16 pronunciation.
Second, the students should be given the opportunity to pronounce the new word. After the teacher gives the correct pronunciation of a word, the teacher then
should let the students to repeat pronouncing the word that has been said by the teacher. This step will help the students remember the word in a longer period of
time. When the students make a mistake in pronouncing the word, the teacher should correct it by pronouncing it again.
The last step is the students should predict the meaning of the unfamiliar word. It is the most important step in learning vocabulary. The teacher may give
the definition to describe the word, but indirectly. So the teacher should define the word by using an indirect description of the word. Through using an indirect
description of the word, the students will be encouraged to remember the word better and it helps them to notice its part of speech.
Those three steps are important in learning vocabulary and have to be considered in the learning process. Learning process involves hearing the words,
pronouncing them, and understanding the meaning. The teacher should be aware of those processes. In order to be able to master and understand vocabularies, the
students should experience those three teaching vocabulary steps.
a. Background of Vocabulary Teaching
There are four backgrounds of teaching vocabulary based on I.S.P. Nation, Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand. The first is learning from
meaning-focused input. It involves learning from listening and reading. Secondly
17 is deliberate learning. This technique is learning a language by consciously paying
attention to the language features such as sounds, spelling, vocabulary, grammar or discourse. The third is learning from meaning-focused output. It involves
learning through speaking and writing. The last is fluency development. In this case, the learner has already known the word that they know all. The focus is on
being fluent in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Teaching vocabulary using songs is considered as a learning method from
meaning-focused input. It means that the learner has already known some words that they listen. There should be few difficult words occur in the listening material
so that the learner can guess the meaning from the context and it would be easier for the learner to understand and remember better the new words given. So the
text or the teaching material is determined by the level of the students’ difficulty.
b. Principles of Vocabulary Teaching
Vocabulary is considered as an important part of language learning and to overcome the difficulty in teaching vocabulary the teacher should apply the
guiding principles in vocabulary teaching. There are four principles in learning vocabulary based on I.S.P. Nation, Victoria University of Wellington 2001: 135-
141. They are: 1.
Focus on the most useful vocabulary first 2001: 135. Teaching useful vocabulary will give the learners the best result for their learning.
It is related to vocabulary selection. The teacher needs to rely on the most useful vocabulary in order to meet the needs of various goals and conditions. In teaching
