The Objectives of Vocabulary Teaching for Secondary Students

become the problem: foreign, listen, climbing, honest, muscle, and so on ”. 14 c. Length and complexity “The long words seem to be more difficult for learners, also variable stress, such as in the word families like: necessary, necessity, and necessarily, can add their difficulties ”. 15 d. Meaning “When two words overlap in meaning, learners are likely to confuse them, such as in „make‟ and „do‟, like in sentences „you make a breakfast ‟ and „you make an appointment‟, but „you do the homework‟ and „do a questionnaire‟. Words with multiple meaning, such as „since‟ and „still‟, can also troublesome for learners.” 16 e. Idiomaticity “English contains so many idiomatic expression, they are generally more difficult than the words whose meaning is transparant ” 17 . The writer has discussed about idiomatic expression in types of vocabulary subbab. f. Grammar “Also problematic is grammar associated with word, especially if this differs from L1 equivalent ” 18 . Indonesian speakers know that adjective is fo llowing verb, such as in the phrase „buku baru‟ that influences when the speakers are translating the English phrase, such as „red balloon‟ most of them translate it becomes „ merah balon‟. Another problem in grammar is using verb+ing, to+infinitive, or bare infinitive, after some verbs, they usually confuse to decide, which one followed by verb+ing, to+infinitive, or bare infinitive. 14 Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Vocabulary …………………………….,p.27 15 Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Vocabulary …………………………….,p.27 16 Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Vocabulary …………………………….,p.27 17 Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Vocabulary …………………………….,p.28 18 Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Vocabulary …………………………….,p.28

B. Word Cards 1.

The Definition of Word Cards Word card is one of teaching vocabulary technique suggested by Paul Nation in his book New Ways in Teaching Vocabulary and Learning Vocabulary in Another Language 19 . Nation preferred a systematic technique in teaching vocabulary to incidental approach. Word card is one kind of form focused instruction, it is a type of teaching which “involves some attempts to focus learners‟ attention on specific properties of the L2 so that they will learn them” 20 , it means, using word cards is intended to “develop some elements of language such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and so on ” 21 . As the writer mentioned in the paragraph above, using word cards is a systematic technique, the students are introduced into new words explicitly and teacher has known what words that shehe is going to give to the students. “The term learning from word cards is the association between a foreign language word form written or spoken and its meaning often in the form of a first language translation, although it could be a second language definition or a picture or a real object, for example. ” 22 Using word cards is not only memorizing the words, it also supplies the words repetition that can be helpful for their memorization. The words are stored longer on their mind than just memorizing the words list. It is also flexible because the words on the cards can be adjusted with students material. In the simplest form of learning from word cards, a learner writes a foreign word on side of small, easily carried card and its first language 19 Norbert Schmitt and Michael McCarthy, Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition, and Pedagogy................................p.11 20 Rod Ellis, The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Second Edition Oxford: Oxford University Press,2008,p.963 21 Long, M., Robinson, Focus on form instruction in classroom second language acquisition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1998.p.15 22 ISP Nation, Learning vocabulary in Another Language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2001 ,p.169