THE STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN UNDERSTANDING SYNONYMS IN READING ENGLISH TEXT AT THE SECOND YEAR OF MADRASAH ALIYAH MUHAMMADIYAH PENYASAWAN - KAMPAR

English is one of foreign languages which becomes a compulsory subject at Madrasah Aliyah Muhammadiyah Penyasawan. Therefore, the second year students of the school should master four language skills. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. To master these skills, the students should master the language components; grammar, vocabulary, and sound systems. Vocabulary is an essential element to master a language. In this paper, the writer has assumed that mastering a language needs to have adequate vocabularies. Synonym becomes one of techniques to enlarge vocabulary effectively. The writer is interested in conducting this research because the writer has found some problems that should be discussed and investigated about students’ ability in understanding and mastering English synonyms. In collecting the data of the research, the writer used the test and questionnaire as instruments. The test was used to know the students’ ability in mastering English synonyms. The writer used quantitative method by using the following formula: P = f x 100% N The level of the students’ ability in mastering English synonym is classified into five classes. They are; excellent, good, fairly good, weak, and poor. Based on the data analysis, it can be concluded that the average of achievement of the second year students of Madrasah Aliyah Muhammadiyah in mastering English synonym is 54.90 %. It is categorized in Weak Level