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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this section, the writer discusses the theoretical description which describes about the literature or theories used to support this research. The second,
the writer discuss the theoretical framework which shows the steps that are taken by the writer.
A. Theoretical Description
In this part, the writer discusses further vocabulary, children, media, game, and also the school curriculum. Vocabulary is explained first because the focus of
this study is on the vocabulary development. Second, children are explained because children are the targets of the study. They also have many aspects that
lead the writer to move on the media, the nature of game and the curriculum.
1. Vocabulary
Children‟s vocabularies are limited. They cannot acquire all vocabularies easily because there are many kinds of vocabularies seen from the part of speech
or the meaning. This makes the writer should master what vocabulary is, the importance of vocabulary, and the kinds of vocabulary especially for children.
a. Meaning of Vocabulary
Vocabulary according to Alatis 2014 can be defined as the words of a language, including single items and phrases or chunks of several words which
convey a particular meaning, the way individual words do. Therefore, vocabulary
12 is the core of any other skills in communication. This becomes important because
people always use vocabulary of a language to convey their thoughts. Without vocabulary, people cannot communicate with other or in other words, there is no
verbal language. Burton 1974:95 also stated that vocabulary is a stock of words in a
language that can support the learners to learn the skills of the language. It means that vocabulary is the fundamental factor to learn. If the stocks of the words are
rich, the learners have various constructions of words to be conveyed.
b. The Importance of Vocabulary
According to McKeown Curtis 1984, individual who knows many words meanings, knows much about the world. It means that someone know and
recognize something new through the vocabulary. They get new information from other people by communicating the vocabulary. Therefore, vocabulary is
important. Since the writer knows that vocabulary is important for communication
and learning activities, the writer should also know what kind or what type of vocabulary that is appropriate for children. Therefore, the writer can design the
most appropriate vocabulary game for children.
c. Kinds of Vocabulary
Vocabulary is rich. Not all words can be absorbed easily by children age 6-8 years. Teacher should select the most appropriate words to learn. The words
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correct vocabulary can lead them to learn the words in higher level. Selecting the correct vocabulary for children is not easy. There are five criteria to select the best
types of vocabulary according to Sumardi 1974 which is explained below. 1
Frequency Frequency is the probability of how often a word can appear in the daily
communication. It is a list of words that frequently used in a language and arranged based the frequency use. If the words are often to be used, the children
will be easier to learn. If the words rarely appear, then the children will feel difficult to memorize them. For example, children re
member the word ‟cat‟ because cat is around them. They know physically and people often pronounce it.
The use of repeated words in the daily activity can shape the understanding and it remains in the children‟s mind.
2 Range
Range is the width of the words usage. The words that are used everywhere are more important than the words that are not used everywhere even
though the frequency is not high. The words that have wide range are called structure words. Structure words are words that have no lexical meaning but have
important function in the sentence structure grammatically. For example is „have‟. The word „have‟ is used everywhere and it is important. Or in other words, the
importance of a word is based on the width of the range.
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Availability The availability of a word should have the connection with another word
and suitable in certain condition. For example, the word „blackboard‟ and „board marker‟ have close connection to the word „classroom‟. Those three words have
connection to each other. This makes the children easier to learn those words at once. The words that are grouped in availability can be low frequency and low
range. However, these words cannot be separated from each other because it has the possibility to appear. This makes the words are chosen.
4 Coverage
The word that is taught should cover the general understanding or meaning. This is more effective for children to learn because in their stage, they
are just able to understand the general definition, not in the specific or detailed definition. For example is bag; bag can cover the detailed vocabulary such as
suitcase, valise, handbag, and sack. The words which have general understanding are mostly chosen.
5 Learnable
The vocabulary that is taught should be learnable. The teacher should be careful in selecting the words because there are some confusing words such as
„can‟. The word „can‟ is translated into „to be able to‟ and „a metal container to place food or liquids‟. It means that there are some words that share the terms in
some meanings. Teacher should be clear when teaching this word in order to
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words should be considered because of the length of the words and constructions. People are easier to memorize short words than the longer words.
d. Teaching Vocabulary
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