become a basis of how learners can speak, listen, read and write well.
9
Meanwhile, according to Laurie Bauer vocabulary is about words where they derive from, how they change in different categories, how they relate each
other and also how we use them to see the world.
10
Furthermore, Hatch and Brown that define vocabulary as a set of particular language or a list or set of
words that people can use.
11
Based on the definition above, the writer can say that vocabulary is a set of word that used to express the ideas and learn new subject.
2. The Importance of Mastering Vocabulary for Students
Vocabulary is important for student‟s understanding in four language
skills. Students who have enough vocabulary will find little difficulties in using the language in written and oral form. The roles of vocabulary above
show that vocabulary is important for students because it will help them to understand the task. In addition, there is a relationship between vocabulary
and understanding. If students know the meaning of words, the students will be able to comprehend it. Wilkins as cited in Scott Thornbury state
“without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be
conveyed.
12
Additionally, as stated by David and Vallete in their book that vocabulary is important part in all languages teaching, students must learns words as they
learn grammar and practice pronounciation.
13
Furthermore, McCharty states that vocabulary is the biggest component of any language course. No matter
how well students learn grammar and the sounds of language are mastered,
9
Jack C. Richards and Willy A Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 255.
10
Laurie Bauer, Vocabulary, New York: Routledge, 1998, p. VIII.
11
Evelyn Hatch and Cherryl Brown, Vocabulary, Semantic, and Language Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 1.
12
Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Vocabulary, Harlow: Pearson Longman, 2002, p. 13.
13
Edward David and Rebecca M, Vallete, Classroom Tehnique Foreign Language and English as a Second Language, New York: Harcout Brave Javanovich, 1997, p. 149
without words to express a wide range of meanings, communication just cannot happen in any meaningful way.
14
It means that understanding a large number of vocabulary will be helpful for language learner better than
understanding language structures and sound of language because by learning vocabulary learners will be able to understand the language.
Moreover, as Kreshen points out that a large vocabulary is very crucial for mastering a language.
15
It means that vocabulary is the key to students for understanding what they hear and read in the school; and then communicating
successfully with other people. As Wilkins emphasizes the importance of vocabulary acquisition in learning language by stating that without grammar
students cannot make communication but without vocabulary it is impossible to communicate with other people.
16
From the explanation above, it showed that vocabulary is important for the students in teaching learning process. If the students just have a little of
vocabulary, they will be unable to understand the question and the text of English. In addition, if the learners have lack of vocabulary, they do not have
very much information or knowledge. Otherwise, if the students know and understand vocabulary they will be able to communicate effectively and
understand the English text.
14
Michael McCarthy, Vocabulary, New York: Oxford University Press, 1990, p. 3.
15
Krashen, S.D. 1989. We acquire vocabulary and spelling by reading: Additional evidence for the input hypothesis. The Modern Language Journal, 73, 440-463.in Thuy. N. N., The Effects of
Semantic Mapping on Vocabulary Memorizing. P. 630
16
Wilkins, D. A. 1972.Linguistics in Language Teaching.Edward Arnold, London ,p. 111 in Unaldi. I., Bardakci. M., Akpinar. K. D., and Dolas. F. A comparison of contextualized,
decontextualized and corpus-informed vocabulary instruction: A quasi-experimental study. 2013. Journal of Language and Literature Education, 8, p. 78.
