B. Teaching Vocabulary
1. What the Students need to Learn
In learning vocabulary many studentsare confused in using it. Therefore, they can not choose and use the suitablevocabulary, write with wrong spelling
and grammar. However, according to Harmer there are four components that students can learn
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: a. Meaning
Student needs to know that vocabulary item may have more than one meaning. Hence, they have to look at the context in which it is used.
This is very important in learning vocabulary because the meaning of words commonly have relationship with other words. These
relationships make the learner commit some vocabulary and defining the semantic area of word.
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b. Word Use Students need to know that the use of word can change the meaning
based on how it is used. In other words, students also need to know collocation. Collocation consists of pairs or group of word that co-
occur with high frequency. c. Word Formation
Words can change their shape and their grammatical value. Students need to know word formation and how to twist words to fit different
grammatical context. d. Word Grammar
Words change according to their grammatical meaning, so the use of some words can trigger the use of some grammatical pattern. The
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Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Third Edition, New York: Longman 1991, p. 156-158
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Marianne Celce-Murcia. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.Third Edition.Boston: Heinle and Heinle Publisher, p. 292.
grammar need to be taught because an item may have an unpredictable change of form in grammatical context.
2. Media in Teaching Vocabulary
In the teaching vocabulary students are not only learning those words and memorize them but also understanding the meaning of words. Hence, the use
of media is important because students can understand and recall previous materials in the process of acquiring vocabulary.
Teacher can discover some techniques in teaching vocabulary, Pittman as cited in Jack C. Richrads and Tehodore S. Rodgers states there are some ways
in demonstrating the meaning of new language such as using picture, realia, action with gesture and also the real object.
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These are some activities in learning vocabulary:
a. Realia Presenting the real thing can be used in learning and teaching in the
classroom such as pen, ruler, book, and ball. The teachers hold the things and say it loudly then get students to repeat it.
b. Pictures Picture can be flashcards, wall pictures, charts, magazine picture and
any other non-technical visual. Teacher can use this to explain the meaning of words such teachers draw or bring some pictures then
show to the students that students can illustrate the pictures such as hat, house, door, etc.
c. Mime, Action and Gesture Action will be better to explain by mime. This concept of this action is
easily presented such as running, walking, crying, etc. d. Explanation
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Ibid.,p. 43.
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