The vocabulary that should be taught for the students is the vocabulary that should be relevant to the bulk of the content being learned. In this research, the researcher
chose “Kinds of jobs” as the topic, because it was taken from students’ books. The
topic is learnt by junior high school students in learning vocabulary. Therefore the teacher can provide the students with new word of the target
language. Then before teaching, hence, the teacher should choose what to teach. The teacher should be aware that students’ needs of vocabulary are different from
others at different levels. While Pusat Pengembangan Kurikulum dan Sarana Pendidikan Pedoman Kerja
Perbaikan Materi Kurikulum Pendidikan Dasar Menengah 1984:3 states that in order to reach successful in increasing the students’ vocabulary achievement,
everything should be well prepared and selected. The following are four criteria in selecting vocabulary to be taught to the students;
1. Frequency of Occurrence
The vocabulary taught should not only be chosen on the consideration that it has
high frequency of occurrence, but also vocabulary which has low frequency of occurrence. It means that the teacher should not only teach the vocabulary that
often appears but the vocabulary that rarely appear too. In other words, the vocabulary taught should be balanced among the easy, average, and difficult.
2. Simplicity
Vocabulary should be appropriate for the students’ level of difficulty or knowledge. The vocabulary which is considered difficult for the students should
be avoided. By following the English curriculum, which is appropriate for the students’ level mastery, the students will be prevented from the very difficult
vocabulary. The vocabulary that will be given should be in accordance with SMP Curriculum.
3. Relevancy
Vocabulary is prepared or selected by the teacher should be relevant to daily life
phenomenon, because it is easy for the students to remember and to practice both in spoken and written communication.
4. Quantity
Presenting a large number of vocabulary should be avoided so that the students
will not get confused. It is based on the consideration that the process of mastery vocabulary will be successful if it is done step by step. Moreover vocabulary
learned in small numbers will stay longer in the students’ mind. Concerning with the criteria above, the researcher applies the four criteria in
teaching vocabulary because the above criteria fulfill the requirements and the nature of the students under investigation, all of the criteria above are relevant
with the theory of language teaching.
In order to achieve the goal of language teaching, the learners are able to communicate in target language, it is impossible to teach all the vocabulary in one
time. The useful way in teaching vocabulary is to teach the meaning of words and how they are used. As Harmer 1991 said that if we are really to teach students
what the words means and how they are used, together with other words, in context.
Before teaching, hence, the teacher should choose what to teach .Then the teacher should be aware that students’ needs of vocabulary are different from others at
different levels. Furthermore, according to Nation 1990:18 there are three things to be taught on
teaching vocabulary: 1.
Teaching the words form, those are spelling and pronunciation. The teacher can teach the spelling of the words by writing it on the
whiteboard, while in teaching pronunciation the teacher pronounce the words loudly and asks the students to repeat it after the teacher.
2. Teaching the meaning of the words. In teaching the meaning the teacher
can tell the students with sentences that related with the words. For example: what a shoe is? What is the function? Where can we use it?
3. Teaching the use of the words. In teaching the use of the words, the
teacher may provide the students with the real example in sentence form and provide them some exercises in using the words.
Knowing the new words is very important for the students in enriching their
vocabulary. For this reason, there are two ways that can help the students to get
the meaning of the words. Firstly, they should consult or ask new words to the teacher. Secondly, they are followed to bring and use dictionary during studying
English Allen Rebecca, 1977:155. Moreover, the students may ask the English teacher if they do not know the meaning of the new words, but firstly,
they should guess by themselves. So, the students must be trained to solve their problem by themselves.
Based on the preceding statement, the students are asked to use English dictionary
and the students are trained to try guessing the meaning first before opening dictionary.
2.5 Concept of Learning Vocabulary
Brown 2000 explains that learning is acquiring or getting of knowledge of a
subject or a skill from study, experience, and instructions. Learning is acquisition or getting, learning is retention of information skill, and learning involves some
forms of practice, perhaps reinforced practice Brown, 2000:7. Moreover, “Learning is a relatively permanent change in an individual’s
knowledge or behavior that results from previous experience” Hamilton and
Ghatala, 1994:7.
There are many ways in learning vocabulary. Those have purposes that learning vocabulary will be successful in increasing students’ vocabulary.
Sutarjo 1988 explains five possible ways of learning vocabulary, namely: learning vocabulary through:
1. Activity- The teacher lets the students decide many choices by themselves what they want. The teacher can choose any techniques which are able to make their
students to be creative in producing vocabulary. 2. Context clues- The teacher can use the context clue in word recognition by
figuring out the meaning of a word based on the clues in the surrounding context. The teacher can give synonyms, antonyms, or definition of words to
the students. 3. Guessing- The teacher can encourage the students to guess and to consult the
words learned. To guess correctly, a student should have a good rationale. The teacher can give example by pronouncing a sentence, and then the students
guess the word the teacher means. 4. Definition- The teacher guides the students to define the meaning of words and
to arrange the words into the correct sentences. 5. Derivation- The teacher involves the four classes of word in the position of
occurrence in English sentence patterns. Then the teacher asks the students to derive the words, for example; to differentiate verb, difference noun,
different adjective etc. In process learning vocabulary, the teacher also should apply some conditions. It
is hoped that the students will feel more comfortable, enjoyable, interesting, and motivating so that the students will not be bored in teaching learning process. It is
supported by Krashen.
Krashen 1981 in Nation 1990 believes that certain conditions must apply for such learning to occur. Those are:
1. The learners must be interested in understanding the message. 2. The message should contain some item
s that are just outside the learners’ present level of achievement.
3. The learners should not feel worried or threatened by their contact with the foreign language.
Nation 1990 defines in term of what is involved in learning vocabulary a
distinction is made between receptive and productive learning. Productive learning makes the students able to produce the foreign word by speaking and
writing. Receptive learning involves being able to recognize a word and recall its meaning when it is met by listening and reading. In productive learning, the
development of the quality of learning a small number of vocabulary is important. Intensive practice in using vocabulary in speech and writing is therefore a useful
activity. While in receptive learning, the quantity of vocabulary is the main goal. Furthermore, Nation 1990:20 distinguishes the process of vocabulary learning,
those are: direct indirect vocabulary learning. In direct vocabulary learning the
learners do exercises and activities that focus their attention on vocabulary. Such exercises include word-building exercises, guessing words from context when this
is done as a class exercise learning words in lists, and vocabulary games. In indirect vocabulary learning the learner’s attention is focused on some other
feature, usually the message that is conveyed by a speaker or writer. If the amount of unknown vocabulary is low in such messages, considerable vocabulary can
occur even though the learner’s attention is not directed toward vocabulary learning. Krashen 1981 in Nation 1990:2 calls this the input theory of language
learning. Therefore, the present study focuses on learning vocabulary through context
clues, and direct vocabulary learning in teaching vocabulary. Since logico and crossword puzzle are two examples of both learning vocabulary through activity
and direct vocabulary learning.
2.6 Concept of Media
