“How does Magic English video watching help students to improve their understanding at Al-Fath
Elementary School Cirendeu?”.
D. Objective of Study
In line with the statement of formulation of the problem stated above, the general objective of the study is to evaluate the English
teaching learning process especially in learning vocabulary at Al-Fath Elementary School Cirendeu. The Objectives of study are:
1. To know whether Magic English video watching can help improve students’ vocabulary at Al-Fath Elementary School Cirendeu.
2. To know how Magic English video watching improve students’
vocabulary at Al-Fath Elementary School Cirendeu.
E. Significance of Study
The results of this study are expected to help English teachers applying appropriate method in teaching English by watching Magic
English video so the students ’ vocabulary will be improved.
Also, this research can be used as a tool to make a comparison of similar research particularly to compare some methods which are used to
improve students’ vocabulary. And this research is regarded as a field for the writer to widen her
knowledge about a strategy of teaching vocabulary, specifically knowledge about watching video method in teaching vocabulary.
F. Method of Study
After being permitted by the principal of Al-Fath Elementary School Cirendeu, the writer talks to the English teacher to ask some help
in applying Magic English video watching in teaching vocabulary to the Fourth graders of Al-Fath Elementary School Cirendeu.
The writer conducts a pre-test before applying video watching, applies video watching in teaching vocabulary then conducts post-test after
applying video watching in teaching vocabulary. The type of research used by the writer is Classroom Action
Research, the writer takes two cycles that have four steps for each cycle. The steps are Planning, Acting, Observing and Reflecting.
6
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
”.
1
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.
2
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:
1
Evelyn Hatch and Cheryl Brown, Vocabulary, Semantic, And Language Education,Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1995, p.1.
2
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.
3
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.
3
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 ”.
4
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 ”.
5
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.
4
Jeremy Harmer, Teaching Vocabulary English, Teaching Professional, English Teaching Forum, Issued: Thirteen, October 1999.p.3.
5
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.
6
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
Here are the types of vocabulary in teaching English as a foreign language
in specific references in nation vocabulary divided such a word.
a. Receptive Vocabulary: Knowing a word involves being able to recognize
it when it is heard What is the sound like? or when it seen What does it look like? and having an expectation of what grammatical pattern the
6
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 60-63.
word will occurrence. This includes being able to distinguish it from word with a similar form and being able to judge if the word form sounds right
or look right.
b. Productive Vocabulary: Knowing a word involves being able to pronounce
the word, how to write and to spell it, how to use it in grammatical pattern along with the word in usually collocates with it, it also involves not using
the word too often if it is typically a low frequency word and using it in a suitable situation using the word to stand for the meaning it represents and
being able to think of suitable substitutes for the word if there any.
7
Aeborsold and Field Classified Vocabulary into two terms there are:
a Active Vocabulary refers to items the learner can use appropriately
in speaking or writing and it is also called as productive vocabulary, although, in fact, it is more difficult to put into practice. It means that
to use the productive vocabulary, the students are supposed to know how to pronounce it well, they must know and be able to use
grammar of the language target, they are also hoped to familiar with collocation and understand the connotation meaning of the words.
This type is often used in speaking and writing skill. b
Passive Vocabulary refers to a language items that can be recognizes and understood in the context of reading or listening and also called
asreceptive Vocabulary. Passive Vocabulary or comprehension consists of the words comprehended by the people, when they read
and listen.
8
From the explanation above, we know that every expert in every book is different in classifying the kinds of vocabulary, because every person has their
own different ways in showing and telling their opinions and ideas. It means that vocabulary has two kinds of function and content words.
7
ISP Nation, Teaching and Learning Language New York: New Burry house,1990, p.29
8
Jo Ann Aeborsold and Mary lee Field, From Reader to Reading Teacher New York: Cambridge University Pres,1997, p.139
Vocabulary is important in case it could help the students to enjoy their classes. One who masters enough vocabulary will find fewer difficulties than
those who have fewer vocabularies. When they read a certain text, they will easily get the information from it since they can understand every word in the text. On
the others hand, those who lack of vocabulary will face a lot of problems. Mastering vocabulary will be useful for the process of achieving language-
teaching objectives. That is the mastery of language skills Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. If we want to communicate with others in certain
language, we must master the language they belong to especially to know enough vocabulary of those languages. Without vocabulary, someone cannot
communicate effectively or express idea and having a limited vocabulary is also a barrier.
3. Problem in Teaching Vocabulary
When the teacher teaches vocabulary in the classroom, it is not easy as somebody thinks; there are many problems occurred. According to Penny Ur in
her book there are some problems in teaching vocabulary namely, discipline, correcting written assignment, interest, effective learning for all, material,
individual awareness, and participation. For further explanation as follows:
9
a. Discipline: to control discipline problem in the class is very difficult.
When vocabulary teaching learning activity begun many students did
n’t care about the material. The teachers have to control this condition in order to create effective teaching learning process.
b. Correcting written assignment. The students should know the written
form of the word, in English a word with different written is different meaning. When they do this mistake; it is a fatal mistake.That
9
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.65.
problem should be solved by the teacher by providing the written form of the words.
c. Interest. Some students sometime get bored in learning vocabulary; it
should be solved by delivering various methods in it. The teacher should be creative in teaching vocabulary.
d. Material. Sometime the teacher can not find a suitable material
according to the student’s need. It is important to find suitable
material in order to use the time effectively by teaching the appropriate vocabulary.
e. Individual awareness. There are many students in the classroom and
they are different each other. The teacher should know each characteristic, as much as most of the
students don’t aware about the material that should be learned by them. They don’t care about it. It
is teacher ’s obligation to guide the learners to keep attentionin
learning vocabulary. f.
Participation. In teaching learning process the students are expected to be active in every single act. But in the fact only some of them
active in the classroom, most of them are shy, lazy, bored, etc. it should be solv
e by using interesting method that increase student’s interest in learning vocabulary.
Those problems usually occurred in teaching learning process, it must be solved in order to create effective result of teaching learning activity. To solve the
problems the teacher should use the principle of vocabulary that mentioned above. When the principle of vocabulary can be conducted well in the classroom,
teaching learning vocabulary can be more effective and fun for the students.
B. Video
1. General Concept of Video
High technology developments affect most of aspects in human’s life, one
of them is education. Many education institutes use technology in order to gain efficiency of their academic activity such as teaching, exercising, simulating, and
etc. One of high technology items that is used by education institute is video. Video is a powerful tool in today’s classroom. It provides strong context to
teach English. Meaning comes alive and it brings the outside world into the classroom and gives your teaching “reality”. Video also provides all the
paralinguistic features of language that audio can’t.
Nowadays, students are very much visual learners. Further, with the quick spread of broadband internet access, it makes the use of video in the classroom
much more reliable. Video is a medium which is replacing print without a doubt; video is the future for all of us involved in education. Now the classroom is wired
and connected. It’s an exciting time to be both a teacher and a student. The world is our classroom.
In teaching language, video is very useful. Many language elements are delivered clearly by using video. One of language element that is suitable
delivered by video is vocabulary. By using video students get good understanding in learning vocabulary, because video provides the sound, the picture, the writing
of word, and even the phonetic symbol of it. There are many kinds of video we can use in teaching vocabulary, for
example Magic English Video that is provided by Walt Disney. Magic English Video is a kind of educational video that is aimed to teach English vocabulary
easily and vividly. This video contents of several parts namely showtime, songs, playtime, and word play.
10
10
Disney, Disney Magic English: Changing Seasons, Hong Kong: Grolier International. 2009, p.18-23.
In the show time part, this video provides a short story about changing season. The students will learn a kind of seasons through interesting story,
animation, and sound or music. This activity not only gives one-way interaction but leads the students to interact with the video by providing some option on
monitor there are ? question mark, it means that the students have to answer the question that is provided on the video, and the smile mark means that the students
have to repeat what the video said about the word. In the song part, the students are given some options namely song, sing a
long and clip.
11
In the song part, the students listen to a song by the title “Four
Seasons Make a Y ear”. Hopefully, the students remember four seasons in a year
the written or spoken form. In the sing a long, the students have to sing a song that they heard before in order to check their pronunciation of the words. In the clip
part, the students will see a clip with a simple sentence that related to the topic. In the play time, there are tw
o options “Yes or No” and look and listen.
12
In “Yes or No” part the students will match the picture with the sentence, if it matches
each other the students have to click “Yes” button but if it doesn’t they should click the “No” button. In the look and listen part, the students will see a
picture, they should match it with the speaker utterance by clicking the green, blue or yellow button.
In the word play, there are three options letter dance, magic words, and click and speak.
13
In the letter dance part, the students are given a letter for example “I”, it can be night, light, fight and etc. They should find various words
for that letter. In the magic word part, the students are given incomplete word; they have to find the missing letter by choosing the option of the letter that is
provided in it. In the click and speak part, the students are given a word in written or oral. They have to repeat the word.
11
Ibid., 21.
12
Ibid.,22.
13
Ibid.,23.
In sum up, magic English video is an interesting video in teaching vocabulary. This video provides an interesting way to learn new word for the
students, by repeating, singing, saying and etc. Not only video about seasons Walt Disney also provided the video with the various topics. See appendix 1
2. Procedures of Watching Video
There are some procedures in watching video;these procedures hopefully can help the students and the teacher in watching video effectively. For the further
explanation as follows:
14
a. To ensure thatthe instructional resource are appropriate for the age,
abilities, knowledge and interest of the students. If the selecting prints materials then the reading level should be matched to the ability of the
students.
b. To check the amount of time to the lesson and determine whether the
source will be appropriate, they may wish to show 20 minutes video in
30 minute lesson.
c. To check the size of the resources used in whole class setting it may well
differ to the kind of resource used in small group setting.
d. To check the available of resource materials, this might include checking
the library and resource center at collage or university. It should certainty include a careful inspection of school library and resource
center. In special circumstances material also is obtained from central lending organization such as departmental source center, museum, local
library, and other appropriate organization. Students may also bring
resources for unit works.
14
Kevin Barry, and Len King, Beginning Teaching and Beyond, New South Wales: Social Science Press, 1988, p.153-154.
3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Video
a. Advantages of Using Video
Video has many advantages than audiotapes, because the learners can see a visual clue to improve their understanding of the vocabulary. Video highlight
non-verbal behaviors such as facial expression, gestures and body language Bello, 1999.
15
They give the students more obvious language representation for example at work, at social, at school, and etc. The following bellows are the
advantages of video in teaching vocabulary:
16
a. Saving the time efficiently
b. Interesting simulation
c. Improving student’s participation
d. Helping the students to communicate through visual clue
e. Improving classroom condition, become more attractive,
dynamic, and conducive.
Since there are lots of videos which are designed for foreign language purposes, they can combine learning with entertainment such as watching films,
cartoon. Besides, students have a lot of fun; they would find English learning far more interesting. In the next place, videos and movies help to create the good
language environment. By watching videos or movies, students have chance to listen to the native speakers with standard pronunciation, accent, intonation and
stress. At the same time, students will achieve new words as well as their correct use.
Learners still feel shy to ask teachers because they can be blamed on not paying attention to the lesson. By watching them, students can understand clearly
the reason why in this situation we use this word notothers. Furthermore, the ability to stop, start and rewind video can be in valuable. Whenever students feel
the words difficult, teacher can stop and rewind it until they are clear. Therefore, learners will find it far easier to understand difficult and new structures or
15
Ibid.,164
16
Ibid.,164
expressions as well as know the way to pronounce words at the same time. Teachers can give more explanation if necessary.
b. Disadvantages of Video
The major disadvantage with film, video, and television is that they can be one-way form instruction. Students are passive receivers of the information and
usually there is a little scope for interaction between tem and medium. Occasionally, it is also difficult for the teacher to preview a program and this
increase the possibility of not being appropriate for particular group of students.
17
In the other words, the students are a passive subject that only watch and listen on video. It is difficult for the teacher to review the lesson through video, however if
the amount of students are wide. This disadvantage can be solved
by teacher’s help which lead the students to take apart such as repeating the word that mentioned in the video, simulating
the conversation based on video, etc. This disadvantage doesn’t make education
institute stop using video in their teaching learning activity, because many ways to make interaction between students, teacher, and video that is used in teaching
activity.
17
Ibid.,170
20
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Setting and Subject of the Study
This study is conducted at SD AL-FATH Cirendeu. The school is located at Jl. Cirendeu Raya No.24 Cirendeu, district of South Tangerang
– Banten province. It is established by the Bina Insan Sakina foundation. AL-
FATH foundation has 4 different buildings with different level. First, there are two buildings located in Cirendeu, they are TK-KB AL-FATH Cirendeu and
SD-SMP AL-FATH Cirendeu. The other two buildings located in BSD, they are TK-KB AL-FATH BSD and SD AL-FATH BSD. SDAL-FATH is a part of its
foundation which is established in 2007. This school is chosen as the field of the study because the writer is an
English teacher at that school, so the writer knows the real condition, then the writer can identify the problems in teaching English especially in vocabulary
improvement more easily. Secondly, the writer suggests that innovation is needed in improving students’ vocabulary for the better quality of students’
English skill. Third, the active learning concept in SD AL-FATH gives special impression to the writer. So then, all English teachers should enrich their
teaching skill especially English language. It is very interesting for the writer. The writer selects the fourth grade of SD AL-FATH Cirendeu which
consists of 24 students each class in the 2011-2012 academic years as the subjects of the study. This class is chosen based on the interview result with
the English teacher and the observation about problems in vocabulary mastery that faced by this class. In addition, this class must get 70 score to fulfill the
Minimum Mastery Criterion- Kriteria Ketuntasan Minimal KKM in English lesson
1
and this standard is high enough as the KKM of English subject especially for elementary students. So, the writer was challenged to reach this
1
Lesson Curriculum of SD AL-Fath, Cirendeu
21
target. Which is at least 75 of students in the fourth grade of SD AL-FATH passed the KKM.
B. Design of the Study
