The Influence of Students’ Reading Interest Toward Their Vocabulary Mastery

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between students’ reading interest and their vocabulary mastery among tenth-grade students at SMA Negeri 8 Purworejo during the 2024/2025 academic year. Using a quantitative correlational design, data were collected from 57 students through a reading interest questionnaire and a vocabulary test. The vocabulary test consisted of 25 multiple-choice questions designed to measure various aspects of vocabulary knowledge, including class words, daily-use terms, synonym recognition, contextual understanding, and critical reading interpretation. The statistical analysis using Pearson correlation showed a strong and significant relationship (r = 0.649, p = 0.000) between reading interest and vocabulary mastery. Regression analysis revealed that reading interest contributed to 42.1% of the variance in students’ vocabulary scores. Although the study focused solely on reading interest as a predictor, it acknowledges that vocabulary mastery is influenced by multiple factors such as prior knowledge, learning strategies, and instructional context. Due to the purposive sampling technique and limited sample size, the generalizability of the findings is limited to similar educational contexts. The findings highlight the importance of encouraging students’ reading engagement to support vocabulary development. It is recommended that future research include additional variables and employ more varied vocabulary assessments to gain a broader understanding of how vocabulary mastery develops among EFL learners.