CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents background, problem statement, objective of the research, significance of the research, and scope of the research. A. Background Vocabulary is one of the elements of language that should be learned and taught. It cannot be denied that it will be hard to master language without mastering and understanding certain numbers of vocabularies. Without mastering vocabulary, it is impossible to master English well. It can be seen in speaking skill, the English students can not speak English well because they have limited vocabulary. In reading and listening skills, the English students do not understand what they read and listen. On the contrary, in speaking and writing, vocabulary gives easiness for the learners to expand their ideas. In reading, vocabulary gives easiness for the learners to comprehend the text. In listening ability, vocabulary gives easiness for the learners to comprehend what the other person speaks. Although most people are aware of the importance of vocabulary mastery, but some researchers who have conducted a research still found that students have the lack of vocabulary. Carter (1987) observes that for many years vocabulary has been the poor relation of language teaching. In recent years, however, the teaching of vocabulary has received ever-increasing attention from scholars in second-language teaching. Hamrah in Azis (1999: 2) reported that

most of the students from junior high school up to university are still poor in vocabulary. The mastery of vocabulary is a difficult task to do, especially English vocabulary which is complex. The difficulties arise from the words themselves. This is probably caused by the words, forms, various meaning and word choices as cited in Kustaryo (1988: 15). Realizing these difficulties, it is not enough for the English teachers to only prepare students with word list and ask them to memorize the words, but they are expected to provide the students with the interesting technique. To find out the best technique for teaching students needs intensive analysis, especially for the teacher. They should create all the alternatives of technique to teach the students in order to make the learners interested in what they are going to learn and avoid the boredom. There are many techniques that can be used in teaching vocabulary. Reading short stories is one of the interesting techniques that can help the teacher build their students vocabulary since the students will have more opportunity to identify the word during the teaching and learning process. Jacob (1996: 532) stated that reading aloud to students, such as telling a story, is an effective way for giving students opportunities to widen their vocabulary. When the students are listening to the stories, they will be given the chance to review their oral vocabularies. At the same time, some of the new and advanced words can be introduced effectively.

Short Stories are powerful teaching tools because of their potential to stimulate the imagination of students and engage them with the material. The short story gives meaning to abstract concept, aids memory, makes learning fun and the time is efficient. Collie and Slater (1991: 196) list the advantages of using short stories for language teachers (1) short stories are practical as their length is long enough to cover entirely in one or two class sessions (2) they are not complicated for students to work with on their own (3) they have a variety of choice for different interests and tastes (4) and they can be used with all levels (beginner to advanced), all ages (young learners to adults) and all classes. There are some researchers who use short story as the variable of their research. Muhmar (1999) in her research about the reading interest and ability to comprehend short stories, she used descriptive method and the instruments of her research were the test and the questionnaire. She found that by reading the short stories, the students were able to increase their vocabulary, and reading short stories could arouse students interest in reading. Akbar (2010) in his research about the perceptions of the second year students of SMP negeri 3 pallangga toward the use of short story in learning English. He also used descriptive method. The data were collected through questionnaire and analyzed by using likert scale. He found that the use of short story in learning English gave the students many benefits, such as they felt relax, made the students are more interested, and short story could help the students get many new words. Although there are some researchers who were conducted a research by using short story but the writer is also interested to conduct a research by using

this media. She used pre-experimental method and she will use vocabulary test as the instrument of her research to find out whether or not the implementation of reading short stories improves the vocabulary mastery of the second year students of senior high school. Referring to the description above, the writer is interested to conduct a research under the title of Improving the vocabulary mastery of the first year students at SMA Negeri 1 Rilau Ale Kabupaten Bulukumba by reading short stories. B. Problem Statement Based on the previous background, the writer formulates the following research question. Can the use of short stories improve the vocabulary mastery of the second year students at SMA Negeri 1 Rilau Ale Kabupaten Bulukumba? C. Objective of the Research This research aims to find out whether or not the implementation of reading short stories improves the vocabulary mastery of the second year students at SMA Negeri 1 Rilau Ale Kabupaten Bulukumba. D. Significance of the Research The result of this research is expected to be a piece of useful information for the teachers of English especially in teaching and learning vocabulary. It is also expected that the students can be motivated to learn English so that they are able to enrich their vocabulary.
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E. Scope of the Research The scope of the research is viewed from three aspects: discipline, content, and activity. By discipline, this research deals with teaching and learning English. This research is under applied linguistic. By the content, it covers the teaching of the words meaning based on the context (synonym and antonym) and parts of speech or word classes (noun, verbs, adjective, and adverb). By the activities, the students was given some short stories entailing: A Farmer and His Three Sons, Cinderella Story, Two Travelers and a Big Tree as taken from English lesson book for senior high school EKSIS (2006).