CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter includes some theoretical foundation relevant to the study. The

beginning of this chapter will be preceded with the discussion about schema.

Then it is followed with the nature of reading. Description of background

knowledge and vocabulary knowledge and its importance in reading

comprehension follow afterward. In the last part, some previous study is provided

as comparison to the present study.

2.1. Schemata

The term schema was first introduced in psychology by Bartlett (in Wagoner,

2013). He defines schema as "an active organization of past reactions or

experiences". Schema is knowledge obtained from what have been experienced or

encountered and will remain restructured as the human lives. In the following year

after Bartletts schema theory, many reading theorists use the term to explain how

prior knowledge stored in readers mind affect comprehension, such as Pearson

and Gordon (1983), Carrell (1983), and Stahl and Jacobson (1986). According to

Rumelhart and Ortony (in Adam & Collins, 1977) a schema (or schemata in plural

form) is said to be a cognitive template against which new inputs can be matched

and in terms of which they can be comprehended. The active organization of

past experiences is termed template by Rumelhart and Ortony, in which

stimulus (from what reader sees in reading) are fitted to this template to yield in

11
comprehension, whether to obtain new information, clarifying the existing

schemata, or restructuring schemata.

Schemata is world knowledge structure used for understanding. This

knowledge is what an individual has stored in the mind as a result of the innate

capabilities that the human mind is endowed with to organize the experiences that

the individual has been exposed to (Meurer, 1991). Brain is a gift, as basin

containing organization of knowledge. Readers pre-existing knowledge aids in

encountering a situation, on the other hand acquiring new information through

reading can restructure the knowledge base. This description grounds an

assumption that there is interrelationship between prior knowledge and reading.

According to schema theory, not only the readers prior linguistic

knowledge (linguistic schemata) and level of proficiency in the second language

are important, but the readers prior knowledge of the content area of the text

(content schemata) as well as of the rhetorical structure of the text (formal

schemata) are also important (Carrell, 2006). Considering the broad units of

schemata, this study only focuses on content schemata and linguistic schemata in

the dimension of background knowledge and vocabulary knowledge. Both of

these constructs will be elaborated more after the discussion of the nature of

reading.

2.2. Definition of Reading

In order to understand better what is known as reading, the writer refers to some

definitions stated by several experts, and then draws a final conclusion as the

writer foundation in defining reading.

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 In psychological sense, Smith (2004) referred reading to the process of

interpreting anything in the world. He explained that essentially anyone attempts

to discover anything, even for a lifetime, to make sense of the world, because

anything encountered is natural and need to be understood. As well as for scripts,

he also argued that written text is just another facet of world, which requires

human being to extract meaning from it, to make sense of it.

Correspondingly Richards and Schmidt in Longman Dictionary of

Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics define reading as perceiving a

written text in order to understand its contents (Richards and Schmidt, 2002, p.

443). Scanlon et al. (2010) furthermore stated that readers require analysis,

coordination, and interpretation of a variety of sources of information to

understand a text appropriately (p. 9).

From these several definitions, the writer draw a conclusion as what

Adam and Collins (1977) stated, that reading involves coordination of readers

visual, linguistic, and conceptual information-processing systems. The visual

stimuli (reading text which the reader sees) are analyzed from low to high level

stimuli. Analysis of this stimulus depends on the linguistic competence the reader

has. Process of interpretation and verifying what has been analyzed follow

afterward, whether it agrees with the concept that already exists in readers mind

or not. Thus, process of interpretation of the text meaning may differ from one

another, depend on the schemata they have and use. Ability to understand the text

meaning is called comprehension and will be discussed in another section.

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 Reading can be done using a number of processes that basically can be

divided into two main categories: bottom-up processing and top-down processing.

2.2.1. Bottom-Up, Top-Down, and Interactive Reading Process

What is important in reading is to get information (meaning). Traditionally,

reading was simply viewed as a receptive process where it employs bottom-up

process. As some theorists argued (Gough, 1972; La Berge and Samuels, 1974)

reading is a process of decoding linguistic signals in a text to be process further to

get a meaningful message from the text. Comprehension could not take place

unless readers have adequate linguistic competence (including vocabulary

knowledge) to comprehend the text.

In bottom-up processing, a reader obtains meaning from the letters and

words of a text and reconstructing the intended message that way. Cech (2010)

explained that in bottom-up processing, Sensory inputs get registered onto a

sensory memory, and then are processed at higher and higher levels until a match

is finally found with something in long-term memory. This process involved

decoding ability, in which letters are organized to become more complex

structure. In each level, what is being decoded (linguistic signal) unconsciously is

matched with what have been stored in readers memory to make clear its

meaning. However, it happens rapidly and normally at a level below conscious

awareness. We know the result, but we are not aware of the activity at the

intermediate levels.

Along with the affluent discussion of schemata, some experts began to

believe the key to make sense what is written is having background knowledge

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(top-down reading theory). Some top-down theorists are Goodman (1967) and

Smith (1978). Top-down processing refers to the readers ability to look at a text

as a whole and to connect and relate it to his existing knowledge base. Before a

reader reads text, he or she specifies a relevant concept that would be useful in

interpreting the text (prior knowledge activation). It can be done through number

of ways, such as looking at the title of a text, author, text type, etc.

Both of these models have important implications for pedagogical

practice. The teacher subscribing to a strictly bottom up approach will be

exclusively concerned with teaching the linguistic elements of the language as a

system to be applied by the learner, and will be satisfied that a presentation of the

linguistic system is as much as he or she can do to facilitate language proficiency

within the confines of the classroom. The top-down teachers, on the other hand,

will be much more concerned with content based teaching and with classroom

strategies and techniques for developing background knowledge and for

integrating content .teaching with developing awareness of the linguistic system.

(Nunan, 1985, p. 43)

Recent theory reveals both processes, however, are needed to obtain a

message from a text. This is known as interactive reading process. Rumelhart

(1970, in Peglar, 2003) argued factors that affects understanding is both what is

written and what the readers bring to a text. Understanding information in a text

requires readers not only to be able to recognize words in text, but also to have

adequate pre-existing knowledge about what is being talked in the text. This will

be discussed more in another section of this chapter.

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 2.2.2. Sub-Skills of Reading

The way someone read a text will depend on the purpose he or she read.

A proficient reader would tend to use different skills for different purposes in

reading. Harmer (2001) pointed out the different skill in reading will frequently

depend on what a reader is reading and listening for. He divided the reading skills

into six points as follow:

a. Identifying the topic: Good readers are able to pick out the topic

discussed in a whole text. By using their own schemata, allows them in

processing the text in getting quickly the idea of text being talked about.

b. Predicting and guessing: The efficient readers are able to predict what

they are going to read on the process of understanding the text, especially

when they have identified the topic initially. It is the process of seeing

how the content of the text matches up to readers prediction. It will be

the result of expectation they have. However, their prediction will change

as they receive more information from the text.

c. Reading for general understanding: Reader often read something because

they want to get the general idea. In other words, they want to read

something and the result of their reading is capturing the general idea of

the whole text.

d. Reading for specific information: When reader read the passage, he or

she is usually involved in the use of receptive skills for some purposes of

extracting specific information. To get specific information, the reader

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 may look at a piece of written language in order to find out one or two

facts. This kind of reading often called scanning.

e. Reading for detail information: The readers read because they want to

find and understand a reading text. Reading for detail information means

that readers read the text in detail. This kind of information usually stated

clearly in reading text.

f. Interpreting text: This skill focused on what is said and read for deeper

meanings. The reader needs to be able to see the relationship among the

ideas and also see the implied meanings related to what the author means

by the words he or she wrote in the reading text as the clues. The

successful of this interpreting depend on readers schemata, as well as

their knowledge beyond the literal meaning of a text.

2.2.3. Reading Comprehension

As stated earlier, the idea of reading has changed and moved from what was

considered a receptive process to what is now an interactive process. In receptive

term, purpose of reading is to obtain an accurate message which an author means

their readers to perceive from a text. Comprehension is seen as a process of

getting meaning of what is explicitly stated within a text, regardless of inferring

implied information. Alternatively for what interactive term suggests, Anderson,

et al. (2010, p. 276) say, Comprehension is an active, constructive process in

which the ultimate understanding of the text is determined by a combination of

what is stated directly in the text and the readers preexisting knowledge related to

the topic of the text.

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 Interaction between readers pre-existing knowledge (letters, words,

sounds, syntax, even in more higher hierarchy such as in discourse level) and the

textual information appear in the reading text is required for comprehension. In

short term, Rumelhart (1977) pointed out that reading comprehension as the

process of choosing and verifying conceptual schemata for the text. There is an

interaction between what the readers bring to a text. Their particular pre-existing

knowledge was used in processing and interpreting the textual information within

a text appropriately.

From the previous discussion, the researcher regards reading

comprehension as a process rather than a state of understanding something.

2.2.4. Reading Comprehension as Cognitive-Based Processing

Based on the previous discussion, it is clear enough to know that readers use their

schemata in comprehension. In other words, comprehension is a complex

cognitive process to construct meaning. In this part, some theories of Reading

Comprehension and the use of schemata as cognitive-based processing will be

presented.

a. Automatic Information Processing proposed by Samuel (1994). This

theory suggest that the more rapid the automaticity of information

processing the easier the comprehension. This theory focus on three

characteristics of internal attention in reading. First, Alertness is readers

attempt to access relevant schemata (letter-sound relationships, syntactic

knowledge, and word meanings). The second characteristic, Selectivity,

is the reader's ability to selectively present only required knowledge for

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 information processing. The third characteristic is Limited Capacity,

refers to the limited availability of cognitive energy used in brain for

information processing. In other words, comprehension is unlikely to

take place unless this limited cognitive energy (used in decoding and

attention) can be directed correctly and rapidly at integrating, relating,

and combining the meanings of the words decoded.

b. Interactive Model by Rumelhart's (1994). Information from several

knowledge sources (schemata for letter-sound relationships, word

meanings, syntactic relationships, event sequences, and so forth) are

considered simultaneously employed in comprehension. The implication

is that when information from one source, such as word recognition, is

deficient, the reader will rely on information from another source, for

example, contextual clues or previous experience.

c. Interactive-compensatory model by Stanovich (1980). This model argues

any reader, essentially, compensates for the lack in one or more of the

knowledge sources by using information from remaining knowledge

sources. Those sources that are more concerned with concepts and

semantic relationships are termed higher level stimuli; sources dealing

with the print itself, which is phonics, sight words, and other word-attack

skills, are termed lower level stimuli. The interactive-compensatory

model implies that the reader will rely on higher-level processes when

lower-level processes are inadequate, or vice versa.

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 2.2.5. Level of Comprehension

According to Mohamad (1999), level of comprehension can be divided into three

levels, namely: literal, inferential (interpretative), and critical (evaluative)

comprehensions.

a. Literal comprehension, it refers to ability to understand what is explicitly

stated in the text, such as main ideas, details, and sequences. This

comprehension, rationally, will rely on the literal interpretation ability

that needs decoding ability. Thus vocabulary knowledge will be

emphasized more on comprehension process. Mohamad (1999)

supported that in this level, teacher can ask students to find information

or ideas, as well as to test their vocabulary. Some examples of the

questions type are: What words state the main idea of the story? How

does the author summarize what she/he is saying? Outlining the first

paragraph of the story. What happened first, second and last? How are

these things alike? How are they different? What things belong together?

Where did James go?

b. Interpretative comprehension means ability to infer implicit ideas the

author shares through descriptive language. Authors do not need to

specify all the information within the text. For some information, they

assume they have a shared background knowledge required by readers to

understand the text. This is called making inference. To be able to make

an inference, Hegarty (2012) pointed out that the students would be more

facilitated if they have a wide background knowledge or prior knowledge

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 and sharing the same cultural background as that assumed by the text.

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 obvious that before 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.

c. Critical level requires readers to integrate their own thinking with the

facts from the text. Consequently, they evaluate and apply information

and ideas from the reading text to their own experiences and judgment.

Critical comprehension is script implicit comprehension because it

requires readers to relate ideas from background knowledge to ideas from

text. It might be said that critical comprehension need interpretation of

what said and give to our personal reaction.

2.2.6. Measuring Reading Comprehension

Construct of reading comprehension as complex cognitive processes makes it

invisible since it occurs in mind. The indicator we can draw from that a

comprehension occurred is only the result of comprehension itself. We often find

the instrument of comprehension is a test. The main goal of the test is to see result

of comprehension in which in resulting the answer, there must be comprehension

process. Commonly, a passage is presented to the readers (test takers), which they

must read either silently or out loud. Then a series of questions are presented to

check their comprehension.

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 According to Hughes (2003) there are numerous of possible techniques

to measure reading comprehension, such as Multiple Choice, Short Answer, Gap

Filling, etc. But the common technique used in most studies for students in senior

high school is Multiple Choice. Although this technique is problematic due to the

correct answer can be resulted not from comprehension, but from guessing, it still

broadly used considering its efficiency and effectiveness to measure literal and

inferential comprehension of the students. It is supported by Anderson (in Fadli,

2013, p. 7) who argued Multiple Choice is still effective to measure

comprehension. Besides, all of techniques proposed by experts also have its

advantages and disadvantages.

2.3. Concept of Background Knowledge

Despite the fact that the extent to which students will learn new content is

dependent on factors such as the skill of teachers, the interest of the students, and

the complexity of the content, many studies support one compelling fact: what

students already know about the content is one of the strongest indicators of how

well they will learn new information relative to the content. Commonly,

researchers and theorists refer to what a person already knows about a topic as

background knowledge. (Marzano,2004 p.1-2). Likewise, Brody (2001, p. 241)

stated, Background knowledge refers to concepts, experiences, information, and

text structures that are relevant to a text under study. Others also use the term

content schemata (Fadli, 2013) to refer to the concept. Though the dissimilar term

used, both of the terms used to refer to information that someone has already

known about the text content.

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 One of classification of knowledge (schemata) is knowledge of topic

(content area of a text), or background knowledge, or content schemata. In this

study, the researcher prefers to use term Background Knowledge. According to

Marzano (2004), we acquire background knowledge through the interaction of

two factors: (1) our ability to process and store information, and (2) the number

and frequency of experiences.

As stated earlier, background knowledge is used to comprehend reading

text. Thus, background knowledge explanation will goes along with its role in

reading comprehension as explained in the following discussion.

2.3.1. The Importance of Background Knowledge in Reading

Comprehension

Marzano (2004) reported that numerous studies have confirmed the relationship

between background knowledge and achievement in which the average correlation

between a persons background knowledge of a given topic and the extent to

which that person learns new information on that topic is .66.

In explaining about the importance of background knowledge on reading

comprehension, perhaps the most well known effect of background knowledge is

its ability to directly influence the understanding of what is read. Humans brain

carries different knowledge from one another, and thus the way they interpret

something also may differ. (Stahl & Gregory, 1991; Anderson & Pearson, 1984)

Besides, a reader will easily understand what the text discussed about

when he or she knows much about the topic. It is supported by Fisher and Frey

23
(2012, p.1) who pointed out, It makes perfect sensethe more you know about a

topic, the more likely it will be that you can comprehend what is written about it.

In this case, having background knowledge saves efforts to process information.

Scanlon et al. (2010) pointed out reading a specific topic text will be easier for

readers who have high proficiency in that particular field. With the evidence that

new information is learned and remembered the most when it is connected to

related prior knowledge, activating the appropriate schema that fits the text is

expected to be indispensible in the reading comprehension process. Hudson (in

Lee, 2011) pointed out that one of the L2 reading problems lies in the lack of

activating the appropriate schema. With the wrong schema in mind, the reader will

distort the texts meaning and find reading to be a difficult and laborious task.

Reading process involves coordination of information stored (as

background knowledge) in readers mind with the text he or she encounters. For

example to read a text about Gorilla, a reader who knows much about

characteristics of apes and gorilla in particular will comprehend easier than the

poor knowledge readers. Knowledge of how is it look like, and its live will help in

comprehending the text. However, when comprehension occurs, it is not merely

knowledge about gorilla is involved, other information such as another kind of

apes also activated, at least to compare that this specific ape is gorilla, and not

other kind of apes. Even general information about animal in common, it has leg,

skin, etc. also involve. It is grounded by schema theory, in which comprehension

occurs when information in the text can be linked with concept that has been

already stored in mind. As stated by Rumelhart and Ortony (1977) that a schema

24
(or schemata in plural form) is said to be a cognitive template against which new

inputs can be matched and in terms of which they can be comprehended.

In line with the background knowledge employment in reading,

Anderson and Pearson (1984) said that we have three reasons to judge someone as

poor reader, firstly, they are likely to have gaps in knowledge; second, they will

likely have an inadequate understanding of the relationships among the facts they

do know about a topic; third, poor readers are less likely to piece together the

overall pattern of a text into a coherent representation. In other words, the reader

is lacking the necessary schemata required by a text or his schemata are not

sufficiently developed or used for the particular reading task.

However, there are plenty investigations of correlation between

background knowledge and reading comprehension. Stahl, et al. (1991) points out

many studies which investigate the correlation between these variables range

around 0,5 to 0,8. Language is not only the simple mixture of vocabulary,

sentence structure and grammar, but also the bearer of dissimilar levels of the

readers background knowledge. To some extent, prior knowledge can compensate

for the lack of language schemata, and hence aid learners comprehend texts by

predicting, selecting information and eliminating vagueness (Jun et al. 2007).

Anderson (1994) (in Mansur, 2014) explained further the ways in which

background knowledge function in thinking process and remembering text

information as follow:

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 1. Most new knowledge is gained by assimilating new information into

existing structure; therefore, subject matter learning should build on prior

knowledge whenever possible.

2. The students background knowledge help to allocate attention by

focusing on what is pertinent and important in newly presented materials.

3. Background knowledge allow and direct the inferential elaboration of

incoming information and experience. That someone can infer meaning

from the text because he or she has domain knowledge about the

information.

4. Background knowledge allow orderly searches of memory by providing

learners with a guide to the types of information that should be recalled.

5. Background knowledge permit inferential reconstruction when there are

gaps in memory, which means that they help the learner generate

hypotheses about missing information.

Despite the significant findings of background knowledge role in reading

comprehension, several studies critically argued the futility of prior knowledge in

reading comprehension. Hammadou (in Chou, 2011) found that providing an

analogy to help students in reading comprehension was fruitless. Fadli (2013) also

provided an analysis of contribution of EFL students background knowledge

toward reading comprehension. He found that statistically there was no significant

contribution of the students background knowledge toward their reading

comprehension.

2.3.2. Measuring Background Knowledge

26
As discussed earlier, background knowledge is what readers have already known

about a topic; thus to know their knowledge is by asking them what they have

known about a particular topic that they are going to encounter. Lovet, et al (2009)

stated to assess students background knowledge should be conducted in

performance-based prior knowledge assessment. They added the most reliable

way to assess students prior knowledge is to assign a task (e.g., quiz, paper) that

gauges their relevant background knowledge. It differs from an informal probe

teachers usually do, such as asking orally whether the students have ever heard

about the topic or not. It is because not all students will be assessed since,

perhaps, only few students with good self-confidence participate in answering

questions.

Adesigna (2009) said assessing students' background knowledge can be

done by giving 2/3 open-ended, or 5/6 short answer, or 10/20 multiple-choice

questions that probe their existing knowledge about a subject or a topic to learn.

Based on the previous discussion, a careful assessment of background

knowledge is required to yield in a reliable result of assessment. The researcher

specified of the items only on information that is considered relevant to the texts

topic in order to ensure its content validity. Besides, each passage (from 4

passages) also has a proportional representative in background knowledge probe.

This technique was also used by Fadli (2013) to measure students background

knowledge at college.

As for the test type, the writer used Multiple Choice test. Multiple Choice

test is one of the most used-techniques to measure someones knowledge. This

27
kind of test is also broadly used by the teachers at school to measure students

achievement in a subject because of its effectiveness and efficiency.

2.4. Concept of Vocabulary Knowledge

According to Ur (1991), vocabulary cannot be merely defined as words, for

example vocabulary may be consists of compound words, such as in post office, in

which these words represent a single idea. In case of idiomatic multi words, it is

also still regarded as a vocabulary item, in which we cannot define this vocabulary

in separate analysis of its components. Thus, vocabulary will be used as term for

item of vocabulary rather than words or word.

Nation (2001) divided vocabulary into four categories: high frequency

words, academic words, technical words, and low frequency words. The most

commonly used list of high frequency words is General Service List of English

Words (GSL), by West (1953), which includes around 2,000 word families. They

cover about 80% of the running words in academic texts. Technical words refer to

types of words that usually occur in a specific subject area. They differ from

subject area to subject area and cover about 5% of the running words in a text.

Academic vocabulary is the vocabulary used across all academic disciplines but is

not the technical vocabulary of a particular academic discipline. Academic words

are based on more Latin and Greek roots than most everyday spoken words. They

cover about 10% of the running words in an academic text. This means that

knowing the 2,000 high frequency words plus academic words will give about

90% coverage of the running words in academic texts. The last category is low

frequency words. They are the biggest groups of words but only cover about 5%

28
of the running words in an academic text. Thus, having a large proportion of

English vocabulary will ensure comprehension. The importance of vocabulary in

text comprehension will be discussed more in the next section.

Louise and Humprey (in Fadli, 2013) categorized vocabulary into 8 word

classes. It is presented in the following table:

Table 2.1 Classification of Word

Word Class Description Example
Noun Words refers to persons, things, hammer, Hand, Discussion
ideas, or quality
Pronoun Words to replace noun it, that, he/she, they, those, them,
this
Verb Words that denotes an action, eat, search, is, has
occurrence, or state of existence.
Adverb Words that qualifies verbs or slowly, overhead, occasionally,
clauses. now
Adjective Words that qualifies noun green, smelly, sharp
Article determiner that may indicate the the, a, an
specificity of reference of a noun
phrase.
Preposition Words that combines with a noun on, in, inside, by, after
or pronoun or noun phrase to form
a prepositional phrase that show
time or place
Conjunction Words to link two clause or phrase and, but, also, if, when, because

As one of construct of schemata, vocabulary knowledge refers to a

language user's knowledge of words (Moracles, 2013). According to Ur (1991),

several aspects of vocabulary knowledge that students at school should master are:

a. Form: it refers to knowing how it looks like (words spelling) and sounds

like (pronunciation).

b. Grammar: word changes based on tenses, plural or singular, transitive or

intransitive, etc.

c. Collocation: combination of words that sounds right or wrong in a given

context.

29
 d. Aspect of meaning: what a word refers to in real world (denotation,

connotation, and appropriateness).

e. Aspect of meaning: Meaning relationships (synonym, antonym,

hyponyms, and translation).

f. Word formation: whether one-word or multiple-word can be broken

down into their components.

In specifying the knowledge of words when it is used, Nation (2001)

further divided it into two categories, productive and receptive vocabulary.

Productive vocabulary is knowledge of words when they are used in productive

(active) language skills such as in speaking or writing. This refers to retrieval of

word form in mind to express meaning. On the other hand, passive vocabulary is

words knowledge in receptive language skills (listening and reading). It refers to

recognition of word form and retrieval meaning. This study aimed to measure the

students receptive vocabulary in reading, thus words used in testing vocabulary

knowledge of the students were elicited from the reading texts.

1.4.1. The Importance of Vocabulary Knowledge in Reading

Comprehension

Nation (in Feriantono 2012) discussed about vocabulary knowledge, that it is

closely associated to the ability to comprehend what is hear or read. Knowledge of

vocabulary appears in a text is believed will ensure comprehension, especially for

literal comprehension.

30
 How students understand a text if there is no words known. In first

language reading, when they are encountering a reading with many unknown

terms, such as in studying a specific topic in biology subject, it must be tough to

comprehend it. Likewise in second or foreign language reading, students need

much struggle because they have limited vocabulary knowledge required in

foreign language reading.

Investigation about the interrelationship between vocabulary knowledge

and reading comprehension has been long established. Having an adequate

vocabulary is believed to be prerequisite for comprehension. For second language

readers, reading an unsimplified, academic text requires a minimum vocabulary of

around 3000 headwords as well as effective strategies for dealing with unknown

words (Nation, 1990 in Dalby, 2010). Through reading students also can enhance

their vocabulary knowledge, words definition, words use, and its semantic

features. Chall (1983) supported weak vocabulary leads to poor reading

comprehension which in turn become the barrier in vocabulary development.

Anderson and Freebody (1979) reported many studies found vocabulary

knowledge associates to reading comprehension in range about 0.41 to 0.93.

While, Tannenbaum et al. (2006) reported that correlations between word

knowledge and reading comprehension range from 0.3 to 0.8. This variation

depend on several factors, such as test format (studied by Zhang & Annual, 2008),

age of the participants (studied by Miller, 2000), range of vocabulary knowledge

in the research sample, and the dimension of word knowledge measured by the

31
test. By virtue of these findings, crucial contribution of vocabulary knowledge in

reading comprehension, however, is acknowledged.

Qian (in Chou, 2011) pointed out the vocabulary knowledge in decoding

process becomes the main part of reading process, especially for the ESL/EFL

readers. In decoding process, readers used their vocabulary knowledge to

recognize words form that appear in a text and associate it with its correct

meaning, and then to be processed in higher level (syntax and discourse) to

achieve comprehension, especially for literal comprehension.

In explaining about the importance of vocabulary in reading

comprehension, Harmer (2007) pointed out that the number of unfamiliar words

which a text contains to be a great barrier in reading comprehension. To be

successful, a reader has to recognize a high proportion of vocabulary without

consciously thinking of it. Thus, having a large extent of vocabulary knowledge in

mind will ensures comprehension.

1.4.2. Measuring Vocabulary Knowledge

Vocabulary the writer will test in this study is receptive vocabulary, and this is

closely related to the recognition ability. The characteristic of receptive

vocabulary test that it objectively measure vocabulary knowledge because there is

only one correct answer. Test taker is asked to choose the correct answer among

several choices. Hughes (2003) said that vocabulary recognition covers the ability

to recognize synonyms, definitions, and appropriate words for context. Focus of

this research is translation of words.

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 In testing receptive vocabulary, Ur (1991) showed several possible

techniques that can be used, such as Multiple Choice and Matching Item format.

Each of these techniques has its own characteristics. In this study the researcher

used Matching Item test. Considering the advantages using this technique, Ur

(1991) pointed out Matching items are quicker and easier to compose then

multiple-choice; but note that the last option-if the learner has all the others right-

becomes obvious. This problem can be corrected by the provision of more items

in column B than in A.

1.5. Previous Study

The effect of background knowledge and vocabulary knowledge on students

reading comprehension had been tested by Chou (2011) over 159 Taiwanese EFL

college students. By using analysis one-way factorial ANOVA to investigate the

effects, they found out that vocabulary pre-teaching facilitated better in reading

comprehension than the students who rely on background knowledge inputs.

Fadli (2013) investigated the role of vocabulary mastery, grammar, and

content schemata in reading comprehension of the students in English Teaching

Faculty of Lakidende University. Using regression analysis to see how those three

independent variables contribute to students reading comprehension, he found

that reading comprehension of the students is most predicted by their vocabulary

mastery.

33