Background of Study INTRODUCTION

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

English plays a very important role in the global communication. As quoted in Undang-Undang SISDIKNAS, bahasa asing terutama bahasa Inggris merupakan bahasa internasional yang sangat penting kegunaannya dalam pergaulan global 2003: 85. However, English is a foreign language in Indonesia, so not every Indonesian uses English well. Nevertheless, English can be learned by every one who wants to acquire it. In fact, it becomes the major subject to be learned and taught in both formal and informal school institution. English is taught early from primary schools until high school and even college. It is taught as muatan lokal local content subject when the students are at elementary schools. But, it becomes a compulsory subject for Junior High School Sekolah Menengah Pertama and Senior High School Sekolah Menengah Atas students. Learning English involves four basic skills. Those are reading, speaking, listening and writing. One of the elements in the language that cannot be separated from teaching linguistic skills is English vocabulary. It is difficult to master foreign language without understanding the vocabulary. Horwitz in Schmitt, Norbert and Michael McCharthy 1997: 201 says that the most important part of learning a foreign language is learning vocabulary. In learning English, the beginners need to know vocabulary first and understand the meaning of the words. Teaching vocabulary as second language is more emphasized rather than Click here to buy A w w w .ABBYY.c o m Click here to buy A w w w .ABBYY.c o m commit to user 2 teaching other language elements. Cross 1995: 5 stated that a good store of words is crucial for understanding and communication. One cannot have conversation with someone else if he or she does not master the vocabulary needed. Teaching vocabulary for beginner is not easy. There are many problems that will be faced by the teacher when heshe introduces English to her students. As stated in www.ezinearticles.com there are three critical problems in English language teaching and learning: lack of learner motivation; insufficient time, resources and material; and over crowded English classes. When the writer did pre-observation, she found some problems in the English teaching learning process in SMP Negeri 1 Tempuran, Magelang, Central Java. The teacher used the same activities in every meeting: explaining the lesson, requesting the students to do some excercises and then asking them to check the answers in the next meeting. There were no other media, such as visual or audiovisual aids to make students enjoy studying in the process of teaching and learning. The only source the teacher used was a textbook. As a result, the students felt bored and only got a few vocabularies. While making an interview with the teacher, the writer knew that majority of the students had some difficulties in grasping the synonym of words. The students looked reluctant to join English class. In the drilling techique process for example, not all of the students followed the teacher’s instruction. The students seemed to be afraid of making mistake. Click here to buy A w w w .ABBYY.c o m Click here to buy A w w w .ABBYY.c o m commit to user 3 To overcome those problems, the teacher must create interesting and enjoyable teaching learning activities, especially for young learners. There are many methods that are appropriate to teach English. One of the methods is audio- visualized narrative text. Audiovisual aids can help the students’ imagine the real things. It can relate both teacher’s idea and student’s idea. By watching the movie the students can see the real things. Besides, the students will be entertained with attractive narrative and they will feel comfortable with the atmosphere in process of teaching and learning. Audiovisual aids used in narrative text have the potential material to overcome the problem in SMP Negeri 1 Tempuran. Therefore, the problems of vocabulary can be solved. Based on the description above, the reseacher was interested to improve students’ vocabulary mastery through audio-visualized narrative text. By watching and listening the material within audio-visual aids, the students learn to grasp by seeing and listening. That is why the researcher conducted this research under the title: IMPROVING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY THROUGH AUDIO- VISUALIZED NARRATIVE TEXT A Classroom Action Research of the Eighth Grade Students of SMP Negeri 1 Tempuran, 2009 2010.

B. Problem Limitation