Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

English is regarded as the first foreign language in Indonesia that is learned by the students from primary school until university. 1 It means English is a very important subject at every level of education. Moreover, English becomes the only foreign language which is included in National Examination or we call Ujian Nasional UN from Junior High School to Senior High School. 2 Then, it becomes one of some decision-maker- subjects for the students’ graduation to know how well they understand English during their study. Thus, learning English has been an important thing to do. Although English has been learned for many years, the Indonesian students still have their own problems. The problems are varied in four language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. One of the basic problems that appear in English component which is an important part of a language made up for those four skills; is vocabulary because the student almost fail to bring it to the mind when he needs the word which is exposed in their class. 3 Therefore they have bad performance in their English achievement. 1 Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Republik Indonesia No. 372 tentang Pengajaran Bahasa Inggris di Indonesia. 2 Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Republik Indonesia No. 46 Tahun 2010 tentang Pelaksanaan Ujian SekolahMadrasah Dan Ujian Nasional, Pasal 9. 3 Michael J, Wallace, Teaching Vocabulary Oxford: Heinemann Educational Books, 1989, p. 9. “....without an extensive vocabulary, we will be unable to use structures and function, we may have learned for comprehensible communication....vocabulary acquisition does not seem to be slowed down by age. In fact, Rivers argues that vocabulary augmentation seems to become easier as one matures, probably because one has a richer knowledge of the world on which to draw. In addition, the more one’s vocabulary develops, the easier it is to add new words – the first ten words are probably the most difficult to learn”. 4 It means that we can understand oral communication, express our thoughts in speech, are able to comprehend common reading material and can write a literature with sufficient vocabulary which we have or we call it vocabulary size. In other words, vocabulary size can represent how people well in using English because word is the biggest part of a language. Therefore, the development of a rich vocabulary is an important element in vocabulary mastery and learning English generally. Vocabulary mastery is one of the factors to master English as a foreign language. 5 It means that the students have the ability in understanding and using the words and meaning. It also plays an important part in language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The larger vocabulary the students master, the better they perform their language. By having a limited vocabulary, the students will find difficulties in mastering English skill. Vocabulary is central to language and importance to language learner. Without a sufficient vocabulary, one cannot communicate effectively or express his ideas in both oral and written forms. 6 It means that students at school should master English vocabulary and its grammatical rules to make good communication to the other people. Therefore, mastering vocabulary can reach the English teaching goals generally. Based on the writer’s observation through conducting preliminary study during teaching learning vocabulary in the first year of Electro B class at SMK 4 David Nunan, Language Teaching Methodology: A Textbook for Teachers United Kingdom: Prentice Hall International, 1991, pp.117-118. 5 Joseph P. O’rourke, Toward a Science of Vocabulary Development. Netherlands: Mouton, 1974, p. 26. 6 Joseph P. O’rourke, Toward a Science of Vocabulary Development, ... p. 14. Triguna Utama Ciputat, the writer found that many students had difficulty in mastering vocabulary . It was proved by the result of the students’ vocabulary test in preliminary study. The mean score of the students writing was 53.5, while the Minimum Mastery Criterion- Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal KKM was 70.0. The result indicates that the students’ vocabulary mastery achievement was still low. Besides, it was supported by the result of interview to the English teacher and students’ questionnaire in preliminary study that the students’ difficulties come from the weaknesses of student ability in memorizing the words; therefore they did not have ideas what a word mean and when they use it. Secondly, the students often had difficulty when they do the task because the teacher gives them limited vocabulary. Furthermore, the students tend to be bored and low participation in vocabulary learning class because the process of teaching and learning activities was monotonous. So, to make the students can master and enrich their vocabulary, there should be an effort to make vocabulary learning more interesting. Based on the problems mentioned above, the vocabulary enrichment with creativity in such a different way is needed. Those findings have serious consequences for students in English learning, especially vocabulary mastery and the student’s achievement in English. The teaching of vocabulary for senior high school needs appropriate and different strategy from the traditional way, in order that the students feel enjoyable, become active in the classroom, and stimulate them to use the words which they have already known and brainstorm the new words around the topic, even though it appears in their native language first. One of the strategies which can fulfill these requirements is semantic mapping which the writer gets from several books and questionnaire of students’ learning strategies 7 . The current research and practice in teaching vocabulary from Hunt and Beglar in Richards and Renandya ’s book Methodology in Language Teaching state that: “In addition to presenting this new information, teachers should create opportunities to meet these useful, recently learned words in new contexts that provide new collocation and associations Nation, 1994. Exercise 7 See Appendix 3, pp.85-87. that can deepen students’ knowledge of words include making semantic maps w ith lists either provided by teacher or generated by learners” 8 According to Harmer, as he said semantic mapping or word maps are “Word maps are an extremely engaging way of building up vocabulary knowledge as well as provoking students into retrieving and using what they know. Word maps are sometimes used by teachers to show how words group together. Getting student to build up their own maps by working in groups as we have suggested has the added advantage of making them try to remember some of the many words they know, while at the same time learning new words from their peers.” 9 In conclusion, by using semantic mapping the students can discover the relationship between the words which they have known, and they can learn new words from this strategy which make them more recognize which word they need for their better understanding in English. How the student can get these advantadges of using semantic mapping in learning vocabulary is presented by this example, in teaching about „transportation’, we might divide transportation moved by „wind, engine or muscle’, and students have to find the target words. The Following is a kind of semantic mapping worksheet in vocabulary expansion: 10 Engine Wind Muscle Figure 1.1 Semantic Map Sample 8 Jack C. Richards and Willy A Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 261. 9 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching 4 th Edition Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Limited, 2007, pp. 235-236. 10 Henry Billings, Melissa, and Christy M. Newman, Adventures in Reading: Intermediate New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002, p. 89. Moved by Teacher gives instruction by having student brainstorm words related to the concept of „transportation’ moved by „wind, engine, and muscle’, if it finishes then the teacher asks student to add two or more new words for each category. Sometimes discussion between student-student and student-teacher is needed to find the target words. Finally, it can improve the students’ vocabulary mastery, enrich the student s’ vocabulary by finding the new word when they fill in chart, and help them to remember it. The use of Semantic Mapping is expected to motivate the students to learn, and they don’t get bored in English teaching learning process. Beside that by introducing new vocabulary by this strategy regularly, the writer hopes the students can discover the strategy of defining and clarifying the unknown words. So, they will get many new vocabulary items as the target words. Based on the explanation above the writer is interested in enriching students’ vocabulary and in this research she will try to apply Semantic Mapping as a strategy in teaching vocabulary. In this case, the writer will do an action research entitled “ENRICHING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY THROUGH SEMANTIC MAPPING A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH IN THE FIRST YEAR OF ELECTRO B CLASS OF TRIGUNA UTAMA VOCATIONAL SCHOOL CIPUTAT IN 20102011 ACADEMIC YEAR” B . Limitation and Formulation of the Problem The writer limits the study in order to achieve the goal of the research. The writer only focuses on the Semantic Mapping as a strategy to teach vocabulary in the first year of Electro B class of Triguna Utama Vocational School in 20102011 academic years. Based on the limitation above, the writer formulates the problems of the research as follows; 1. Can Semantic Mapping enrich the students’ vocabulary? 2. How is the implementation of teaching English vocabulary through Semantic Mapping at Triguna Utama Vocational School?

C. Objective of the Study