Institutional Repository | Satya Wacana Christian University: Vocabulary Teaching Techniques Used by English Teachers to Teach Seventh Grade Students at SMPN 6 Salatiga
VOCABULARY TEACHING TECHNIQUES USED BY
ENGLISH TEACHERS TO TEACH SEVENTH GRADE
STUDENTS AT SMPN 6 SALATIGA
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fullfilment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Kristi Meisa Kurnianti
112014064
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
SALATIGA
2018
VOCABULARY TEACHING TECHNIQUES USED BY
ENGLISH TEACHERS TO TEACH SEVENTH GRADE
STUDENTS AT SMPN 6 SALATIGA
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fullfilment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Kristi Meisa Kurnianti
112014064
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
SALATIGA
2018
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text. Copyright@2018. Kristi Meisa Kurnianti and Prof. Dr. Gusti Astika, M.A. All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the prior written permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Language Education Program of Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana Salatiga.
Kristi Meisa Kurnianti :
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER PAGE.................................................................................................................... i PERNYATAAN TIDAK PLAGIAT ................................................................................. ii PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN AKSES ..................................................................... iii PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION ......................................................... iv APPROVAL PAGE ........................................................................................................... v COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ........................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................. vii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................ 5
A. GENERAL OVERVIEW ........................................................................................... 5
B. THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY IN FOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS ....... 5
1. The Importance of Vocabulary for Listening Skill .............................................. 6
2. The Importance of Vocabulary for Speaking Skill .............................................. 6
3. The Importance of Vocabulary for Readin g Skill ............................................... 7
4. The Importance of Vocabulary for Writing Skill ................................................ 7
C. VOCABULARY TEACHING TECHNIQUES ........................................................ 8
1. Teachers ’ Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary ................................................... 8
2. The Importance Vocabulary Instruction ........................................................... 10
D. PREVIOUS STUDIES............................................................................................. 11 THE STUDY ................................................................................................................. 13
A. Method of the Study................................................................................................. 13
B. Context of the Study ................................................................................................ 13
C. Participants ............................................................................................................... 13
D. Data Collection Instruments .................................................................................... 14
E. Data Collection Procedures ...................................................................................... 14
F. Data Analysis Procedures ....................................................................................... 15 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................... 16
1. Explicit Vocabulary Instruction ........................................................................... 16
2. T eachers’ Vocabulary Teaching Techniques ....................................................... 22 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 29 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... 30 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 31 APPENDIXES ............................................................................................................... 35
VOCABULARY TEACHING TECHNIQUES USED BY
ENGLISH TEACHERS TO TEACH SEVENTH GRADE
STUDENTS AT SMPN 6 SALATIGA
Kristi Meisa Kurnianti 112014064
ABSTRACT
Vocabulary is essential part of a language. In Indonesia especially in
Salatiga, many students are still struggling to enrich their vocabulary in
order to master English. It will make English teachers work hard to help their
students to learn vocabulary. Therefore, this study investigates vocabulary
teaching techniques that the English teachers used at SMPN 6 Salatiga for
teaching seventh grade students. In this descriptive study, the research
question was “how do the English teachers of SMPN 6 Salatiga teach
vocabulary to seventh grade student s”. The participants of the study weretwo English teachers of SMPN 6 Salatiga. The data of the study were
collected by doing observasions and semi-structured interviews. The result
of the study indicated that the English teachers at SMPN 6 Salatiga used
explicit vocabulary instruction, attractive activities such as crossword
puzzles, listening to songs, reading novels, etc. and task-based learning to
teach seventh grade students.Keywords : vocabulary, vocabulary teaching techniques
INTRODUCTION
In a country like Indonesia, where English is a foreign language, most students in Indonesia especially high school students still struggle with some problems about learning English subject. Therefore, it will be a challenge for English teachers to teach English effectively to their students. In this case, English teachers should be able to help their students to learn vocabulary and enrich their vocabulary with certain teaching methods or stategies that can be used to develop students’ vocabulary knowledge. Schmitt (2000), claims that “The learning of these basic words cannot be left to chance, but should be taught as quickly as possible, because they open […] the door of further learning” (p. 137).
Vocabulary is the root of a language especially English. According to Hashino (2010), lexical items are the basis of language. Teachers and students can never underestimate its importance in learning a target language.
In other words, a language is construted by formation of words. Read (2004), states that L2 limit ations in L2 learners’ vocabulary knowledge hamper their ability to communicate effectively. It means that if students want to communicate with others or use the language effectively they should have many stock of words of the language. Students cannot communicate with others if they do not have enough stock of words. Besides, students cannot use the language if they do not know the words of the language itself. Many studies also have investigated vocabulary knowledge. The studies indicate that vocabulary knowledge is an important factor for successful reading comprehension in EFL (Hu & Nation, 2000). Besides, Wang (2015) states that there are several people that have explored the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension in EFL context. Thus, teachers and students have been long confused about the exact role that vocabulary knowledge plays in L2 listening comprehension. Vocabulary is also very influential in writing skill because the more words L2 learners have, the better they produce a writing. Therefore, English teachers should pay attention on the enhancement of comprehension instead of promotion of word knowledge alone (Hedrick, Harmon, & Linerode, 2004). This statement indicates that teachers need to improve their students’ comprehension toward English words rather than promote word knowledge.
It is crucial to investigate the issue that arises in teaching vocabulary, especially in EFL context. An issue is found that most EFL students struggle with the following problems : how to enrich their vocabulary knowledge and how to refine their language skills. Teaching vocabulary is an important part in linguistic field, but both teachers and students sometimes are not aware of the importance of vocabulary in language learning. Some researchers claim that good vocabulary instruction will lead to successful L2 learners in the L2. Hassani et al. (2013) state that vocabulary teaching is the process of selection and presentation of words (lexis) for learners. It means it is very significant for English teachers to select appropriate techniques in teaching vocabulary to L2 learners.
This study aimed at investigating the vocabulary teaching techniques that English teachers use to teach their students. This descriptive study attempted to find out vocabulary teaching techniques used by English teachers in Salatiga by answering this question “how do English teachers of SMPN 6 Salatiga teach vocabulary to seventh grade students”. This study may encourage other teachers to investigate their vocabulary teaching practice. Besides, the other English teachers in Salatiga can also apply the techniques based on the findings of the study to teach their students.
LITERATURE REVIEW A. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF VOCABULARY
Vocabulary is a very crucial aspect in language learning. Students will master a language if they master vocabulary of the language. Nation (1990) argues that knowing a word was also defined as knowing the spelling, pronunciation, collocations and appropriateness. Another researcher also defines vocabulary as “a set of lexemes (the smallest unit in the meaning system of a language that can be distinguished from other similar units), including single words, compound words and idioms” (Richards & Schmidt, 2002).
Nation (2008) in his book stated that vocabulary can be divided into three or four levels largely on the basis of how often it occurs in the language (its frequency) and how widely it occurs (its range), namely high frequency words, academic words, technical words, and low frequency words.
B. THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY IN FOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS
Vocabulary is important for developing four language skills. Some studies indicate that students need to have good vocabulary knowledge in order to perform well in the four language skills. Within the last few years, vocabulary is viewed as an important aspect in second language learning. In fact, many experts believe that vocabulary is just as important as the main skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking).
1. The Importance of Vocabulary for Listening Skill
There are several studies about the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension. Wang (2015) claimes that vocabulary knowledge is the main obstacle to successful listening comprehension for EFL learners. In other words, EFL learners will get difficulties in listening skill when they do not have enough vocabulary knowledge. Besides, it becomes a barrier for ELF learners to successful listening comprehension. In any case, the study clearly identified knowledge of the 2,000 most frequent English word families as a key proficiency threshold for L2 reading and writing skills (Stæhr, 2008). It indicates that 2,000 frequent vocabulary that L2 learners have can lead them to success in reading and speaking skills.
2. The Importance of Vocabulary for Speaking Skill Vocabulary knowledge plays an important function in speaking skill.
Adolph and Schmitt (2003), argue that at least, 3,000 word families should be mastered by L2 learners in order to communicate and understand 95 percent of the language communicated by native speakers. As a consequence, L2 learners have to completely comprehend vocabulary of each word they are exposed to.
Read (2004) argues that limitations in L2 learners’ vocabulary knowledge hinder their capability to communicate effectively. A similar idea about the importance of vocabulary for speaking skill comes from Astika (2016) who states that students who have less vocabulary knowledge will not be able to communicate with others effectively and cannot negotiate meaning in conversation. In order to be able to negotiate meaning properly in interactions, students must understand the sentence structure and vocabulary.
3. The Importance of Vocabulary for Reading Skill Vocabulary influences reading comprehension of language learners.
Nouri & Zerhouni (2016) state that fluent reading depends on high-quality lexical representation. This is based on “Lexical Quality Hypothesis” according to which learners’ ability to know words thoroughly may be one of the best indicators of reading ability levels. Lexical knowledge is very crucial in reading comprehension because if readers have more vocabulary knowledge, more prior background knowledge about the given topic.
Besides, they also will have more abilities of understanding through the context, and fewer unknown vocabulary. Thus, readers may have more understanding of the texts (Jia, 2011).
4. The Importance of Vocabulary for Writing Skill
Vocabulary also plays an important role in the complex process of writing which involves the coordination of many higher level and lower level cognitive skills (Hayes, 1996; Olinghouse & Leaird, 2009; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1987, as cited in Wang, 2014). It means there is a relationship between vocabulary and writing. The more EFL learners vocabulary have, the more proficient they are in writing skill. It is caused by the richness of words that they have, so it makes them easier to express what they want to express in written form. It will be different with L2 or EFL learners who do not have enough or even have less of word collection. They tend to find more difficulties in writing. One of the main problems that EFL learners have with writing is that their limitation in vocabulary knowledge, and used repetitively, limiting the extent of their expression (Wang, 2014). Consequently, L2 learners should have vocabulary diversity to help them dealing with writing skills. In some cases L2 learners get difficulties in writing because they have very limited vocabulary knowledge.
C.
VOCABULARY TEACHING TECHNIQUES 1. Teachers’ Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary
Teachers play an important role in developing students’ vocabulary knowledge. Teachers may apply some strategies to assist their students to enrinch their vocabulary knowledge by using some techniques in teaching vocabulary. Techniques and strategies teachers use will determine how students learn words. In teaching vocabulary there are some techniques that can be used by teachers. Other reseachers also mention another vocabulary teaching techniques such as context technique (Carl, 2003b), key word technique (Foil & Alber, 2002), words link (Yopp, 2007), and semantic mapping technique (Foil & Alber, 2002). Palmberg (1990), proposes that “there are two main types of teaching methods to improve vocabulary learning. The first focuses on the sense of L2 based exercises and activities which stand as a main target of CLT, and has received much attention in recent vocabulary teaching practices and materials. The second, however, focuses on the developm ent of learners' own L2 association”.
Nation (2008) states that teachers need to give attention to a word without too much interuption to an activity like listening to a story going on.
He also suggests several ways of quickly giving attention to a word such as use an L1 translation, use a known L2 synonym or a simple definition in the L2, show an object or picture, give a quick demonstration, draw a simple picture or diagram, break the word into parts and give the meaning of the parts and the whole word (the word part strategy), give several examples of sentences with the word in context to show the meaning, and comment on the underlying meaning of the word and other referents.
In the field of language teaching and learning, the role of teachers are very important. Teachers play a role as facilitators and instructors. Lu Mei-Fang (2008) suggests that teachers (a) help students with word knowledge (e.g., word meaning, word use, word formation, word grammar); (b) select vocabulary to be learned; (c) facilita te students’ incorporation of new words into language that are already known; (d) provide opportunities for student interaction with words; (e) incorporate tasks which require mental processing; (f) avoid teaching similar words at that same time; and (g) teach strategies for self-learning (e.g., guess in context, use glossaries for specific jargon, use bilingual and monolingual dictionaries). The same idea with Lu Mei-Fang (2008), McVey (2007) also suggests teachers to teach in context, to require the use of monolingual dictionaries, to teach prefixes and roots, to teach various forms of a new word, to encourage students to read, to teach reading skills, to encourage students to review new language, and to give students opportunities to use new words.
2. The Importance Vocabulary Instruction
Vocabulary instruction is a vital component in teaching language. Some experts suggest the teachers use effective vocabulary instructions in teaching words. The use of effective vocabulary instruction will foster students’ d evelopment of large “word bank”. Some teachers believe that teaching vocabulary explicitly (directly) will ensure vocabulary learning more targeted and effective. Explicit vocabulary instruction can be defined as the direct and purposeful instruction of new vocabulary.
According to Astika (2014), explicit vocabulary instruction can involve discussion about new words learners need to know, breaking words into their components parts such us teaching word formation, deliberate introduction of new words, and building fluency of new words. Besides, use of dictionaries, use of context clues, or identifying parts of words in explicit vocabulary instruction can help students to become more independent learners (Baumann, et.al, 2003 as cited in Astika 2014). Another thought comes from Al-
Darayseh’s study (as cited in Pawlicki 2017). He suggests that explicit vocabulary instruction for students who require deliberate and purposeful vacabulary practice should include the teaching of some key words explicitly (directly) by using different techniques such as giving definitions, using synonyms and antonyms, word collections, etc.
Teachers also should concern to words selection the students are exposured to. Teachers usually choose words that will be in the text or uncommon words that may arise in the text in purpose to make students have good understanding of the text.
D. PREVIOUS STUDIES
It is important for English teachers to help their students to enrich and comprehend English words to bring their students to achieve their success in English language learning by using certain strategies or techniques to teach vocabulary. According to the previous study conducted in Canada by Rossiter, Abbott, and Khusnir (2016) had showed at least 75% of respondents sometimes/often used the following teaching techniques in class: saying the word aloud, using the word in an example sentence, giving a simple definition, writing the word, giving examples of a synonym or related word, asking students for definitions, identifying the stress pattern of the word, acting out the word using gestures, using supplemental materials, discussing underlying meanings of words, identifying prefixes or suffixes, referring to information in the course textbook, and drawing/displaying a picture of the word.
Moving to Omani, Jabri (2008) conducted his research on vocabulary teaching techniques that were used by teachers in an Omani government school. The research indicated that teachers there used certain techniques to
techniques are miming, book pictures, realia, flash
teach vocabulary. These
cards, drawing, defining in English and the translation technique. All of these
techniques are very useful in introducing the basic meaning of newly taught
words, but these techniques do not assure that students develop a good mastery
of vocabulary without using another technique to guarantee that they understand
and retain the new vocabulary items in the long run.Another study about vocabulary teaching techniques also conducted by
a couple of researchers from Indonesia. The research was located in Malang,
East Java. According to Cahyono and Widiawati (2008), language teachers need
to explorevarious techniques in the teaching of vocabulary. They could use teaching in context. Using intensive and extensive reading activities as a meant of exposing students to vocabulary in context. Besides, language teachers also need to increase students’ vocabulary knowledge by giving training to students in the use of strategies for vocabulary learning.
Another study of vocabulary teaching techniques was conducted by Puspitasari (2009), an alumnus of the Faculty of Language and Arts. She conducted her research at SD Kristen 03 Salatiga. Her research was revealed that the teachers used pictures, repetition and pronunciation drill frequently in teachingvocabulary as it was suitable for young learners and easier to check the students understanding and abilities.
The previous studies above are the same in the general aims which aims know the vocabulary teaching techniques used by English teachers.
Then compared to the previous studies, this study is different. The difference is about the participants and the location of the study. The participants are the English teachers of SMPN 6 Salatiga. This school is one of public schools in Salatiga which is most of the students come from rural areas in Salatiga.
The findings of this study show the vocabulary teaching techniques used by the English teachers at SMPN 6 Salatiga. This kind of topic has never been analyzed by other researchers.
THE STUDY
A. Method of the study
This is a descriptive study which answered the following research question,
“How do the English teachers of SMPN 6 Salatiga teach
vocabulary to seventh grade students ?”. It describes vocabulary teaching techniques that the English Teachers at SMPN 6 Salatiga use in order to assist seventh grade students to have better performance in English.
B. Context of the Study
The context in which the study conducted was one junior high school in Salatiga which is SMPN 6 Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. The location was selected because it was quite far from the modernity of Salatiga. Most of the students came from rural areas in Salatiga. Therefore, it was important to investigate vocabulary teaching techniques for teaching seventh grade stu dents in the school. Conducting the research answered the writer’s curiousity of how to teach vocabulary to seventh grade students which was considered English as a something new because they never had it in their elementary school before.
C. Participants
The participants of this study involved 2 the English teachers who taught seventh grade students at SMPN 6 Salatiga. English teachers were those who had experience in teaching English for at least 5 years, had a degree at least a Bachelor of Education and graduated from English Language Education Program. The reason of involving only 2 English teachers of the school because the school only had 2 English teachers who taught seventh grade.
D. Data Collection Instruments
This study used class observations and semi-structured interviews as the data collection instruments. By using those instruments to collect the data hopefully the study would get more valid data about the topic. The observation used a checklist as the instrument. It was conducted in classes of seventh grade during the teaching of vocabulary to the students. It only focused on teachers’ vocabulary teaching techniques. Observational data recorded on the physical environment, and then followed up with interviews to discover participants’ responses to, perceptions of, messages contained in and attitudes to the physical environment (Cohen et al., 2007). After that, this study employed semi-structured interview (Zacharias, 2013) to discover vocabulary teaching techniques the participants used.
E. Data Collection Procedures
The observations were conducted in the classrooms. The observations was conducted when teachers taught vocabulary in seventh grade classes.
The checklist for observation was provided to collect data of how the teachers taught their students vocabulary. Besides, the interviews were employed in this data collection. The interviews were recorded in order to avoid missing or loosing the important information from the interviewees.
F. Data Analysis Procedures
Data were analyzed by transcribing the interviews from the participants. Data reduction was also employed in analysing the data. It was done to eliminate unappropriate data from the participants. After that, it were coded. In this data analysis, the data were classified into headings and sub- headings based on the vocabulary teaching techniques used by the participants. The data from the observations were analyzed and the data from the interviews were transcribed.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This research aimed to answer the qu estion “How do English teachers of SMPN 6 Salatiga teach vocabulary to seventh grade students ?” This section provides the analysis of the strategies used by the English teachers at SMPN 6 Salatiga to teach seventh grade students. It shows the themes analyzed from the observations and the interviews. It reveals that there are two themes: explicit vocabulary instruction and teachers’ vocabulary teaching techniques. To attain understandable discussion, the transcript of the interviews were provided into two versions which were excerpts in Indonesian and excerpts in English.
1. Explicit Vocabulary Instruction
Vocabulary is always defined as repertoire of someone in mastering a languange. This research found out the definition of vocabulary itself from two English teachers at SMPN 6 Salatiga based on their understanding. Below are the excerpts of the participants’ opinions. Q 1 : Menurut anda apa definisi dari vocabulary? (In your opinion, what is the definition of vocabulary?) Teacher 1 (Appendix 9) Vocabulary singkatnya adalah kosa kata, perbendaharaan kata.
(In short, vocabulary is glossary, repertoire) Teacher 2 (Appendix 10)
Vocabulary itu sepengetahuan saya itu merupakan perbendaharaan kata atau kata-kata yang (harus) dikuasai untuk bisa menguasai suatu bahasa.
(As I know, vocabulary is repertoire or words mastered by someone in order to master a language)
Based on the excerpts above, vocabulary is simply defined as collection of words that someone should master. In accordance with Neuman & Dwyer (200
9), vocabulary could be defined as“words we must know to communicate effectively; words in speaking (expressive vocabulary) and words in listening (p.385)
Vocabulary is very crucial in the field of language. Students will master a language if they have enough stock of words. Both English teachers who taught seventh grade students assumed that vocabulary was the main point of mastering four skills in language (listening, speaking, reading and writing).
The following excerpts are the evidences of teachers’ opinion toward the importance of vocabulary.
Q2 : Menurut anda apakah kata-kata penting dalam empat keterampilan
berbahasa? Mengapa?
(In your opinion, is vocabulary important in four language skills? Why?) Teacher 1 (Appendix 9)
Ya, karena vocabulary atau kosa kata ini adalah
untuk mengembangkan anak (dalam empat
keterampilan berbahasa), (anak) bisa bicara harus
tahu kosa kata, membaca harus dengan kosa kata,
mendengarkan dengan kosa kata, kemudian menulis
juga harus punya kosa kata.(Yes, it is important because vocabulary is to develop students’ language skills. Students will be able to speak, read, comprehend what they listen to and write if they know vocabulary)
Teacher 2 (Appendix 10)
Kalau menurut saya jelas itu sangat penting ya,
karena itu dasarnya kan memang harus tahu vocab
gitu untuk lebih tahu yang empat skills itu ya,
reading, writing, listening, speaking itu kan memang
harus tahu vocab dulu, dasarnya memang itu. Jadi
menurut saya memang sangat penting.(In my opinion, it is very important because basically students should know vocabulary first to know the four language skills. Reading, writing, listening, speaking, they all should know the vocabulary first because it is the basic of the language. So in my opinion it is very important)
Based on the excerpts, both teachers said that vocabulary was very important in four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing).
Vocabulary also played an important role in mastering four language skills because vocabulary was the basic of language. Students should know vocabulary first before they mastering the four language skills. Vocabulary also could be considered as a key to success in four language skills.
According to Nguyen & Khuat (2003), they argued that vocabulary was one component that was important in mastering four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing). The statement showed that vocabulary influenced the four language skills. Students would tend to be success in all language skills if they had lexical diversity of the language. Based on my experience in teaching practicum, students who had more vocabulary tended to be proficient in English than students who had limited vocabulary.
Based on the observations (see appendix 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 & 8), English teachers at SMPN 6 Salatiga tended to use explicit vocabulary instruction.
They used it because of many reasons. In the following are excerpts of the reasons of the teachers using explicit vocabulary instruction.
Q 3 : Menurut observasi yang telah saya lakukan, anda cenderung
menggunakan explicit vocabulary instruction dalam pengajaran kosa kata
dalam bahasa Inggris. Mengapa anda menggunakan explicit vocabulary
instruction?(Based on my observations that I have conducted, you tend to use explicit vocabulary instruction in teaching English vocabulary. Why did you use explicit vocabulary instruction?)
Teacher 1 (Appendix 9)
Karena anak yang baru belajar dikelas 7 SMP yang
barangkali mungkin bisa kita ketahui bahwa dasar
dari anak sendiri di SD nya tidak semua
menggunakan atau belajar dari kelas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 atau
kelas 6 kadang anak itu ada yang baru belajar dari
kelas 5 dan 6 sehingga untuk membekali supaya di
kelas 7 itu dia memiliki kosa kata yang sama, kita
menggunakan teknik atau disitu kita explicit
vocabulary instruction. Intinya kita adalah
mempermudah pembelajaran kosa kata secara
langsung.(In brief, we made learning vocabulary easier by telling the meaning explicitly) Teacher 2 (Appendix 10)
Karena sebenarnya ya meskipun mereka itu kelas 7
SMP memang kelas 7 itu level skill dalam bahasa
Indonesia, mudeng ya. Kelas 7 SMP memang mereka
tapi dalam bahasa Inggris di SD itu kan tidak ada
dalam kurikulum 2013 mereka baru kenal bahasa
Inggris itu kalau di sekolahnya ada tambahan sih
mungkin sudah pernah dengar bahasa Inggris ya,
tapi kalau dari pemerintah sendiri memang bahasa
Inggris itu di mulai dari SMP jadi kan bisa
dibayangkan ya level SMP mereka itu mungkin sama
dengan level SD nya anak-anak di luar negeri kan
begitu jadi otomatis vocab yang harus saya ajarkan
itu yang sangat dasar yanag bahkan, apa ya.
Kayaknya kalau dipikiran kita masa seperti itu aja
anak SMP gak tau tapi memang tidak tau karena
memang levelnya itu sangat very low beginner, very
very begginer gitu, masih sangat beginner sekali gitu.
Jadi kalau mau saya ajarkan secara implicit itu
memang susah gitu, jadi memang harus ini lho ini
yang dipakai, yang sering dipakai ini, artinya itu ini,
memang harus seperti itu karena kita harus melihat
level mereka secara bahasanya sendiri, seperti itu.
(The level of the students here is very low biginner. If I teach them implicitly it will be difficult for students to recieve what I teach to them)
According to the excerpts above, both English teachers at SMPN 6 Salatiga used explicit vocabulary instruction. The first reason was some students might not have English lesson since they were in elementary school so in seventh grade, teachers tried to introduce English starting from the basic vocabulary. Secondly, it made learning of vocabulary became easier. Third, teachers looked at the level of students’ background knowledge of students’ language.
Besides, teachers used explicit vocabulary instruction in order to make their students had the same understanding toward the words that the teachers taught. It made students easy to determine the meaning of words. Besides, it made teachers easier to go to the next material or topic.
Employing certain techniques of teaching should be considering from its benefit. In the following are excerpts of teachers’ opinion toward the benefit of the use of explicit vocabulary instruction Q7 : Apa keuntungan menggunakan teknik tersebut?
What is the benefit of using the technique? Teacher 1 (Appendix 9)
Anak langsung bisa mengerti apa yang kita ajarkan
dan eee mungkin eee secara umum, jadi secara umum
karena kan tingkat kemampuan anak satu dengan
yang lain itu tidak sama, biar menyamakan persepsi.
(Students can directly understand what we teach because every student has different level of knowledge. It is used to make students to have the same perception toward the meaning of words)
Teacher 2 (Appendix 10)
Lebih, kalau menurut saya ya memang lebih to the
point ya. Mereka lebih gampang menerima gitu.
Seperti, bayangkan aja ya kita bandingkan lah,
seperti anak kelas 1 SD belajar bahasa Indonesia kan
juga kita tidak mungkin memakai cara yang sangat
berat, anak suruh baca secara implicit ini artinya apa
kan juga tidak mungkin kan kita kan ngajari mereka
kan juga ini lho ini lho kan seperti itu, itu kan sama
sebenarnya sama levelnya bahasa Inggrisnya dengan
SMP karena di SD itu tidak ada. Kan meteri kelas 1 pun itu baru diajari salam good morning, good afternoon, how are you, I’m fine kan baru seperti itu.
(In my opinion, it is more straight to the point. They would be easier to receive what teachers teach) According to the excerpts above both teachers stated the benefit of using explicit vocabulary instructions. Teacher 1 stated that by using the technique students would have the same perception of the words meaning. Teacher 2 stated that by using the technique students would be easier to receive what they have learned and it was not beat around the bush. In a study conducted by Tahir (2017), he mentioned that “vocabulary knowledge which has been developed through explicit vocabulary instructions are highly effective to teach the target words, even for learners with limited exposure to English”. He also said that “learners who were exposured to the target words explicitly were able to acquire them better compared to their counterparts”.
Additionally, from the observations (see appendix 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8), the writer found that the teachers provided list of new words the students encountered in the text and students with the teachers discussed the meaning together. Moreover, students were asked to look up their dictionary to get the meaning of the words independently. In accordance with Rahimi and Sahragard (2008) as cited in Sivabalan (2013), they defined “dictionary use as a technique for learning meaning of unfamiliar words and expression”. In addition, Prichard (2008) as cited in Sivabalan (2013) also explained that “dictionary use means an act of looking up words that is unable to guess from the context”. From the statements were indicated that looking up their dictionary was very helpful for students to know the meaning of unfamiliar words.
It was good to discuss the meaning of words together in the classroom. It would make students and teachers have the same perception of the meaning of the words. Besides, it was an important tool in teaching and learning vocabulary. Teachers should encourage students to learn vocabulary independently by searching the words in the dictionaries.
2. Teachers’ Vocabulary Teaching Techniques
Every teacher have some ways or techniques in teaching vocabulary. It is also done by English teachers at SMPN 6 Salatiga. Based on the observations teacher 1 was often using pictures to help his students understood the meaning of the new words (see appendix 4 & 7). In the other hand, teacher 2 tended to use crossword puzzles to introduce the new words about the topic (see appendix 1 & 2). It was strengthen by the interviews section. Following is the excerpts of the interviews Q3 : Bagaimana cara anda memperkaya vocabulary siswa kelas 7?
(What do you do to enrich vocabulary of seventh grade students?) Teacher 1 (Appendix 9)
Kita dengan banyak cara, mungkin dengan
menggunakan misalnya gambar. Ada gambar
kemudian dibawahnya ada keterangan seperti yang
kemarin, misalnya disitu kita menerangkan profesi
kemudian dibawahnya ada kata yang menyertai, itu
salah satunya.(We have many ways, perhaps using pictures. There were pictures and then under the pictures there was its explanation like yesterday’s meeting, for example we explained about profession, then bellow there were words that followed it. It was one of the examples)
Teacher 2 (Appendix 10)
Eee, sebenarnya walaupun saya sudah mengajar 9
tahun ya itu kan masih proses belajar juga karena
mengajar itu harus selalu berkembang karena
siswanya setiap tahun beda, setiap kelas beda, setiap
anak beda, materi juga, untuk kurikulum kan kadang
ganti kadang tidak. Yang saya lakukan itu sebisa
mungkin sebenarnya sih istilahnya sih bukan
memaksa sih gak tapi lebih mengarahkan anak agar
seperti ini seperti ini biasanya saya meminta mereka
untuk membaca yang satu, membaca bersama
kemarin tuh, kalau tahun ini saya minta beberapa
kelas itu untuk membaca Harry Potter bersama-
sama. Setidaknya ada vocab yang mereka dapet lah,
satu dua gitu. Kebanyakan saya juga memakai cross
words puzzle seperti itu. Listening, listening juga, eee
kemarin itu apa yang saya pakai, seperti phrases like
harus me.. berdasarkan petunjuk harus menebak
yang di maksud tu pekerjaan apa, yang di maksud tu
hewan apa. Seperti itu yang biasanya saya pakai .