NUR ENDAH SETIYANI CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II THEORITICAL REVIEW A. Vocabulary 1. The Definition of Vocabulary Hornby, (1989: 959) states that vocabulary is the total number of
words (with rules for combining them) which make up language from this definition it is known that a language consist of words.
Vocabulary according to Hartman (1972) in Nugraha (1983: 3) is “the stock of words which are at the disposal of speaker or writer. The term vocabulary may refer to all words in the whole language, or the words or phrases used in particular varieties such as dialect, register, terminology.”
From the definition above, it can be inferred that vocabulary is words or list of words with their meanings and they are known by their speaker and used to communicate among those speaker and it is employed by a language, group or individual.
Vocabulary is very important thing in our English mastery. When we speak, write, or listen in English, of course we always use vocabulary.
Without mastering vocabulary well, we won’t speak fluently. As we know that the lack of vocabulary often brings troubles for the English learners.
We will speak without hesitation with rich vocabulary in our mind.
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2. The Teaching of Vocabulary
Teaching is an act to give someone knowledge, or to instruct someone to be master in certain field or understand in learning. But nowadays, teacher is not only as an educator but also motivator and facilitator in teaching learning process. Teaching vocabulary is an act to give someone knowledge or to instruct or train someone motivate and also facilities the students about the total number of words especially the rules in combining them. According to Finnochiaro (1974: 73), there are several premises and comments related to the teaching of vocabulary as follows: a.
Not all of the word a student hears during any lesson need become a part of his “active” vocabulary during that lesson or even in later lesson. Some words in the new language (and in our native language) will remain “passive,” that is, we understand them when we hear them and read them, but we don’t use them ourselves in speaking or writing. The vocabulary for active use should be systematically presented and practiced.
b.
Whenever a familiar word is met in a new context, it should be taught again and practiced. If possible, only one context should be taught at one time.
c.
Vocabulary items should be taught in the same way we teach everything else. We give our students an understanding of the meaning in many ways. We dramatize; we illustrate using our students and ourselves; we show pictures; authentic material; we paraphrase; we give equivalent if necessary; we use any appropriate technique.
d.
Vocabulary should be practiced as structures are practiced in substitution drills; transformation drills; question and answer, etc.
e.
Vocabulary items should be reintroduced many times with all the structures and in all the situations in which they can logically be used.
From the explanation above, the writer conclude that vocabulary is a component of the language and that no language exists without words. Words are signs or symbols for ideas. So, the mastery of vocabulary teaching will be achieved if the vocabulary teaching is effective.
3. The Learning of Vocabulary
The students can learn vocabulary by reading text, but they commonly find learning problem of English vocabulary. It is a common sense, because the language they learn is foreign language that is different in their own language system. In learning a foreign language, the learners have to try to master both the language skills and it’s competent.
According to Lado (1972: 1) there are some methods which may be able to help the learner master vocabulary well: a.
Dictionary Obviously, a language learner has to have at least good vocabulary.
Meanwhile when she has a trouble in catching the meaning of words, dictionary can be used effectively if she was aware of words limitation and consult them only to find a quick definition.
b.
Note Book One of the most effective ways to control the learning of new words is to keep a vocabulary notebook. We may want to keep small one in our pocket so that you can write down word whenever we hear or see them.
c.
Guessing the Meaning Often, especially in reading you will find words whose exact meaning is not absolutely necessary for you to know in order to understand the sentences. Therefore, do not run to the dictionary every time you meet strange word wait and see if something else in the context become a clue to its meaning.
From the explanation above, we can say that using differences of methods can develop student’s vocabulary. They can choose one of them based on their ability.
To avoid the students’ boredom or problems in learning vocabulary, the students can learn vocabulary items using; authentic reading text, authentic material, article, magazine, newspaper, dictionary, notebook, guessing the meaning, word formation, matching, identifying words, and completion. The purpose is, of course, to make the materials more enjoyable, interesting, and challenging (Pieter A. Napa: 1993).
B. Reading 1. The Definition of Reading
The knowledge background and pas experience of the students are very important in reading. In order to comprehend the printed or written words, students read to recall the concept they have already had in mind and relate them to the written materials and get new meaning from the materials.
Some reading definition has been presented by scientists. Each of them has his own statements but the core of those statements which is related to reading is concerns with printed or written text.
Reading is getting meaning from printed or written material (Finnocciaro, 1978: 77). Understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it that as efficiently as possible.
Simanjuntak (1988: 75) reading is a process of putting the reader in contact and communication with ideas. As a matter of fact, human beings are pre-programmed to perform language acts, such as listening, speaking and writing.
Reading is something crucial in our life. As stated by Ramelan (1990: 1), reading plays a very important part in our life. Through reading we can explore the world, countries that have never been visited before, and the minds and ideas of greater people in the past, all of which will enrich our experience and knowledge, and broaden our horizon. To students, reading is also something crucial and indispensable since the success of their study depends for the greater part on ability to read. If his reading skill is poor, they are very likely to fail in their study, or at least they will have difficulty in making progress. On the other hand, if they have a good reading ability, they will have a better chance to succeed in their study at school.
Based on definition above, the research concludes that reading is the process of understanding and interpretation to get of the printed message or written text.
2. The Purposes of Reading
The main purpose of reading is looking for getting information from books or texts. In reading, the students have to understand the idea, the context, and the meaning of the texts or passage. According to Anderson (1977: 92) there are some purposes of reading: a.
Reading for Details or Facts The students read the text to get or know invention that have been done by the writer or solve the problems of the writer.
b.
Reading for the Main Idea The students read the text to know “why is the topic good or interesting, then the problems on the story, and make summaries of the story. c.
Reading to Classify The students read the text to classify some information or actions of the writer in the text or paragraph.
d.
Reading to Compare or Contrast The students read to compare the plot of the story or content whether having similarity with him or even contrast.
e.
Reading for Inference The students read in order find out the conclusion from the actions or the idea in the text.
f.
Reading for Sequence or Organization The students read the text to know “what is happening in each part of the story in every episode and solve the problems of the story.
g.
Reading for vocational high school The students read the text to gain much information which is important to support their study.
3. The Importance of Reading
According to Anderson (1977: 7) reading is a simple activity for the students. They will have better ability to remember and understand material by doing reading activity routinely. Reading has many benefits, for example:
a. Reading can enrich knowledge.
b. Reading can sharpen remembrance.
c. Entertain our life.
d. Getting information.
e. Getting extensive experience.
As the students who get English lesson, reading is very important to English as a target language to build vocabulary. It is realized that reading skill or reading activity will open knowledge widely give more vocabularies and more information.
In other side, for example, people can know how deep the insight of another when they read an article or a book written by him. A person can go somewhere he has never visited before by reading a map or directional sign he finds on the road. Briefly, we can communicate through written material conveyed by other people.
Based from the explanation above, we can conclude that reading is very important in this complex changing world, which always demands higher level of literacy.
C. Authentic Materials
1. The Definition of Authentic Materials
According to (Martimes: 2006) definition of authentic material is an authentic text that is not written for language learning process. Authentic materials are significant since it increase students’ motivation in learning. It makes learners be exposed to the real language.
Rogers (1998: 99) said that authentic material as appropriate and quality in terms of goals, objectives, learner needs and interest, natural in terms of real life and meaningful communication. It can be concluded that authentic material a language which is used in real life communication.
From the explanation above, we can conclude that authentic reading material is an authentic text that is not written for language learning purpose. Authentic materials are significant since it increases students’ motivation in learning. It makes learners be exposed to the real language.
2. The Kinds of Authentic Material
In general, there are two kinds of authentic material. There are audio and visual. Audio authentic material can be music, news from radio, conversation between native speaker, etc. Whereas, visual authentic material can be written news (newspaper, magazine), schedule, brochure, receipt, manual book, etc. But, in this research the writer only discuss about visual authentic material.
When choosing materials the important thing to keep in minds is what the students are likely to come in contact with in their daily lives. By introducing to these things in the classroom, the students will feel less intimidated by them when they encounter them in the outside world. They will also be motivated to give the best in classroom.
3. The Advantages and Disadvantages using Authentic Material a. The advantages of using authentic materials.
According to Berardo (2001: 106) there are several advantages using authentic material in the classroom when it is applied in teaching vocabulary, those are: 1)
Students are exposed to real discourse, as in videos of interview with famous people where intermediate students listen for gist.
2) Authentic materials keep students informed about what is happening in the world, so they have an intrinsic educational value.
3) They can produce a sense of achievement, e.g., a brochure on England given to students to plan a for day visit.
4) The some piece of material can be used under different circumstances if the task is different.
5) Language change is reflected in the materials so that students and teacher can keep abreast of such changes.
6) Reading text is ideal to teach/practice mini-skills such as scanning, e.g. student are given a news article and asked to look for specific information (amounts, percentages, etc.)
7) Books, articles, newspaper, and so on contain a wide variety of text types, language styles not easily found in conventional teaching materials. b.The disadvantages of using authentic materials :
According to Berardo (2001: 107) there are some disadvantages using authentic material in the classroom when it is applied in teaching vocabulary, those are: 1)
The vocabulary might not be relevant to the student’s immediate needs. So we should choose the proper material based on the students level. 2)
Special preparation is necessary which can be time consuming. So it is better for us to prepare the simple material.
3) With listening: too many different accents. We can choose the exercise that is not dealt with accents.
4) The material can become outdated easily, e.g. news. We should always prepare the relevant material.
Example of authentic materials:
D. Basic Assumption
Vocabulary is something important in order to know the meaning of the words because vocabulary is one of the factors affecting the comprehension of the reading text. Many students have difficulties in learning vocabulary. It is caused by the teacher who gives them a long passage which makes them bored. To avoid it, the writer uses authentic reading text to teach vocabulary. So that it will be easier for the students to remember the new vocabulary from authentic reading text, because it contains of wide variety of text types, different circumstances in every different task or material, almost of the words in authentic reading text comes from the real situation around them.
E. Hypothesis
Based on the basic assumption above the writer formulates the hypothesis for this study. It is “Teaching vocabulary using authentic reading text to the SMK students is effective”.