griva (2004:283) that define reading
as a complex process including a combination of perceptual, psycholinguistics
and cognitive abilities that has three key components such as accuracy, fluency
(involves time), and comprehension.
In line with Anastasiou and Griva that involve fluency as one of three
components of reading supporting a reading process, Anderson in Ueta (2005:4)
includes fluency as a part of reading. He states that reading is anactive process,
fluent process, which involves the reader and the reading materials in building
meaning. Meaning does not reside on the printed page, nor is it only in the
reader. Furthermore, Urquhart and Weir (1988) in Ueta (2005:4) explore the
definition of reading as the process of receiving and interpreting information
encoded in language form. The language form can be in sentences or texts.
In summary, reading is an activity of receiving information through some
stages of thinking process such as decoding, interpreting and understanding
written text in order to achieve a certain purpose. Because it is the process of
receiving information, reading is considered as receptive skill.
The Definition of Grammar Larsen and Freeman in Brown (2001:362) state that
language has three dimensions, i.e. grammar (the form or the structure of
language), semantics (meanings), and pragmatics which are interconnected. Ur
(2009:75) defines grammar in general as ―the way words are put together to
make a correct sentence.
According to Brown (2001:362), grammar is the system of rules governing
the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence. It
includes rules of word order, verb and noun systems, modifier, phrases, clauses,
etc. A grammar of a language aims to present in a precise and explicit form just
those facts about the language that the speakers know intuitively. In more
technical terms, grammar is a system of rules that specifies the class of
phonetically possible utterances that are well formed in the language.
Cook & Suter in Cox (1998:2) states that a grammar is a written description
of the rules of the language. Weaver in Cox (1998: 385-386) proposes: 35
1) Sentence Structure: Grammar often simply refers to word order, the functions
of words and the grammatical endings of words in a language.
2) Usage: socially acceptable and prestigious language use is often referred to as
good grammar: ―bad grammar often means the use of language forms and
constructions that are not acceptable to many people.
3) Description: many linguists have attempted to classify and describe the
syntactic structure of a language, which they call a ―grammar.
4) A Process: Psycholinguists have tried to describe how people are able to
create and understand sentences in a language; they refer to this process as a
―grammar
5) A set of Rules: In education, grammar has often been thought of as a set of
rules for teaching students about some combination of the meanings above as
well as pronunciation and whatever else teachers thought would help students
speak and write correctly.

Grammarians have developed different models for explaining how language

works. According to Cox (1998:388-389), there are three types of grammar –
traditional, structural, and transformational – which have different histories and
theoretical frameworks.
Definition of Vocabulary According to Nation & Newton (1997)
vocabulary is knowledge of words and word meanings. Actually vocabulary is
more complex, vocabulary mastery is not only knowing the words and its
meanings, but also knowing about how the words sound and how the words are
used in the context.
It is according to Miller & Gildea (1987) that knowing a word by sight and
sound and knowing its dictionary definition are not the same as knowing how to
use the word correctly and understanding it when it is heard or seen in various
contexts. Building up a useful vocabulary is central to the learning of a foreign
language at primary level (Cameron, 2001). Someone who has a lot of
vocabulary of foreign language, she/he could learn language easily. Since
vocabulary is all about words, and good mastery of vocabulary helps someone
understand language.
It is supported by Wallace (1982) who says that vocabulary is one of the
most important parts of languages, because when speaking a language, the
speakers need several words to convey ideas. Therefore, people can understand
what the speakers mean. When a learner intends to learn foreign language,
he/she has to learn the vocabulary of the foreign language first.
 Wallace (1982) mentions two main reasons about the importance of
vocabulary. (1) Language exists in two forms, spoken and written, both of them
need vocabulary to develop the existence itself. (2) Vocabulary is needed for
production in learning English as a foreign language rather than only needed for
recognition it.
Furthermore, Lehr & Osborn (2001) explain two kinds of vocabulary
description as follow. First, words come in two forms, oral and print. (1) Oral
vocabulary includes the words that are recognized and used in listening and
speaking. (2) Print vocabulary includes the words that are recognized and used
in reading and writing.
Second, word knowledge is composed of two forms, receptive and
productive. (1) Receptive Vocabulary includes words that are recognized when
we hear or see them. It is the ability to comprehend passive vocabulary which is
used in reading and listening context. (2) Productive vocabulary includes words
that are recognized when we speak or write. It is an active ability which is used
in speaking or writing. Furthermore, knowing and understanding words mean
knowing their “form” (how they sounds, how they spelt, grammatical change
that could be made to them), their “meaning” (their conceptual content, and how
they relate to other words and in particular types of language use (Cameron,
2001).

B. THE PREVIOUS STUDY

The First previous study, The technique used to collect data in this study is
achievement test. Achievement test is a test meant to measure acquisition of
skill (Algarabel and Dasi, 2001). Through this technique, the information about
students’ ability in reading comprehension and vocabulary mastery is expected
to be obtained. The test contains 50 questions, twenty five questions are the
questions to measure students’ reading comprehension and the other twenty five
are to measure students’ vocabulary mastery. The test was taken from 2006-
2010 UAN test items (UAN questions is a standardized test for Indonesian
students). So, it is reasonable to be an instrument in this research. It was
constructed in multiplechoice questions.
 Students’ Reading Comprehension Score After calculating the data from
achievement test, the result shows that 11 students were included into excellent
category. It indicated that most of the students have good reading abilities. They
have abilities and strategies of reading. Almost all reading questions can be
answered by the students in this category. There were 9 students included into
good category. This category shows that students have the ability to comprehend
the texts but not as well as students in the excellent category. There were 10
students included into average category. In this category, the ability and strategy
of students in comprehending a text are not good enough. Especially on implicit
questions, a lot of students cannot answer correctly. There were 4 students
included into poor category.

Figure 1 Types of Reading items.

120%
100%
80% excellent
good
60%
average
40%
poor
20%
0%
implicit explicit

From the data of reading comprehension, implicit questions are more

difficult to answer. It is proven that two implicit questions (question no 1 and
12) are included into difficult category, two implicit questions (question no 3
and 27) are included into moderate category and the rest of questions are
included into easy category. In explicit questions, there is no question included
into difficult category and only one question included into moderate category,
which is question number nineteen i.e. about general truth. The rest of questions
are included into easy category. One of the examples of explicit question is
number thirteen. See the question bellow.
“Where did they buy shirts and dresses?”.
 This question can be answered directly from the text. 32 students chose the
right answer.
One of the examples of implicit question is number one. See the question
bellow. “According to the text , we know that Mr.Johan‘s hair is?”.
In this question students must use their understanding of the text to get the
right answer. This question seems difficult for the students, because a lot of
students had wrong answer.
Background knowledge seems to help the students to understand the text.
Hedgecock & Ferris (2009) state that background knowledge is unquestionably
helpful for students in their reading, since it is necessary to have adequate
knowledge to encounter a reading task. It is proven that in the second text
(questions no 7 and 8) which is about cat and fourth text (questions no 16-23)
which is about octopus. In the second text, there are 80,88% students who could
answer the questions correctly and 75,21% students who could answer the fourth
text correctly. The text about octopus and cat would be more familiar for the
students than the other text i.e. about Mr. Johan’s family (first text), someone’s
experience (third and sixth text) and research on animal (fifth text).
Students’ Vocabulary Mastery score After calculating the data from
achievement test, the result shows that 6 students were included into excellent
category, 11 students were included into good category, 4 students were
included into average category and 13 students were included into poor
category. It indicates that the students’ vocabulary knowledge in this study were
not good enough. A lot of students were included into poor category.

Figure 2 Types of Vocabulary items

 100%
90% excellent
80%
70% good
60%
50% average
40%
30% poor
20%
10%
0%
synonym/antonym complete sentence

Figure above shows that students have difficulties in completing the

sentence. The percentage of completing the sentence from all categories of
students is the lowest. It may be caused by the synonym/antonym test items,
students only need to know one word in the question for example question
number 15. See the question bellow:
“I was too tired but I was happy”. The underlined word has the same
meaning as?”
The students only need to know the synonym of “tired”. They do not need
to understand the meaning of other words. It makes them easy to answer the
question.Correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and their reading
comprehension
The Second previous study, The researcher aimed to find “the correlation
between students’ vocabulary and grammar mastery and their achievement
reading comprehension”. This research was about multiple correlation research.
To conduct the research, the researcher used a co-relational design of ex post
facto designs (Setiyadi, 2006).
Here, the researcher only administered the tests to know both mastering of
vocabulary and grammar in reading comprehension to a group of students. So,
there was no treatment or experiment of any kind to subjects. The researcher
gave the test about vocabulary mastery, grammar mastery and reading
comprehension. After that, the data gained from the test was analyzed to see
whether mastering vocabulary and grammar related to the ability of reading
comprehension or not. The researcher used quantitative method to analyze the
result of research. This method was used to find the correlation between
students’ vocabulary mastery and grammar mastery and their achievement in
reading comprehension.
In this research there were three variables that were dependent and two
independent variables. The dependent variable was students’ reading
comprehension. On the other hand, independent variables were students’
vocabulary and grammar mastery. The score showed a data about students’
achievement in vocabulary and grammar mastery and their reading
comprehension which can be used to identify the correlation between students’
vocabulary and grammar mastery and their achievement in reading
comprehension. The population of this research was all the students of the
second grade of SMAN 1 Tumijajar. There were 10 classes of the second grade
students that consist of 35 students for each class.
The students were divided into 2 groups, XI MIA and XI IIS. From those
numbers of the students, the researcher choose one group that was XI MIA.
Then, the researcher had choose XI MIA2 through random sampling as a sample
in order to find the validity, reliability, difficulty level, and discrimination power
of the test item. After getting a good test items, by the random sampling
technique, the researcher used XI MIA3 at the SMAN 1 Tumijajar as the subject
to collect the data.
In this research, the researcher used some instruments for conducting the
research. The instruments were test of vocabulary and grammar mastery and
reading comprehension. So, the researcher gave 50 items of vocabulary and
grammar mastery and reading comprehension. The test conducted 90 minutes
for reading comprehension and 60 minutes for vocabulary and grammar
mastery.
The researcher made steps after conducting a research by using tests, the
researcher analyzed the data by using Correlation in SPSS (Statistical Program
for Social Science) 16.0. The researcher collected the data by looking at the
result of test of vocabulary and grammar mastery and reading comprehension to
find out the result of students’ vocabulary and grammar mastery and their
achievement inreading comprehension. The result of the test was in form of
 score or interval data. After getting the result, the researcher analyzed three data
(1) the correlation between students’ vocabulary and their achievement in
reading comprehension, (2) the correlation between students ‘grammar mastery
and their achievement in reading comprehension, and (3) the correlation
between students’ vocabulary and grammar mastery and their achievement in
reading comprehension.
The Third previous study , The design of this study is correlation research.
According to Gay (1976:230) a correlation study describes research in
quantitative terms the degree to which variables is related. It is used in order to
determine whether and to what degree, a relationship exists between two or
more quantifiable variables. Correlation coefficient are statistical indices have
been develop to indicate both the direction (negative or positive) and the
strength of a relationship between variables. It attempt to investigate correlation
between two variables – grammar achievement and reading comprehension. To
answer whether there is a correlation or not, researcher use documentation –
score of both objects. To find out the coefficient of correlation between two
variables, the data were analyzed by using the correlation formula of Pearson
product moment. Why using Pearson product moment formula is because the N
(subjects) is more than 30 and the data must be interval ratio. Instrument that
use in this research is document of score of the test. The researcher took the
score of Grammar 1 and Reading 1 of 33 students of 110 The Second student of
Islamic High School of Malang. The score of these two courses was taken from
available document from subjects lectures. To analyze the data, the researcher
used Pearson Product Moment correlation. This technique is used to determine
the correlation of grammar achievement and reading comprehension of the
second of student of Islamic High School of Malang. The variable X was
grammar achievement and variable Y was reading comprehension.

C. THE POSITIONING
According to three previous above three were some similarity and differences
with the topic. The similarity is all previous study collect the data use SPSS. The
researcher to collect the data use the test and the differences that can be found
 from the three previous studies are the three have the different goals. the three
previous studies have different titles and places.

CHAPTER. III

This chapter discusses the design of this research, how to collect data,
population and sample, data collecting technique, the procedures of the research,
scoring system and data analysis.

A. SUBJECTS

The subjects for this study are Second grade students with learning vocabulary,
grammar in their reading ability from the Senior High School. These are all of the
students at the Senior High who are identify as having a learning vocabulary,
grammar in their reading ability as their primary disability. Because the total
population of students whose primary disability is a learning vocabulary, grammar in
their reading ability is so small, the entire group usual rather than selecting a smaller
sample from the total group

B. RESEARCH PROCEDURE

In conducting the research, there were some procedures that apply for taking the
data :
1. Determining the problem
 In order to determine the problem, the writer read the books that are relate to
the topic under discussion.
2. Determining the instrument
In this research, the writer used instrument in order to be able to be analyze.
The instruments are vocabulary test, consisting of 25 items, grammar test
consisting 25 and reading comprehension which consists of 50 items.
3. Finding the sample
The sample of this research determine though simple random probably
sampling. There are ten class of the second grade of SMAN 1. However only
class XI MIA 2 had a chance to become the sample of this research.
4. Try out the instrument
Before distributing the instruments, the writer distribute the try out test to them
in order to guarantee the result to be more valid.
5. Distribute the instrument
Both of the instruments would be distribute on the same day.
6. Scoring the students’
The writer score the students’ work in order to get data.
7. Analyzed the data
The writer analyze the data whether there is correlation between students’
grammar and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability.

C. DATA COLLECTING

The procedures of collecting data were such the following:

1. Grammar test
Grammar test is administer to know grammar mastery and usage. The test
of grammar is multiple choices, which consists of 25 items.
2. Vocabulary test
A test of vocabulary usual to measure the students’ vocabulary mastery.
Type of vocabulary test is multiple choices, which consists of 25 items.
3. Reading comprehension test
There are 50 items for reading comprehension test. It is multiple choices
with four options, with one correct answer and three distracters. The test consist
of five aspects of reading skills, they are determining main idea, identifying
specific information, inference, reference and vocabulary.

1) Try Out Test

Try out test is administer to determine the quality of the test that will be
used to collect the data. In order to determine the quality of the test whether the
instruments are valid, the writer try out the instruments to measure the validity,
reliability, discriminating power and level of difficulty. The writer give 100
items for tryout test. After giving a try out test, the writer find if the question is
significant or not. Furthermore the significant questions will be teste again to
find the correlation between students’ grammar and vocabulary mastery and
their reading ability.

 Result of the Try out

In this research, the try out test will be categorize into three types of
question, they are grammar test, vocabulary test, and reading test.

 Grammar test

The tryout of grammar test contain 25 questions. The students who

complete the tryout are 35 students. The highest score on the grammar test
is 97 and the lowest is 47, the mean of the score is 78, the median score is
83. Meanwhile the mode is 76 which there are three students score 76 in
completing the test. Below is the table of students’ score in try out class;

Table 1. Distribution of Students’ Grammar mastery in Tryout Class

No Class Interval Frequency Percentages Level
1. < 59 4 11% Unsatisfactory
2. 60-69 5 13% Very Weak
3. 70-79 6 18% Satisfactory
4. 80-89 13 34% Very Good
5. 90-100 7 24% Excellent
Total 35 100%
2) Reliability of the Grammar

The grammar test that used in this research consist of 25 items. In order to
find out whether the test was suitable to be used in real research, the test try
out to 35 students of XI MIA 2 class of SMA N 1 Tumijajar. So that, there are
no items of questions that has to be drop out since the reliability is sufficient
(0.795) (see Appendix 4). The reliability of the test is gain by using
cronbarch’s alpha. From the calculation, it is find that the grammar test is
suitable to be used in the real sample because the reliability is high (Hatch and
Farhady, 1982:22).

3) Vocabulary test

The writer give the try out test to class XI MIA 2 which consist 35 students.
The try out test of grammar consist of 25 items. The highest score on
vocabulary test is 90 and the lowest score is 33, the mean of score is 64, the
median score is 63, which insert that half students score below 63. Meanwhile
the mode 40 is 87 which there are six student score 87 in completing the test.
Below is the table of frequency of students’ score in tryout class.

Table 2. Distribution Frequency of Students’ Vocabulary in Tryout

No Class Interval Frequency Percentages Level
1. <59 15 42% Unsatisfactory
2. 60-69 5 16% Very Weak
3. 70-79 2 5% Satisfactory
4. 80-89 10 29% Very Good
5. 90-100 3 8% Excellent
Total 35 100%

4) Reliability of Vocabulary Tryout

 The writer give the try out test to the first SMAN 1. The writer get class
XI MIA 2 which consist of 35 students. It is find that the reliability of
grammar test (r) is 0.811 (see Appendix 4). The reliability of the test is gain
by using cronbarch’s alpha. From the calculation, it is find that the grammar
test is suitable to be used in the real sample because the reliability was very
high (Setiyadi, 2006)

5) Reading test

The tryout of reading test contain 30 questions. The students who

complete the try out are 38 students. The highest score on reading test is 97
and the lowest score is 43, the mean of score is 76, the median score is 80,
which insert that half students score below 80. Meanwhile the mode is 87
which there are seven students score 87 in completing the test. Below is the
table of frequency of students’ score in tryout class.
Table 3. Distribution Frequency of Students’ Reading Ability in Tryout
No Class Interval Frequence Percentages Level
1. <59 4 11% Unsatisfactory
2. 60-69 5 13% Very Weak
3. 70-79 7 18% Satisfactory
4. 80-89 16 50% Very Good
5. 90-100 3 8% Excellent
Total 35 100%

6) Reliability of the Reading

The reading test that used in this research consist of 30 items. In order to
find out whether the test is suitable to be used in real research, the test try out
to 38 students of XI MIA 2 class of SMA N 1. The result of the test present in
the appendix 3, it is find that the reliability of reading test (r) is 0.678 (see
Appendix 4). The reliability of the test is gain by using cronbarch’s alpha.
From the calculation, it is find that the reading test is suitable to be used in
the real sample because the reliability was high level (Setiyadi, 2006).
D. DATA VALIDITY OF THE TEST

The test can be valid if it measures the object to be measure and suitable for the
criteria (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:250). There are three basic types of validity:
content validity, construct validity, and criterion relate validity. This research refer
to the content validity. Content validity is extent to which the test measures a
representative sample of the subject matter content. Besides that, construct validity
is concerned with whether the test is actually in line with the theory of what it
means to know the language (Shohamy, 1985:74).
1. Validity of Grammar Test

The validity of the grammar test refer to the content and construct validity
in which the questions represent three sorts of grammar skills, they are
identifying adjective clauses, identifying verb, and identifying the sentences.
They were parallel to the skill require by the language curriculum. The test try
out to the students whose level is equal to sample of the research.
No Questions of Items number Total %
grammar test items
1. Adjective 4,9 2 7%
clauses
2. Grammatical 3,5,6,7,10,11,19,20,21,22,23, 13 60%
tense 24,25
3. Adverb 1,2,8,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 10 33%
connectors
Total 25 100%

2. Validity of Vocabulary Test

The validity of the vocabulary test refer to the content and construct validity
in which the questions represent three kinds of vocabulary. They are Verb, noun,
and adjective.
Table 5. Specification of vocabulary test
No Part of speech Items number Total items %
1. Verb 5,7,10,11,13, 5 20%
 2. Noun 2,4,8,,14,15 5 20%
3. Adjective 1,3,9,16,19 5 20%
4. Adverb 6,18,23,25,21 5 20%
5. Prepositional Phrase 12,17,20,22,24 5 20%
Total 25 100%

3. Validity of Reading Test

The questions of reading test represent five sorts of reading skills that we
are know that quite the same as the reading skill. They determine main idea,
identifying specific information, inference, reference, and vocabulary. They are
parallel to the skill require by the language curriculum. The test try out to the
students whose level is equal to the subject of the research.

Table 6. Specification of reading comprehension test

No Skills of reading Items Number Total %
Items
1. Determining main 13,16,21,26 4 13%
idea
2. identifying specific 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,17 14 47%
information ,22, 24,
3. Inference 12,18,25,28 4 13%
4. Reference 14,15,19,20,23,30 6 20%
5. Vocabulary 27,29 2 7%
Total 30 100%

E. Data Analysis

This inferential quantitative research rely on second language learning to

examine the relationship between grammar mastery and vocabulary mastery and
their reading ability. The writer use ex post facto research design because she does
not give any treatment but collect the data and see the correlation of cause and effect
that happen. Ex post facto design involve only one group and does not use any
control class.
Hacth and Farhady (1982:26) state that an ex post facto design use when the
researcher does not have control over the selection and manipulation of the
independent variable. This design is often called corelational study. Co-relational
study focuses on the relationship among variables that exist naturally. It does involve
the manipulation of the independent variables.
Yet it involves collecting data in order to determine whether and what degree a
relationship exists between two or more variables rather than the cause-effect
relationship (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:27)
The research design of Ex post facto co-relational study is formula as follows:
T1 T2
Where:
T1 : The test of understanding grammar and vocabulary mastery.
T2 : The test of reading comprehension. (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:27)
1) Population and Sample

The population of this research was the first year students of SMAN 1
Tumijajar. There are ten classes of the second grade students and whole of
classes consist of about 350 students. In this research, the writer determine the
sample by using simple random sampling technique, because every student in
the population get the same opportunity to be choose or to be sample of the
research. The writer take class XI-MIA 2 consisting of 35 students as the sample
and class XI-MIA 3 consisting of 35 students as the try out class.

2) Variables

In this research, there are two variables: independent (X) and dependent
variables (Y). The independent variables of this research are students’ grammar
mastery (X1) and vocabulary mastery (variable X2). While the dependent
variable is reading ability (variable Y).
The correlation of the variables is illustrate as follows:
X1 Where: X1 = grammar mastery
 Y X2 = vocabulary mastery
X2 Y = reading ability
(Hatch and Farhady, 1982:27)

After conducting the test, the writer analyze the data. It is used to identify
whether there was positive significant correlation between students’ grammar
mastery and vocabulary mastery and their reading ability. Normality is used to
measure whether the data are normally distribute or not. The writer used SPSS
to analyze the data. The hypothesis for the normality tes was as follows:
Ho : the data is not distribute normally
H1 : the data is distribute normally
In this research, 1 H is accept if p > α ( p = the significant score of students,
α =the significant level), and the writer used level of significance of 0.05. The
data are correlate by using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (SPSS) in order
to investigate whether there was any correlation or not.
In order to know the coefficient correlation between students’ vocabulary
mastery and their reading comprehension, the researcher calculate the data by
using Pearson Product Moment Correlation in SPPS 16.
Based on the calculation, the researcher find that the coefficient correlation
between students’ vocabulary mastery and their reading comprehension is
.839.The coefficient correlation is higher that the critical value of rtable
(.839>.32). The statistical analysis also show that the correlation between
students’ vocabulary mastery and their reading comprehension was significant
(p< .01; p=.000).Therefore, the null hypothesis (H01) is reject and the
alternative hypothesis (H1) is accept. The result of this research show that
student’s vocabulary mastery significant correlates with their reading
comprehension. It indicate that vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension
cannot separate each other.

3) Correlation between Students’ Grammar Mastery and Their Achievement in

Reading Comprehension
 In order to know the coefficient correlation between students’ grammar
mastery and their reading comprehension, the researcher also calculate the data by
using Pearson Product Moment Correlation in SPPS 16.
Based on the calculation, the researcher find that the coefficient correlation
between students’ grammar mastery and their achievement in reading
comprehension is .726. The coefficient correlation is higher that the critical value
of rtable (.726>.32). The statistical analysis also show that the correlation
between students’ grammar mastery and their achievement in reading
comprehension is significant (p< .01; p= .000).
Therefore, the null hypothesis (H02) is reject and the alternative hypothesis
(H2) is accept. The result of this research show that student’s grammar mastery
significant correlates with their reading comprehension. It indicate that grammar
mastery and reading comprehension also cannot separate each other.

4) Correlation between Students’ Vocabulary and Grammar Mastery and Their

Achievement in Reading Comprehension

In order to determine simultaneously correlation and contribution of students’

vocabulary and grammar mastery on their reading comprehension, the
researcher analyzed the data using Linear Regression in SPSS 16.
Based on the calculation, the researcher found the coefficient correlation
student’s vocabulary and grammar mastery and their reading comprehension (r)
is .870. The coefficient correlation is higher than critical value of rtable
(.870>.32). Therefore, the null hypothesis (H03) is reject and the alternative
hypothesis (H3) is accept.
The result of this research show that student’s vocabulary and grammar
mastery have simultaneous correlation on their reading comprehension. It
indicate that both of vocabulary and grammar mastery simultaneously have
significant correlation and contribution on the reading comprehension.
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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ GRAMMAR
MASTERY AND VOCABULARY MASTERY IN THEIR
READING ABILITY
Name : ROSA TRI HANDAYANI
NIM : A 320150226
Class : 4J

Departement Of English Education

Faculty Of Teacher Training And Education

MUHAMMADIYAH SURAKARTA OF UNIVERSITY

2017