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prefixes, suffixes, roots, and combining forms are treated thoroughly at each level. Vocabulary enrichment is based on words found in the text and the activities.
These exercises appear frequently throughout the texts. The second, the art program, illustrates and discusses interesting words related to a specific thematic
idea in each book of the series
17
. To master a language is not necessary to read it, but it is extremely
doubtful whether one can really read the language without first mastering it orally. Unless one has mastered the fundamentals of the new language, that is, as a set of
habits for oral production and reception the process of reading is a process of seeking word equivalents to his own native language, such a reader never enters
into the precise particular way the foreign language grasps experience he is still using as means of grasping meaning or understanding only the processes and
vocabulary of his own language with the added difficulty of seeing a different set of symbols on the printed page which must act as clues from which he must guess
the correct words of his own language to be substituted in order to make some kind of sense. He never really entails into the tough the full meaning expressed
by the foreign language. It means that having a lot of vocabulary stocks will help us not only grasp the meaning or understand the language we learn, but also get
the exact meaning of our reading.
c. Distributing the Use According to Grammatical Matters
If we examine vocabulary use, there are so many useful things, especially its distribution to grammar matters. Such the words, although some of them may
have also full-word meaning content, primarily or largely operate as means of expressing relation of grammatical structure. This includes the so-called
auxiliaries, prepositions, conjunctions, interrogative particles, and miscellaneous group consisting of the words for degree, for generalizing, the articles, etc
18
. All these words are called as function words or the words which have special function
and meanings.
17
Millie John and Paulene M. Basis Language, Harper and Row Publishing, Inc, Now York, USA, 1982, P. iii
18
Charles C. Fries, Teaching and Learning English as Foreign Language, P. 44.
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Auxiliaries or helping or supporting words include not only the words which can help in making various form and inflection of the verb, such as, have,
shall, will, may, can, must, might, could, would, and should. Preposition-adverbs, the function words used with substantives, not only
include the nine already indicated as being most frequently used, “at, by, for, from, in, into, of, on, to, and with” but also some twenty others that express
grammatical relationships in situation such as; place behind\ in front of, over, under, above, below, beside, between, beyond, and around, direction through,
into, out of, toward, away from, up, down, and across, time {before, after, during, since and until. Cause for, because, since. Purpose in order that, so that.
Comparison although. Condition unless, whether. Conclusion therefore. The function words are the interrogative particles who, whose, which,
what, where, why, and how. The articles the, a, an. Degree words more, most. The generalizing particle Ever. Special uses there, it, and one
19
. After we examine and discuss it, we know that vocabulary is really useful
and important to improve our grammar, because by knowing the function word and various kinds of word we will get the suitable meaning of the native language.
d. Improving Speaking Ability
Learning a foreign language is not only about its learning reading, writing, grammar, etc, but also how to produce the separate sounds or words from the
vocabulary we have, or in other words we should practice our vocabularies through our speech. Because as a foreign speaker, producing the words and
vocabulary that we have, will show us whether we understand the language we learn. It is not only producing the words but arranging them into the sentences, in
order to make the listeners understand the language when it is spoken. I Charles C. Fries said that in the use of foreign language the difference between the ability
to recognize or understand and the ability to produce or speak stands out even more noticeably.
20
It is true that the two interact and condition one another and in the actual practice of the language can hardly be separated. We can see one
19
Betty Schrampfer Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, P. 231.
20
Charles C. Fries, Teaching and Learning English as Foreign Languag, P. 8
