CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this research will study theories about reading strategies and

vocabulary mastery as independent variables, and reading comprehension

is as dependent variable.

A. Reading Strategies

Reading is one of receptive skills which is very significant

nowadays. Expended knowledge and information demand someone to

improve his/her reading. It is not just a visual activity, nor a simple

matter of decoding to sound. But there are two sources of information

are essential for reading, visual information and non visual information

(Smith, 1978:10). These sources are very helpful for the students to

comprehend a text in reading.

Strategy is also important to have it since it can help the

students to understand and comprehend the text of reading. If it is

seen from the term of the strategy itself, it has many meanings. It is

suitable with the context where the strategy is used. In Oxford

(1990:7─8) defines that the word strategy comes from the ancient

Greek term strategia meaning generalship or the art of war. It is also

tactics, which are tools to achieve the success of strategies. The two

expressions share some basic implied characteristics: planning,

9
 10

competition, conscious manipulation, and movement toward a goal. In

addition, in Oxford dictionary (1974:854) also defines that strategy is

person skilled in something.

Sometimes the term of the strategy is the same with approach,

method or technique. It is because all of them have connection each

other. Like Antony (in Brown, 1994:48) says that an approach is a set

of assumption dealing with the nature of language, learning, and

teaching, while method is an overall plan for systematic presentation of

language based upon a selected approach, and the techniques are the

specific activities to manifest a method. It can be concluded that the

strategy is some efforts that are done in reading activity to get certain

goal. In other words, the strategy is planning, organizing, and action

that is done to get aim in reading.

If it is seen from reading strategies, there are some strategies

in reading that must be had by the students. For example: surveying a

text, underlining key concepts/ideas, listing related details, and making

useful set of notes for quick reference (Smale, 2003). Surveying a text

is to know how the text of reading by look at the cover, headings,

pictures, and even questions about the ideas of the text. Underlining

key concept/ideas and listing related details will help the students to

know the content of the text in general and details. And making some

notes while they are reading, they can make the students easier to
 11

comprehend the text of reading itself. Furthermore, Lamb and Johnson

(2003) say about other strategies, skimming and scanning, which can

be used by the students in reading comprehension. Skimming is used

to quickly identify the main ideas of the text. The readers might read

the title, subtitles, subheading, the first and the last paragraph,

summarizes, and illustrations. This technique is useful when seeking

specific information from the text. While scanning is a technique the

readers often use when looking up a word in the telephone book or

dictionary. They use it for searching key words or ideas. In scanning, it

involves moving eyes quickly down the page seeking specific words or

phrases. It also can use to look for the author’s use of organizers such

as numbers, letters, and steps. By using both of them, they can help

the students to find out specific information and left unimportant ideas

in the text. Besides, Addison (2003) gives addition to some strategies

that must be paid attention by the students in reading comprehension.

They are non-verbal signals, structure of texts, structure of paragraph,

punctuation, author’s viewpoint, determining the meaning of words,

and summarizing.

In addition, Honsenfeld (in Oxford, 1990:196) also defines that

there are many reading strategies such as: (1) keeps meaning in mind,

(2) skips unknown words (guesses contextually), (3) use context in

preceding and succeeding sentences and paragraphs, (4) identifies

 12

grammatical category of words, (5) evaluates guesses, (6) reads title

(makes inferences), (7) continues if unsuccessful, (8) recognizes

cognates, (9) uses knowledge of the world, (10) analyzes unknown

words, (11) reads as though he or she expects the text to have

meaning, (12) reads to identify meaning rather than words, (13) takes

chances in order to identify meaning , (14) uses illustrations, (15) uses

side-gloss, (16) uses glossary as last resort, (17) looks up words

correctly, (18) skips unnecessary words, (19) follows through with

proposed solutions, and (20) uses a variety of types of context clues.

Oxford (1990:152─173) also defines that indirect strategies

also help the students in reading a text. She divided into

metacognitive, affective, and social strategies. Reading strategies in

metacognitive include: (1) over viewing and linking with already known

material, (2) paying attention, (3) finding out about language learning,

(4) organizing, (5) setting goals and objectives, (6) identifying the

purpose of a language task, (7) planning for a language task, (8)

seeking practice opportunities, (9) self-monitoring, and (12) self-

evaluating. In affective strategies include: (1) using progressive

relaxation, (2) using music, (3) using laughter, (4) making positive

statement, (5) taking risks wisely, (6) rewarding yourself, (7) listening

to your body, (8) using check list, (9) writing a language diary, and

(10) discussing your feeling with someone else. And in social strategies
 13

include: (1) asking for verification or clarification, (2) cooperation with

peers, (3) cooperating with proficient user of the New Language, (4)

developing cultural understanding, and (5) becoming aware of other’s

thoughts and feeling. While direct strategies are divided into memory,

cognitive, and compensation strategies. Reading strategies in memory

are: (1) associating/ elaborating, (2) placing new words into a context,

(3) using imagery, (4) using keywords, (5) representing sound in

memory, (6) reviewing well, (7) using physical response or sensation,

(8) using mechanical technique. And in cognitive strategies are: (1)

repeating, (2) recognizing and using formulas and patterns, (3)

practicing naturalistically, (4) getting the idea quickly, (5) using

resources for receiving and sending messages, (6) reasoning

deductively, (7) analyzing expressions, (8) transferring, (9) taking

notes, (10) summarizing, and (11) highlighting. And in compensation

strategy is only by using other clues for reading strategies.

McWhorter (1992:23─24) says that there are some activities

for effective reading. First, before reading includes: (1) determining

the subject of the material, (2) determining how the material is

organized, (3) deciding what you need to remember from the material,

and (4) defining your purpose for reading. Second, during reading

consists of: (1) identifying what is important, (2) determining how key

ideas are supported, (3) identifying patterns of thought, (4) drawing

 14

connections among ideas, (5) anticipating what is come next, and (6)

relating ideas to what you already know. And the last, during and after

reading are: (1) identifying the author’s purpose for writing, (2)

analyzing the writer’s technique and language, (3) evaluating the

writer’s competence or authority, (4) asking critical questions, and (5)

evaluating the nature and type of supporting evidence. Beside that,

McWhorter (1992:25─47) also offers techniques and strategies for

becoming a more active reader. They are: prereading, forming guide

questions, making connections and prediction, and monitoring your

comprehension. Prereading involves getting a quick impression or

overview what you will read before beginning to read. By using it, the

students will be able to read faster and follow the author’s thought

more easily. In this part, the activities are: read the title, read the

introduction or opening paragraphs, and read each boldface heading.

This activity is needed to do since it can help the students to give the

general information about the material, read faster than before, and

also make them interest to read the text. The readers also should pay

attention to the kind of the text what they will read. For example, if

they read the book, they have to be attention to the title, introduction,

table of content, and etc. If they read questions of examination, they

need to read first about the direction, total of questions, type of

questions, and etc. Furthermore McWhorter (1992:31) gives

 15

suggestions how to adjust prereading with reading material. See table

below!

Table 1

Prereading the Material

TYPE OF MATERIAL SPECIAL FEATURES TO CONSIDER

Title and subtitle
Preface
Textbook Table of content
Appendix
Glossary
Summary
Textbook chapters Vocabulary list
Review and discussion questions
Title
Artides and essays Introductory paragraphs
Concluding paragraph
Instructions and directions
Tests and exams Number of items
Types of questions

Second, asking the right guide questions can be begun with what, why,

how. These questions are useful because they usually require to think

or to consolidate information and ideas. Third, predictions are educated

guesses about the material to be read. It can predict an essay’s focus, a

chapter’s method of development, or the key point to be presented

within a chapter section. Fourth, monitor our reading comprehension.

 16

There are some point which should be paid attention. They are (1)

analyze the time and which you are reading, (2) rephrase each

paragraph in your own words, (3) read aloud sentences or section that

are particularly difficult, (4) write a brief outline of the major points of

the article, (5) do not hesitate to reread difficult or complicated section,

(6) underline key ideas, (7) slow down your reading rate if you feel

you’re beginning to lose comprehension, and (8) summarizing. While

Wisconsin (2003) also gives his opinion about effective reading

strategies for developing comprehension abilities. They are making

connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, determining importance,

clarifying, and synthesizing information.

In addition, McWhorther (1980:167) gives nine systems how to

read efficiently. They are: SQ3R (Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Review),

SQ4R (Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Rite-Review), POINT (Purpose-

Overview-Interpret-Note-Test), OK4R (Overview-Key Ideas-Recite-

Review-Reflect), PQRST (Preview-Question-Read-Summarize-Test),

RSVP (Review- Study-Verbalize-Preview), EARTH (Explore-Ask-Read-

Tell-Harvest), OARWET (Overview-Ask-Read-Write-Evaluate-Test), and

PANORAMA (Purpose-Adaptability-Need to Question-Overview-Read-

Annote-Memorize-Assess). Beside reading efficiently, De (2003) offers

his opinion in reading intelligently. He divided into six stratgeies: (1)

knowing what you want to know and reading appropriately, (2)

 17

knowing how deeply to study the material, (3) using active reading

techniques to pick out key points, and keep your mind focused on the

material, (4) using table of content for reading magazines and

newspapers, and clipping useful articles, (5) understanding how to

extract information from different article types, and (6) creating your

own table of content for reviewing material.

Brown (1994:291─296) also gives ten strategies for reading

comprehension. They are : (1) identify the purpose of reading, (2) use

graphemic rules and patterns to aid in bottom-up decoding, (3) use

efficient silent reading techniques for relativity rapid comprehension, (4)

skimming, (5) scanning, (6) semantic mapping, (7) guessing, (8)

vocabulary analysis, (9) distinguish between literal and implied

meanings, and (10) capitalize on discourse markers to process

relationships. Then, Palinscar and Brown (in Calfee, 1986:839) also

state about six major reading comprehension activities: (1)

understanding the purposes of reading, both explicit and implicit, (2)

activating relevant background knowledge, (3) allocating attention so

that concentration can be focused on the major content of the text, (4)

evaluating content critically for internal consistency, and compatibility

with prior knowledge and common sense, (5) monitoring on going

activities to see if comprehension is occurring, by engaging in such

activities as periodic review and self-interrogation, and (6) drawing and

 18

testing inferences of many kinds, including interpretations, predications,

and conclusions. Those activities above can be grouped into

summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting.

Reading is often done in many activities with many situations

and conditions. There are some people who like reading aloud in order

to be able to pronounce the words well and others can correct their

pronunciation. If we see in the classroom, the teachers also give

opportunity to the students to read aloud to make another students can

listen intonation, and pronunciation of the words. However, the

teachers also ask the students to read silently in order to give them

opportunity to use their own reading strategies to get the meaning and

the content of the text.

Reading at house is different from reading in another places,

such as in the classroom or in the library. Brown (1994:297) shows

three activities for classroom reading comprehension. It can be seen

from the chart below !

Classroom reading performance

Oral Silent

Intensive Extensive

Linguistics Content Skimming Scanning Global

 19

In reading comprehension, speed reading of someone is

different from another. There are some people who speed in reading is

fast, they will be quick to comprehend the ideas of the text. On the

other hand, there are some people who are low in reading, and they l

only get a little part the content of the text. It is happened because

they have different habit in reading. Miller (1972:15) states that there

are eleven habits of poor readers when they are reading. They are

vocalizing, word by word reading, word blocking, number attraction,

word analysis, monotonous plodding, head swinging, clue blindness,

backtracking, rereading, and daydreaming.

In addition, students with good versus poor reading skills

demonstrate distinct cognitive behaviors before, during, and after

reading an assignment. The following chart from Cook (in Learning

Strategies Database, 2003) summarizes these behaviors.

Table 2

Behaviors of Good and Poor Readers

POOR OR IMMATURE
GOOD OR MATURE READERS
READERS
BEFORE 1. Activate prior knowledge 1. Start reading without
2. Understand task and set preparation
READING purpose 2. Read without knowing why

3. Choose appropriate 3. Read without considering

 20

how to approach the

strategies
material
1. Focus attention
2. Anticipate and predict
1. Are easily distracted
3. Use fix-up strategies when
2. Read to get done
lack of understanding
3. Do not know what to do
occurs
when lack of understanding
4. Use contextual analysis to
occurs
understand new terms
4. Do not recognize
5. Use text structure to assist
DURING important vocabulary
comprehension
5. Do not see any
6. Organize and integrate new
READING organization
information
6. Add on, rather than
7. Self-monitor
integrate, new information
comprehension by ...
7. Do not realize they do
a. knowing comprehension
not understand
is occurring

b. knowing what is being

understood
1. Reflect on what was
read
2. Feel success is a result
1. Stop reading and thinking
AFTER of effort
3. Summarize major ideas
2. Feel success is a result of
READING
luck
4. Seek additional
information from
outside sources

There are another bad habits that are not effective in reading.

As it is said by McWhorter (1980:33) that there are seven poor reading

habits which someone always does in reading. They are moving your

head as you read, moving your lips as you read, keeping your place on

the line, using an index card as a guide, obtaining an appropriate angle

of vision, regression, and conflict physical activities.

 21

Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that there

are some reading strategies which can be grouped into three and

directly as indicator in doing this research. First, prereading includes

surveying a text, setting goals and objectives, identifying the purpose

of a language taks, planning for a language task, seeking practice

opportunities, self-monitoring, using progressive relaxation, using

music, using laughter, making positive statement, taking risks wisely,

rewarding yourself, determining the subject of the material, reading

the title, subtitles, subheading, determining how the material is

organized, deciding what you need to remember from the material,

making connections and prediction, asking the right guide questions

can be begun with what, why, how, analyzing the time which you are

reading, knowing what you want to know and reading appropriately,

and knowing how deeply to study the material.

Second, during reading are underlining key concepts/ideas,

listing related details, making useful set of notes for quick reference,

reading the first and the last paragraph, illustrations, moving eyes

quickly down the page seeking specific words or phrases, structure of

texts, structure of paragraph, punctuation, author’s viewpoint,

determining the meaning of words, keeping meaning in mind, skipping

unknown words (guessing contextually), using context in preceding

and succeeding sentences and paragraphs, identifying grammatical

 22

category of words, recognizing cognates, using knowledge of the world,

analyzing unknown words, reading as though he or she expects the text

to have meaning, reading to identify meaning rather than words, taking

chances in order to identify meaning, using glossary as last resort,

looking up words correctly, paying attention, organizing, using check

list, using imagery, representing sound in memory, using physical

response or sensation, using mechanical technique, analyzing

expressions, identifying patterns of thought, drawing connections

among ideas, reading aloud sentences or section that are particularly

difficult, do not hesitate to reread difficult or complicated section, slow

down your reading rate if you feel you’re beginning to lose

comprehension, using active reading techniques, using table of content

for reading magazines and newspapers, clipping useful articles, using

efficient silent reading techniques for relativity rapid comprehension,

vocabulary analysis, distinguishing between literal and implied

meanings, and activating relevant background knowledge.

Third, postreading includes self-evaluating., writing a language

diary, discussing your feeling with someone else, asking for verification

or clarification, cooperation with peers, cooperating with proficient user

of the New Language, developing cultural understanding, becoming

aware of other’s thoughts and feeling, placing new words into a

context, reviewing well, repeating, recognizing, using formulas and

 23

patterns, practicing naturalistically, using resources for receiving and

sending messages, reasoning deductively, transferring, summarizing,

identifying the author’s purpose for writing, analyzing the writer’s

technique and language, asking critical questions, evaluating the nature

and type of supporting evidence, rephrasing each paragraph in your

own words, creating your own table of content for reviewing material,

evaluating content critically for internal consistency, self-interrogation,

drawing and testing inferences of many kinds, and conclusions. Those

strategies are better for the students to have since they can improve

their reading comprehension. It can be said that the students who are

successful have achieved their goal thought conscious, and systematic

application of strategies (Brown, 1994:190).

B. Vocabulary Mastery

Vocabulary is an important part in reading comprehension. By

dictionary definition, vocabulary is the total number of words which

establish a language (Hornby, 1974:959). Further, he states that in

order to make up the language, such words should be combined by

using certain rules. Furthermore, Ellen (1997:149) says that vocabulary

is an important part in language teaching and should be learned

continually by the students . It means vocabulary is the basic need

that have to had by the students themselves. They will be difficult in

reading a text without having many vocabularies.

 24

Allen (1983:5) collects a number of researches dealing with

lexical problems or vocabulary. Based on those researches, she says

that lexical problems frequently interfere communication, that is,

communication does not go smoothly when people do not use right

words. Furthermore, Robinett (1978:133) points out that without

lexicon the major element of meaning carrying in language is missing.

Thus, it is safe to say that knowing lexical items or vocabulary is very

important in learning a foreign language. As a teacher, he should help

his students in giving vocabularies so that they can use them to define

another words which they do not know the meaning. It also help them

to be easier to understand the text.

In addition, Whorter (in Yusuf, 1991:34) says that vocabulary

development should be improved by the students. It is not only

influence in reading skill but also in writing, listening, and speaking

skills. In vocabulary development, it also involves more than having

new many vocabularies. The students should know how to use an

appropriate words in an appropriate sentence, such as kind of words,

and changing of words. Besides, it is also necessary to clarify the

definition of a word. For example, a word (also called a base word or a

word family) is defined as including the base form (e.g., make) and its

inflections and derivatives (e.g., makes, made, making, maker, and

makers). Since the meaning of these different forms of the word are
 25

closely related, it is assumed that little extra effort is needed to learn

them. While this may be true, a recent study of Japanese students

showed that they did not know many inflections and derivative suffixes

for English verbs (Schmitt and Meara, 1997 in Hunt and Beglar, 2003).

Thus, these forms should be taught.

Although this definition of a word is convenient and commonly

used in vocabulary research, it should be remembered that vocabulary

learning is more than the study of individual words. Nattinger and

DeCarrico (in Hunt and Beglar, 2003) have observed that a significant

amount of the English language is made up of lexical phrases, which

range from phrasal verbs (two or three words) to longer

institutionalized expressions, because lexical phrases can often be

learned as single units.

Hartman and E.C Stork (1976:250) state that vocabulary is the

stock of words which are at disposal of a speaker or writer. The term

vocabulary may refer to all words and phrases used a particular variety

such as-dialect-register, or terminology. In addition, there are some

aspects that can help the students to improve vocabularies, Lyons (in

Wilkins, 1978:124─126). They are :

1. Synonymy. There is no expectation that the words will be

substitutable for one another in all contexts without distinction of

meaning. However, in a given context, it is possible that one item

 26

may be substituted for another with the overall meaning of the

utterance remaining the same. For instance, conception is a

synonymy of idea in the context: My idea of a university is of a

community of scholars.

2. Hyponymy. It is meant a relationship of inclusion. For example:

vehicle includes car, bus, and so on.

3. Incompatibility. The relation of incompatibility is in a sense the

reverse of hyponymy, in that, it is one of exclusion. The

incompatibility is between items that are similar in meaning. To say

morning, is to say not afternoon, not evening, and not nigt.

4. Complementarily. This is a relationship in which to predicate one

term is contradict another. It exists between pairs like perfect and

imperfect, single and married, and so on.

5. Antonymy. It reserves the term ‘antonymy’ for relation like

between young and old. The difference between these and the

previous category lies in the fact that to say not young is not

necessarily to say old.

6. Converseness. In this case, the prediction of one term inevitably

implies the other. It is illustrated by pairs like words parent and

child, buy and sell, or employee and employer.

Those aspects are really important for the students in

improving their vocabularies. They will help them to find the meaning
 27

of difficult words in the text and help them to understand more about

the content of the text.

Haycraft (1984:44) classifies vocabulary into two kinds: active

vocabulary and passive one. Active vocabulary refers to the word that

should be used in speaking and writing, whereas passive vocabulary

means words which they need only to comprehend especially in

reading and listening. While, Robinett (1978:132) divides it into

productive vocabulary and receptive one. The former covers words

used in everyday speech, and the later involves words which are not

essential for production in speaking and writing.

These two experts have different terms in classifying

vocabulary. In principle, the ideas are the same. Thus, active or

productive vocabulary contains words commonly used for production,

that is in speaking and writing; where as passive or reductive

vocabulary consists of words the students understand when they

appear in a text or in listening and reading.

If it is seen to vocabulary mastery Marksheffel (1966:236)

defines vocabulary mastery as the ability to give meaning to words.

Khatibs (1987:10) says that vocabulary mastery refers to the ability to

recognize the sound and meaning of words as they appear in the

written or printed symbols. Kustaryo looked at the vocabulary mastery

as the ability to use the words in the appropriate context of use

 28

(Kustaryo, 1988:19). These opinions lead to the conclusion that the

vocabulary mastery is the ability to give meaning to a number of

words, to recognize the sound and meaning of words that appear in

the written material, and use those words in the appropriate context.

Based on the explanation above, vocabulary is the total

number of words which establish a language that has lexical meaning

and contextual meaning, while vocabulary mastery is the ability to give

meaning to a number of words and to recognize the sound of words

that appear in written material that has lexical meaning and contextual

meaning. They can be grouped into general vocabulary, sinonim,

antonym, kind of word, and changing of word. All of them are as

indicators in this research.

C. Reading Comprehension

Reading means getting meaning from print and it is active

rather than passive process, (Steele, 2003 and The Counselling Centre

for Human Development, 2003). Getting meaning from the text what

the readers read is not a passive process, but it is an active process

that the readers are done by using their background knowledge in

reading a text. Reading is also a process of communication from the

writer to the reader. It is the process of recognition, interpretation, and

perception of written or printed materials. It involves the recognition of

 29

letters, words, phrases, and clauses, and in some respects, it can be

considered a simpler process than comprehension, Bond (1979:5) and

Sheng (2000:12─13). Besides, Stubbs (1980:5) also states that

reading is the ability to decode written words into spoken words, and it

also involves understanding. It means, when the readers read the text,

they are intended to understand and comprehend the content of the

text.

Furthermore, if it is seen to reading comprehension,

comprehension itself is being able to find meaning in what is read

(Mohammad, 2003). While Clark and Clark (1977:43─44) state that

comprehension has two common sense. The first, narrow sense

denotes the mental process by which the listener take the sounds

uttered by a speaker and use them to construct an interpretation of

what they think the speaker intended to convey. And the last, broader

sense. On hearing an assertion, the readers normally extract the new

information and store that information in memory. Sheng (2000:13)

also says that comprehension is a process of negotiating

understanding between the reader and the writer. It is more complex

psychological process and includes linguistic factors, such as

phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic elements, in

addition to cognitive and emotional factors.

 30

It means, comprehension is an interpretation what the readers

think when they are reading. By having reading comprehension from

the text, the readers can get information from the text. It is also

important to express again the content of the text what the readers

have read.

In addition, Young (1982:74) says that comprehension focuses

on reading instruction, such as: (1) understanding words and building

vocabulary, (2) understanding sentences, sentences structure, and

syntax, and (3) understanding paragraph, which including finding the

main idea and topic sentence, finding the detail and drawing

conclusion and interpretation what you read. Harris as quoted by

Yohanes (1990:16) also says that if the reader wants to have good

comprehension, he should have enough ability and comprehension skill

in order to come to the total understanding of a passage. Then Young

also states that reading comprehension at least needs three skills

which should be possessed as a reader; knowledge of words, forms

and their meaning, the ability to understand the sentence in a

paragraph, the ability to see the main thought of the writer and get

the general ideas of a piece of reading material.

Clark and Clark (1977:45) have suggested that comprehension

divides into two process, construction and utilization processes.

Construction process concerned with the way listeners construct an

 31

interpretation of a sentence from the speakers’ words. They seem to

begin by identifying surface structure and end up with an

interpretation that resembles an underlying representation. While the

utilization process concerned with how listeners utilize the

interpretation for further purpose for registering new information,

answering questions, following orders, registering promises, and the

like.

Based on the level of comprehension, Herber as quoted by

Gusmawati (1988:12) states that there are at least three levels of

comprehension: literal, interpretative, and applied levels. In literal, the

readers deal with decoding the symbol use in the text only, but

interpretative and applied levels a reader has to grapes the ideas to

interpret and apply what he reads. If these levels are used by the

readers in reading, it helps them to improve their reading

comprehension. Besides, Mohammad (2003) also says that there are

actually three main levels or strands of comprehension--literal,

interpretive and critical comprehensions. The first level, literal

comprehension, is the most obvious. Comprehension at this level

involves surface meanings. At this level, teachers can ask students to

find information and ideas that are explicitly stated in the text. The

second level or strand is interpretive or referential

comprehension. At this level, students go beyond what is said and

 32

read for deeper meanings. They must be able to read critically and

analyze carefully what they have read. Students need to be able to see

relationships among ideas, for example how ideas go together and also

see the implied meanings of these ideas. It is also obvious that before

our students can do this, they have to first understand the ideas that

are stated (literal comprehension). Interpretive or referential

comprehension includes thinking processes such as drawing

conclusions, making generalizations and predicting outcomes. Finally,

the third level of comprehension is critical reading whereby ideas

and information are evaluated. Critical evaluation occurs only after our

students have understood the ideas and information that the writer

has presented.

It also supports by Calfee (in Wittrock, 1986:834) that there

are three components are essential to any act of reading

comprehension; a text, a reader of the text, and an interpretation of

the text by the reader. The results for any study of reading

comprehension will depend on the types of texts used, the reader’s

knowledge and purposes for reading, and the performance measures

for evaluating the quality of the interpretation.

Next, reading comprehension also involves three aspects that

should be had by the readers. They are: knowledge of words

 33

formulation and their meanings, the ability to guess the meaning of

unknown words by finding them in context, and the ability to see the

main thought of the writers and general ideas of a piece of reading

(Notion in Gusmawati, 1988:7). As we know that those aspects are

really helpful for the readers in reading a text. For instance, when the

readers get difficulties in finding the meaning of difficult words in the

text, they can find them by using context clues in the text. They do not

need to see a dictionary if they can use them. Another example, if they

want to find the main idea of a paragraph, they can find it in the first

sentence in that paragraph followed by supporting details. Or they can

find main ideas in the last sentence in a paragraph and find detail in

the first sentence. Since main ideas could be found anywhere in a

paragraph, the students should have a plan to facilitate finding main

ideas. They can make some questions about what the text talking

about. By finding and reading main ideas, it is possible for the readers

to recognize what is important and what can be skipped over in a text.

Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that

reading comprehension is mental process by which the readers take

the meaning or the content of the text that is expressed by the writers

and use them to construct an interpretation of what they think the

writer intended to convey. In reading comprehension, the readers

should pay attention some aspects such as how they understanding

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information from the text, understanding main ideas and details, and

be able to make conclusion. All of the aspects are as indicators in this

research. The result of reading comprehension depends on kind of

texts, background knowledge of the readers, goal of reading, and tools

which are used to values interpretation of reading (Calfee, 1986:834).

D. The Relevance of the Research

Chamot (1987) has done her research about “The Learning

Strategies of ESL Students”. She has studied seventy students of three

suburban high schools in learning English in Northern Virginia. Her

research shows that students of high school at beginning and

intermediate levels have different strategies in learning language.

Students of intermediate level like to use metacognitive strategies in

part of self-management, advance preparation, and self-monitoring

strategies; whereas beginning level students also use metacognitive

strategies such as selective attention and delayed production. They

generally use learning strategies for vocabulary.

Then, Asniati (2000) has done her research about “The

Investigation of English Reading Strategy of the Cement Padang Senior

High School Students in 1999/2000”. In her research has been found

that 40% of the students used the English reading strategy with high

frequency, 53,33% with middle frequency, and 6,67% with low

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frequency. The difference was significant. And she also found that

there was significant correlation between the English reading strategies

that the students used with the results of their English reading

comprehension.

Furthermore, Somanto (2000) also has done his descriptive

quantitative research about “The Correlation between Strategies and

Supporting Aspect of the Second Year DON BOSKO High School

Students”. The result of his research has been found that the

strategies of the comprehension of English written discourse of the

Second Years DON BOSKO High School students and self-discipline in

learning were correlated positively and significantly. And the disciplene

variable in learning was also correlated strongly with the students’

strategies in comprehending English written discourse.

Researches that have been done by Chamot (1987), Asniati

(2000), and Somanto (2000) have been used as relevance studies

since those all researches have studied about improving English by

using reading strategies. If it is seen to the research of Chamot, it is

qualitative research, while Asniati and Somanto research have used

descriptive quantitative that more emphasize in reading strategies. In

this research, the researcher will try to study about reading strategies

and vocabulary mastery to reading comprehension in descriptive

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quantitative by using questionnaire and test in Senior High School

Padang, because of that the researcher is interested to study about it.

E. Conceptual Framework

1. Contribution of Reading Strategies to Reading Comprehension

Reading strategies are strategies that must be had by the

students to improve their reading comprehension. They can help

them to be easy and fast to comprehend the text so that their

knowledge is also improved. Most of the students when

examination is distributed or when English texts are given, they feel

confuse and do not know the content of them. Otherwise, if they

know and have reading strategies, they will be easy to understand

and comprehend the content of the texts. So that, the higher they

have reading strategies, the better they comprehend English

reading text.

2. Contribution of Vocabulary Mastery to Reading Comprehension

Vocabulary mastery is one of important factors in improving

students’ reading comprehension. It is needed not only for reading

skill but also for writing, speaking, and listening skill. Beside that

the amount of vocabulary mastery which is had by the student also

have significant role in improving reading comprehension. They will

get difficulties in comprehending the texts and retelling again what

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they have read without having vocabulary. Because of that, they

will be easy to comprehend English reading text if they have many

vocabularies. So the higher they master vocabulary, the better they

comprehend English reading texts.

3. Contribution of Reading Strategies and Vocabulary Mastery to

Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is very determined by reading

strategies and vocabulary mastery. It had been proven by many

researches that reading strategies and vocabulary test are as a

instruments in someone’s reading comprehension. It also had been

showed that someone’s reading comprehension can be seen by

giving questionnaire in reading strategies and test in vocabulary.

So, it is clear for us that reading strategies, vocabulary and reading

comprehension can not be separated each other.

Furthermore, it also has been known that reading strategies

and vocabulary mastery are needed for all reading texts. It can make

the students to be easy to comprehend the texts and can retelling

again the content of them. So that, the higher they have reading

strategies and vocabulary mastery, the better they comprehend

English reading texts. The relationship between those three variables

can be seen from diagram below.

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Reading Strategies
(X)

Reading
Comprehension
(Y)
Vocabulary Mastery
(X)

F. Hypothesis

Based on the conceptual framework above, the hypotheses in

this research are :

1. There is contribution of reading strategies to reading

comprehension in English texts for the third year Senior High

School students in Padang at the year of 2003/2004.

2. There is contribution of vocabulary mastery to reading

comprehension in English texts for the third year Senior High

School students in Padang at the year of 2003/2004.

3. There is contribution both of reading strategies and vocabulary

mastery to reading comprehension in English texts for the third

year Senior High School students in Padang at the year of

2003/2004.