Background of Problem INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Problem

In Indonesia, English is considered as an international language, which is used all over the world. English has been adopted as a compulsory subject at school. It starts from Elementary school up to University. It said that English as a foreign language is taught in Indonesian schools. People realize that teaching English at this level becomes very important and need much concern. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are four basic language skills that the students have to master. Besides such basic skills, the students have to master vocabulary. With a limited vocabulary, anyone will also have a limited understanding in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Vocabulary is necessary to give student something to hang on to when learning structure, but it‟s frequently not a main focus for learning itself. 1 Vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read and write. Without an extensive vocabulary and strategies for acquiring new vocabulary, learners often achieve less than their potential and may be discourage from making use of language learning opportunities around them such as listening to the radio, listening to native speakers, using the language in different contexts, reading, or watching television. 2 Not all vocabulary can be learnt through interaction and discovery techniques. Even if such techniques are possible, however, they are not always the most cost effective. The first thing to realize about vocabulary items is that they frequently have more than one meaning. Vocabulary often becomes a problem for most high school students, eventhough they have studied English since elementary school. And sometimes they always get difficulties to understand some words in a context. Most of them eventually are not interested in English subject anymore, and English likely becomes something too hard to learn. Because the size of vocabulary varies with the ability and experiences of individual children, various investigations have sought to determine the range in size of vocabulary and an acceptable average for children at various age levels. Growth in meaning vocabulary is full of variations. Some words easily take on rich meaning, especially those that refer to concrete objects and activities; others are difficult to understand because of a variety of diverse meanings and because of their abstractness. 3 The teacher should take advantage of children‟s vicarious experiences that will add new their words vocabulary or extend and enrich the meanings of partially familiar words. The modern school can take advantage of mass media in this connection –newspaper, radio, recording, television, still pictures, filmstrip, slides and films. A factor in 1 Jeremy Harmer, the Practice of English Language Teaching, New York: Longman Publishing, 1991, p. 154. 2 Jack C. Richards and Willy A. Renandya, Methodology in Language teaching, New York: Cambridge University press 2008, p. 255 3 Mildred A. Dawson, Marian Zollinger and Ardell Elwell, Guiding Language Learning, New York: Harcourt, Brace World, Inc 1963, p. 64 determining the character and amount of a child‟s vocabulary is the type of environment in which he lives. 4 Usually English teachers teach vocabulary to their student with explanation and translation technique or we call it non visual technique. It makes them difficult to understand the vocabulary. Explaining the meaning of vocabulary items can be very difficult, especially at beginner and elementary levels. 5 And then explanation is a quick and easy way to present the meaning of words but it is not without problem. In the first place it is not always easy to translate words, and in the second place, even where translation is possible, it may make it a bit too easy for student by discouraging them from interacting with the words. 6 Vocabulary is not easy to be increased without a proper way of how to build up. In this case an English teacher has role important to stimulate students to improve their vocabulary. Based on the observation above, the writer assumed that the stud ents‟ problem in learning vocabulary comes not only from the students but also from the teacher‟s method that used in teaching vocabulary. According to the writer, it is crucial problems because the students will find difficulties in learning vocabulary, so they cannot understand about listening, speaking, reading and writing in real communication, and they will forget vocabularies easily. According to the problem above, the writer wants to propose a method and she tries to give the solution to the teacher s‟ problem in teaching learning vocabulary. In order the problems that faced by the students and the teacher can be solved, and can reinforce students‟ vocabulary mastery. The method proposed is using pictures in teaching vocabulary. Using pictures technique is a suitable method for the teacher in teaching vocabulary, and it will give solution for the teacher in teaching learning activities. 4 Mildred A. Dawson, Marian Zollinger and Ardell Elwell, Guiding Language Learning, New York: Harcourt, Brace World, Inc 1963, p. 64 5 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, New York: Longman Publishing, 1991, p. 162 6 Jeremy Harmer, The practice of English Language Teaching, New York: Longman Publishing, 1991, p. 162 Based on the explanation above, the writer wants to conduct the research about the effort to reinforce students‟ vocabulary through pictures with entitle “REINFORCING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY THROUGH PICTURES A Classroom Action Research in first grade of SMP PRAKARYA Anjatan- Indramayu”.

B. Identification of Problem