AN ANALYSIS ON THE ABILITY OF SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF BUNG HATTA UNIVERSITY IN GUESSING MEANING OF UNFAMILIAR WORDS IN SCIENTIFIC PARAGRAPH

Abstrak

Abstract

This research described the ability of the second year students of English Department of Bung Hatta University in guessing meaning of unfamiliar words in scientific paragraph. The design of this research was descriptive. Twenty-six 2^th year English students of Bung Hatta University in academic year of 2013/2014 participated in this research. In selecting sample, the researcher used cluster random sampling technique. The instrument was reading test in the form of short answer questions. The test indicators were context clues and affixation analysis. Before giving the real test, the researcher tried it out to the students out of the sample. The result of try out test was used to analyze item difficulties, item discrimination, and reliability of the test. The result of data analysis showed that generally the students’ ability in guessing meaning of unfamiliar words in scientific paragraph was moderate. It is indicated by the fact that 16 students had moderate ability (61.54%). In conclusion, the researcher suggests the lecturer to encourage the students to use context clues and affixation analysis. In addition, the students are suggested to have knowledge of the clues and type of clues as well as having knowledge of the meaning of each affix. For further research, it is worth to conduct the research about what problems that the students have in guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words in a paragraph or a text.    

Key words: Ability, Guessing Meaning, Unfamiliar Words, Scientific Paragraph