c. Need and Level: the students who are required to read technical
reports in English in their native country will have different lexical needs to those learners.
d. Expediency: the classroom will often dictate the need for certain
vocabulary, without which the students may fail to understand their teacher, fellow students or the activity they are supposedly
engaged in.
15
6. Problems in Teaching Vocabulary
Correlating with our culture and its rules, English as a foreign language has many differences. Furthermore, English as one of the
subjects in our school has many difficulties and problems either in teaching or learning process. That’s why we have to learn deeply and
properly. In teaching vocabulary, there are several problems found. The
factors have various kinds. It can be related to the words or used to call intra-lexical factors, or they can involve how well the learners of first
language matches the second language or it is called as cross linguistic factors.
16
Another fact is also found when students attempt to translate a passage by looking up too many words. When they meet a word that they
don’t know, they take the dictionary and look up the meaning. The problem arises when they select the right words to know the meaning of
sentence but use the improper words grammatically. Many problems that we met related to teaching vocabulary also
refer to the students and teacher. Coady and Huckin consider some of the typical meta-cognitive attitudes that both teachers and students can hold
toward teaching and learning of vocabulary in a second or foreign language as follows:
15
Ibid., pp. 57-61.
16
Nobert Schmitt, Vocabulary and Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 146-147.
Vocabulary is typically neglected in foreign or second language instruction
In general, students feel that word are very important and are eager to learn them
In contrast, teacher tend to feel that words are easy to learn and grammar is a challenge
Many teachers and students feel that teaching vocabulary is a low level intellectual activity unworthy of their full attention
Consequently, many teachers seem to conclude that words are going to be learned naturally from reading and do not need to be
taught.
17
B. Song
1. Definition of Song
Songs are one of the most captivating and culturally rich resources that can be easily used in language classrooms. As Griffee say
that “the word song refers to pieces of music that have words, especially popular
songs such as those one hears on the radio.”
18
In the same field, Griffee also states that:
Songs have elements in common with speech and poetry, they are a unique form. Both songs and speech are vocally produced, are
linguistically meaningful and have melody. Both songs and poetry use words to convey meaning, both are usually written down
before publication, both can be put to music and both can be listened to.
19
Finally, it shows that a song is a piece of musical composition of words, verse, or poem which is sung or uttered with modulation of the
voice which expresses the thought and feeling. Song is powerful. Many
17
James Coady and Thomas Huckin, Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition, New York: Cambrigde University Press, 1997, p. 74.
18
Dale T. Griffe, Songs in Action, New York: Prentice Hall International, 1992, p. 3
19
Ibid., p. 3.
people can be moved to tears or other strong emotions by music, and song can acquire strong emotional associations with people, events, and places.
Song has personal quality that makes the listener react as if the songs were being sung for the listener personally.
Hence, the writer assumes that listening to English songs can be one of alternative media in concerning junior school students’
enhancement to their learning English ability.
2. Function of Song
The functions of song according to Lo and Li, “songs are
invaluable tools to develop students’ abilities in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and can be used to teach variety of language items
such as sentence patterns, vocabulary, pronunciation, rhythm, adjective, and adverbs.
”
20
Furthermore, Weda claim that the teaching of English to young learners by using songs has many benefits. One of those benefits is
the students will feel comfort and relax because of its good atmosphere which will enhance their proficiency.
21
In the same field, Lo and Li also explain that the activities through songs offer a great deal of advantages in promoting of English, they
therefore state that the advantage of songs is stimulating students’ interest and enhancing their involvement.
22
From the explanation above, there are many functions of songs in the view of linguistic, psychology, cognitive, social and culture. It is used
not only for fun but also for education as in teaching English especially in improving students’ vocabulary. It also can be considered that songs with
easy text would help the students develop English proficiency, especially vocabulary.
20
R. Lo H.C. Li, Songs Enhance Learner Involvement, English Teaching Forum, volume 36, no. 21, 1998, pp. 8-11.
21
Sukardi Weda, Songs Enhance Young Learners’ involvement in Learning English,
Jakarta: Atmajaya University, Center for Studies on Language and Culture, 2009, 102
22
Ibid.
