Motivating interest is one of possible factors to achieve the goal of teaching- learning process, the teacher should be creative to find materials of vocabulary, of
ourse it should not beyond the s tudents‟ knowledge.
By using pictures, the teacher can make the students get a clear perception about what they have to write, but sometimes they have difficulty in arranging the
sentences, in this case the teacher should give students some instruction to stimulate their ideas.
a. The Advantages of Using Picture.
Pictures have been used for centuries to help students understand various aspect of foreign languages. There are many advantages of using picture in
teaching, such as pictures help motivate the students to make subjects clearer they are dealing, and illustrated the general idea and forms of an object or action which
are particular to a culture. According to Robert Lado, pictures can be used effectively to teach language and cultural content. They have often been used to
elicit conversation on topics such as shopping, a vication or a party.
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According to Vernon S. Gerlach
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the advantages of using picture are: 1. They are inexpensive and widely available
2. They provide common experiences for an entire group. 3. The visual detail makes it possible to study subjects, which would
otherwise be impossible. 4. They can help to prevent and correct misconceptions.
5. They offer a stimulus to further study, reading and research. Visual evidence is a power tool.
6. They help to focus attention and develop critical judgment. 7. They are easily manipulated.
20
Robert Lado, Language Teaching A Scientific Approach, New York: McGrow-Hill, Inc, 1964, p. 195.
21
Vernon S. Gerlach, Teaching Media a systematic approach, London: Prentice- Hall, Inc, 1980, p. 277.
b. The Disadvantages of Using Piture
Besides the advantages, pictures as a teaching aids have disadvantages or limitation. The writer assumed that it is difficult to make a picture that explained
an abstract condition, the students pay attention on the picture more than on learned material, the teacher has to prepare himself to make a picture or to find a
good picture. Because the students do not always know how to read pictures and the picture often limits student‟s interpretation and if the picture small and unclear
may problems in teaching learning process since the students may misunderstand about the picture, and it takes time and costs much to provide attractive picture.
According to Venon S. Gerlach the disadvantages of using pictures are
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: 1. Sizes and distances are often distored.
2. Lack of color in some picture limits proper interpretations. 3. Students do not always know how to read pictures.
Possible ways to overcome them are: a. The teacher should avoid using pictures attach more attention to them
than to activity. He also should control the student‟s ativities including their attention during the teaching learning process.
b. The teacher should make or choose attractive simple pictures to avoid wasting time and money.
c. The teacher should make or choose big and clear enough piture in order to avoid misunderstanding about the pictures.
4. Criteria for Good Picture
The teacher should have the ability to convey good material to the students, when the teacher teaches in class; teacher needs some media to make students
easier in understanding material. Picture is one of visual aids that the teacher used in the class while teaching.
According to Andrew Wright , there are some criteria for selecting good picture for the students, such as:
a The aid must be easy to prepare and organize by the teacher.
22
Vernon S. Gerlach, Teaching Media a Systematic Approach.........p. 277.
b The aid must be interesting for students.
c The aid must be excellent point of view and sufficient amount of
language. d
The aid must be fit in with the best principles of education.
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While according to MAC M.Ramirez the pitures should be directly relevant to a specific teaching objective and should be identified by the lesson with it is to
be used. Beside that, the pictures should be simple graphic and easy to use or manipulate.
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Based on the explanation above, the criteria for good pictures should be clear and big enough to see. It should be relevant to the topic which is being
discussed and being appropriated with the students‟ knowledge.
5. Kinds of Pictures
There are many pictures that we can see in our life, according to Mary Finocchiaro in his book, that pictures are divided into three kinds, as follows:
a Pictures of individual persons of individual objects, there are single
pictures of object of person, such as pictures vary in size and can be mainted single or in set.
b Picture of situation in which persons are doing something with objects
and in which relationship of object andor people can be seen. c
A series of pictures six to ten on the chart as a number of related composite picture linked to form a series or sequence.
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According to William Frances Mackey there are some different types of pictures namely:
a Thematic Pictures
Thematic Pictures are those used simply to illustrate a theme or text. It most often comes in the form of crowed scenes, illustrating a single theme, etc.
b Mnemonic Pictures
Mnemonic Picture are those disigned to remind the learner of certain words or sentences. They may represent situations broken up into sequences and
presented in a short comic-trip technique.
23
Andrew Wright, Pictures for Language Learning New York: Longman Group Ltd, 1983, p. 3.
24
MAC M. Ramirez, The Neglected Tools can work for You the Art of TESOL Selected Articles from the English teaching Fforum, Part Two, 1975, p. 268.
25
Mary Finochiaro, Ph.D. English as a SecondForeign Language From Theory to Practice New York: Prentice Hall Regents, 1986, p.137.
c Semantic Pictures
Semantic Pictures are those whole sole function is to get a specific meaning across.
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C. Teaching Vocabulary by Using Pictures
In presenting the meaning of the words to the students, Jeremy Harmer said that “pictures can be used to explain the meaning of vocabulary items; teacher can
be draw things on the board o r bring in pictures”.
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From explanation above, the teacher can presented new vocabulary by using pictures. Because using pictures is more effective and easy.
We have mentioned several ways to show the meaning of an English word, trough pictures as the following:
1 Objects already in the classroom.
2 Objects that can easily be brought to class umbrellas, scissors, tools,
buttons of many colors and sizes, etc. 3
Drawing by the teacher and drawings by students. 4
Pictures from magazines and newspapers as well as from commercial sources.
5 Demonstrations to show actions.
And then we can explain something, as noun, verb, or adjective, example: -
Write noun words like: “eraser”, “pen”, “pencil”, “book”, etc. In this case, by showing pictures photograph or drawing is one ways to explain about
that. -
Write verb like as: “write”, “read”, “sit”, “run”, etc by showing the pictures about activities that related to the words of “write”, “read”, “sit”,
“run”.
- Write adjective words like as: “happy”, “sad”, “worried”, etc by showing
the pictures about activities that related to the words of “happy”, “sad”, “worried”.
26
W. F. Mackey, Language Teaching Analysis London: Indiana University Press, 1971, p. 245.
27
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching new edition, London: Longman, 1991, p. 161-162
Moreover, according to Raimes 1983, pictures can help the teachers and students in teaching and learning vocabulary, and other components of language.
As a matter of fact pictures can help students to imagine the real object. In short, the concept of picture is the shared experience of many people because of their
matching ability which enables them to match the words with pictures. It should be mentioned that pictures as mental representation of mind can better affect
learning. Pictures are used in the classrooms as teaching devices and can be found to give practice in most skills and components and in most stages of teaching.
Pictures can motivate students because motivation is found to be an important factor in learning everything. Dale H. Schunk said that a common belief is that
people will learn or do well if they are interested and will learn or perform well if they are uninterested.
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Allen 1983 also has shown that the more modalities are involved in association, the more readily items will become available in various situations.
Items should therefore be presented in association with visual representations pictures, objects, aurally, and in association with activities of all kinds. Hence,
there is a great need for research into the vocabulary teaching methods to guide us toward the most effective one.
D. Teaching English Vocabulary to Children
Teaching vocabulary to children is not easy. It needs extra patience and hard work because children like to play and cannot be serious about something. Beside
that, they do not have a strong desire to learn a second language as they learn their native language. This can happen since the mastery of their native language is a
basic need for them in order to communicate while in learning the second language they can always count on their native language if they have trouble.
To improve vocabulary, the students were encouraged to take an interest in words. It hardly needs saying that the students cannot build their vocabulary
unless they become interested in words. The students cannot expect to enlarge
28
Dale H. Schunk, etc., Motivation in Education: Theory, Reserach, Aplications, New York: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008
,
p. 210 —211.
their vocabulary unless they take a lively interest in the words that they hear and read in the words that they must speak and write. Taking interest in words means
doing something about them. A genuine interest leads to activity. The prime method of promoting growth in children‟s vocabularies is
enrichment of experience, both actual and vicarious. Big new words have special appeal for young children, and they quickly begin to use any words they hear in
connection with their various learning activities. Vicarious experiences, too, extend and deepen the children‟s understanding as they listen to stories and
explanations,
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watch television or films, listen to radio or recordings, study pictures in their books and read verse and stories.
Therefore after the students have interest in the words, the students must prick their ears up when they hear a word that they have not hears before. And the
students must open their eyes when they read a word that they have not seen written before.
29
Mildred A. Dawson, etc, Guiding Language Learning.......p. 66
