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According to Willis 2003, there are seven activities to stimulate students rehearsing the topic language p. 43. Furthermore, Willis 2003 adds that most
of these activities begin with class activities and then continue in groups or pairs p. 44. These activities are done in pre-task language activities. These activities
are classifying words and phrases, odd one out, matching phrases to pictures, memory challenge, brainstorming and mind-maps, thinking of questions to ask,
and teacher recounting a similar experience. Those activities are conducted based on the varieties of task proposed by
Willis. There are six types of tasks defined by Willis 2003. Those types are “listing, ordering and sorting, comparing, problem solving, sharing personal
experience, and creative tasks ” p. 26.
3. Review of Related Studies
In the review of related studies, the researcher discusses other related studies previously done by other researchers on the topic of improving the
students’ vocabulary mastery through Task-Based Learning. There are two studies discussed in this part. Those are The Effectiveness of Using the Task-based
Technique to Teach Vocabulary to the Fifth Grade Students of Ungaran II Elementary School Yogyakarta Pertiwi, 2005 and Options for Vocabulary
Learning through Communication Tasks Newton, 1999. The first study was experimental research. It aimed at investigating how
the Task-Based Technique was implemented in the class and whether the use of the Task-Based Technique in vocabulary teaching to the fifth grade students of
elementary school improved their vocabulary mastery or not. The subjects of the
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first study were the fifth grade students of Ungaran II Elementary School Yogyakarta. The findings of the first study indicated that using Task-Based
Technique was effective in vocabulary teaching for the fifth grade students of elementary school because the study improv
ed the students’ vocabulary mastery. The result of the post test was higher than the result of the pre test.
There were two differences between the first study and this research. This research was not experimental research but Classroom Action Research. The
research respondents of this research were not fifth grade students but tenth grade students. However, the success of the first study leads the researcher to believe
that Task- Based Learning is also able to improve the X3 students’ vocabulary
mastery of SMA Sang Timur Yogyakarta. The second study presented that allowing the students to work
cooperatively with limited assistance to understand unfamiliar words in communicative environment is a particularly effective option. The data of the
second study indicated that when the students negotiated word meanings during the task completion, they understood words in meaningful contexts and also had
opportunities to use those words in communication. However, the teacher was
required to confirm that the students had opportunities to meet and explore new vocabulary without direct teacher assistance, and to use this vocabulary to achieve
the task goals. The communicative tasks of the second study used Task-Based Learning
as the base. The result of the second study strengthened the assumption that Task- Based Learning was best implemented to improve the X3 students’ vocabulary
