Interpretation of the Transcendent Meaning of Vocabulary Using

From what the participants said, from the very first time they did the vocabulary exercises, they never had the intention to cheat. Warshaw and Davis 1985 as quoted in Konerding 1999 states that intention was “the degree to which a person has formulated conscious plans to perform or not to perform some specified future behavior.” They chose not to perform a certain behaviour, which was cheating or being dishonest. It was because they believed that it was a bad thing with risks that they had to take sooner or later. The risk could be anything; it could be a small thing such as being caught red-handed by the teachers or it could be a much bigger thing which was committing a sin. They realized that once they did dishonest thing, it would become a habit. By being honest, the participants’ indirectly showed that they were in the process of being self-actualized. Maslow 1979: p. 44 “self-actualization is an ongoing process...it means to make each of these choices as a growth choice.” The participants’ had made a choice which was wise. Wise people always thought and considered something more than once before they did it so that they could make a right decision based on their conscience. It showed that they also grew up into people who were responsible. They were taught to be honest and to not do something whose risks they did not want to take. Brigham Young made a statement which was good to make people understand the value of honesty. He said, “Honest hearts produce honest actions.” It was simple but it was meaningful. Honest actions were actions which would not bring disadvantages both for others and for us. People with honest hearts never played a trick on everyone and that they would never hurt someone. A much greater meaning was honesty was a thing God taught us to do. Rani realized that there would be another world after life. She knew that God sometimes may seem to hide, but the hidden God watched her as she did every single thing in her life. She did not want to commit a sin just because she cheated and told a lie about her scores. Revalda also shared that honesty kept her safe from sins. Cheating and telling a lie may seem to be only little things but when someone did it they added their sins. Therefore, it was much better for her to keep being honest even though there were actually many chances to be dishonest. c Acceptance Revalda and Rani were able to accept their scores even when those were low. They did it easily as they knew it was no use of regretting not having been more careful when they did the tasks. They put aside the feeling of disappointment. They did not want to waste time for that. Moreover, the results showed the truth about their vocabulary mastery. The results did not tell a lie. They then, tried to find out what was wrong which could only be done by retaking the exercises. It was not the time for them to give up. Giving up was not the best option because it only made them get stuck in difficulties. Their being able to accept themselves for what they were as students fulfilled one of the criteria of being self-actualized which was “They accept themselves, other people, and the natural world for what they are.” Maslow, 1987 as quoted in Hamachek,1990. They accepted the fact that they were still not good enough in knowing vocabulary. Seen from the family condition, Revalda accepted that she had to learn independently because she was often alone at home. She had nobody to help her when she had difficulties. Meanwhile, Rani had to accept that her parents used to be unsatisfied with her achievement in English. It was all the condition that they had to face and they had learnt to deal with it. Both of them knew that whatever the condition was, they should accept it, but at the same time they had to do something in order to be able to give their best. There was quotation from Denis Waitley from which said, “There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” Accepting conditions which were bad did not mean that Revalda and Rani were weak. On the contrary, it showed that they were strong enough to accept the fact. Accepting the disappointing scores made them less stressful and less burdened. It gave a feeling of relief; a feeling that they were not the only one who failed and the thought that everyone had ever failed. It also gave them time to build the courage to take another chance and to be convinced that failing now did not determine what they could get in the future. It was good that they did not care much about their previous low results. What mattered was what they did after that to make things better. Revalda and Rani had done both things, accepting their scores they way those were and took the responsibility to make those better. For vocational high school students at their age, it was good that they had this quality of accepting things. Rani obtained wise advice from her parents that after failure there was always time and opportunities to fix things. Meanwhile, Revalda was not a type of student who easily gave up. Another quotation by George Orwell from picturesquote.com explained it well in just a few words. He said, “Happiness can only exist in acceptance.” Accepting also meant being grateful for whatever things whether those were good or bad. In life, people who always had high expectation tend to be angry, tend to grumble when they did not obtain things which were exactly like their expectation. Grumbling did not bring any improvement. In fact, it only brought out any negative thoughts and behaviour. The participants were not happy with their results, either. Yet, it had happened. They could not turn back the time to the time when they did the first exercise. Maslow 1979: p.44 stated that one characteristic of self-actualized people was “They accept themselves, other people, and the natural world for what they are.” Both participants had reached this level that they could accept themselves for whatever they were. They did not regret what had happened and they did not blame anyone else. They forgave themselves for doing things carelessly. It was what Maslow 1979: p.261 stated as “It means the transcendence of remorse, regret, guilt, shame, embarrassment, and the like.” Regret and guilt were two of the things that people, including both participants were likely to have at certain points in their life. Yet, when those two things were too strong, those would hold us still in our place that we could not go on and make a better life. 2 Interpretation of the Shared Emergent Transcendent Themes There were some other themes which emerged in the texts as the participants told me their experience. Those appeared in the conversation during the interview. The themes highlighted meaning of vocabulary learning using IPALL which were more than just ordinary meaning. Therefore, I asked further questions about it as the follow-up to the emergent themes. It was conducted in order to go deeper in the participants’ lived experience which enabled me to understand that each emergent theme was also meaningful in the whole construction of meaning. a Connection with a Bigger Thing Whenever Revalda learnt vocabulary to support her English, she did not only think about how good her score was. It was even more than just a score. She learnt vocabulary with a hope that it helped her to do something for Jogjakarta. She wanted to make Jogjakarta a comfortable city for foreign tourists. It was done by mastering vocabulary which made somebody able to speak English fluently and understandably. She also had a hobby of writing a story in English version. It was what made her enthusiastic in vocabulary learning using the IPALL. She wrote stories to give entertainment to any people throughout the world. She knew how a story could make someone felt entertained because she herself liked reading stories. She felt something inside her which told her that she lived with a connection with the outside world. Revalda also felt that what she learnt at school should be beneficial for others. She could imagine how hard it was to be in a country which was not her own and then she could not find people who could help her when she got lost. She wanted to help foreign tourists more in case they needed some help and not merely for the sake of taking pictures together with them. When local people were able to help, the tourists would feel comfortable and it was able to make them come back to Jogjakarta again someday. Rani had found out how it was meaningful to her to have a lot of friends. When she was younger, she used to question why older students always came home late. Now, as she grew up, she found it important to relax and spend some time with her friends. It was the time where she could share all the laughter and tears. She felt lucky to have many friends. She had people who could cheer her up; the people who loved her besides her parents. She had a dream of having friends from other countries that she could see the beauty of the world which lay on friendships. There were a lot of people from different countries with their own uniqueness. It was also interesting to know that there were also possibilities to meet some people who also liked to find some new friends from all over the world. Friendships had uniqueness. It was about who she spent her time with and what positive values she could find in it. Knowing much vocabulary was important for Rani as it enabled her to travel to United Kingdom or United States of America. She wanted to see what the world was like. Travelling to other countries did not only mean that she could be able to enjoy breathtaking sceneries or landscapes, but it also meant that she could meet some interesting people and get to know each other. This was so meaningful to Rani because she realized that she lived only once. She wanted to do good, interesting things, one of which was making some new friends. What Rani felt was also felt by Earl. He was a nomad and he liked travelling around the world. He shared what it meant to meet a lot of people along his trip which I quoted from his blog which address was http:www.wanderingearl.comfriendship-and-travel-so-many-friends-so-many- goodbyes You Never Know Who You’ll Meet With all of this said, I can understand how this constant saying hello and saying goodbye stuff isn’t for everyone. And I do know people who couldn’t get used to it at all, so much so that the life of travel they once dreamed of became something they were no longer interested in pursuing…However, my theory has always been that it’s much better to dive in and bond with new people because in the end, you really never know where it might lead…Every person you meet, anywhere in the world, could potentially be your next friend, maybe an extremely close friend, or perhaps a long-term partner or even a spouse. You just don’t know, and at least in my opinion, I’d rather meet as many people as possible, to bond and become friends with all those I connect with, to share great moments and memories and to know that some of these friendships will last, somehow, some way, despite having to say goodbye. Derek Earl He admitted that travelling was not easy sometimes that it could change from something that a person desired into something they would never do again. It was because they got sadder when they had to say goodbye again and again. There was a feeling of fear and sadness of always saying goodbyes to each person we met. However, I totally agreed with him that meeting new people even just for a short period of time was fine because we never knew whether someday they really became a part in our life. We never knew where life might bring us. Rani also wanted to make some new friends from other countries not because she wanted to give impression that she was cool, smart or because she wanted to boast, but because she wanted to have a meaningful life. It could be achieved by participating could be achieved by participating in any activities with her new friends and sharing a lot of things that neither she nor her new friends had known before. What participants shared to was one of being transcendent criteria. It fitted what Maslow 1979: p.262 which was “...love ‘for one’s child, or for one’s beloved friend.” Revalda’s willingness to help foreign tourists was more than just because she merely wanted to practice her English. It was because she felt that helping others gave a feeling of comfort, a feeling that even a stranger was willing to help people that she did not even know. It was also a form of love that a person cared for each other. Revalda was just happy whenever she could do that. Moreover, the foreign tourists may decide to go to this city again because they felt at ease. Meanwhile Rani found happiness and joy whenever she could make new friends. It was because she was able to gain a lot of new wonderful experience. She enjoyed spending a quality time with her friends and it would be much more enjoyable when she could have friends from other countries. She loved meeting new people and she loved and appreciated friends that she had now. They also showed “...a sense of identification with humankind as a whole in the sense of being concerned…of the world as a whole.” Maslow: 1987 as quoted in Hamachek: 1990. b God Talks to Me We were aware of God existence in a way that other people may not understand. Even when we had never seen God, we believed that He existed and watched us from above the sky. Both Rani and Revalda knew that there was a life after death. They knew that God would judge what they did during their life on Earth. That was the reason why they chose to be careful in everything they did. In their life as a student, they felt that they had to do their best as a student. In their social life, they had to do good things to their friends, to their parents, to earn pahala so that later on in the afterlife they could be accepted in Heaven. What they experienced could be categorized as mystical experience. It is “Mystic fusion, either with another person or with the whole cosmos or with anything in between.” Maslow, 1979: p.261 It was the time when they felt connected not only with the cosmos but with the One who created it. It also fitted Maslow 1979 as quoted in Fernando 2002 who stated about peak experience. Their experience was an experience of mystery which others may not understand. They somehow felt that God tried to talk to them. It was a precious moment in which they were both happy and aware of His presence. It was why they were obedient to Him because they realized He was always there watching them. There was an interesting quotation that God was so reachable that we even did not need any social media to reach Him. “God has no phone, but I talk to Him. He has no Facebook, but He is still my friend. He does not have Twitter, but I still follow Him.” It was taken from www.pinterest.com. The last was the important one. Following God meant obeying His rules; doing what was right according to Him. Rani and Revalda, through everything which had happened in their life including what their parents taught them and through dreams that came at night during their sleep, were able to differentiate what was right and what was wrong. They avoid doing bad things even only the small one because they knew that they themselves who were going to pay the price. Life may seem so long, but actually none of us in this world knew when our life ended. It was a mystery, so before it was too late, it was much better to always be careful in the way we thought, spoke, and behaved. 121

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATION, RECOMMENDATION

Conclusions presented in this chapter aim to summarize briefly about what this research has found especially in relation with the research questions. It highlights some important insights in relation with meaning of vocabulary learning using Interactive PowerPoint Application for Language Learning IPALL. Then, some implication was also given in relation with what this research has illuminated. Meanwhile, recommendation is also presented in order to give brief information about what still needs to be improved, especially in terms of vocabulary learning using IPALL in the classrooms.

A. CONCLUSIONS

This research aims to answer two research questions which are 1 the empirical meaning of vocabulary learning using IPALL and 2 the transcendent meaning of vocabulary learning using IPALL. The empirical meaning is related with things which can be observed as the phenomenon is lived by the participants while the transcendent meaning is related to things beyond what can be observed. It is related more with experience or moments which are not like common daily experience. The answers to the first research question are better knowledge of word meaning and forms, having chances to repeat, and better learning atmosphere. Meanwhile, one participant has mentioned that it is better to learn vocabulary using IPALL at home because it enables her to focus and concentrate on what she is doing. Then, the answers to the second question are perseverance, honesty, acceptance, connection with a bigger world, and God talks. Being honest is one of the self-actualized person’s characteristics. This characteristic also shows that the participants are in the process of being transcendent. It means that their decisions are based on what they believe is true such as the decisions to keep struggling and to accept their condition. The connection with a bigger world and God talks are proofs that they have the moments which are somehow difficult to explain. They are a part of the world and they are created by God who is watching them all the time. The empirical meaning has shown that IPALL which is created with an aim to enable teachers develop a set of tests in fact, has been able to help students a lot. It has helped them to know more vocabulary and its meaning and forms which are rarely taught at school. It has also given different atmosphere and has made learning more enjoyable. It is important to notice that it is always necessary to help students reach better academic achievement. However, it is not the only thing which teachers have to pay attention to. How to provide enjoyable, not boring atmosphere is also important. The transcendent meaning showed that when learning something participants also learn to do or not to do something. It is all based on what they think is right and good for them.

B. IMPLICATION

The pedagogical implication of this research is integrating technology to learn vocabulary can create better learning atmosphere. IPALL with features that it has has been able to help students focus on meaning when they did the exercises in the IPALL Matching. It also helps students to pay attention to forms from the sentence examples in the IPALL. Technology like IPALL is useful as long as it is adjusted to the principles of vocabulary or language learning or other important concepts so that it is really appropriate with the materials and conditions. Knowing vocabulary means knowing some important aspects of words, so the development of any kinds of vocabulary learning media should consider those aspects that most or all of them can be facilitated. Teachers, lecturers, instructors should pay attention to how the process of vocabulary learning using IPALL or other forms of learning medium is going. It is because students bring something which is shaped by learning experience and other events in their past that they perceive vocabulary learning using IPALL and other kinds of technology differently. For some students, it is an enjoyable learning experience and it has made them able to learn some values in their peak experience. Yet, some others may not find it as helpful as the others. At this moment, students should obtain necessary assistance so that they do not feel anxious or feel that they are being forced to use it or being left behind.

C. RECOMMENDATIONS

IPALL Matching and Multiple Choice have facilitated vocabulary learning especially in terms of knowing its meaning and forms. IPALL actually also provides the development of other test types such as true false and cloze test. Those are not addressed in this research because teachers at the school in which this research was conducted did not use those types of tests. Hence, the recommendation for the next researchers is they may focus on seeking meaning about how the other test types help students in learning English. It is useful so that there will be a complete description and interpretation of how the whole IPALL has brought meaning to students’ life. There are a lot of features in the IPALL. This research has mentioned a few of those features. Considering this fact, the next researchers may conduct a research on how each feature is able to help students learn vocabulary easier. It has also been mentioned that the feedback box feature in the IPALL is only able to provide limited feedback, so the next researchers may also focus on how to upgrade each IPALL feature that it can become more advanced and provide more complete feedback. It is based on the consideration that the IPALL does not have the feature of supervision. 125 BIBLIOGRAPHY Ahmad, J. 2012. Incidental vs. Intentional Vocabulary Learning. International Association of Research in Foreign Language Education and Applied Linguistics 1 1, 71-79. Retrieved from http:www.kau.edu.saFiles0053226Researches65160_36507.pdf on 10 th Sep, 2014. Alemi, M., Tayebi, A. 2011. The Influence of Incidental and Intentional Vocabulary Acquisition and Vocabulary Strategy Use on Learning L2 Vocabularies. Journal of Language Teaching and Research 2 1. Retrieved from https:www.academia.edu277612The_Influence_of_Incidental_and_Inte ntional_Vocabulary_Acquisition_and_Vocabulary_Strategy_Use_on_Lear ning_L2_Vocabularies on 10 th Sep, 2014. Alvesson, M., Skoldberg, K. 2000. Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research . London: Sage Publication. Ary, D. 1990. Introduction to Research in Education 4 th ed.. Chicago: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Ary, D., Jacobs, L.C., Razavieh, A. 2002. Introduction to Research in Education 6 th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth Thomson Learning. Arzamarski, R., Isenhower, R.W., Kay, B.A., Truvey, M.T., Michaels, C.F. 2010. Effects of Intention and Learning on Attention to Information in Dynamic Touch. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics 72 3, 721- 735 retrieved from www.ibrarian.net...14TH_INTERNATIONAL_C... on February 7 th , 2015. Becker, W.C ed. 1971. An Empirical Basis for Change in Education: Selections on Behavioral Psychology for Teachers . Chicago: Science Research Associates. Best, J.W. 1970. Research in Education 2 nd ed. . New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Bingimlas, K., Hanrahan, M. 2010. The Relationship Between Teachers’ Beliefs and Their Practice: How the Literature Can Inform Science Education Reformers and Researchers. In M.F. Taşar G. Çakmakci Eds. Contemporary Science Education Research: International Perspective pp. 415-422. Ankara, Turkey: Pegem Akademi retrieved on 19 th Nov, 2014.