Relationship between English writing ability and vocabulary knowledge of students in an Islamic religious school

Abstract

      The purpose of this study was to investigate levels of English writing ability, vocabulary knowledge, and the relationship between those factors of 40 Mathayomsuksa 6 students. The instruments used were a writing ability test and vocabulary level tests. The obtained data were analyzed by percentage, mean, standard deviation, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. It was found that an overall score of students’ English writing ability was at a fair level (64.91%). In addition, results from the vocabulary level tests revealed that the average score of 1000-word level was the highest (92.73%) whereas the 2000-word and 3000- word levels were considerably low (44.56% and 36.76% respectively). Regarding the relationships, there were statistically high correlations between the 2000-word and 3000-word levels and the students’ writing abilities (r= .761** and .780** respectively) but a weak correlation at the 1000-word level (r=.308*). The findings indicated that vocabulary knowledge is a crucial supporting factor in relation to success in English writing development; however, the subjects of this study had a low vocabulary level which made them unable to produce good quality writing.