Abstract:
English plays an important role in academic societies at all levels, from the primary school to university. Of the four English skills, reading is the skill that most contributes to the English proficiency that students should have. Reading is a habitual activity that enhances a student's personality, intelligence, and literacy. In addition, reading also builds a student vocabulary that improves other skills. It means that the more a person reads, the more they will develop their language like grammar and vocabulary knowledge. However, each person has different reading habits that depend on their interest. Reading newspaper is essential for young learners to be more responsive. In this case, the researcher was interested in conducting research on the correlation between students’ habit in reading newspaper and their vocabulary mastery.
The research implemented correctional research design with a reading questionnaire and vocabulary mastery test. The data collected from 15 intermediate students of FLDI Nurul Jadid Islamic Institute. The data were analyzed by using descriptive quantitative research and Pearson product moment coefficient correlation in SPSS version 20.
The result of the study showed that the students’ habit in reading newspaper has high level with the mean value at 4.00. furthermore, the students’ vocabulary mastery is in the very high categories. It can be concluded that students’ habit in reading newspaper increase their vocabulary mastery. The last result showed that the probability value in this research was 0.018 and the Pearson correlation was at 0.59 which was in moderate correlation category. It means that the correlation between students’ habit in reading newspaper and their vocabulary mastery is significantly correlated and was at moderate correlation classification category.
Based on the finding of the study, it is addressed that students who often reading newspaper can increase their vocabulary mastery, so students have to improve and increase their habit in reading. It is also suggested for the English teacher to be a good motivator and support their interest in reading newspaper. For the future research, it is suggested to use more participants or instruments to get deeper analysis about students’ habit in reading and vocabulary mastery.
Keywords: Correlation, Reading Habit, Vocabulary Mastery, Newspapers