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In summary, knowing word involves knowing about its form, the sounds, the spelling, the grammatical change that can be made to it, its meaning its
conceptual content and how it relates to other concepts and words, its use its pattern of occurrence with other words, and in particular types of language use.
Based on the theories of vocabulary that have been previously discussed, mastering vocabulary means knowing the form and the meaning of words and
having an ability to use them communicatively either written or spoken. The aspects in vocabulary mastery include pronunciation, spelling, meaning, and the
use of the words. Therefore, the indicators are: 1 students know the meaning of words; 2 students are able to pronounce words correctly; 3 students are able to
spell or write words; and 4 students are able to use words in a sentence.
6. Vocabulary Learning Strategies
Vocabulary learning strategies is needed to discover the meaning of a new word and to consolidate the new word found.
a. Guessing meaning from context
One of strategies mostly known is guessing word meaning from context. The success of this strategy depends on the context. When the context is rich
enough, this strategy can be successful. On the contrary, if the context is not sufficient in giving clues, this strategy can be hard for the learners. Steps to guess
a new word from the context is by looking at the unknown word, then looking at the context, then finding relations among other clauses, sentences, or paragraphs.
The basic step of this system are: 1 decide the part of speech of the unknown word noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc; 2 examine the clause or
sentence in which the unknown word states; 3 Look at the relationship between
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the clause or sentence to other sentences or paragraphs; and 4 Use knowledge gained from such clues to guess the meaning of the word. Some signals that
might lead to successful guessing are conjunctions, punctuations, rhetorical relationships, and reference words.
b. Mnemonic devices
This strategy which requires a manipulation and deep processing is the Keyword Method, an aid to memory, or a ‘mnemonic device’. There are three
steps. First, the learner chooses an L1 or L2 word based on phonological or orthographic similarity with the L2 target word. Then a strong association
between the target word and the keyword must be constructed to that, when seeing or hearing the target language. Finally, a visual image is constructed to combine
the referents of the keyword and the target word. The important point is concentrate on remembering the image of the interaction between the keyword
and the foreign word. For example: the target word is sapu broom, and the keyword is sweep. The association between the target word and the keyword is to
think of the image a mother sweeps the floor using a broom. c.
Vocabulary notebooks A further strategy of learning vocabulary is setting up vocabulary
notebooks. It is done by writing down new words that the learners hear or see within a certain period and noting its frequency, learning roots and derivatives in
the word’s family, or writing a sentence using the new words.
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d. Other learner strategies
Various strategies can help discovering meaning and consolidating it in memory. Teachers can encourage students to use L1 cognate, peer groups, link a
word to a personal experience, say a new word aloud, use a verbal or written repetition, and review new material immediately.
According to Cameron 2001, the using of appropriate strategy will influence the success of learning vocabulary. Some available strategies are not to
be adopted automatically, and some training might be helpful. The general principles of helping children to learn apply to strategies are:
a. Teachers can model how to use strategies and draw children’s attention
explicitly to aspects of strategy use. For example, teachers can show how to find clues to the meaning of a new word in a picture or in other words in the
same sentence. b.
Teachers can teach the sub-skills needed to make use of strategies. For example, to use a dictionary efficiently requires knowledge of alphabetical
order and lots of practice. c.
Classroom tasks can include structured opportunities for using strategies. For example, when reading a story, teachers can explicitly encourage prediction of
the meanings of new words. d.
Independent strategy use can be rehearsed in classrooms. For example, children can be helped to prepare lists of words that they want to learn from a
lesson, can be shown ways of learning from lists and later can be put in pairs to test each other.
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e. Young learners can be helped to reflect on the learning process though
evaluating their achievements. For example, at the end f a lesson they can be asked how many new words they have learnt, and which words they need to
learn more about. Through regular self-evaluation, children can come to understand more about what they are learning and how.
In a short, students should decide a particular strategy based on their ability, and the teacher should give an explicit training to cope with various
strategies needed so that students are able to use different strategies to understand new words properly.
B. Total Physical Response.
