Kinds of Vocabulary Vocabulary
LDEC, a dictionary written for non native speaker. It shows that non native speakers can write by using about 2000 words so that they can understand what
they read well. If non native speakers know about 2000 words means that they can understand text about 80, and if they know about 1000 words, they can
understand text in 70.
12
Although English vocabulary can be said have large number, but students are not necessity to know all of them. Nation and Laufer in Cognition and Second
Language Instruction mention that knowing receptive knowledge of 5000 base words is considered to be a minimal learning target.
13
Another expert such as Thornburry state about the size of vocabulary that should be mastered by second
language, it is about 2000 words.
14
It can be stated that if non native students have about 2000 words, it can indicate that they can achieve vocabulary mastery.
According to Read, there are three components of vocabulary ability that should be mastered by students, those components are:
1. The background of vocabulary use. Vocabulary ability should draws on
the various types of pragmatic, social and cultural situation which are used significantly influence the meaning.
2. Vocabulary knowledge and fundamental processes. This component
consist of some aspects of vocabulary which is mentioned in four components, such as vocabulary size, knowledge of words
characteristics, lexicon organization and the process to increase vocabulary knowledge by speaking and writing.
3. Meta-cognitive strategies for vocabulary use. This strategy can be used
by all language users to manage the ways which they use in communication. Learners have to know and apply this strategy in
communication in order to overcome their lack of vocabulary knowledge to function effectively.
15
12
Laurie Bauer, Vocabulary, New York: Routledge, 1998, p. 12.
13
Jan H. Hulstijn, , op cit, p. 262.
14
Schott Thornburry, How to Teach Vocabulary, Edinburgh: Pearson Education, 2002, p. 21.
15
John Read, op cit, pp. 29 —34.
It can be said that there are some methods in counting words that is promoted by linguist. Seashore and Eckerson in Measuring Second Language
Vocabulary Acquisition stated that every different form of words in the dictionary was counted as a different word. For example, word know, knows, and knowing,
all of them are different word and counted separately.
16
However, according to Read, when someone takes a research about counting the number of words in the sense of types, one of the first steps is to lemmatize
the tokens the word, so that the inflected words can be counted as the case of the same lemma as the base form.
17
It can be described that words in the same lemma are counted as the base word, for example wait, waits, waited, and waiting, these
words are counted as one word, that is wait. Besides size of vocabulary, when students are learning vocabulary, they are
hoped to know and use vocabulary in any possible situation. They are hoped to know the meaning in the context, in the connection with other words and in the
previous knowledge. Therefore, vocabulary learning can facilitate students to improve their size of vocabulary and to apply vocabulary in any contexts.
It can be concluded the way and the strategies of vocabulary learning may affect student’s exposure in getting vocabulary. When students can keep learning
vocabulary continuously and can use it in any context, automatically their size and knowledge of vocabulary will increase.