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vocabulary and pronunciation. The students could not remember the vocabulary that had been learnt so the teacher should repeat and repeat again. Meanwhile, the
interview with the students also showed the same problems. They had problems in learning English. Most of them said that English is difficult especially in vocabulary.
They said that their teacher never used media in teaching English likes song or picture. The researcher also gave questionnaire on January, 26
th
2010 for students and its aim was
to know students’ problem in learning English. Next, the researcher gave pre test for students. The pre-test was conducted on Tuesday, February 9
th
2010. From the pre-test result, the means score was 63.6. Actually the minimum score that
should be achieved was 7.00. It means that the stud ents’ score was still lower than the
minimum score, so this was an indicator of the problem. To solve this problem, the researcher implemented teaching English using media that can overcome this
problem. In implementing the teaching learning process, the researcher used English song to improve students’ vocabulary mastery. The target of this research was the
improvement of students’ vocabulary mastery concerning more on pronouncing, comprehending the meaning and spelling the words.
2. Implementing the Action Research
a. Cycle 1
1 Planning
Based on the pre observation result, the researcher made a plan for cycle 1. The researcher planned three meetings for cycle 1; 2 meetings for teaching
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learning process and 1 meeting to give post test cycle 1. In deciding the topic, the researcher discussed with the English teacher. The researcher prepared lesson
plans for two meetings. The material was about land and water transportation. The researcher prepared the material from the relevant books and also internet. The
researcher got the song from CD cassette and download from internet. The titles of songs in cycle 1 were “On a Train”, “The Wheels on the Bus” and “Row Your
Boat”. 2
Action The implementation of teaching English through English song was conducted
by the researcher. a
The first meeting Wednesday, 11.35 a.m -12.45 p.m Opening
The first meeting was conducted on Wednesday, February 10
th
2010 at 11.35 a.m- 12.45 p.m. The topic was about land transportation. The bell rang at 11.30
a.m. The teacher and the observer entered the classroom and then the teacher prepared the media player which was used to sing the song. The class condition
was clean and tidy. The tables and chairs were tidy. There were twenty chairs for students and one chair for teacher. The total numbers of fifth grade students were
twenty but the student who was sitting on the corner was absent. After the situation was silent, the teacher greeted the students and checked
students’ attendance list. In this meeting, there was one student did not come to the school, his name was Irfan. He did not come to school because his grandmother
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passed away. Then the teacher started the teaching with some pre activities. The teacher gave some guided questions based on the topic that will be learnt. The
teacher gave question” Ok, students today we will leant about new topic. Our topic today is transportation
” then the teacher also gave a question “ Students can you mention how many kinds of transportation means?
”. The teacher gave this question to some students. The teacher gave guided question for students and they
were asked to mention kinds of land transportation that they known, “Students, can you mention kinds of land transportation means? Kalian bisa apa tidak
menyebutkan alat trasportasi darat?” . Not long after the teacher asked question, most students said “bis, kereta, becak.”. Because they answered in Indonesian, the
teacher asked them to answer using English. All of the students opened their LKS and picture dictionary then they mentioned kind of land transportation means likes
bus, train, truck, pedicab, motorcycle etc. After that the teacher went to the main activity.
Main Activity The teacher explained shortly kinds of land transportation to the students. The
students were enthusiastic to answer the question. Then the students were asked to read the pronunciation correctly, here there were many students that still got wrong
to pronounce the words. Teacher guided them to pronounce correctly. Then the t
eacher gave a song entitle “On a Train’. In this section the teacher did not play the song using media player. The teacher only taught this song orally. She wrote the
lyric on the blackboard then distributed the copy of the song lyric to the students.
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The teacher sang the song and the students repeated the teacher. After repeating for many times, the teacher asked the students “ Do you understand about the meaning
of the song ?” then she translated into Indonesian “Kalian mudeng apa tidak
artinya?”. Most students answered “Tidak mom”. The teacher explained the meaning of the words in the song until the students understood the meaning. The
teacher asked some students to go forward to sing the song. In the beginning, they were not confident to sing but the teacher guided them.
After that the teachers prepared the second song and play the song using media player. The title of this song was “The Wheels on the Bus”. The teacher
distributed the lyric then she sang the song. The students paid attention. For the second song, the students were more enthusiastic because they could listen to the
music. Teacher asked the students about the name of transportation means based on the song. Most students could answer correctly. They answered “Bis, bus
mom ”. Teacher asked the students to listen again and repeat the song. Teacher and
students sang together. The teacher explained the meaning of the words in the song, such as wheels, round, wipers, horn.
Closing Ten minutes before the lesson was ended, the teacher reviewed the lesson that
day. Teacher asked questions based on the both songs that had been sung. To close the lesson, the teacher said good bye to the students.
b The second meeting Tuesday, 07.00 a.m -08.10 a.m
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Opening The second meeting was conducted on Tuesday, February 16
th
2010 at 07.00- 08.10 a.m. At 07.00 a.m the bell rang. The teacher knocked the door then she and
the observer entered the classroom. After praying, the teacher greeted and checked students’ attendant list. In that morning, there were two students did not come to
the school because they joined in Lomba Cerdas Cermat in Sukoharjo. Main Activity
Before continuing the lesson, the teacher reviewed the previous lesson, “Students, did you still remember our lesson last week?. Most students said “Masih
mom”. After that she asked some questions based on the previous lesson. To remind them the previous song, students asked the teacher to sing a song . They
were very enthusiastic, it could be seen from their singing more loudly. At 07.20 a.m the teacher started the material about water transportation. She
asked the students to mention kinds of water transportation means that they know. While opening their picture dictionary, they mentioned kinds of water
transportation. In the second meeting, the teacher asking the students to make a group
consisting of six people. At first, they were so noisy because the total number of students was eighteen. Then the teacher wrote the lyric of “Row your Boat” on the
blackboard and students wrote down the lyric on their book. After finishing writing the lyric, the teacher played the song using media player. Students listened
attentively to the song. The teacher taught them to read line by line the lyric. After
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they could read the lyric, the teacher and the students sang together. Having finished singing together, the teacher asked them to discuss in group the
vocabularies in the song. Students worked in group. They also opened the dictionary and asked to the teacher when they got difficulties. The teacher walked
around to the class to see the students’ work. After students had finished working
in group, they were asked to report their discussion result. Students wrote their vocabulary on the blackboard. The teacher made correction when they did
mistakes. Students discussed other kinds of water transportation means. The teacher taught them to pronounce the words correctly.
Closing Before closing the lesson, the teacher asked each student to read vocabularies
that had been learnt. At 08.05 a.m the teacher closed the lesson and said “Are you
happy today. Senang apa tidak pelajaran hari ini? ”. A student said “Senang bu
diajari nyanyi lagi”. In the end of lesson the teacher reminded in the next meeting she would hold a test about land and water transportation. She said good bye.
3 Observation a The First Meeting
In the first meeting, a student did not come to school because his grandmother passed away. Only half of the students participated actively in the class. The girl
students were mostly inactive in teaching learning process. When teaching the song “On a Train” the teacher did not teach the students to read the lyric line by
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line. For the first song, students got difficulties to sing the song and they were not enthusiastic in teaching learning process.
When the researcher taught the second song, students were more enthusiastic. Students still got difficulties to comprehend the vocabulary. It could be known
when the teacher gave questions in English, most of them did not understand the meaning. Some students were still shame when they were asked to sing the song.
They were not confident so the researcher had to ask them repeatedly. b
The Second Meeting In this meeting, two students did not come to school because they joined
competition in Sukoharjo. That day, there were only eighteen students came to the class. In this section, the researcher used song entitled “Row your Boat”. Students
were asked to make a group but they made noise. Most of them only chatted with others. Some students still asked the vocabulary to the researcher.
Many students did not remember about the song that had been learnt, when they were asked to sing the song, mostly they still read the lyric. Some students
still pronounced incorrectly the lyrics. Not all the students could remember the vocabulary that had been taught, for example a student often mentioned some
vocabularies incorrectly. 4 Reflection
After analyzing the observation result in cycle one, the researcher did reflection in order to evaluate the teaching learning process that had been done.
The researcher found the students’ progression in mastering the vocabulary.
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In cycle one, the mean score increased. It could be seen by comparing the result of the pre-test and post test in cycle one. The mean score in pre-test was
63.6. The means score of post-test in cycle one was 72.4. It indicated that the mean score of students increased 8.8 point.
In this cycle, the teaching learning processes ran well. Students were enthusiastic when the song was sung by the teacher. They were enjoy in teaching
learning process. They were motivate to join for the next meeting because they could relax in learning vocabulary. The activity of English class in cycle 1 did not
only give students new vocabulary but also made them be relax during the teaching learning process.
Actually, in this cycle, the researcher still found some weaknesses of the teaching learning process. The researcher was not able to manage the class
condition. She should make all the students active, not only some of them. Some students only chatted and made trouble in the class. They needed to be warned.
The students still found difficulties to pronounce the vocabulary correctly. Not only difficult in pronouncing the word, some students did not remember well the
vocabulary that had been taught by the teacher in the previous lesson. Based on the facts, the writer thought that it was necessary to conduct the second cycle although
their mean score in post test cycle 1 was more than the minimum score. The improvement of students’ achievements and learning process at the end of cycle 1
can be seen in table 2.
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Table 2. The Improvements of Students’ Achievements and Learning Process at the End of Cycle 1
Data Sources
Before the Action After the action
cycle 1
Obser vation
Quest ionnaire
Interv iew
1. Teaching and Learning
Process
Teacher did not use media in teaching vocabulary.
The students were bored
because the teacher only used LKS in teaching.
The students were noisy in
teaching learning process.
Students were not active in teaching learning process,
it could be seen when teacher
asked question
many of them did not try to answer the question.
2. Vocabulary Mastery
The students’ vocabulary
mastery was still low.
The students
got difficulties in memorizing
the vocabulary.
The students
got difficulties to pronounce
word. 1.
Teaching and Learning Process
Teacher used song in
teaching vocabulary.
Students were
enthusiastic in teaching learning process.
When the song was
singing, students
paid attention.
Students were enthusiastic
when they were asked to sing the song.
Some students, especially
girl students were not active
in learning
process.
When they were asked to work in group, some
students only
chatted with their friend.
2. Vocabulary Mastery
The students’ vocabulary
mastery was still low.
The students were better in
memorizing the
vocabulary than before the action.
Some students could
pronounce correctly but other students could not
pronounce well.
Test The mean score of pre-test
was 63.6 The mean score of post test
cycle 1 was 72.4
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The problems that should be solved:
Some students were not
active in teaching learning process.
The students still found
difficulties in memorizing the words.
The students still found
difficulties to pronounce the word.
The weaknesses which still happen:
Not all students were
active in
teaching learning process.
The
difficulties to
memorize the vocabulary.
The difficulties
to pronounce the word well.
3 Cycle 2
1 Revising the plan
Based on the first cycle it was found that the students’ vocabulary mastery improved. But, there were some weaknesses in cycle 1, the researcher made a
revising the plan to teach vocabulary in the next cycle based on the observation and reflection of teaching learning process in cycle 1. The researcher should make
all the students could participate and active in teaching learning process. In cycle 2, the researcher also gave more vocabulary so the students could remember. The
researcher also planned to make students could pronounce words correctly. She would give students more exercises about pronunciation.
In cycle 2, the researcher planned three meetings; two meetings for teaching learning process and one meeting for giving post test. In this cycle, the first
meeting was used to teach new material about air transportation and the second
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meeting would be used to review all the material that had been taught. The researcher also prepared a new song entitle “Railroad”.
2 Action
a The Fourth Meeting Tuesday, 07.00 a.m-08.10 a.m
The first meeting in cycle 2 was conducted on Tuesday, February 23
rd
2010 at 07.00 a.m until 08.10 a.m. That morning, the teacher came to the school at 06.50
a.m. As usual, before the bell rang the students were still playing with their friends. When the teacher came to the school yard, the fifth grade students had waited her
and they joked with the teacher. The students were chummy with the teacher. At 07.00 a.m the bell rang.
Opening After the students had entered the classroom, the teacher and the observer
knocked the door. In the beginning, the students were so noisy. Then the teacher gave them warning, she said “Gimana kalian sudah siap menerima pelajaran
belum, masih mau berisik atau mau belajar?”. A students who was sitting on the corner said “ Wis to bu dimulai wae”. As usual, before going to the lesson, students
got praying, after that the teacher greeted the students and checked students’ attendance list. That morning there was no students absent.
Before going to the material, the teacher reminded students about the previous lesson. The teacher asked students, especially girl students to mention kind of land
and water transportation means. The target in cycle 2 was to make all students active, especially the girl students. The teacher also sang previous song. When the
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song was sung, students were very enthusiast. In this section, the teacher asked the girls to sing the song first. After all the students sang together, the teacher asked
some questions of vocabulary based on the song. Main activity
The teacher started introducing the sub topic that day. She said “Students,
today we will learn about air transportation”. “ Apa itu air transportation?”.
Some students answered “transportasi udara” but some of them said
“transportasi air”. In this meeting, students were asked to work in group again, if they were noisy the teacher gave them more serious warning. They were asked to
discuss about air transportation means. Each group consisted of five people. First, they were not enthusiast to work in group. They were so noisy, after the teacher
explained the purpose of learning that day and the purpose of working in group, they could receive it.
Students were very busy with their group. They were more serious than before. But, there were some students who only chatted with their friend. The
teacher warned them and gave them little punishment. After that, some students could work with their group. She walked around the class to check the students’
work. Students used LKS and picture dictionary as their references. After they had finished working in group, each group was asked to report their works result. The
teacher taught them to read word by word until they could pronounce and comprehend the meaning of vocabulary. Randomly, she asked students to
pronounce correctly. In this meeting the teacher concerned more on pronouncing
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and comprehending the meaning. Many students needed more time to pronounce word correctly. All the time in classroom was used to teach good pronunciation.
Closing Five minutes before the lesson was ended, the teacher closed the lesson. She
reviewed the lesson that day. She said good bye to the students. b
The Fifth Meeting Wednesday, 11.35a.m-12.45 p.m The second meeting in cycle 2 was conducted on Wednesday, February, 24
th
2010 at 11.35 a.m until 12.45 p.m. The weather was so hot. The teacher arrived in the school at 11.15 a.m. Students had waited her. Some students complained why
the teacher did not come to school in the morning. Waiting the bell rang, the teacher came to the teacher office. When the bell rang at 11.30 a.m, she prepared
coming to the classroom. Opening
As usual before opening the lesson, the teacher greeted the students and checked
students’ attendance list. Because the weather was so hot, the class condition was not comfort. That day, the teacher taught the same sub topic that had
been taught. The teacher reviewed again sub topic about land, water and air transportation.
Main Activity In the second meeting in cycle 2, the researcher had planned did not give a
new material to the students but the researcher wanted to check the students’ vocabulary mastery about song. Firstly, the teacher reminded again about kinds of
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transportation means . She gave first question to a student, she said “Didik, do you
still remember kinds of transportation?”, “Kamu masih ingat tidak jenis trasnportasi itu apa saja”. Clearly, he answered “Ada tiga Bu. Land, water dan
air”. In series, all students were asked to mention kinds of transportation. In this section, their pronunciation increased, it could be known only few students who
still pronounced incorrectly. After all students mentioned kinds of transportation means, students asked the teacher to sing a song,
they said “ Bu, ada lagu baru tidak
yang diajarkan hari ini?”. The teacher said, “ Ya, I have a new song for you today. The title is Railroad
”. She asked students the Indonesian word for railroad. Students looked their friends and asked if they know what railroad was. The
teacher explained what was railroad in Indonesian. Students could guess what kinds of transportation according to a new song. The teacher distributed the lyrics.
Then she taught them how to read the lyric line by line. After repeating many times, they could read correctly.
The song was sung repeatedly. After the students could follow the music, the teacher and students sang together. Students sang the song by reading the lyric.
Students were more confident when the teacher asked them to sing a song. Although this was the last class, students were enthusiastic and happy. The teacher
explained about the vocabulary based on the song. When she explained the vocabulary, students wrote down the meaning of vocabulary on their book or lyric
paper. The teacher also sang the songs “On a Train, The Wheels on the Bus and
Row your Boat”. Those songs were sung in turns. Students could memorize the
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lyrics. When they sang the song, they were very confident. When a song had finished sing, the teacher asked about the vocabulary based on the song. Mostly,
students could answer correctly. When a student forgot the vocabulary, the teacher gave the question to other students.
Closing Before closing the lesson, the teacher reviewed the lesson that day. Students
were asked to mention kinds of transportation means. She also reminded the next meeting they would have post test so they should prepare the material well. To
close the lesson, students prayed and said goodbye. 3
Observation a The Fourth Meting
In this meeting, the researcher did not give a new song for students. The target of researcher in this meeting was to make all students to be active, especially the
girl students. They paid more attention although sometimes they discussed with their friend beside them. The class condition was more conducive but there were
still some students were noisy. In this meeting, the researcher gave more exercise about pronunciation to the students. She needed much time to teach pronunciation.
When the students were asked to discuss in group, they were not too enthusiastic and were not interest. Finally, students could work in group well.
b The Fifth Meeting In the fifth meeting, the students were more enthusiastic to join the class
although this was the last class. In this meeting, a new song was sung and the
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students could follow the music. They were enthusiastic and happy. When the researcher asked them question about vocabulary, most of them could answer
correctly. The pronunciation of students increased. They could pronounce correctly. Students also could memorize the lyrics of song and also they were
confident when they sang the song. Not only that, they also could memorize the vocabulary well.
4 Reflection
In the cycle 2, mostly students could answer teacher’s question correctly. Most of students could active in teaching learning process, especially the girls. In
cycle 2, the researcher concerned more on pronouncing and comprehending the meaning. Students who still got difficulties in pronouncing the vocabularies were
given more time and more exercise until they could pronounce well. In cycle 2, students were more enthusiastic in joining the teaching learning
process. Although in the first meeting in cycle 2 the researcher did not give a new song, they could join in the class well. They could work in group well but there
was one group who was noisy. Although the class was still noisy, the students were better managed. The students were more confident when they were asked to
sing the song. The test score in cycle 2 was improving. The means score in pre-test was
63.6, while the means score in post-test cycle 1 was 72.4 and the mean score of
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post test in cycle 2 was 8.00. The improvements of the students’ achievements and
learning process at the end of cycle 2 can be seen in table 3.
Table 3 . The Improvements of Students’ Achievements and Learning Process
at the End of Cycle 2 Data
Sources Before the
Action After the
Action
Observations Interview
1. Teaching Learning
Process
Teacher used song in teaching vocabulary.
Students
were enthusiastic in teaching
learning process.
When the song was sung,
students paid
attention.
Some students were shame when they were
asked to sing the song.
Some students,
especially the girls
were not active in teaching
learning process.
When they were asked
to work in group, some students only chatted
with their friend.
2. Vocabulary Mastery
The
students’ vocabulary mastery was
still low.
The students were better in memorizing
the vocabulary than
Teaching Learning Process
Teacher still used
song in teaching vocabulary.
Students were more
enthusiastic in
teaching learning
process
Most of students could be active in
teaching learning
process.
Students were more confident
when they sang the song.
Students
could work in group well
although there was one group could not
work well.
The class was noisy
but still could be managed.
2.Vocabulary Mastery
The students could remember
the vocabularies that had
been learnt.
Students could
pronounce
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before but
some students still found
difficulties to
memorize. 3.
The students could pronounce correctly but
some others students still
could not
pronounce well. vocabulary
better than in cycle 1.
Test The mean score of the
post-test1: 72.4 The mean score of the
post-test2: 8.00 The problems would be
solved:
Some students still needed more exercise in
pronunciation
3. Evaluation
