Background of the Problem

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Problem

Language is very important in human life, because it is used in all aspects of human life. As human being people use language to communicate with one and another. People use language to express inner thoughts and emotions, make sense of complex and abstract through, to learn to communicate with others, to fulfill our wants and needs, as well as to establish rules and maintain our culture. 2 It is used to deliver message or ideas from the speaker to the listener and writer to the read in the interaction among themselves or with their environment. Without language, it is impossible for people or everyone to join interaction each other in daily life or learning something and also the human activities cannot run well without language. English is an international language, which is used by many people in the world and in many countries. English is learning by most of people in the world to communicate. In Indonesia, English is as foreign language that is not used every day. Indonesians only learn English from the school like Elementary school, junior high school, senior high school and in university. There are four skills in 2 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching Malaysia : Pearson Educated Limited, 2007, p.259 2 English they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These skills are closely related one to another. Listening is an activity to get the meaning from the oral language. Speaking is talking to somebody about something that use voice to say something. 3 Then, reading is a way to get knowledge of information from printed pages such as: textbook, newspaper, magazines, novels, and another source like website internet. And writing is a process to express opinion, statement and knowledge using written text. In four skills of language there are some elements that people must know to learn a language. The elements are pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. One of element that very important in the language is vocabulary, because vocabularies are basic elements to learn a language and to make a communication with another people. It is impossible to learn English if the students are lack of vocabulary. Cameron says “vocabulary is fundamental to using the foreign language as discourse.” 4 Moreover, Thronbury says that vocabulary plays an important role in language; because without vocabulary it is impossible develop language. 5 Finally, to communication with another people we must mastering vocabulary, because without vocabulary we cannot communicate each other. 3 Victoria Bull, Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary New York: University Press,2000,p.414 4 Lyne Cameron, Teaching Learning to Young Learners, London : Cambridge University Press, 2002, p.4 5 Scott Thornbury, Oxford Advance Learn Dictionary of Correct English, New York :1984, p.5 3 In this research, the researcher only focuses on vocabulary mastery. By using vocabulary, people can get much information. Vocabulary is useful for students, for example students can get important information and knowledge from what the students’ vocabulary mastery. Vocabulary is the most important part in English; we cannot say anything without mastering vocabulary. This statement is supported by Thronbury “without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”. 6 It means that vocabulary is one of important aspect in learning English. We should have an adequate vocabulary to improve the four language skills. Only with sufficient vocabulary we can express our idea effectively, can understand the language task and foreign language conversation. With the limit vocabulary the students will have the difficulties in learning and understanding the foreign language. In teaching and learning vocabulary there are many Media; one of the media is song. Song is an artistic form of expression based on sound, with distinct pitches, pattern and form, generally consider a complete work, whether musically or lyrically or song is composed by the art of tone or voicing sequence, combination, and the relation of temporal usually accompanied by a musical instrument to produce a piece of music having unity continuity containing rhythm. And 6 Scott Thronbury, How to Teach Vocabulary England. Pearson Education Limited, 2002,p.13 4 variety of tone is called song. Songs are important teaching tools in creating a safe and natural class room ethos and therefore may prove to be helpful in overcoming feelings of shyness and hesitation on the part of the learners. 7 It means songs are important tools in teaching and learning for students in the classroom. Song is very useful for students to make classroom more interest and can stimulate their brain. According to Harmer “music is a powerful stimulus for students’ engagement precisely, because it speak directly to our emotions while still allowing use to use our brain to analyze it and it effects if we so wish. 8 It means song can stimulus students’ brain and makes students happy in teaching learning process. That is why song is very useful for students because, with song teacher can stimulate student’s brain to learning English more interesting so that the students will enjoy with English teaching process and will be serious to study English vocabulary. Teaching vocabulary through song is not only sing or reading lyric of song and fun so that is make the students passive but also process of the teaching these vocabulary to be applied in activities in a form of communication the students was taught how memorize for a spelling test and pronoun word by word about the meaning. 7 Mustafa Sevik, Developing Young Learners’ Listening Skill Through Songs, Ocak Cilt:20 No:1 Kastamonu Egitim Dergisi, 2012 ,p 327-340 8 Jeremy Harmer, How To Teach English England:Longman,1998,p.319 5 According to Rosonova, she says in her thesis that using music is effective to teaching vocabulary. 9 In addition, Kayyis states in her journal that we can increase students’ vocabulary mastery by using pop song. 10 Based on preliminary research conducted at SMP PGRI 6 Bandar Lampung, the researcher found that teaching and learning by using song has been applied in there. From the result of interview, the teacher said that she had applied this song. Although the teacher had used song in teaching vocabulary, the students got low score, besides that the students got some problems with their vocabularies such us understanding the meaning of words and remembering vocabulary. Most of them got scores for their vocabulary test below the criteria of minimum mastery at the school. the researcher found the data that obtained by interviewing the English teacher Windarti S.Pd who is teaching in SMP PGRI 6 Bandar Lampung, she said that teaching and learning vocabulary through song is applied there. From the interview it was found that many students at eighth grade experienced difficulty in mastering vocabulary although the teacher had used song. Many students have problems in mastering vocabulary such as understanding the meaning of the words. 11 Here is the students’ achievement of vocabulary mastery at eighth grade: 9 Veronika Rosonova, Thesis “The Use of Music in Teaching English” Masaryk University 10 Rahmatika Kayyis, Building Vocabulary Using Pop Song, Vol I, published in the STKIP Pringsewu at 1 january 2015. 11 Windarti S.Pd, The English Teacher at SMP PGRI 6 Bandar Lampung January 15 th , 2016. 6 Table 1 Students’ Score for Vocabulary Test inEighth Grade of SMP PGRI 6 Bandar Lampung in 20152016 Academic Year. No Score The number of students VIII A VIII B VIII C VIII D VIII E VIII F Total Percentage 1 ≥ 70 29 25 22 24 11 15 98 42 2 70 11 13 12 15 19 25 133 58 Total 40 38 39 39 30 40 226 100 Source: Document of English score at the Eighth Grade of SMP PGRI 6 Bandar Lampung in the Academic Year 20152016 From the table above, it can be known that English learning achievement of students in SMP PGRI 6 Bandar Lampung was still not optimal yet, although the teacher has used song in teaching vocabulary. The researcher only found 98 students got good score over average score 70 of KKM Criteria of Minimum Mastery and the others got under average scores, so the students had difficulty in learning vocabulary although the teacher had used song. 12 As such, the researcher wanted to know the teaching and learning process of English subject in SMP PGRI 6 Bandar Lampung by observing the song used by English teacher in teaching vocabulary and song as media in teaching learning process. In addition, the researcher wanted to find information about the causes of 12 Windarti S.Pd, The English Teacher at SPMP PGRI 6 Bandar Lampung Mei 3 th , 2016. 7 the students and the problem faced by the teacher and students in teaching learning process of vocabulary. Based on the background above, the researcher conducted this research entitled Teaching and learning Vocabulary through Song at the Second Semester of the Eighth Grade Students of SMP PGRI 6 Bandar Lampung in the Academic Year of 20152016.

B. Identification of the Problem