An Analysis of the Second Year Students’ Ability in Understanding Word Meaning through Antonym and Synonym at English Department of Bung Hatta University

Abstrak

Vocabulary is one of language components which should be mastered by the students. Vocabulary is the important component and becomes the basic compentence in order to master the language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. If the students have the knowledges of vocabulary, the students can apply the language skills easily. According to Rivers and Nunand in Alqahtani (2015: 2), vocabulary is essential for successful second language learners because without an extensive vocabulary, they will be unable to understand the meaning of the text.

The Population of this research was the second year students of English Department at Bung Hatta University. The number of sample was 23 students selected using total sampling technique. The instrument of this research was vocabulary test, in a kind of multiple choice test. To make instrument reliable, the researcher gave try out of the students out the sample. It was found that reliability index of the test was 0.94 .It means that the test was reliable.

The result of the data analysis gathered from vocabulary test showed that the students’ ability in understanding word meaning through antonym and synonym was 2 student (8.70%) had good ability, 3 students (13.04%) had moderate ability, and 18 students (78.26%) had low ability. The students’ ability in understanding word meaning through antonym was 17 students (60.86%) had low ability, 5 student (21.74%) had moderate ability, and 4 students (17.40%) had good ability. The students’ ability in understanding word meaning through synonym was 18 students (78.26%) had low ability, 1 student (4.34%) had moderate ability, and 4 students (17.40%) had good ability.

Related to the findings, it could be concluded that the second year students had low ability in understanding word meaning through antonym and synonym. The researcher proposed suggestions that lecturers should give the students motivation to learn English, give more variant exercises on vocabulary activities in the classroom.

In addition, the researcher suggests the students to improve students’ skills in understanding word meaning through antonym and synonym by giving more exercises to the students to improve their ability in understanding word meaning through antonym and synonym. Furthermore, the other researchers are suggested to find other factors that correlate with the ability in vocabulary.

Key word: Vocabulary Ability, antonym, synonym