questions to students; answering students’ questions; giving attention to all students, giving assignments, summary, and homework were also good.
b From the teacher’s observation self-observation, it was found that there
were several things that should be improved such as the teacher’s explaining ability, the loudness and the clearness of the voice, the using of
the learning media, and the answering-question ability. 3
Observation on the strategy employed and the materials adopted The three things found were:
a All students had neither known nor used contextual guessing strategy
previously. b
The students’ responses toward the implementation of contextual guessing strategy and the adoption of the materials in the first cycle were good. They
argued that: -
learning vocabulary by using contextual guessing was interesting -
they did not need to depend much to dictionary -
the vocabulary learned could be remembered better c
The learning materials adopted could help them understand the application of contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary well.
4 There were two other findings recognized from the result of the observation;
those were: a
Most students still had difficulties in acquiring the concepts of contextual guessing strategy for this strategy was relatively new for them.
b A number of students had very limited vocabulary mastery, even the high-
frequency words, that caused them unable to perform the assignments as what had been expected.
d. Reflecting
Examining the result of the observation, it was concluded that introducing students to contextual guessing strategy and training them to implement
contextual guessing strategy in learning new vocabulary was good and advantageous for them. It was thought so for this strategy could be very beneficial
for them once they had been able to implement it. Meanwhile, accompanying the good things found upon the implementation
of contextual guessing strategy in learning new vocabulary, several problems and obstacles in the teaching and learning process were recognized. Each problem or
obstacle had been thought deeply in order to find out the solutions for it. Giving students more and more exercises on finding words meaning by guessing while
trying to re-explain the concept and ways to perform the task was thought to be a better solution in helping students understand and master the strategy of guessing.
As an old saying that “practices make perfect” it was expected that performing as many as exercises would lead students to the mastery of guessing words meaning
from context. For the next teaching, it was planned that the teacher would provide longer
time for students to accomplish any assignments. It was considered that by providing them longer time to accomplish the assignments they could accomplish
the assignments better. Forcing students to work in limited time could cause the assignments performed badly and the objectives were unreachable.
From the observation, it was also found that the teacher’s explaining ability, the loudness and the clearness of the voice, the using of the learning media, and
the answering questions ability needed some improvement. To solve this problem, the teacher would train and increase her explaining ability, the loudness and the
clearness of the voice, the using of the learning media, and the answering questions ability before carrying out the third teaching practice. By doing so, it
was expected that the next teaching practice could be performed better. The results of the reflection presented were summarized into two major
points. Those were: 1
Introducing and training students to implement contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary was good and advantageous.
2 The obstacles discovered and solutions considered to be able solve it were:
a In order to help the students understand and master the strategy of
contextual guessing, the teacher would give more and more exercises and re-explain the principle concepts of contextual guessing for those who still
had not understand it. In other words, in the next teaching and learning activities it would be emphasized on much practice of guessing words
meaning from context. b
Since most students felt that they unable to finish the assignments because of the limited time provided, the teacher would give longer time for
students to accomplish the assignments.
2. Classroom Action Research Cycle 2
The classroom action research cycle 2 comprised the third and a half of the fourth meeting of the teaching and learning practices. Another half of the fourth
meeting was utilized to evaluate the students’ learning during the implementation of contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary to students of XI-Social 1
class of Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School. In the following, it will be elaborated the phases in the classroom action research cycle 2.
a. Planning
The teaching and learning activities plan of the classroom action research cycle 2 had been compiled and the summary of it is presented in table 4.3.
Table 4.3
Teaching and Learning Activities of Classroom Action Research Cycle 2
Teaching-Learning Activities : A. Opening activities
Reviewing Asking and giving questions B. Main activities
1. Individualized
learning a. Applying the learned concepts: worksheets completion
b. Teacher-student
discussion c. Applying the learned concepts: self-selected resources task completion
2. Student-student interaction a. Pair-work worksheets completion
b. Teacher-student
discussion C. Closing activities
1. Reviewing
2. Evaluating performing vocabulary test
As it was in the first classroom action research cycle, the teaching and learning activities would be categorized into three main parts. Those would be
opening activities, main activities, and closing activities. The opening activities would consist of only one activity. It would be the activity of reviewing the
learned materials. It would be carried out by asking and answering questions. The main activities would consist of two types of activities; those would be
individualized learning and student-student interaction. The individualized learning would involve the activities of applying the learned concepts in the form
of worksheets completion, self-selected resources task completion, and teacher- student discussion while the student-student interaction would include pair-work
and teacher-student discussion. The closing activities would involve reviewing the learned materials and evaluating it by performing vocabulary test.
The opening activity of the classroom action research cycle 2 would consist of only one activity. It would be reviewing the materials discussed in the first
classroom action research cycle. The materials learned would be reviewed by asking and answering questions. The teacher would deliver a number of questions
either on the theories of contextual guessing strategy or the implementation of the theories to define the meaning of unknown words. This activity would be
advantageous to check how far the students had understood the lesson and to determine which part of the learning that needed more elaboration.
The main activities consisted of individualized learning and student-student interaction. The teaching and learning activities that would be included in
individualized learning were worksheets completion, self-selected resources task completion, and teacher-student discussion.
1 Worksheets completion The first activity of applying the learned concepts would be executed through
worksheets completion. In this activity, the teacher would provide worksheets containing twenty-five sentences with an underlined word in each sentence. The
students’ task would be determining the correct meaning of the underlined words by crossing one option provided below the sentences. A reading passage of report
“Water Politics in the Middle East and North Africa” would be delivered to each
student. Most, but not all, of the target words asked could be found in the reading passage. Thus, it was expected that the students could make use the text as a
reference to accomplish the task given. 2 Teacher-student discussion
Right after the students completed the worksheets, the teacher would ask the students to write down their answer in the blackboard. Later, the students and the
teacher would discuss it together. During the discussion, the students would also be given chances to ask questions related to it.
3 Self-selected resources task completion In this activity, the students would try to find a text of report which could be
taken from magazine, newspaper, articles in the internet, etc. Then they should read it, select any unknown words, and try to find the meaning of those words by
applying contextual guessing strategy. The teacher would not provide anything to the students. Thus, they would have to plan and prepare it by themselves. It was
