THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY AND THEIR ABILITY TO COMPRHEND NARRATIVE TEXT AT SMAN 1 LUBUK ALUNG

Abstrak

Abstract

The type of this study was correlational design. The purpose of this study was to determine relationship between vocabulary mastery and ability to comprehend narrative text. The population of this research was the second year students of SMAN 1 Lubuk Alung. The total members of sample in this research were 30 students. The data of this research were collected by using two kinds of instruments. The first is vocabulary test, the second is reading test. To make the instruments reliable, the researcher gave try out test to the students  out of the sample. It was found the reliability index of the vocabulary test was 0.84, and reliability index of reading test was 0.76. It means that the instruments were very reliable. Based on the result of the data analysis, the researcher found that the value of r-calculated of this research was 0.75, while the value of r-table with level of significance 0.05 and degree of freedom (df= n-2) was 0.362. It means that the r-calculated was higher than r-table (0.75>0.362). Therefore, the alternative hyphothesis of this research stating that there is significant correlation between second year students’ vocabulary mastery and their ability to comprehend narrative text at SMAN 1 Lubuk Alung was accepted. In line with the finding of this study, it can be concluded that, the correlation between students’ vocabulary mastery and their ability to comprehend narrative text at SMAN 1 Lubuk Alung was significant. Based on the conclusion, in order to improve students’ reading ability, it is sugested to English teacher guide their students to develop their vocabulary. Suggestion also goes to the students to make effort to increase their mastery in vocabulary by looking the dictionary or asked the teacher when their confused with the meaning of the word since complexity of a reading text caused by vocabulary mastery.

Key words: correlation, vocabulary mastery, reading ability, comprehension, narrative text.