Problem Formulation Problem Limitation

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this chapter, the writer would like to discuss the underlying theories of the study. There are two major points of discussion, the first deals with the theoretical description and the second deals with the theoretical framework of the study.

A. Theoretical Description 1. Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Kindergarten Pupils

Children learn language through their everyday environment. To teach a foreign language to young children, however, takes more effort. Teachers need to collect kid-friendly teaching materials and get an understanding of how children learn languages. Children are also self-confident and are usually prepared to enjoy the activities the teacher has prepared for them. Therefore, it is easy to make the English class an enjoyable, stimulating experience for the children. However, there are some points that the teacher should consider Philips, 1993: 7: a. The activities should be simple enough for the children to understand what is expected of them. b. The task should be within their abilities: it needs to be achievable but at the same time sufficiently stimulating for them to feel satisfied with their work. c. The activities should be largely orally based – indeed, with very young children listening activities will take up a large proportion of class time. d. Written activities should be used cautiously with younger children. However, the selected words should be relevant to the children’ world. The teacher has to select words he or she is going to teach. The words chosen must relate to the children’s world or activities, such as animals, parts of body, family, and so forth. The purpose is to help the children in grasping and in memorizing the words easily. Moreover, the teacher should not punish the children when they fail to memorize or to do the teacher’s instruction. Encouragement is very important in motivating the children to learn English vocabulary, for example by giving clues, so that finally they can perform the teacher’s instruction. Besides, reinforcement is needed in order to build children’s self-confidence and their desire to learn.

2. Teaching Vocabulary

a. The meaning of vocabulary

The previous definition stated that vocabulary is the lexical unit of language – chiefly its words – which have a form or expression associated with a content or meaning Lado, 1964. Fries 1952: 55-56 divides the meaning of English words into two kinds: 1 Lexical meaning Lexical meaning refers to the words found in the dictionary. For example the word ‘boat’ means small open vessel for traveling on water.