101 increasing the number of their vocabulary size. On the other hand, some of the
students still found obstacles in distinguishing some words which shared the common features, such as quite vs quiet, effect vs affect, and stimulate vs
simulate.
3. Fundamental Processes
The following four statements – the fifth to eighth statements revealed the students’ opinion about the fundamental processes which had achieved through
the implementation of contextual guessing strategy. Starting from the fifth statement which verified the students’ ability to recognize the spoken words,
twenty one students 75 agreed that they were able to grasp the idea of someone’s speaking or recordings by analyzing at least some words that they had
been familiar with. Then, they tried to relate all the clues they obtained.
“biasanya kalo guru ngomong pake bahasa Inggris, ya dikit-dikit mudeng. Tapi ga semua sih, paling cuma intinya apa gitu. Paling yang tahu cuma
satu atau dua kata, tar digabung-gabungin biar tahu maksudnya apa.” R3
When the teacher said in English, I was able to grasp the idea, even though I did not fully understand it. I just recognized one or two words.
Then, I tried to relate each other to see the connection. “Awalnya sih sering kira-kira ini artinya apa ya, kan dengerin
percakapan dari kaset susah, trus ya asal nebak aja jadi sering salah. Tapi sekarang setelah belajar ini..ya apa…nebak contextual, aku jadi
mudeng gimana cara nyari kata kunci. Apalagi kemarin diajarin yang conjunction itu, mbantu banget tuh.” R 2
At first, I often did guessing [when listened to recorded conversation] to know the meaning. Since I did not do it in serious way, sometimes I made
incorrect guesses. However, now I had learnt more about contextual guessing strategy that helped me a lot in finding the clues. Moreover, last
time the teacher explained to us about the conjunctions [which were usually used as clues]. Surely, it helped us indeed.
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102 Contrasting to the statement, seven students 25 showed their
disagreement. A student elaborated that it was hard to catch the ideas of someone’s speaking or recorded conversations since she was not able to recognize
the pronunciation of particular words. From her explanation, it could be highlited that the word sounds like or its pronunciation accurately presented and learnt
during the teaching and learning process.
“kalo dengering orang ngomong atau rekaman gitu susah banget nangkap, kata-katanya ga tau. Sering ga dong intinya apa soalnya
terkadang saya cuma tau tulisannya, pronounciation nya jarang denger. Lagian ga biasa ini ya ngomong pake Inggris.” R4
When listening to someone’s speaking or recorded conversations, it was difficult to digest. I often did not grasp the ideas since I just knew the
spelling of the words, but was not familiar with their pronunciation. Moreover, I was not accustomed to applying the words in the
communication.
The sixth statement asked about the students’ ability in grasping the main idea of a reading text. Twenty three students 82.14 showed their agreement. A
student being interviewed explained that by applying this strategy, she could comprehend the text better. She added that it was easier to find clues within a text,
instead of in a single sentence. The more context clues were available, the process of guessing was also easier. Thus, contextual guessing strategy was best applied
when encountering new words in a reading text “Strategi ini mbantu banget buatku terutama kalo pas nemuin kata-kata
susah di bacaan. Menurut saya, kalo nebak kata dalam bacaan lebih mudah daripada dalam kalimat kayak yang di worksheet kemarin. Soalnya
kata-kata yang membantu lebih banyak, hint nya lebih banyak.” R2
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103 This strategy assisted me very much, especially to infer the meaning of
new words within a reading text. In my opinion, it was easier to guess the unknown words’ meanings within a text, instead of in a sentence, like
what we had in the last worksheets. It was because a reading text offered richer clues or hints.
On the contrary, five students 17.86 disagreed with that statement. According to the student being interviewed, she said that sometimes she ignored
some new words in the reading text. She admitted that the strategy was quite complicated for her. Therefore, she usually consulted a dictionary every time she
encountered a new word.
“Jujur ya sampe sekarang strategi menebak itu masih susah, ya mungkin karena jarang latihan sih. Jadi kalo ada kata-kata baru dalam bacaan,
biasanya langsung buka kamus, kan lebih pasti gitu.” R4 Truthfully, until now I did not really understand about the contextual
guessing strategy. It might be because I seldom practiced it. So, when encountering a new word, I usually opened my dictionary because it was
quiet sure. The seventh statement examined whether the students were able to apply
the learnt vocabulary in speaking. Twenty students 71.43 affirmed that statement. A student being interviewed stated that she started to be confident in
expressing her own idea orally in the class. She said that it was easier to remember the words’ meanings when they were within contexts. If she
remembered the words as well as their meanings better, it would make her easier to apply them in speaking.
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104 “membantu saya jadi lebih pede dalam bicara atau menyampaikan
pendapat, soalnya secara ga langsung jadi lebih cepet hapal daripada ngapalin dari buku.” R2
This strategy helped me to be more confident in speaking or conveying the idea. Moreover, indirectly, I was able to remember the word in context,
instead of memorizing from the word lists.
In contrast, seven students 28.75 stated their disagreement. From the observation, the researcher observed that the students habitually learnt isolated
words and memorized them without knowing the contexts in which some words might occur within. As a result, it was difficult to them to apply the learnt words
in real context. The eighth statement dealt with whether the students were able to apply
the learnt vocabulary in writing. Nineteen students 67.85 were in agreement to the statement. A student gave reason that by analyzing the context clues, she
learnt more than a single word. Consequently, her vocabulary was extended. By having a wide range of vocabulary, the student felt easier to convey her ideas in
writing since she had much more choices of words.
“saya merasa vocab nya bertambah luas, banyak pilihan kata yang saya tahu, seperti ‘sufficient’ dengan ‘enough.’ sehingga saya lebih mudah
mengungkapkan ide dalam karangan.” R2 I thought that my vocabulary was expanded and there were a variety of
vocabulary item, like ‘sufficient’ and ‘enough.’ Therefore, I felt easier to convey my ideas in a composition.
Reversing the statement, seven students 25 claimed their disagreement.
In the interview, a student admitted that it was difficult to apply the learnt words
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105 in writing because she could not arrange the words into a good order. Hence,
sometimes each sentence in her composition did not make sense.
“tau mau nulis apa, tapi susah buat kalimatnya. Jadi kadang kalimatnya aneh dan ga nyambung.” R4
In fact, I understood what would I say, but it was difficult to arrange the words into a good order. Then, sometimes each sentence in my
composition seemed strange and did not relate each other.
On the whole, 78.57 of the students confirmed that there was significant improvement on the fundamental processes aspect. As explained before, this
aspect involved two major skills in English, receptive and productive skills. From the questionnaire, it was revealed that contextual guessing strategy was more
helpful in acquiring the receptive skills - listening skill the fifth statement and reading skill the sixth statement, instead of the productive ones – speaking skill
the seventh statement and writing skill the eighth statement. This phenomenon happened because in reality, receptive skills deal with the ability to recognize a
word and recall its meaning when it is met. On the contrary, productive skills require what is acquired for receptive skills, then it is added by the ability to
choose and use proper words to speak or write at the appropriate occasion Nation, 1990. Thus, it was clear that productive skills demanded more ability
and were more complicated to master compared to the receptive ones.
4. Metacognitive Strategy for Vocabulary Use
