However, Taylor 1990 suggests that it’s better to teach several aspects of ‘knowledge of words’ together, using a combination of stimuli. Although
kindergarten students are young learners, they have capabilities to learn a new language. The following will discuss them further.
1.2. Children’s Innate Ability to Learn a New Language
Although kindergarten students are young learners, they have innate capabilities to learn language which can be used as the considerations why
English is taught at this age. Halliwell 1992 proposes 6 qualities of children’s characteristics that help children learn foreign language.
1. Children’s capabilities to grasp meaning Children are already very good at interpreting meaning without necessarily
understanding the individual words. They understand what the message probably means from the intonation, gesture, facial expression, actions,
and circumstances. By understanding message through this way, they start to understand the language. Their message–interpreting skill is part of the
way they learn new words in their mother tongue. When they encounter a new language at school, they can all on the same skill to help them
interpret the new sounds, new words, and new structures. 2. Children’s creative use of limited language source
Alongside the ability to perceive meaning, children already have great skill in using limited language creatively. It can be seen in children acquiring
their mother tongue. Children combine and reconstruct words they have known to convey meaning, sometimes using analogy. In the foreign
language classroom, it occurs naturally when the need to communicate has been temporarily intensified by some activities in real interactions.
3. Children’s capacity for indirect learning Children frequently learn indirectly rather than directly. Language
activities which involve children in guessing what phrase or word someone has thought are good examples. Guessing is actually a very
powerful way of learning phrases or structures, but is indirect because the mind is engaged with the task and is not focusing on the language. The
process relates very closely to the way in developing mother tongue. Learners acquire mother tongue through continuous exposure and use. For
this reason, it is a good idea to set up real tasks in the language classroom. Real tasks, that is to say interesting activities which are not just language
exercises, provide children with real language use. In such tasks, children let their subconscious mind work on the processing of language while their
conscious mind is focused on the task. In this way, games are very effective opportunity for indirect learning.
4. Children’s instinct for play and fun Children take great pleasure in finding and creating fun in what they do.
Sometimes in doing certain activities, children put their own drama in the activity. Here, as in the guessing activities, they make language their own.
It is such a very powerful contribution in learning. Through their sense of fun and play, the children are living the language for real.
5. The Role of Imagination Children delight in imagination and fantasy. When the role of imagination
in children is accepted, it provides another powerful stimulus for real language use. The teacher can use the children’s imagination to be the
stimulus to ask the children to share their idea because children like talking.
6. The instinct for interaction and Talk Children like talking and this is probably the most important for language
teacher. It is one of the instincts a young child brings to learning a foreign language at school. It is one motivator for using the language. They can
learn about the language, but the only way to learn to use it is to use it. The characteristics show that children open to new language as they open
to new words of their mother tongue. Children before the age of puberty, develop a foreign language in similar way as they develop their mother tongue. It is as
stated by Brown 1991;25 that children learn a secondforeign language as much apparent ease as the first and that will change in the adults learning. Younger
children in the secondforeign language are as creative as they are in the first. Brown 1991 also states that if human beings are bio-programmed for first
language development up through puberty, then there is reason to believe that bio- program would operate in secondforeign language learning as well. Younger
children internalize a foreign language as subconsciously as their first while in adults learning they tend to learn the foreign language consciously by learning the
language and learning the rule of the language. It is different from children’s learning where it takes place naturally. Children are driven to activity and to
learning by play and memorization Lado, 1959: 57. From the characteristics above, English is possibly best learn since the early age and possibly done using
the target language as the medium to communicate. The objective of the teaching learning activity that is the mastery of
vocabulary has been discussed above; the following discussion will discuss any related theories that influence vocabulary mastery.
2. An Overview of the Aspects in Vocabulary Acquisition Process
Children mastering language go through a process called acquisition process. Krashen 1983 describes acquisition as a ‘natural’ process where there is
no conscious focusing on the linguistic form. Acquisition occurs in natural communication situation. Therefore, the students are said to have acquired
language if they can apply the vocabulary in appropriate situation for meaningful communication. This view of language acquisition is the principle which will be
used in the Natural Method. Vocabulary is of course part of language; therefore acquiring language
means acquiring vocabulary since vocabulary is the basis for communication. The process of acquiring vocabulary involves three important aspects. The first is
related to the input the students get, the second is the students’ memory and the last is related to the usage. The input to be decoded should be comprehensible in
order to provide meaningful input for the students to store them in the brain memorization and to be recalled in appropriate situation usage.
The three aspects above cannot be separated from the two major skills in learning language; receptive and productive skills. The process of a child learning
a language begins with the receptive skill. The child hears the language and then produces the language. Johnson 2001:83 states that a child when acquiring
