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and Literature) 

Vol. 2 No. 2, 2021 
Available online at https://jurnal.iainponorogo.ac.id/index.php/eltall 

 

 

  
 

 

81 
 
 

 

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ 

INTERNET  ACTIVITY FREQUENCY AND THEIR 

VOCABULARY SIZE AT IAIN BUKITTINGGI  

M. Rizki Ramadhan 
Syahrul 

Institut Agama Islam Negeri Bukittinggi  

rizki97ramadhan@gmail.com 
 

Abstract 
The design of this research was correlational research. This research 
aimed to find out the correlation between students’ internet activity 
frequency and their vocabulary size. In this research, the researcher 
found some problems, such as some students frequently used the 
internet. However, their vocabulary was still limited, and some 
students rarely used the internet and had much vocabulary. The 
researcher used quantitative research. The population in this 
research was 108 students that were the total of the students in the 
seventh semester in IAIN Bukittinggi. The researcher took 30% of 
the population as a sample of this research which was 33 students. 
The researcher collected the data used questioners and tests. Based 
on the finding, there was a significant correlation between students‘ 
internet activities frequency and their vocabulary size that used 
SPSS 20. First, It had sig values is smaller than alpha 
(0,000001<0,05) or r-measured was bigger than r-table 0,730 > 
0,3440. Second, there was a positive correlation between both 
variables (+0.730). Third, the magnitude of the correlation was 
high, with a score between 0.71- 0.90. The result showed that there 
is a correlation between student’s internet activity frequency and 
their vocabulary size. 

Keywords: Correlation, Internet Activity Frequency, Vocabulary Size 

INTRODUCTION 
In this pandemic COVID-19, people use internet in all of the 

activities in order to limit the face to face interaction. In education, internet 
really helps teacher and student in learning process to gain the purpose of 
learning. In this pandemic internet is very importance in learning process, 
because students just stay at home and do online school at home by used 

mailto:rizki97ramadhan@gmail.com


ELTALL (English language teaching, applied linguistics 

and Literature) 

Vol. 2 No. 2, 2021 
Available online at https://jurnal.iainponorogo.ac.id/index.php/eltall 

 

 

  
 

 

82 
 
 

 

internet. Government said all of people should keep social distancing and 

physical distancing. In social distancing and physical distancing everyone 
need internet to communicate with other anyone. It really enhances 
everyone social life. In internet there was a lot English vocabulary. 
Vocabulary still becomes an important part in determining the success of 
learning both first and second language, because vocabulary was one of 
component for increase someone language skill. Internet ability is 
captured by someone when she or he can combine technology knowledge 
and information. In brief, in order to make students got material on the 
internet students need vocabulary. That why internet activity need 
vocabulary to increase students skill.                                        

According to Kouvuniemi (2012), the Internet is a vast environment 
in which language is used in many ways, sometimes even in the form of 
its own special slang, ‘online language’. Most of the content in the Internet 
is in written form, and majority of it is English.1It means that, English 
vocabulary become the most needed language to learn because almost all 
of the contents in the internet using English vocabulary. Weganofa and 
Lutviana (2018) stated that vocabulary size is the amount of the students’ 
vocabulary. Based on the preliminary research in IAIN Bukittinggi, the 
researcher found several problems. First, there some students who used 
internet frequently but their vocabulary was still limited. The students 
found any vocabulary which didn’t their  meaning, but the students 
reluctant to open their dictionary, as the result it will difficult to 
understand the text in internet. Second, there some students who rarely 
used internet and them had much vocabulary. 

 
METHODS 

The researcher used the quantitative research.  According to Sugiono 
(2009), a research is called as quantitative because of the data of the research 
uses numeric and using statistical analysis. The design of this research was 
correlational research. The research aims to find out correlation between 
students’ internet activity frequency and vocabulary size. The population of 
this research was the fifth semester students at IAIN Bukittinggi. 

 

  

 

                                                           
 



ELTALL (English language teaching, applied linguistics 

and Literature) 

Vol. 2 No. 2, 2021 
Available online at https://jurnal.iainponorogo.ac.id/index.php/eltall 

 

 

  
 

 

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Table 1.1 The Population 

 
N
o 

Clas
s 

Tota
l 

1 A 33 

2 B 37 

3 C 38 

 Tota
l 

108 

 

The population of this research was 108 students which were the total 
of the students in the fifth semester in IAIN Bukittinggi. The researcher used 
accidental sampling.  Researcher took 30% from population as sample of this 
research which was 33 students. Researcher used this technique because all 
class is distributed equally. The researcher collected the data used 
questioners  and test. 

FINDINGS  
Description of the Data 
Data of Questionnaire and Test 
Suharsimi (2015 ) stated that the questionnaire was scored in range 1 to 5. 
The questionnaire was divided into the positive statements and the negative 
statements. It can be found in the table below: 

Table 1.1 Likers Scale 

Alternate Options Positive Negative 
Very Agree 5 1 
Agree 4 2 
Less Agree 3 3 
Disagree 2 4 
Very Disagree 1 5 

 

Furthermore, The researcher used test to find out the students 
vocabulary size. The test was adopted from Paul Nation Vocabulary Level 
Test. The test that will be used to test of vocabulary size is Vocabulary level 
test.  

In summarize, the questionnaire was about the students’ internet activity 
frequency (X) and the test was about vocabulary size (Y). The data from the 
questionnaire and test were administrated through the Google form which 



ELTALL (English language teaching, applied linguistics 

and Literature) 

Vol. 2 No. 2, 2021 
Available online at https://jurnal.iainponorogo.ac.id/index.php/eltall 

 

 

  
 

 

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has been converted to excel file format. The descriptive score of the students’ 
response toward the questionnaire and test can be viewed on the following 
table: 

 

Table 1.2 Descriptive of Students’ Response from the Questionnaire and 
Test 

 

Variables N Minimu
m 

Maximu
m 

Mean 
Std. 

Deviati
on 

Vocabulary Size 33 2,00 29,00 13,9394 7,20217 

Internet 

Frequency 

Activity 

33 53,01 110,05 82,7336 14,80262 

 
Based on the table 1.2, there were 33 students who responded to the 

questionnaire and test. The table questionnaire used likert scale which has 
alternate options: always, often, sometime, seldom, and never. er. The likert 
scale was considered as the ordinal type data. In other hand, the test was 
interval type data. In order to be able to find out the correlation between 
those two variables, the questionnaire result needed to be converted into 
interval type data. This was done by using MSI add-ins in Microsoft excel. 
For the questionnaire of internet frequency activity, The highest score was 
110,05 the minimum score was 53,01, the standard deviation was 14,803, and 
the mean score was 82.73. For the test, the highest score was 29 points, the 
lowest score was 2 points, the standard deviation was 7,202, and the mean 
score was 13.94. 

Prerequisite of Data Analysis 

Before doing the testing the correlation between both variables, there were 3 
prerequisite of data analysis. They are: making sure both of the data is 
interval type data, the data is distributed normally, and the data is linear. 
 
a. Test the normality of the data 

 
The normality of the data was done in SPSS 20 application. It was done to 
find out whether the data distributed normally or not. The result of the 
normality test can be viewed on the table below: 
 
 



ELTALL (English language teaching, applied linguistics 

and Literature) 

Vol. 2 No. 2, 2021 
Available online at https://jurnal.iainponorogo.ac.id/index.php/eltall 

 

 

  
 

 

85 
 
 

 

Table 1.3 Normality of the Data 

 Shapiro-Wilk 

Statistic Df Sig. 

Vocabulary ,936 33 ,052 

Internet Activities 

frequency 

 
,961 

 
33 

 
,277 

 
Based on the table 1.3, the sig value of both variables is 0.052 and 

0.277, while the alpha is 0.05. In other word, the sig values of both variables 
are bigger than the alpha which means both of the data was distributed 
normally. 
 
b. Test the linearity of the data 
 

Linearity test is intended to determine the pattern of relationships 
between each independent variable with the dependent variable whether 
formed the data  linear or not. It was done by using SPSS 20. It is used for 
testing the linear relationship between the independent variable (X) and the 
dependent variable (Y).  

 

Table 1.4  Linearity of the Data 
 

  
Sum of 
Squares 

 
Df 

 
Mea

n 
Squa

re 

 
F 

 
Si
g. 

 
 

 
Vocabu

lary 

* Xold 

 
 

Between 
Groups 

(Combin
ed) 

1612,379 25 64,49
5 

9,505 ,0
03 

Linear
ity 

865,852 1 865,8
52 

127,5
99 

,0
00 

Deviatio

n 

from 

Linear

ity 

 
746,527 

 
24 

 
31,10

5 

 
4,584 

 
,0
63 

Within 
Groups 

47,500 7 6,786   

Total 1659,879 32    

 



ELTALL (English language teaching, applied linguistics 

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Vol. 2 No. 2, 2021 
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The table 1. showed that significant value of the significant values is 
0.063 which is bigger than the alpha (0.05). That means his data is linear. 

 
c. Test the homogeneity of the data 
 

The purpose of homogeneity test is to know whether the population is 
the homogeneous or not, so the researcher use the F test. The homogeneity 
test by using F test.  

Table 1.5 Homogeneity of the Data 
 

 Levene's Test for Equality of 
Variances 

F Sig. 

 

 
Score 

Equal variances 
assumed 

 
17,682 

 
,083 

Equal variances 
not assumed 

  

 

Based on the table 1.5  it was found that the sig value is 0.083 and the 

alpha is 0.05. This means that 0.083>0.05 in other word the data is 

homogenous. 

Hypothesis testing 
Correlation between Internet Activities frequency and Vocabulary Size 

The correlation was done using SPSS 20. It was done especially by Pearson 
Correlation option in the application. The result of Pearson correlation can 
be viewed on the table below: 
 

Table 1.6 Correlation of Internet Activities frequency and Vocabulary 
Size 

 

 Internet 
Activities 
Frequency 

Vocabulary 

Internet 
Activities 
frequency 

Pearson 
Correlation 1 ,730** 

Sig. (2-tailed)  ,000001 

N 33 33 



ELTALL (English language teaching, applied linguistics 

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Vocabulary 

Pearson 
Correlation ,730** 1 

Sig. (2-tailed) ,000001  

N 33 33 

 

Based on the table 1.6 that the sig value is 0,000001. This means that 
the sig value is smaller than the alpha of the research which is 0,05. In other 
word, there was significant correlation between internet activities 
frequency and vocabulary size. In addition, another way to find out the 
correlation was to compare the r-measured with the r-table. Based on the 
table above, the r-measured was 0,730 meanwhile the r-table for N=33 
(df=31) is 0,3440. Since 0.730 is bigger than 0,3440 this means that there was 
significance correlation between internet frequency activity and vocabulary 
size. 

The Magnitude of the Correlation between Internet Activities frequency 

and Vocabulary Size 

Table 1.7 Index Correlation Interpretation 
Index Interpreta

tion 

0.00—0.20 
Very Low correlation. It is ignored or 
considered not correlate 

0.21—0.40 Low correlation 
0.41—0.70 Moderate correlation 
0.71—0.90 High correlation 
0.91—1.00 Very High correlation 

 
Based on the table above, it was known that the correlation was on 

the 0.71-0.90. This means, the magnitude of the correlation was high. In 
other word, there was high correlation between internet frequency activities 
with the students’ vocabulary size. 
 

DISCUSSION 
 This research supported the theory from Momani (2018) stated that 

there is a strong positive correlation between students’ Internet exposure 
and their scores on the vocabulary. His finding assured the positive 
relationship between the Internet exposure frequency and vocabulary 
learning in EFL context. That is to say the more exposure to the Internet, the 
more vocabulary EFL students learn. Based on the finding, the research had 
questions were answered. First, there was significant correlation between 
internet activities frequency and vocabulary size since sig values is smaller 



ELTALL (English language teaching, applied linguistics 

and Literature) 

Vol. 2 No. 2, 2021 
Available online at https://jurnal.iainponorogo.ac.id/index.php/eltall 

 

 

  
 

 

88 
 
 

 

than alpha (0,000001<0,05) or r- measured was bigger than r-table 
(0,730>0,3440). This means that the  students’ internet frequency activity 
could affect their vocabulary size. Second, there was positive correlation 
between both variables (+0.730). In other word, the more students have 
activity in the internet the better their vocabulary size. Third, the magnitude 
of the correlation was high (between 0.71—0.90). that means that there was 
high correlation between internet frequency activities with the students’ 
vocabulary size. It can be concluded that Ha is accepted since there was 
significant correlation between internet activities frequency and vocabulary 
size.  
 
CONCLUSION 

Based on the finding of the research, there were several conclusions. 
First, there was significant correlation between internet activities frequency 
and vocabulary size. This means that the students’ internet frequency 
activity could affect their vocabulary size. Second, there was positive 
correlation between both variables. In other word, the more students have 
activity in the internet the better their vocabulary size. Third, the magnitude 
of the correlation was high. This means that there was high correlation 
between internet frequency activities with the students’ vocabulary size. It 
can be concluded that Ha is accepted since there was correlation between 
internet frequency activity and students’ vocabulary size. This means the 
more students use internet the more they are exposed to the English 
language since the Internet use English in majority, so that the students’ 
vocabulary size would improve. 
 

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Laufer, B. & Ravenhorst-Kalovski, G. C. (2010). Lexical threshold revisited: 
Lexical text coverage, learners’ vocabulary size and reading 
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Lee, Louis Leung Paul Multiple. (2004). Determinants of life quality: the roles of 
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Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong. 



ELTALL (English language teaching, applied linguistics 

and Literature) 

Vol. 2 No. 2, 2021 
Available online at https://jurnal.iainponorogo.ac.id/index.php/eltall 

 

 

  
 

 

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M. Kumar Agarwa. (2010). Internet-based language learning and teaching. 
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Syawal, Patahuddin, & Nasrullah. (2017). The effect of internet on English 
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