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11 2 Meaning relationship
How the meaning of one item relates to the meaning of others can also be useful in teaching. There are various such relationship, they are: 1
synonyms: item that mean the same or nearly the same, 2 antonyms: items that mean the opposite, 3 hyponyms: item that serve as specific examples
of a general concept, 4 co-hyponyms or co-ordinates: other items that are the ‘same kind of thing, 5 superordinates: general concepts that ‘cover
specific items, 6 and translation: words of expression in the learners’ mother tongue that are equivalent in meaning to the item being taught.
e. Word formation
Vocabulary item, whether one word or multi word, can often be broken down into their component of words. Exactly how these words are put together
is another piece of useful information.
4. Teaching and Learning Vocabulary
a. Learning Strategy
There are many strategies in learning strategies which is can be used by the learners. The learners can choose the strategies in learning vocabulary which is
appropriate with them. Schmitt and McCarthy 1997 divide the taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies into four groups as follows:
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12 1 Discovery Strategies, in this strategies the learner learn the words by
themselves, they have to discover the meaning of the vocabulary which is they learn by guessing from structural knowledge in language.
2 Social Strategies, another way to discover new meaning of words employs the social strategy of asking someone who knows. Teachers are
often in this position. They can be asked to help in a variety of ways like giving the translation, synonym, paraphrase, and any combination of these.
3 Memory Strategies, This strategies known as mnemonics which is involve relating the word to be retained with some previously learners’
knowledge, using imaginary or grouping. This strategy usually used this stage like pictures imaginary, related words, grouping, etc.
4 Cognitive Strategies, this strategy focused on manipulative mental processing; sorting, classifying, comparing, predicating, repeating and using
mechanical means to study. b.
Teaching Vocabulary Vocabulary is an important component to study because from learning
vocabulary we can learn speaking, reading, writing. The success in teaching vocabulary depends on the interaction between teacher and learner.
5. Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary
Allen 1983 explains some techniques in teaching vocabulary that can be prepared and chosen as follows:
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13 a. Demonstration, this technique belongs to demonstration, is gesture and
action performing but the teacher can also use real objects and command. b. Visual Aids, this technique is interesting to teach the students in teaching
learning vocabulary. In this technique the teacher can use pictures, photo, blackboard, etc.
c. Verbal Explanation, verbal explanation is like translating the words L2 into L1, the teacher have to pay attention with words in sentences or in context
because words have several meaning.
d. Word List, word list technique, the teacher should pay attention to
vocabulary selection. The words which are thought must appropriate with the students level.
While Cross 1995: 5-10 makes a list of techniques of teaching vocabulary. The techniques are as follows:
a. Ostensive Means
Ostensive means is the way of teaching vocabulary by showing or holding up or pointing to objects in the classroom or outside the class. The
kinds of ostensive means are as follows: 1
Realia Realia can be called real things. It is the way of presenting
vocabulary by bringing the things into the classroom. For examples: a piece of bread or fruit, a whistle, a stick, toys, eggs, and so on.
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14 2
Picture Objects that are not easy carried or which are unavailable can be
represented pictorially. Simple picture are better because the focus is less ambiguous.
3 Body
Both teacher’s and student’s body can be used to get the meaning across. The techniques of using body in the teaching vocabulary are: a
facial expression, to show feelings e.g. happy, smiling, hot, b gesture, using hands and arms to show range of meaning e.g. fast, small, wide,
c mime and action, to show many verbs and some adverbs e.g. to eat, to sleep, to wake up.
b. Verbal Definitions
There are several ways to define the meaning of a new word using teacher talk. There are:
1 Word sets
Word sets are the groups or related words. Teacher can use the words in a set that the students already know in order to introduce new
related words. 2
Synonyms
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15 Synonyms are words that mean more less the same meaning.
Synonyms are best shown on the board using the mathematical sign for equals =. Example: unhappy = sad, residence = home.
3 Antonyms opposites
Antonyms are words that have an opposite meaning. The sign to indicate an opposite meaning is equals sign crosses ≠. Example: hot ≠
cold, full ≠ empty.
4 Cognates
Cognates are words in the students’ own language that have the same, or very similar, form as English word. If the student’s mother
tongue or second language is related to English there will be many hundreds or perhaps thousands, of such words available and readily
comprehensible. 5
Illustrative sentence Illustrative sentence are the way of teaching vocabulary by
contriving a sequence of sentences to create a linguistic context in which the meaning of the one unknown word is illustrated become clear.
6 Scales
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16 Teacher can show the meaning of some types of words by
sequencing them along a scale between two antonyms. For example: never, sometimes, often, generally, always.
7 Translations
Translation can be used when no easy alternative suggests itself. It is sometimes better to give the mother tongue equivalent, rather than to
spend a great deal of time trying to define of show the meaning. c.
Audio Presentation Audio presentation is the way of teaching vocabulary by signaling the
meaning of words. Many words are more easily presented by a tape recording than by the ways already described. For example: a horse
galloping, children splashing in the water. d.
Running Context Running context is the way of teaching vocabulary by linking all new
words in some way. This can be done after the presentation of the words as separate entities or during the entire presentation. For example in presenting
flood, thunder and collapse, the story of a storm with heavy rain which caused a house in your village to collapse would create interest as the three
new words are introduced.
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17 From the explanation above it can be concluded that there are many
techniques in presenting vocabulary thus she or he can use many technique which is appropriate with the material, the learner and the situation.
In her research, the researcher will take the development data of the students in understanding meaning and spelling by using test. The researcher will take the
students’ pronunciation development data and the development the students understanding the command by audiovisual recording.
6. Construct of Vocabulary Acquisition
Based on the explanation above, vocabulary acquisition is a process to pick up list of words of a second language through an exposure thus the learner can identify
the meaning, spelling, instruction, pronunciation of the vocabulary in and out of the context and it can be used naturally and appropriately. Children’s song video
presenting new vocabulary in a context through TPR can make the students exposure list of the words or utterances from the song lyric thus the learner can
identify the meaning, spelling, instruction, pronunciation of the vocabulary or utterances by doing the command and watching the video.
In her research, the researcher will take the development data of the students in understanding meaning and spelling by using test. The researcher will take the
students’ pronunciation development data and the development the students understanding and responding the command by field note.
7. Scoring Rubrics
