11 word smooth can be used for the noun hair because this adjective refers to the
things which have a surface that is perfectly regular without any holes or lumps. Thus, choosing a wrong word in a sentence may bring any problem in
conveying any certain meaning of the sentence. In conclusion, understanding how to differentiate and apply near-synonyms in the right context should be taken into
account in order to successfully deliver the meaning of any sentences.
2.1.3 A Picture Comparison Interactive Medium
It is needed to know the explanation of the medium which is proposed by the researcher. This section will discuss the medium, namely a picture comparison
interactive medium. The explanation consists of what a picture comparison interactive medium is and why a picture comparison interactive medium is used.
2.1.3.1 What is a Picture Comparison Interactive Medium?
In mastering English vocabularies, there are many difficulties that may be faced by students. Seeing that problem, the researcher proposes a learning aid
which is named a picture comparison interactive medium to assist students’
vocabulary learning. The researcher expects that the implementation of the learning aid can help students to tackle their problems related to vocabulary
learning especially in near-synonyms and improve their vocabulary mastery. As explained before, the medium provides explanations of near-synonyms
in two modes which are verbal and nonverbal information. As the verbal explanation, there are captions explaining the lexical category of the words,
context when the words should be applied, and examples of the sentences using the words, whereas the nonverbal information is presented through illustrations of
12 the near-synonyms.
The Oxford Learner’s Pocket Thesaurus 2010 and Cambridge Advanced Learners’ Dictionary 2008 come as the main references
for the researcher to compile the explanation of the near-synonyms in the medium. Further, the researcher gets any illustration which can support the
explanation of the materials from many sources such as Imgur and Wallpaperxl. In designing the learning aid, the researcher compares pairs of words
regarded as near-synonyms by placing them side by side in one page or screen. Further, the use of computer supports the implementation of this medium since
this learning aid is designed in computer-enhanced multimedia. The researcher used Articulate Storyline 2 software in making the computer-based learning aid.
Articulate Storyline 2 is e-learning authoring software for instructional designers. It provides user interface and interactive learning elements. By using this
software, designers can build any interaction on their medium by letting students to click, hover over, and drag any object to trigger any action.
In a picture comparison interactive medium itself, the software supports drag and drop activities which can put students into a practice. This existence of
the computer use in the medium enables the students to develop their independent and autonomous learning. Moreover, this medium is also equipped with simple
feedbacks to respond students’ answers. Therefore, this medium can be considered interactive as it allows two-way flow of interaction between the
learning medium and the students. In sharing this medium, it can be shared via web, Articulate Online, a learning management system LMS, or offline. Below
is an example of a picture comparison interactive medium. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
