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CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Vocabulary Development
1. Nature of Vocabulary
Having a limited vocabulary is like a barrier that prevents students from learning a language.
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Without a sufficient vocabulary, someone cannot communicate effectively or express ideas because we think with word. We also
speak, listen, read and write with words. Words help us communicate our ideas and they also help us to
understand other people’s ideas. It also implied that vocabulary takes an important role in improving our skills in English. A good
vocabulary goes hand in hand with someone ability to think logically and to learn easily and quickly.
Vocabulary consists of knowing how to use words, which represents image.
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It can be concluded that a learner of a foreign language will speak fluently and accurately, write easily, and understand what he reads or hears if he
has enough vocabulary and has a capability of using it accurately. Vocabulary is the key to student understanding what they hear and read in
school; and to communicate successfully with other people.
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For this reason it is very important for the student to quickly build up a large store of words. Research
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Norbert Schmitt, Vocabulary in Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2000, p.22.
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Joseph P. O’rourke, Toward a Science of Vocabulary Development. Netherlands: Mouton, 1974, p. 26.
13
Joseph P. O’rourke, Toward a Science of Vocabulary Development, ..., p. 14.
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studies have shown the strong links between having an extensive vocabulary and achieving school success.
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Vocabulary is central to language and is great significance to language learners.
Murcia says that “words are perceived as the building blocks upon which knowledge of the secon
d language can be built”.
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It is implied that in learning vocabulary, students are ought to practice it very often and they cannot practice or
build that language if they are lack of vocabulary. Many definitions can be found about vocabulary from some expert, but the
writers only choose several of them which are important to discuss. “Vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides
much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read and write. Without an extensive vocabulary and strategies for acquiring new
vocabulary, learners often achieve less than their potential and may discourage from making use of language opportunities around them.”
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Vocabulary, as people may know, is just a word but actually vocabulary not just build from a word but also from another word that convey one meaning.
Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language. However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single
word: for example, post office and mother-in-law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea. There are also multi-word
idioms such as call it a day, where the meaning of the phrase cannot be deduced from an analysis of the component words. A useful convention is
to c
over all such cases by talking about vocabulary „items’ rather than „words’.
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Vocabulary is a group of words on a certain language as a part of teaching- learning a foreign language. Words mean the memory of the situation in which
they have been observed and understood, brought out by the context in which they
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http:esl.fis.eduparentsadvicevocab.htm
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Marianne Celce-Murcia., Teaching English as a Second Language or Foreign Language, 2
nd
ed. Massachusetts: Heinle Heinle Publishers, 1991, p.296.
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Richards, Jack C and Renandya, Willy A, Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 255.
17
Penny Ur, A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 60.
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are used.
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It means that to know a word is to be able to use it or to understand in situation in which the person has not experienced it before.
In language learning and teaching, vocabulary is the important aspect besides other language component such as grammar and pronunciation. Allen and
Vallen state that vocabulary is an important factor in all language teaching. Students must continually be learning words as they learn structures and as they
practice the sound system.
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Another definition, vocabulary is a component of a language that contains all of information about meaning and using word in a language.
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Webster’s ninth Collegiate Dictionary, vocabulary is:
a A list of words and phrases, abbreviation inflectional form. Usually arranged
in alphabetical order defined or otherwise identified as in a dictionary of glossary.
b An interrelated group of non-verbal symbols, signs, gestures, etc. used for communication or expression in a particular art, skill, etc.
Hatch and Brown define vocabulary as a list or set of words for a particular language or a list or set of words that individual speakers of language
might use.
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It can be concluded from all definitions above about vocabulary that vocabulary is a set of words which use in a language. Thus, vocabulary is one of
the component of a language where there is no language without words. From these statements, vocabulary mastery and development of the student is important
in language teaching beside grammar and pronunciation to reach the goal of English learning and teaching itself.
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Robert Lado, Language Teaching : a scientific approach, Bombay-New Delhi : Tata Mc.Graw Hill Publishing Co.Ltd, 1974 , p.118
19
Edward David Allen and Rebecca M. Valette, Classroom Techniques: Foreign Languages and English as a Second Language New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977, p.
149.
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Harimukti Kridalaksana, Kamus Linguistic, Edisi ke-tiga Jakarta: PT. Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 1993, p. 127
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Evelyn Hatch and Cherryl Brown, Vocabulary,Semantic,and language Education Cambridge : Cambridge University, 1995, p. 1
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2. Kinds of Vocabulary
Kategori