The scope of the study was the English teacher and the third semester cadets at Politeknik Ilmu Pelayaran Semarang.
The third semester cadets deck department to be the observed class since in this semester cadets is started to use the IMO
phrases in their practice on the sea. The study is concerned with the teaching
method especially in teaching vocabulary. This research was intended to give an important contribution to a better technique of teaching vocabulary to improve
cadets ’ mastery of IMO Standard Marine Communication Phrases.
1.6. Definition of Key Terms
Several keys were used in this study. They are vocabulary, teaching vocabulary, Standard Marine Communication Phrases SMCP, Back Chaining
Drills, and action research. The definitions of the key term are described below : a Vocabulary
Cross 1992 : 5 states that a major aim of most teaching program is to help the students to gain large vocabulary of useful words. According Carthy the
vocabulary of language like English consists of several hundred thousand words 1990 : 121.
The research was used to improve cadets’ vocabulary mastery in IMO
Standard Marine Communication Phrases .
Cadets were trained in the process of receiving the IMO phrases that they have to use in their practice at
sea. b IMO Standard Marine Communication Phrases SMCP
IMO Standard Marine Communication Phrases SMCP is phrases in all types of messages the standardised maritime language used to reduce the risk of
accidents Kluijven:25
c Back Chaining Drills Back-chaining is a technique used in teaching oral language skills,
especially with polysyllabic or difficult words. The teacher pronounces the last syllable, the student repeats, and then the teacher continues, working backwards
from the end of the word to the beginning. For example, to teach the name ‘Mussorgsky a teacher will pronounce the last syllable: -sky, and have the
student repeat it. Then the teacher will repeat it with -sorg- attached before: - sorg-sky, and all that remains is the first syllable: Mus-sorg-sky.
Back-chaining makes natural stress easier for the students. It is easier than the front-chaining, which starts from the first syllable, because back-chaining
requires that the student put the new element first where it is more difficult to forget.
d Action research Mills stated 2000: 6 action research is any systematic inquiry conducted
by teacher researchers, principals, school counselors, or other stakeholders in teachinglearning environment to gather information about the ways how their
particular schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students learn.
1.7. The Outline of the Report
This study is organized in five chapters. Chapter I describes the general background to the study, statement of the problems, objective of the study,
significance of the study, scope of the study, and the organization of writing. In general, this chapter provides the framework or the ground thinking of this study to
carry out the following chapters. Chapter II provides the review of the related
