14 need indoor and outdoor space where they can try out all their newly acquired
skills without danger of injury.
2. Vocabulary
English language in Indonesia is used as an international language. “English is a language of wider communication both among individuals from
different countries and between individual s from the country” McKay, 2002: 6.
It is not easy to learn foreign language for pre-school students because they also still learn their mother tongue. Vocabulary is taken into account since this study
requires some enlightenment of related theories that is significant to the research. The discussion on vocabulary covers the importance of vocabulary, vocabulary
learning, and vocabulary teaching. Further, the theories will be elaborated in this sub-chapter.
a. The Importance of Vocabulary
It is helpful to know what vocabulary refers to before dealing with the discussion on how important vocabulary is since a better understanding of what is
meant by vocabulary can be obtained. Vocabulary is often encountered in daily spoken as well as in written form. People usually name a thing or an issue with
the word that is meant when they refer to it. Therefore, names, which are represented by the meant words, are important for the construction of reality
because it is quite difficult to accept the existence of an object, a feeling, or an event without a name Taylor, 1990: 1. It is said that the importance of having a
large amount of vocabulary will provide the learners with the ability to
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
15 communicate the language Willis, 1996: 118. For instance, if learners are
visiting a foreign country in which they do not speak the language, they tend to take a dictionary to look up the meaning of the word rather than a grammar book.
It indicates that learners initially need vocabulary if they want to communicate in the intended language.
b. Vocabulary Learning
Vocabulary learning is central to language acquisition whether the language is first, second, or foreign Decarrico as cited in Muria-Celce, 2001:
285. A language contains a number of words or what is so called vocabulary. Such words in a language are often used by people to communicate everything,
which is processed in their minds, for example to express what they feel and do. Thus, to be able to acquire a language, people first need to acquire its vocabulary
so that they are able to communicate the language. Nation 1990: 2 also supports the above view. He says that both teachers
and learners see vocabulary as being an important element in language learning. It is often encountered in language learning, a situation in which the major difficulty
faced by language learners is an inadequate vocabulary. Learning is defined by Rubin 1987: 29 as a process by which information is obtained, stored, retrieved,
and used from what is being learnt. It also occurs in vocabulary learning that involves those processes altogether. Therefore, it can be said that vocabulary
learning is a process of obtaining, storing, retrieving, and using a number of words in a language.
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c. Vocabulary Teaching
