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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Vocabulary
1. General Concept of Vocabulary
Learning second language is really needed for everyone in the world, especially English. As much as, many nations use second language in their daily
conversations, such as Malaysia, Singapore, India, etc. There are some important elements in using second language, one of them is vocabulary. It is connected to
all English skills namely, Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.To speak in English the students might not only master the structure but also master the
vocabulary. Vocabulary can not be conveyed correctly without grammar in communication. To make a comprehensible communication the students have to
master both of them, vocabulary and grammar. Mastering vocabulary helps the students to express their ideas clearly,
obviously, and without repeating their ideas in conversation. When the students learn about vocabulary, the first thing that they remember is a word. But, every
body has different view of vocabulary; to have the same view the writer tries to convey some definitions of vocabulary from some experts.
According to Evelyn Hatch and Cheryl Brown, “Vocabulary is one of
language elements is considered as a list or set of words for a particular language or a list or set words that individual speakers of language might use
”.
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It means that vocabulary is a group of words that the speakers used in their daily
conversation. This is in line with Yang Zhihong who defines vocabulary as the stock of words used in language.
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In the other word, vocabulary is the word that is learned by the students in second language learning. Those words can be a single
word or more than single word.Words can be divided into four types, they are:
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Evelyn Hatch and Cheryl Brown, Vocabulary, Semantic, And Language Education,Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1995, p.1.
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Yang Zhihong, Learning Word English Teaching Forum, vol.38, no.3, July 2000, p.54
High frequency word, Academic word, Technical word and Low frequency word.
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The further explanation as follows: a.
High frequency word These words occur very frequently in all kinds of uses of the language.
They are needed in formal and informal uses of the language in speech and in writing. Basically, these words consist of function words a, at, four,
etc and content words noun, verb, adjective etc. b.
Academic word Academic words do not occur so often in other kind of language use. Less
than 2 the running words in conversation are from academic word list. The words in academic word list are very important for learner who will
use English for academic study either in upper secondary school or in universities or technical institutes. The example of academic word is word
in academic writing such as in geography text, laboratory manuals, academic article, etc.
c. Technical word
The text contains some words that are very closely related to the topic and the subject area of the text. Most technical words occur only in one
specialized area, but some technical words occur in other areas, some with the same meaning and some with different meaning. For example by-pass
and neck occur very frequently in medicine and are technical words in that area. They also occur outside that area.
d. Low frequency word
Low frequency words are diverse group. They include 1 words that are not quite frequent or wide range enough to be high frequency word abort,
absorb, accelerate, acid, etc, 2 technical word from other area one person’s technical vocabulary is another person’s low frequency
vocabulary, 3 word that just occur rarely.
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I.S.P. Nation, Teaching Vocabulary: Strategies and Techniques, Boston: HeinleCengage Learning, 2008, p.7-11.
Usually, the students find those kinds of words in written or spoken form depending on the topic that the students talk about. From all those kind of words,
the students have to know the usage of them in order to create a comprehensible conversation among speakers. Good understanding in vocabulary usage helps the
learners to use the words in speaking and writing correctly. Furthermore, Harmer said
“Vocabulary is more than merely a list of words. It is word, which expresses meaning, but meaning is a slippery concept.
Some words may appear to be simple to refer to one thing and therefore, easy to teach, but some words may also be difficult to teach because their meaning may
change depend on the words they are attached with ”.
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Based on the definition above, it can be said that in English each word has more than one meaning, it depends on the words which are combined with. Tha
t’s why the students have to use the dictionary at first to know the function of the
words, such as whether it is functioned as noun, verb, adverb etc. Meanwhile, Huebener stated that
“The subject matter of language consists essentially of a stock of words and expressions and of the rules that govern the
syntax of its speech pattern that is vocabulary and grammar ”.
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Language is used to communicate among speaker, when the communication is begun the speakers use
the words in delivering their ideas. Surely, it can be understood by the listener if the speakers use the correct grammatical structure.
In conclusion, vocabulary is an important element of language that consists of the information about meaning and the usage of words in language.
Those words are taught to create a comprehensible communication among the speakers.Communication in foreign language especially English the students not
only have to master the grammatical structure but also the vocabulary. Good vocabulary comes with learner’s ability in thinking logically and in learning easily
and quickly.
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Jeremy Harmer, Teaching Vocabulary English, Teaching Professional, English Teaching Forum, Issued: Thirteen, October 1999.p.3.
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Theodore Huebener, How To Teach ForeignLanguages Effectively, Revised Edition, New York: New York university press, 1959, p.86.
Learning vocabulary also involves the other elements of language such as: pronunciation and spelling, grammar, collocation, etc.Those elements are needed
to be taught in order to get better understanding in vocabulary and to create comprehensible communication. The explanations bellow is the further
explanation as follows: a.
Pronunciation and Spelling The students have to know what a word sounds like its pronunciation and
what it looks like its spelling. There are fairly obvious characteristics and one or the other will be perceived by the students when encountering the
item for the first time. In teaching, the teacher needs to make sure that both these aspect are accurately presented and learned.
b. Grammar
The grammar of a new item will need to be taught if this is not obviously covered by general grammatical rules. An item may have an unpredictable
change of form in certain grammatical contexts or may have some idiosyncratic way of connecting with other words in sentence, it is
important to provide the learners with this information at the same time as we teach the base form. For example, when the teacher teach about
irregular verb “think” the teacher might note if it is transitive or intransitive. When the teacher teach “noun” the teacher may wish to
present its plural form. c.
Collocation The collocations typical of particular items are another factor that makes a
particular combination sound “right” or “wrong” in a given context. So this is another piece of information about a new item which it may be
worth teaching. For example, when introducing words like decision and conclusion, the teacher may note that the learners make the one, but
usually come to the other. Similarly, the learner throw a ball but toss a coin, the teacher may talk about someone being dead tired but it sounds
odd to say dead fatigued.
d. Aspects of Meaning: Denotation, Connotation, Appropriateness.
The meaning of word is primarily what it refers to in the real world, its denotation. For example, dog denotes a kind of animal, more specifically,
a common, domestic carnivorous mammal, and both dank and moist mean slightly wet.
A less obvious component of the meaning of an item is its connotation: the associations, or positive or negative feelings it evokes, which may not be
indicated in a dictionary definition. For example dog as understood by most British people has positive connotations of friendship and loyalty,
whereas the equivalent in Arabic, as understood by most people in Arab countries has negative associations of dirt and inferiority.
A more subtle aspect of meaning that often needs to be taught is whether a particular item is the appropriate one to use in a certain context or not. It is
useful for learner to know a word is very common, rare or taboo in polite conversation. For example, you may know that weep is virtually
synonymous in denotation with cry, but it is more formal, tends to be used in writing more than in speech, and is in general much less in common.
e. Aspect of Meaning: Meaning Relationship
How the meaning of one item relates to the meaning of others can also be useful in teaching. There are various such relationships: here are some of
the main ones. Synonyms: items that mean the same, or nearly the same. For
example, bright, clever, smart may serve synonyms of intelligent. Antonyms: items that mean the opposite, richis an antonym of
poor. Hyponyms: items that server as specific examples a general
concept: dog, lion, mouse are hyponyms of animal. Co-hyponyms or co-ordinates: other items that are the same kind of
thing, red, blue, green and brown are co-ordinates. Super ordinates: general concepts that “cover” specific items;
animal is the super ordinate of dog, lion, mouse.
Translation: words or expression in the learners’ mother tongue those are more or less equivalent in meaning to the item being
taught. f.
Word Formation Vocabulary items, whether one-word or multi-word, can often be broken
down into their component „bits’. Exactly how these bits are put together is another piece of useful information-perhaps mainly for more advanced
learner. For example prefixes and suffixes if the learners know the meaning of sub-, un-, and
–able, this will help them guess the meaning of words like substandard, ungrateful and untranslatable.Another way
vocabulary item are built is by combining two words two nouns, or a gerund and a noun, or a noun and a verb to make an item: a single
compound word, or two separate, sometimes hyphenated words bookcase, follow-up, swimming pool.
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Regarding that explanation above it can be seen that the language elements that are mentioned above have an important relationship in understanding
vocabulary. In English there are some changes that should be learned by the students to get the exact meaning, for example the additional of suffixes or
prefixes. Those elements of language also help the students to get the meaning of communication, such as the usage of synonym, antonym, hyponym, and etc.
2. Kinds of Vocabulary
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