Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Vocabulary is an important element in second language acquisition. It is an element that links the four skills of language like listening, speaking, reading and writting all together, that is why it is undeniable that vocabulary has been considered the crucial component of learning a foreign language. “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” This is how the linguist David Wilkins summed up the importance of vocabulary learning. Vocabulary is the first step to be taught before teaching other aspects of the language because vocabulary as one of the most aspects and becomes a central part of the foreign language learning. SDN Sanggrahan Surakarta is one of elementary school that has decided to include English as a local content in its curriculum. In reality, English especially for the beginners level are often faced with the problem of vocabulary. It is proved from the observation done by the writer to the fifth grade students in SDN Sanggrahan Surakarta. The writer found that children as the learners face some obstacle in vocabulary competence, and it can be seen from the students’ answer when they are asked about English, i.e. Bahasa Inggris sulit, Bu, membacanya beda sama tulisan, artinya juga tidak tahu, sering lupa dan gak asyik, etc. From these statements, the writer concludes that some problems come up dealing with vocabulary. The indicators are: 1 The students usually make mistakes in pronouncing the words; 2 The students get difficulties to mention words they already learn before; 3 The students get difficulties to spelling the words; 4 The students get difficulties in recognizing words; 5 The students get confuse in meaning of English words. By considering the rising problems as mentioned above and from the students’ assumption that English is a difficult subject, it makes the classroom situation do not conducive for teaching and learning process, the writer also conducted more observation to the students in the class to get more information. commit to user By doing so, the writer found some factors causing those problems. They are: 1 The students usually make noise in the class; 2 The students passive in answer tasks given by teacher; 3 The students do not take note the important things taught; 4 The students’s attention to learn English is not optimal; 5 The students busy doing non academic things with their friends. After observing the instructional process at the fifth grade students of SDN Sanggrahan, it can be identified that several problems occured during the teaching-learning activity. They are: 1 The technique applied by the teacher is not appropriate enough related to the topic or material, situation and condition. The teacher only gives some English words then translate them; 2 The teacher only focuses on the writing skill. The students asked to remember letter of words, write the words mentioned by the teacher, that is the teacher tends to use written form first than oral in introducing the English words; 3 There is no media use in teaching and learning process. From the interview and observation, the researcher find out that the teacher does not use any media in teaching and learning process. The teacher only uses text book in teaching and learning process. The teacher finds that the students are not interested in learning English. The low interest in learning causes the students pay little attention to the teacher’s explanation. Allen 1983: p.33 states that “Successful language learning outside the school is generally in a situation where the learner can see what is named by the word to be learned. Whenever possible, that condition of successful vocabulary learning should be provided in second-langauge classrooms”. It means that good materials will help maintain the pace of the lesson and the students’ interest. As we learn most through stimulus, the more interesting and varied these stimuli are, quicker and more effective our learning will be. Videos can increase students’ interest to learned new words, it is best learned when the meaning of the words is illustrated. Video helps to make media more realistic. It may sometimes be used as the sole for teaching some kinds of factual performance skills. Learning from a video may be increased by providing a verbal introduction, stating the purpose of the video and the importance is showing and explaining how the content pertains commit to user to the study already under way about to be undertaken. Also, learning can be increased by repeated showing on the video as well as pre-testing and post-testing. In conducting vocabulary activity, teacher can enrich learning video by providing for participation or repetitive experiences related to video content. Here, the researcher uses YouTube videos. YouTube as one of the video sharing website which users can upload and share videos, and view them in various format ComScore, 2007. Accessed from internet on Wednesday January 20 th 2010. This study explores the use of YouTube videos in teaching vocabulary for elementary school students. By using YouTube videos, it is hoped that the students feel more interested in learning English, it gives the students opportunities to recall new words easily and finally, it is also hoped that YouTube videos can be used as one of the enjoyable alternatives in teaching English vocabulary to the elementary students especially at the fifth grade of SDN Sanggrahan Surakarta.

B. Problem Statements