The correlation between vocabulary achievement and reading achievement of the first graders of Senior High School

Learning the four English basic skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) is supported by learning the three language components (pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar). Having rich vocabulary really gives many advantages in developing a reading ability although there are other factors which may influence reading ability. The purpose of this research is to find out the correlation between vocabulary and reading. There were two formulated research questions: (1) Is there a correlation between vocabulary achievement and reading achievement of first grade senior high school students? and (2) Is the correlation between vocabulary achievement and reading achievement of first grade senior high school students positive or negative? The theories used in this research were theory of vocabulary (definition of vocabulary, type of vocabulary, vocabulary learning, the importance of teaching vocabulary, how to test vocabulary, and the vocabulary size test), the theory of reading (definition of reading, kinds of reading, the importance of reading, reading process, reading comprehension, and how to test reading comprehension). The research design used was quantitative research design. It was a nonexperimental correlation study. The subjects of this study were 50 students of grade one at “X” Senior High School. The instruments of this study were vocabulary test and reading test. This study used Vocabulary Size Test which was composed by Paul Nation and David Beglar. Then, the reading test was made by the researcher herself. As a result of the first try out of reading test was not satisfying, the writer conducted the second reading try out to develop a better reading test. Obtaining the result of vocabulary and reading test from the sample students, the writer analyzed the scores statistically to find the correlation coefficient by using Pearson Product- Moment Correlation Coefficient. The correlation coefficient found was 0.679. This proved that there was a correlation between vocabulary achievement and reading achievement of the first grade senior high school students and the correlation was found to be positive. It means that if vocabulary achievement increases, reading achievement will also increase. Considering the result of this study, the students should never stop learning vocabulary in order to have a good reading achievement. Therefore, teachers need to include the vocabulary learning while teaching students reading