CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

English is one of the international languages. Indonesians tend to

spend more time to learn English since English is a foreign language in
Indonesia. Indonesian learns English to communicate in two form, they are
in spoken and written forms. There are four skills needed when people
learn English, they are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Besides, if
someone learns English; he or she has to master the language elements,
such as: phonology grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation to support the
four skills because the four skills are very important. Among all the
elements of language have interaction with others elements.

It can be said that vocabulary is one of the elements in language. Nation

in Schmitt (1991: 6) states that vocabulary knowledge is only one component
of language skills such as reading and speaking. The criteria of good language
understanding can be known with how much vocabulary used. Ur (1996: 60)
defines vocabulary as the words we teach in the foreign language. Interpreting
from Ur, vocabulary is a number of English words which is taught to students
in teaching learning process. Related the learning process in school,
vocabulary which is learnt should be appropriated with the curriculum.
Vocabulary, which consists of the knowledge of meaning as the main
component of a language, should be taught together with reading and
speaking. So, ideally vocabulary should be part of reading and speaking
course because one needs the mastery of vocabulary to comprehend the
reading and speaking activities.

As the one of main element in teaching learning English process,

vocabulary must be using in every activities of language learner as their
habits. Furthermore, Good (1979:274) gave more definition that habit is an
act, movement, or pattern of behavior that through practice has become easy
and familiar, and is performed without conscious thought, hesitancy, or
construction. Habits is a repetitive action or repetition activity that to bring an

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inclination to do it automatically, regularly and unconsciously. Afterwards,

finally become a pattern of behavior as a result of repetition activity. In
addition, habit deal with doing activity related with hobby, talent, favorite
activity or personal preference continuously, though it is done unconsciously.

One of the habits in the digital society is playing games. Being

accustomed to digital technology, students have changed considerably their
ways of thinking and processing information based on different mindsets
from their parents. For most children, computer games have become a
major part of their lives and become the differences between today and
previous generations, and to justify why games need to be a part of education.

One of the most popular games in the world on 2018 is the Mobile
Legend Bang-Bang. It is proved by the surveys of the google-playsstore.com
that one hundred millions of people had downloaded the mobile legend bang-
bang game. The mobile legend is the online game with the war genres that
easy to play on the IOS and Android smartphone (moonton, 2017). The
Moonton as the developer try to combine the war games with the collaboration
of the many players on online game. The mobile legend games as the online
game connect the player not only local but also international player so the all
player can communicate also with this game. The communication of the player
done by using English Language and this game basically using the English as
the guide for the all player. The English languages use for all kind instruction
of this game. The player of the mobile legend game can communicate on chat
by written and voice. By written the player can chat with the other player
during the game on playing and on the outside playing if still on the game. By
voice chat the player can communicate with the other during the game still on
playing and they can speak directly with the other player on the team globally.
It can be the interesting discussion that speaking in the mobile legend game
can involves the speaking skill of the players.

Thornburry, (2005: 1) states that speaking is so much a part of daily

life that we take it for granted. He also says that speaking is interactive and
requires the ability to co-operate in the management of speaking turns. It
also typically takes place in real time, with little time for detailed planning.
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He adds that speaking represents a real challenge to most language

learners. Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the
product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the
language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking
strategies using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using
language to talk about language that they can use to help themselves
expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it.
These instructor help students learn to speak so that the students can use
speaking to learn.

There are five types of speaking skill performance, such as imitative,

intensive, responsive, interactive, and extensive (ward, 1990). Those five types
of performance apply to the kinds of oral production that students are
expected to carry out in the classroom. It means that to measure whether the
most common activity in children’s leisure time. To help in understanding
students have already mastered the speaking skill or not. Besides of those
performance types, there is other aspect that obviously involved in
speaking skill. It is about the technical aspect in delivering a speaking
performance such as accuracy, fluency, and comprehensibility. These
technical aspect should be considered when we want to master the
speaking. One factor that can make a student’s master in speaking is
Vocabulary Mastery. They can improve their speaking skill with learnt
Vocabulary.

The researcher chooses the 3rd semester of students speaking class of

English department IAIN Surakarta as the subject of the research. The
students of 3rd semester speaking class have an opportunity to learn
speaking in class and out class basically more than the other people. The
speaking activity of the students everywhere will help the students’
mastery speaking well. Furthermore, the game can be a good media that
they can interest in learning everywhere with fun. The students of 3rd
semester also have more chance to get the understanding of basic speaking
by learning in game because in 3 rd semester the lecturers task still not
complex. The students of this globalization era also need more efficient
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way in learning because they always felt bored in the learning activity at
class. Those are some reason that the researcher choose the students of 3 rd
semester speaking class become the subject of this study.

There are some studies that relevant for being reference to this study.
First, Ratnawati (2006) with the title The Correlation between vocabulary
mastery and speaking performance, she proves that there is correlation
between the vocabulary mastery and speaking performance of the students.
Then, the journal about relationship of game and learning english by che
fung that provides some strategies of learning English including speaking
ability.

Based on the description above, the vocabulary mastery and the habit
of playing mobile legend can be essential factors for speaking skill.
Vocabulary is the indicator of assessment speaking test, it means that if
students need their speaking improve their mush learn a lot of vocabulary.
Playing mobile legend game is one way or media to teach speaking. It
means that if the student’s wants to improve their speaking they have to
practice regularly (Harling, (1999).

From this idea, the researcher determines the topic entitled.

“A CORRELATION STUDY BETWEEN STUDENTS’

VOCABULARY MASTERY AND HABIT IN PLAYING MOBILE
LEGEND BANG-BANG TOWARD SPEAKING ABILITY OF THE 3RD
SEMESTER OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT IAIN SURAKARTA AT THE
2018/2019 ACADEMIC YEAR.”

B. Problem Identification

Based on the background of the study above, the researcher finds

some problems as follows:

1. Does students’ ability in mastering vocabulary influence their speaking

ability?
2. Does the student’s habit of playing mobile legend bang-bang influence
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their vocabulary mastery?

3. Is there any correlation between vocabulary mastery and speaking ability?
4. Is there any correlation between the habit of playing mobile legend bang-
bang and speaking ability?
5. Is there any correlation between vocabulary mastery, the habit of playing
mobile legend bang-bang and speaking ability?

C. Limitation of the Problem

The researcher limits the problem of this thesis on three variables;

these are vocabulary mastery, the students’ habit of playing mobile legend
bang-bang, and speaking ability. The researcher subject is the 3rd semester
of English Department IAIN Surakarta at the 2018/2019 academic year.

D. Problem Formulation

Based on the background of the study and problem limitation, the

problems of the study are as follows:

1. Is there any positive significant correlation between vocabulary mastery

and speaking ability?
2. Is there any positive significant correlation between the habit of playing
mobile legend bang-bang and speaking ability?
3. Is there any positive significant correlation between vocabulary mastery,
the habit of playing mobile legend bang-bang toward speaking ability?

E. The Objectives of the Study

In line with the problem statements above, the objectives of the study
are as follows:

1. To find out there is a positive significant correlation between vocabulary

mastery and speaking ability.
2. To find out there is a positive significant correlation between the habit of
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playing mobile legend bang-bang and speaking skill.

3. To find out there is a positive significant correlation between vocabulary
mastery, the habit of playing mobile legend bang-bang toward speaking
skill.

F. The Benefit of the Study

The result of this study are expected to give benefits both

theoretically and practically.

1. Theoretically Benefits
a. To figure out the benefit of vocabulary mastery and the habit of
playing mobile legend bang-bang in improving speaking
ability.
b. This research can be an offer solution to face problems in
English learning speaking which happened in the certain field.

2. Practically Benefits
a. To give information to the English teacher especially in
realizing the importance of vocabulary and having the habit of
playing game to in teaching process particularly in teaching
speaking in order to improve students’ speaking skill.
b. The result of the research gives information about the degree of
correlation between vocabulary mastery and the students’ habit
of listening to English songs toward speaking skill. It can be
used for the teacher to decide whether the speaking skill can be
improved by those two factors or not.

G. The Definition of Key Term

Vocabulary Mastery is important for the students. It is more than

grammar for communication purpose, particularly in the early stage when
students are motivated to learn the basic words (Lewis and Hill, 1990: 12)
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Speaking skill is example of a complex cognitive skill that can be

diffrentiated into various hierarchical sub skills, some of which might
require controlled processing, while others could be processed
automatically. It means that speaking involves several skills require
processing (Mc Laughlin in O Malley and Channot 1990: 66)

Habit is an act, movement, or pattern of behavior that through

practice has become easy and familiar, and is performed without conscious
thought, hesitancy, or construction (good, 1976 : 67)

A game is defined as, “a physical or mental competition conducted

according to rules with the participants in direct opposition to each other”
(Merriam-Webster,2017).

The mobile legend bang bang is the online game with the war
genres that easy to play on the IOS and Android smartphone (moonton,
2017)