The use contextual guessing strategy to enhance students` autonomy in learning vocabulary.

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ABSTRACT

Widaninggar, Kristina. 2008. The Use of Contextual Guessing Strategy to Enhance Students’ Autonomy in Learning Vocabulary. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University

Vocabulary mastery is undoubtedly an important part in the process of learning languages, including English. In the common practices, the lack of vocabulary mastery which commonly occurs among students is caused by the limited time of exposure to vocabulary learning in class due to the demands to the materials that should be mastered. Therefore, teachers’ tasks to motivate and facilitate their students to develop autonomous learning, especially in increasing the students’ vocabulary mastery, are absolutely needed.

This research investigated the implementation of contextual guessing strategy to enhance students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary. An action research was carried out in XI-Social 1 class of Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta, along with two research problems. They were (1) how contextual guessing strategy is implemented to enhance students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary and (2) how contextual guessing strategy enhances students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary.

A classroom action research method and two data gathering instruments, which included observation and interview, were employed. There were two findings obtained from the research. First, contextual guessing strategy was implemented through several teaching and learning activities in two cycles of classroom action research, in which the phases in each classroom action research cycle were planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. Second, contextual guessing strategy enhanced students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary by promoting the use of metacognitive strategies, which included a planning of task accomplishment, problem-solving, monitoring, and evaluating.

The researcher concludes that contextual guessing strategy is implemented through the activities of group presentation, individualized learning, and student-student interaction in the two cycles of classroom action research. It is also concluded that the students’ conscious use of metacognitive strategies could lead them to autonomy in learning English vocabulary. Meanwhile, the type of learning autonomy employed by the students in this research is categorized as reactive autonomy. It is a type of autonomy where the directions are set up by the teacher (Littlewood, 1999 cited in Benson, 2001).

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ABSTRAK

Widaninggar, Kristina. 2008. The Use of Contextual Guessing Strategy to Enhance Students’ Autonomy in Learning Vocabulary. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Penguasaan kosakata adalah bagian penting dalam proses pembelajaran bahasa asing, termasuk Bahasa Inggris. Dalam praktek sehari-hari, kurangnya penguasaan kosakata yang biasa terjadi pada siswa-siswa disebabkan oleh keterbatasan waktu untuk pemeblajaran kosakata di dalam kelas karena tuntutan materi yang harus dikuasai. Dalam hal ini, diperlukan peran para guru untuk memotivasi dan memfasilitasi siswa-siswanya agar mengembangkan kemandirian dalam belajar (autonomous learning) terutama untuk peningkatan penguasaan kosakata.

Penelitian ini mengkaji tentang penerapan strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan untuk meningkatkan kemandirian siswa dalam belajar kosakata Bahasa Inggris. Penelitian tindakan telah dilaksanakan di kelas XI IPS 1 di SMA Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Bantul Yogyakarta dengan dua permasalahan utama yaitu: (1) bagaimana strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan konteks diterapkan untuk meningkatkan kemandirian siswa dalam belajar kosakata dan (2) bagaimana strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan konteks meningkatkan kemandirian siswa dalam belajar kosakata.

Dalam penelitian ini, metode penelitian tindakan kelas dan dua alat pengumpulan data, yaitu observasi dan wawancara, telah digunakan. Ada dua hasil yang diperoleh dalam penelitian ini. Satu, strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan konteks yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini diterapkan melalui kegiatan-kegiatan belajar dan mengajar dalam 2 tahap penelitian tindakan kelas yang setiap tahapnya meliputi perencanaan, pelaksanaan, pengamatan, dan refleksi. Dua, strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan konteks meningkatkan kemandirian siswa dengan cara meningkatkan penerapan strategi metakognitif oleh siswa. Penerapan strategi metakognitif ini mencakup perencanaan pengerjaan tugas, pencarian dan penyelesaian masalah, pemantauan, dan penilaian.

Peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan konteks diterapkan melalui kegiatan group presentation, individualized learning, dan student-student interaction. Disimpulkan pula bahwa penerapan strategi metakognitif oleh siswa secara sadar dapat membawa mereka menuju kemandirian dalam belajar kosakata Bahasa Inggris. Sementara itu, kemandirian belajar yang dimaksud disini adalah reactive autonomy. Ini adalah jenis kemandirian belajar dimana arahnya telah ditentukan oleh guru (Littlewood, 1999 cited in Benson, 2001).

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THE USE OF CONTEXTUAL GUESSING STRATEGY TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ AUTONOMY IN LEARNING VOCABULARY

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

Kristina Widaninggar Student Number: 041214041

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA 2008

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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace……… HE has made everything beautiful in its time.

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-11)

Dedicated to my beloved Father and Mother.... (In Memoriam: 10 July 2004 & 11 April 2005)

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ABSTRACT

Widaninggar, Kristina. 2008. The Use of Contextual Guessing Strategy to Enhance Students’ Autonomy in Learning Vocabulary. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University

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vii

ABSTRAK

Widaninggar, Kristina. 2008. The Use of Contextual Guessing Strategy to Enhance Students’ Autonomy in Learning Vocabulary. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to bestow my deepest gratitude to Jesus Christ and Mother Mary for the blessing and spirit that finally I could finish my thesis entitled “The Use of Contextual Guessing Strategy to Enhance Students’ Autonomy in Learning Vocabulary”.

I would thank my thesis sponsor, Gregorius Punto Aji, S.Pd., M.Hum., for his great guidance, motivation, and precious suggestions during the process of writing this thesis. My thankfulness also goes to all PBI lecturers and secretariat staffs. Their guidance during my years in PBI has built me to be a better and more mature person.

In this occasion, let me give my appreciation to Drs. Markoes Padmonegoro, the headmaster of SMA Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Bantul, and Y. Bambang Suharyo, S.Pd., the English teacher of SMA Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Bantul, who have helped me so that I could conduct a research there. Let me also give my appreciation to the students of XI Social-1 class for their help and cooperation during my research.

However, my achievement will be worthless without being grateful to the guidance, support, love, care, kindheartedness and warmth that I have ever got from my beloved parents, (Alm.) Ignatius Dalino and (Alm.) Ristituta Suminah. Hence, it brings me to give my deepest thank to my only brother, Didik Darmadi. My deep gratitude also goes to Mbak Dwi, all relatives: Pakdhe & Budhe

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Eliz, Mas Win & Mbak Murti, and the others for helping and supporting me in passing my hardest times. My special thank also goes to Gagat for caring, loving, and supporting me much to finish this thesis soon.

I owe a debt to all great friends: Shinta, Anas, Dias, Joni, Dito, Titis, Aan, Riri, Eli, Rini, Risa, Indri, Retry, Indah, Yoyo, Astika, Dita, members of

Mudika Bhakti Dharma Kaliduren, members of EEPro for the support, kindness, care, warmth, and valuable experiences we have ever shared together. Lastly, I would like to thank to the headmaster, all teachers, staffs, and students of SD N Langensari Yogyakarta for the four-year time which is full of momentous and worthy teaching experiences and everybody who has helped me finishing my thesis whose name can not be mentioned one by one.

I realize that there are many mistakes in this thesis, but hopefully everybody reading my thesis can still take advantages from it.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE………...…… i

APPROVAL PAGES………..… ii

PAGE OF DEDICATION……….………... iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY………. v

ABSTRACT………. vi

ABSTRAK………. vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… x

LIST OF FIGURES………. xiii

LIST OF TABLES……….. xiv

LIST OF APPENDICES……… xv

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background……….. 1

B. Problem Formulation……… 6

C. Problem Limitation………... 6

D. Research Objectives………. 7

E. Research Benefits……….. 7

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CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Theoretical Description………. 10

1. Vocabulary Teaching and Learning……….. 10

a. Reasons for Vocabulary Teaching and Learning………. 11

b. Contextual Guessing Strategy……….. 13

c. Teaching Materials……… 19

d. Teaching and Learning Activities……… 22

2. Learning Autonomy……….. 26

a. Background of Learning Autonomy……… 26

b. Concept of Learning Autonomy……….. 28

3. Classroom Action Research (CAR)……….. 32

a. History of Classroom Action Research……… 32

b. Definitions, Characteristics, and Functions of Classroom Action Research……….. 33

c. Theory of Classroom Action Research………... 35

B. Theoretical Framework……… 37

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Research Method……….. 40

B. Research Participants……… 41

C. Research Instruments and Data Gathering Techniques……… 43

D. Data Analysis Techniques……… 45

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CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

A. Implementation of Contextual Guessing Strategy……… 50

1. Classroom Action Research Cycle 1………... 52

2. Classroom Action Research Cycle 2………... 68

B. Enhancing Students’ Autonomy in Learning Vocabulary……….… 77

1. Planning……….. 78

2. Problem Solving………. 81

3. Monitoring……….. 84

4. Evaluating………... 85

CHAPTER V: RESEARCH LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Research Limitations.……….. 88

B. Conclusions………. 89

C. Suggestions………. 91

BIBLIOGRAPHY………. 93

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LIST OF FIGURES

Page

2.1 Bruton and Samuda’s Guessing Procedure………. 15

2.2 Psychology of Autonomous Learning………. 30

2.3. Classroom Action Research Cycle……….. 36

3.1 Classroom Action Research Phases………. 41

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LIST OF TABLES

Page

2.1 Components of Learning Words from Context Theory……….. 18

3.1 Coding of the Interviewees’ Name………. 43

3.2 Items of Observation………..………. 44

3.3 Items of Interview………..……. 45

4.1 Teaching Practice Timetable………... 51

4.2 Teaching and Learning Activities of Classroom Action Research Cycle 1……….. 53

4.3 Teaching and Learning Activities of Classroom Action Research Cycle 2………. 68

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Page Appendix 1: Research Permission Letter……… 95 Appendix 2: Standard Competence and Basic Competence of English

Lesson for Senior High School Grade XI Semester I………… 97 Appendix 3: Vocabulary Learning Materials……….. 99 Appendix 4: Lesson Plan of Classroom Action Research Cycle 1………… 118 Appendix 5: Lesson Plan of Classroom Action Research Cycle 2………… 121 Appendix 6: Observation Sheets……… 124 Appendix 7: Guiding Questions for the Interview Session………..……….. 127 Appendix 8: Raw Data of the Results of the Observation………. 128 Appendix 9: Transcript of the Interview……….……..……. 131 Appendix 10: Raw Data of the Results of the Interview……… 141

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter elaborates six general descriptions namely research background, problem formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms.

A. Background

Vocabulary plays an important role in learning English as a foreign language. As it is quoted from Richards, vocabulary is “the basic material in conducting the sentence” (Richards, 1976: 86). It means that before students are able to create or understand sentences of English, they have to master the vocabulary first. Mastering the vocabulary of English includes understanding the meaning and knowing the use of the vocabulary. Dale and O’Rourke (1971: 9) call this “an explosive effect” which happens in learning new vocabulary.

Vocabulary also plays a role as the link of the four skills in a language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It is called an element of language. As it is quoted from Nation (1990: 1) that “words are the basic building blocks of language, the units of meaning from which larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs and a whole text are formed”, therefore, in order to be able to master the productive and receptive ability of language, students have to master the vocabulary first.

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The lack of vocabulary mastery results on the students’ inability to produce and receive information in the target language. From the researcher’s experience when conducting the teaching practice in Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta, she found that numerous students have very limited vocabulary mastery. It was also found that those who have limited vocabulary mastery face difficulties in performing both productive and receptive ability of language. It was shown by their inability to e.g. write sentences or paragraphs of English, give opinion about a particular topic, find the main idea or particular information in a text, etc. However, it was recognized that it is impossible for the teacher to teach vocabulary to his students in class to increase their vocabulary mastery. The demands to the materials that should be mastered, which were set by the curriculum, are considered to be the reason of the teacher’s inability to give much exposure to vocabulary learning in class. Therefore, it is thought that students need to increase their vocabulary mastery by themselves.

A saying quoted from Scharle & Szabo (2000: 4) that “you can bring the horse to water, but you can not make him drink” implies that although teacher can provide the necessary input, learning can only be performed if the learners are willing to do so. Their willingness is important because learning is a lifelong process that one should perform it along his/her life. For that reason, teachers have to facilitate students to be willing to perform learning by being autonomous learners. Students who are autonomous are those who have the responsibility to manage and control their own learning based on a particular purpose they expect to reach in their learning. In this respect, Holec describes autonomy in learning as

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“the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” (Holec, 1979: 3). In line with Holec, Benson (2001: 13) describes autonomy as “a situation where learners worked under their own direction outside the conventional-teaching classroom”.

Students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary, then, is understood as students’ ability to manage their own vocabulary learning. Autonomy in learning vocabulary can be an advantageous solution in increasing students’ vocabulary mastery. Since every learner is the only one knows his own ability, hence, autonomy in learning enables a learner determines the goal he is expected to reach as well as the place, the time, and the sources of the learning. The sources for students learn vocabulary autonomously can be vary from short story, novel, newspaper, news report, songs, etc. in the target language. By possessing autonomy in learning students can manage their learning as well as monitor and evaluate it to reach the goal expected.

Learning autonomy in vocabulary learning includes choosing and applying a particular vocabulary learning strategy to accomplish the task. Based on some informal observations that have ever been conducted, it was found that the strategy which Senior High School English teachers are mostly employed when dealing with vocabulary learning is mechanistic approach. It is included as one strategy in direct vocabulary learning where the focus of the students is on the vocabulary itself (Nation, 1990: 2). Learning vocabulary by employing mechanistic approach is the simplest and easiest because it is only a matter of remembering. It works effectively when it is applied in learning high-frequency words by students at the early stages of language learning.

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However, there are several weaknesses arise from the use of mechanistic approach in learning vocabulary. First, mechanistic approach contradicts with the actual learning practice. In the actual learning practice, the main goal of learning English is to be able to use it. Wei (2007) finds that when they learn vocabulary by employing mechanistic approach, “learners still concentrate too much on isolated short-term retention of form and in spite of their increasing awareness that passive knowledge of them alone does not help much in achieving communicative competence”. He concludes that the lack of contextualized practice to activate what they have learned obstructs their progress towards the goal of learning English. Therefore, learning new vocabulary by employing mechanistic approach hinders students’ progress to master English because they do not learn how to use those words in sentences or longer structures.

The weakness of mechanistic approach arises from the fact that the number of low-frequency words, technical words, and academic words are higher than the number of high-frequency words. Citing in Nation, there are about 2,000 high-frequency words, 800 academic words, about 1,000 to 2,000 technical words, but 123,000 low-frequency words (Nation, 1990: 19). From the data above, it can be drawn that it is infeasible for students to remember all those vocabulary, especially the low-frequency words. Students will find learning vocabulary by mechanistic approach more difficult because low-frequency words only cover about 2% of the words in any text and they will only meet those words once or twice.

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Because of those problems, it is felt that there is a need to employ other strategy. The vocabulary learning strategy proposed is contextual guessing. Context refers to the sentence or utterance in which the target word occurs (Read, 2000: 29). In this respect, the meaning of a word can be different when it is used in different context. It is in line with Dale and O’Rourke’s opinion that the meaning of a word generally depends on its relationship to other words in a phrase or sentence, that is its context (Dale & O’Rourke, 1971: 37).

Nation (2002: 28) argues that contextual guessing strategy serves as a major mean in vocabulary learning. Since it serves as the major mean, it is expected that contextual guessing strategy can be an important and useful strategy to help students learning new vocabulary. Dale and O’Rourke (1971: 36) also disputes that learning vocabulary by employing contextual guessing is important because it can help students sharpen their understanding of word inflection. While according to Read, contextual guessing strategy is a useful strategy because “it involves deeper processing to contribute to better comprehension of the text as a whole and it may result in some learning of the lexical item that would not otherwise occur” (Read, 2000: 53). Therefore, contextual guessing strategy does not only help students in learning new vocabulary but also make students understand about word inflection and able to comprehend texts better.

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B. Problem Formulation

The problems of this research have been formulated into these two questions:

1. How is contextual guessing strategy implemented to enhance students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary?

2. How does contextual guessing strategy enhance students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary?

C. Problem Limitation

This research is dealing with English language teaching and it is examining a strategy used in vocabulary teaching and learning. It is about the implementation of contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary to find out how the strategy discussed enhances students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary.

The lack of vocabulary mastery hinders students’ ability to produce and receive information in the target language. The lack of vocabulary mastery which occurs among students of Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta supports the need to implement other learning strategy that can assist students to be autonomous and responsible learners. The weaknesses found upon the traditional strategy that teachers are mostly employed in vocabulary learning also support the need to implement other learning strategy. Contextual guessing strategy is proposed for it is considered as a better strategy than the traditional one.

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This research, then, will explore how contextual guessing strategy is implemented to enhance students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary and how contextual guessing strategy enhances students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary.

D. Research Objectives This research is directed:

1. To implement contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary to grade XI students of Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta. In this research, it is proposed other strategy which can be used in learning vocabulary that is contextual guessing strategy. This strategy will be implemented in one class in Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta.

2. To find out how contextual guessing strategy enhances students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary. After implementing contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary, it will be examined how the new strategy implemented enhances students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary by interviewing several participants of the research.

E. Research Benefits

This research is expected to be beneficial to: 1. English teachers in general

It is expected that any English teachers reading this thesis can obtain more skills, understanding, and knowledge on teaching and learning

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vocabulary especially to which contextual guessing strategy is employed. They might also use this thesis as a reference in conducting other action researches in their own classroom.

2. The students

It is expected that by being introduced and trained to implement contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary, students will be willing to implement this strategy to learn vocabulary by being autonomous learners. Thus, it can help students increase their vocabulary mastery.

3. Any people who are interested in the same field

It is hoped that the result of this research can be a foundation for those who are interested in the same field to do further researches.

4. The writer

It is also expected that by conducting this research, the more developed skills, understanding, and knowledge on teaching and learning vocabulary which employs contextual guessing as the strategy can be obtained.

F. Definition of Terms

There are some terms presented below and those are directed to help the readers come to the better understanding of the research.

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1. Contextual guessing strategy

Contextual guessing strategy is a strategy in vocabulary teaching and learning. The focus of this strategy is on finding the meaning of unknown words by examining the context where the words occur (Bruton & Samuda, 1981; and Clarke & Nation, 1980 cited in Nation 1990: 161). Contextual guessing strategy in this research refers to the learning strategy employed to find out the meaning of unknown words by guessing from the context. Students who apply contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary will examine the surroundings where those words occur and then guess its meaning.

2. Context

Based on Dale & O’Rourke (1971: 37), context is the relationship of a word to other words in a phrase or sentence. In this research, context refers to the sentence or utterance in which the target word occurs. As the result, the meaning of the word will also be different when the target word is used in different context. 3. Autonomy in learning vocabulary

Quoting from Holec, autonomy in learning of languages is “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” (Holec, 1979: 3). In this study, learning autonomy is discussed in the field of vocabulary learning. Autonomy in vocabulary learning, then, is used to describe the students’ ability to manage their own vocabulary learning in which the main goal of it is to increase students’ vocabulary mastery.

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter will discuss the theories that underlie the research. It consists of two parts namely theoretical description and theoretical framework. The theoretical description discusses the underlying theories that are related to the implementation of contextual guessing strategy in vocabulary learning. Theoretical framework discusses a framework based on the theoretical description that has been discussed previously.

A. Theoretical Description

Theoretical description provides the theoretical review related to the issue of the research. There are three main issues raised in this research, namely vocabulary teaching and learning, learning autonomy, and classroom action research (CAR). The discussion of those three issues is based on the previous literatures and researches.

1. Vocabulary Teaching and Learning

In this part, the researcher provides four theories that underlie the discussion of vocabulary teaching and learning. Those are reasons for vocabulary teaching and learning, contextual guessing strategy, teaching materials, and teaching and learning activities.

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a. Reasons for Vocabulary Teaching and Learning

Before getting into the discussion on the reasons for vocabulary teaching and learning it is wise to be knowledgeable about what vocabulary is first. Vocabulary is understood as all words in a language (Read, 2000:16). However, people may have different interpretations on distinguishing what a word is from another (Nation, 1990:2 9). As it is elaborated by Carroll (Carroll et al., 1971 cited in Nation, 1990), words are differentiated based on their form. In addition, the presence of capital letter is considered as different word. Nonetheless, Carroll’s definition is slightly different from those defined by Read (2000). Read elaborates that in the case of, for example, wait, waits, waited, waiting, and society, societies, society’s, societies’, those words are normally be regarded as the same word but with different forms. Meanwhile, different from those two definitions, words in the dictionary are distinguished based on the meanings (Nation, 1990: 30).

In the present research, it will not be debated whose definition is the most correct. Rather, the discussion given on it is simply directed to provide better conception of what a word is.

Furthermore, as it is stated by Dale and O’Rourke (1971: 9), mastering vocabulary implies not only knowing and understanding the meaning of the vocabulary but also the use of it. Carter (1998: 239) proposes seven characteristics of knowing a word of second or foreign language.

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…, knowing a word in a second or foreign language might be said to have the following characteristics:

1. It means knowing how to use it productively and having the ability to recall it for active use, although for some purpose only passive knowledge is necessary and some words for some users are only ever known passively.

2. It means knowing the likelihood of encountering the word in either spoken or written contexts or in both.

3. It means knowing the syntactic frames into which the word can be slotted and the underlying forms and derivations which can be made from it.

4. It means knowing the relations it contracts with other words in the language and with related words in an L1 as well.

5. It means perceiving the relative coreness of the word as well as its more marked pragmatic and discoursal functions and its style-levels.

6. It means knowing the different meanings associated with it and, often in a connected way, the range of its collocational patterns.

7. It means knowing words as part of or wholly as fixed expressions conveniently memorized to repeat – and adapt – as the occasion arises.

(Carter, 1998: 239)

As the result of the demands in mastering vocabulary, it is thought that teaching and learning vocabulary plays very important role in second or foreign language learning. Nation (1990) asserts that there are at least two reasons for why teaching and learning vocabulary is important. First, everybody is aware of the importance of vocabulary in language learning. Language learners feel that the biggest difficulty arises in both receptive and productive of language use is caused by the lack of vocabulary mastery. In other words, the lack of vocabulary mastery causes language learners are unable to both produce and understand the language. Second, “giving attention to vocabulary is unavoidable” (Nation, 1990: 2). It means that in all approaches of language teaching and learning, either the most formal or informal, the need to vocabulary will always arise. Thus, teaching and learning vocabulary becomes very important as well as the fact that vocabulary is absolutely an important element in languages.

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b. Contextual Guessing Strategy

When dealing with foreign language text either in the form of written or spoken, students often find many unknown words which then become boundaries for them in comprehending the information in the target language. There are numerous strategies available to deal with unknown words; one of the strategies developed is contextual guessing strategy. Contextual guessing strategy is a strategy in learning vocabulary in which the focus is on finding the meaning of unknown words by examining the context where the words occur (Bruton & Samuda, 1981; and Clarke & Nation, 1980 cited in Nation, 1990).

According to O’Malley and Chamot (1990 cited in Thanasoulas, 2002), learning strategy is “the special thoughts or behaviours that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information”. This definition is in line with that of defined by Wenden (1998: 18 cited in Thanasoulas, 2002) in which “learning strategy is the mental step or operation that learners use to learn a new language and to regulate their efforts to do so”.

The vocabulary learning strategy of contextual guessing emerges from the basic condition that the meaning of a word generally depends on the relationship of it to other words, phrases, or sentences within which it is embedded (Dale & O’Rourke, 1971; Drum & Konopak, 1987). In other words, the meaning of a word is tightly related to the context where the word occurs. In this respect, context refers to sentences or utterances where the words occur (Read, 2000; Dale & O’Rourke, 1971). Hence, the meaning of a word can be different if it is used in different context.

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An example of a word meaning that has different meaning according to its context is the word “book”. When the word “book” is found in the sentence “This book belongs to her.”, then the word “book” is categorized as a noun which means a number of printed sheets of paper fastened together in a cover (Hornby, 1989). Meanwhile, when the word “book” comes in the sentence “We booked the tickets by telephone call.” then it is categorized as a verb which means reserve (Hornby, 1989).

Nation argues that in vocabulary learning, contextual guessing strategy serves as the “major means’’ (Nation, 2002: 28). This strategy is also said to be the most important strategy in vocabulary learning (Read, 2000: 53). Meanwhile, Sternberg (1987) articulates that the most effective way to enhance one’s vocabulary development is by teaching her/him learning from context. As it is elaborated by Sternberg, there are three basic facts about vocabulary that can explain his opinion of most vocabulary is learned from context. Those are:

1) No disagreement that the typical adult has in his/her vocabulary tens of thousands of words

2) One’s level of vocabulary is highly predictive, if not determinative, of one’s level of reading comprehension

3) Vocabulary is probably the best single indicator of a person’s overall level of intelligence

When dealing with contextual guessing strategy, it is also important to look at the stages needed to be able to guess a word’s meaning. Bruton & Samuda

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(1981 cited in Nation, 1990: 161) proposes a set of stages as presented in figure 2.1 (Bruton and Samuda’s Guessing Procedure).

Figure 2.1 Bruton and Samuda’s Guessing Procedure (From: Bruton & Samuda, 1981 in Nation, 1990) Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3 Yes

Stage 4

Stage 5

Stage 6

Backup

Focus on the Unknown Word

Teacher Asks for Guesses Students Hazard Guesses

Are Any Students Close?

Context Clues Leading to Approximate Meaning

Justify Choices

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Clarke & Nation (1980 cited in Nation, 1990) also proposes a set of stages in contextual guessing strategy which is considered to be simpler than those proposed by Bruton & Samuda (1981 cited in Nation, 1990). Clarke & Nation’s stages of guessing words meaning are in the following.

Step 1 Look at the unknown word and decide its part of speech. Is it a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb?

Step 2 Look at the clause or sentence containing the unknown word. If the unknown word is a noun, what adjectives describe it? What verb is it near? That is, what does this noun do, and what is done to it?

If the unknown word is a verb, what noun does it go with? Is it modified by an adverb?

If it is an adjective, what noun does it go with? If it is an adverb, what verb is it modifying?

Step 3 Look at the relationship between the clause or sentence containing the unknown word and other sentences or paragraphs. Sometimes this relationship will be signaled by a conjunction like but, because, if, when, or by an adverb like however, as a result. Often there will be no signal. The possible types of relationship include cause and effect, contrast, inclusion, time, exemplification, and summary. Punctuation may also serve as a clue. Semicolons often signal a list of inclusion relationship; dashes may signal restatement. Reference words like this, that, and such also provide useful information.

Step 4 Use the knowledge you have gained from Step 1-3 to guess the meaning of the word.

Step 5 Check that your guess is correct

a. See the part of speech of your guess is the same as the part of speech of the unknown word. If it is not the same, then something is wrong with your guess.

b. Replace the unknown word with your guess. If the sentence makes sense, your guess is probably correct.

c. Break the unknown word into its prefix, root, and suffix, if possible. If the meanings of the prefix and root correspond to your guess, good. If not, look at your guess again, but do not change anything if you feel reasonably certain about your guess using the context.

(Clarke & Nation, 1980 cited in Nation, 1990)

In adopting contextual guessing strategy to find the meaning of unknown words, students need some contextual information to support the process of guessing. Sternberg and Powell (1983 cited in Read, 2000) proposes a Theory of

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Learning Words from Context which consists of two components. Those components are external and internal context. Sternberg and Powell’s components of Learning Words from Context Theory are presented in table 2.1 in the following page.

From the table, it can be seen that the external context is categorized based on the kinds of semantics information which is available in the text around the target words (Read, 2000:54), while the internal context is categorized based on the morphological structure of the words such as prefix and suffix. Citing again from Read that one of the components of Sternberg and Powell’s theory is that for each kind of context, there is a set of mediating variables which determines how effective the reader is to take the advantage of the clues that are available (Sternberg and Powell, 1983 cited in Read, 2000:54). The example of the first mediating variable in external context is “the number of occurrence of the unknown word”. It means that the students will find the inference easier if the words are frequently occurring in the text.

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Table 2.1 Components of Learning Words from Context Theory (Sternberg and Powell, 1983 cited in Read, 2000)

External Context

Contextual cues

Temporal cues (When/how often does X [the unknown word] occur?) Spatial cues (Where can X be found?)

Value cues (How valuable or desirable is X? What do people feel about it?)

Stative descriptive cues (What are the physical features of X [size, shape, color, etc]?)

Functional descriptive cues (What are the purposes of X? What is it used for?) Causal/enablement cues (What causes X or enables it to occur?)

Class membership cues (What class of things does X belongs to?)

Equivalence cues (What does X mean? What does it compare or contrast to?) Mediating variables

The number of occurrence of the unknown word

The variability of contexts in which multiple occurrences of the unknown words appear The density of unknown words

The importance of unknown words to understanding the context in which it is embedded The perceived helpfulness of the surrounding context in understanding the meaning of the

unknown word

The concreteness of the unknown words and the surrounding context The usefulness of prior knowledge in cue utilization

Internal Context

Contextual cues Prefix cues Stem cues Suffix cues

Interactive cues (where two or three word parts convey information in combination) Mediating Variables

The number of occurrences of the unknown words The density of unknown words

The importance of the unknown words to understanding of the context in which it is embedded

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The theories presented previously imply that learning from context is central to most everyday vocabulary learning. Thus, below are three principles in teaching learning from context proposed by Sternberg (1987) that must be kept in mind in order to make the teaching effective. Those principles are:

1. Presentation of words in context is not enough.

2. Presentation of words in context, plus decontextualization knowledge and skills is not enough either.

3. It is critical in teaching vocabulary to teach students to teach themselves. Therefore, since most vocabulary is learned from context, what the teacher needs most is not to teach vocabulary from context but to teach students to use context to teach themselves. In other words, teacher should teach his students to be autonomous learners.

c. Teaching Materials

Teaching materials are the important things in teaching and learning process. The teaching materials used in this research are not those designed by the researcher herself, rather the teaching materials are taken from course-books which have been in use or published by official publishers. Selecting the appropriate course-books includes something called evaluation. Conducting a course-books evaluation (Wallace, 1998: 184) requires some previous ideas about the qualities, whether it is good or bad; appropriate or inappropriate, namely criteria for course-books evaluation. Wallace (1998: 185) proposes several

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possible criteria on evaluating teaching materials. Wallace’s criteria of course-books evaluation are:

1) Cost

This refers to the content of the book that should match the cost. 2) Rationale

Rationale refers to the relation between the stated reasoning of the book and the actual text.

3) Context

It refers to the intended readers/users of the book. 4) Level

Level refers to the target level of the readers/users of the book. 5) Relevance to needs

This refers to the question whether the content of the book matches the learners’ need.

6) Facility and practicality

This refers to whether it is practical and easy to use or not. 7) Layout and organization

The good layout and organization support the practicality of the book. 8) Coverage

This refers to the content of the book. It is whether the book covers the learners’ need or the syllabus or not.

9) Range of tasks/activities

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10) Learners support materials

Learners support materials refer to the extra back-up materials in the form of cassette, workbooks, authentic materials, posters, etc. to support and motivate learners and answer key to support autonomous learning.

11) Interest/motivation

This refers to the question whether the learners’ interest/motivation can be enhanced by the materials.

12) Teacher support materials

This last criterion refers to the good course-book that can give help to the teacher.

Since the learning materials will be taught to students of Senior High School, the selection of the materials are also based on the curriculum of English lesson for Senior High School students. The standard competence and basic competence of English lesson for grade XI students of Senior High School semester I can be examined in appendix 2.

Furthermore, adapting the materials can be conducted in some ways. As it is proposed by Wallace (1998: 190), it can be done in two ways. They are:

1) Implementing the materials without giving any changes but in different ways of teaching. In this way, there is no change in the content of the materials; the materials are being taught as what they are. However, the way the materials are taught to the students can be differ from those presented in the books.

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2) Changing some parts of the materials. Adapting teaching materials in this way includes implementing the materials which have been changed in some ways so that it will be closer to the needs.

d. Teaching and Learning Activities

Kemp (1977: 57) identifies that basically there are three methods of teaching and learning activities. Those are group presentation, individualized learning, and teacher-student interaction.

1) Group Presentation

In this first method, the teacher or student who adopts group presentation as the choice of activity merely “tells, shows, demonstrates, dramatizes, or otherwise presents subject content to a student group of any size” (Kemp, 1977: 60). The teaching and learning activity can be carried out either inside or outside the classroom, as well as the media employed can be vary from transparencies, recordings, slides, motion pictures, etc.

Kemp (1977) describes that including student participation in the teaching and learning activities is required for learning takes best place when students are active. He defines three categories of student participation in group presentation method as presented in the following.

In a lecture or other such presentation, student participation can fall into three categories:

1. ACTIVE INTERACTION WITH THE INSTRUCTOR: asking and answering questions; entering into discussion with the instructor and other students; and consulting with the instructor after the presentation

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2. WORKING AT THE STUDENT’S SEAT: Taking notes, completing worksheets on topics as the presentation proceeds (filling in an outline of content, completing diagrams that accompany visual materials, writing replies to questions, solving problems, and making application of content), and completing self-check exercises or quizzes

3. OTHER MENTAL PARTICIPATION: Thinking along with the instructor, mentally verbalizing answers to rhetorical or direct questions and problems posed by the instructor and other students, and formulating questions to ask

(Kemp, 1977: 61)

2) Individualized Learning

The theory that “learning must be accomplished by individuals for themselves and that it takes place best when students work at their own rates, actively involved in performing specified tasks, and experience success” (Kemp, 1977: 62) becomes the key of the emergence of individualized learning. Upon the individualized learning, it is recognized the significant characteristics of it. They are self-responsibility, self-pacing, and successful learning. These three characteristics have one main underlying variable that is time (Kemp, 1977: 64). Self-responsibility, self-pacing, and successful learning are reachable if the students are given enough amount of time to perform individualized learning.

Kemp (1977) suggests 11 methods and resources for individualized learning. Those are:

a) Student contracts

The students commit to the teacher to achieve the objective in exchange for rewards e.g. points.

b) Textbook/worksheets

The objectives are built up from worksheets of textbook content directing the study of text chapters and providing review questions.

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c) Audiotape/workbook

The audiotape available refers to the workbook including verbal, diagrammatic, and pictorial materials.

d) Visual materials/guide sheets

Kemp (1977) defines that the combination of visual materials and guide sheets is “useful for learning operational procedures, manipulative skills, and other visually demonstrable sequential activities.”

e) Programmed instruction booklet

Programmed instruction booklet refers to a book that presents the objectives and a set of subject contents. The students’ understanding of the content is tested by providing questions to be responded.

f) Commercial instructional packages

It is a set of commercial learning sources that can be in the form of slide series or filmstrips, recording, or films.

g) Project PLAN (Program for Learning in Accordance with Needs)

The project PLAN is a type of school program in various subject areas that is created for commercial purpose.

h) Individually Prescribed Instruction (IPI)

IPI is also a commercial learning source that contains comprehensive elementary-grade program designed according to a detailed diagnosis to students’ skills and abilities.

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i) Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) or Keller Plan

PSI, which is developed by Fred Keller, is a learning source that each unit of it includes an introduction, objectives, reading assignments, study questions and readiness tests. Kemp (1977) describes that “after studying independently, a student takes a readiness test administered by a student proctor who immediately grades the test and discusses the result with the student”.

j) Audio-Tutorial System (AT)

The program of Audio-Tutorial System, developed by S. N. Postlethwait, provides the students an audiotape of study guide containing objectives, activities, exercises, and self-check test.

k) Self-Learning Module (SLM) or Minicourse

It refers to self-contained instructional packages that require time from hours, a week, or a semester.

3) Teacher-Student Interaction

In this method of teaching and learning activities, the teacher and the students or the students themselves “work together in small groups to discuss, question, pursue problems cooperatively, and report” (Kemp, 1977). The students, in performing this activity, could testify e.g. the result of their task accomplishment or other learning experiences so that they can learn from other students as well as from the teacher.

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Several advantages are noted from the application of this method. First, it can raise students’ attitude formation, development of appreciations, cooperation and interpersonal relations. Second, it can also train students’ problem-solving and decision-making ability. And third, it can aid students to practice their organization and presentation of ideas as well as to practice leadership.

2. Learning Autonomy

The discussion of learning autonomy covers two major parts, namely background of learning autonomy and the concept of learning autonomy, with which the basic principle of autonomy is “the active involvement of learners in learning” (Niemi, 2002 cited in Ardi, 2007). Simply saying, learning autonomy is understood as learners’ ability to manage, monitor, and evaluate their learning although there is no control from other people, the teachers (Ardi, 2007: 26).

a. Background of Learning Autonomy

The concept of autonomy has been influenced by various theories beyond the field of language learning. Benson (2001: 22) proposes several theories influence the theory of learning autonomy which includes educational reform, adult education, psychology of learning, and political philosophy.

1) Educational reform

Theory of educational reform perceives that learners are responsible for their engagements and learn from their experiences, problem solvers, decisive, reflective, innately good, and self-actualizer (Benson, 2001). Considering those

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good things which exist in learners, it is thought that education should lead learners to become fully autonomous.

2) Adult education

Adult education which is characterized by self-directed learning has stimulated the idea of learning autonomy. Adult self-directed learning conducted in non-institutional learning emphasizes on learners’ responsibility on carrying it

out. 3) Psychology of learning

From the perspective of psychology of learning, it is seen that learning is a psychological process. The psychological process of learning includes learners’ active involvement in the process of learning, which implies autonomy in

learning. 4) Political philosophy

According to political philosophy approach, personal autonomy is the key to people existence as social beings. Quoting from Raz (1986: 83 cited in Benson, 2001: 44), “personal autonomy perceives that the good life is one which individuals are the authors of their own lives”.

Another factor that emerges the development of autonomy is something called “social progress” (Holec, 1979). The development of industrially advanced Western countries in the late of 1960 brings about changes not only in the increasing of material, which is characterized by the increasing of consumer goods and service, but also in the increasing of other thing called “quality of life” (Holec, 1979). The improvement in the quality of life can only be reached through

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education with which it forces person to be responsible to “running the affairs of the society in which he lives” (Holec, 1979).

Several theories on approaches within the field of language learning, including educational reform, adult education, psychology of learning, political philosophy, and social progress which are occurred in Western countries have emerged the idea of autonomy. The idea of autonomy becomes popular in language teaching through the Council of Europe’s Modern Languages Project which results on the establishment of Centre de Recherches et d’Applications en Langues (CRAPEL) at the University of Nancy, France. The founding father of CRAPEL, Yves Chalon, brought about the leadership of CRAPEL went to Henri Holec. Holec’s project report to Council of Europe becomes a key early document in the development of autonomy in language learning.

b. Concept of Learning Autonomy

In his project report to the Council of Europe, Holec points out that “autonomy is the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” (Holec, 1979: 3). Holec (1979) proposes there are five prerequisites for learners to be fully autonomous.

To take charge of one’s own learning is to have, and to hold, the responsibility for all the decisions concerning all aspects of this learning, i.e.:

- determining the objectives;

- defining the contents and progressions; - selecting methods and techniques to be used;

- monitoring the procedure of acquisition properly speaking (rhythm, time, place, etc);

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The autonomous learner is himself capable of making all these decisions concerning with which he is or wishes to be involved.

(Holec, 1979: 3)

In the meantime, the definition of autonomy proposed by Benson is slightly different from that of proposed by Holec. Instead of saying “taking charge” or “taking responsibility”, Benson (2001: 47) describes autonomy as “the capacity to take control of one’s own learning”. He prefers to use it because “the construct of ‘control’ appears to be more open to investigation than the construct of ‘charge’ or ‘responsibility’” (Benson, 2001: 47).

As Benson’s description that control over learning can be vary based on the level of the learning process, he elaborates them into three aspects namely control over learning management, control over cognitive process, and control over learning content. Each levels of control will be exemplified below:

1) Control over learning management

Control over learning management is described as the ability to plan, organize and evaluate the learning possessed by the learners (Benson, 2001: 76). The ability meant is tightly related to cognitive, metacognitive, and social/affective strategies as supported by Benson (2001: 80) that “the conscious use of learning strategies implies control over learning management”. Cognitive strategies are the strategies which deal with the materials learned; metacognitive strategies are the strategies used to manage the learning process; while social/affective strategies are strategies which include learners’ interaction with others and learners’ control over themselves in enhancing the learning.

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2) Control over cognitive process

Control over cognitive process is related to the psychology of learning and related to mental process of controlling idea (Benson, 2001: 87). Similar to Benson’s definition, O’Malley & Chamot (1990: 44 cited in Thanasoulas, 2002) elaborate cognitive process as a process that works “directly on the incoming information”.

Benson proposes there are three factors involved in cognitive processes which are interrelated each other. Those are shown in figure 2.2 (The Psychology of Autonomous Learning) below.

Figure 2.2 The Psychology of Autonomous Learning (Taken from: Benson, 2001: 86)

As it is elaborated by Bialystok (1994 cited in Benson, 2001) that directing attention includes the process of noticing linguistic input, terms that are taken from language learning, and constructing mental meaning of the input. The attentional process itself establishes consciousness and awareness to the learning input.

Building metacognitive knowledge Cognitive Process

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Reflection is the process which includes learners’ attaining of input. It also increases learners’ awareness which then build metacognitive knowledge involving planning, problem-solving, monitoring, and evaluating the learning. Wenden (1998: 34, cited Thanasoulas, 2002) defines that metacognitive knowledge “includes all facts learners acquire about their own cognitive processes as they are applied and used to gain knowledge and acquire skills in varied situations”, or in other words, metacognitive strategies are not the learning strategies itself but the strategies about learning.

3) Control over learning content

Control over learning content implies learners’ ability to select the appropriate learning materials in order to gain the goal expected. In relation to control over learning content, Littlewood (1999 cited in Benson, 2001: 99) characterizes two types of autonomy namely proactive and reactive autonomy.

According to Littlewood (1999 cited in Benson, 2001), proactive autonomy is described as type of autonomy “which affirms their individuality and sets up directions in a world which they themselves have partially created”. Benson (2001) explains that it is where the objectives, methods, and techniques are determined and the learning is evaluated by the learners themselves. While reactive autonomy is “the kind of autonomy which does not create its own directions but, once a direction has been initiated, enables learners to organize their resources autonomously in order to reach their goal” (Littlewood, 1999: 75 cited in Benson, 2001: 99).

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In his research report, Ardi (2007: 33) elaborates that the concept of autonomy was firstly developed in the western culture, thus the principle concept of autonomy is different from that of in the eastern culture, including Asia. The concept of learning autonomy which develops in western culture gives emphasize on individual independence (Holec, 1979), while eastern culture is characterized by its collectivism and interdependence (Ardi, 2007). Therefore, Holec’s concept of autonomy is comprehendible but difficult to be achieved.

3. Classroom Action Research (CAR)

The discussion of classroom action research (CAR) is elaborated in three sub-parts. The first sub-part is history of classroom action research. The second sub-part is definitions, characteristics, and functions of classroom action research. And the third sub-part is theory of classroom action research.

a. History of Classroom Action Research

As it is retold by McNiff & Whitehead (2002: 40) that action research was firstly done by John Collier, a Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1933-1945. The work of Collier was to develop the community of Native Americans; it was in the field of education and social context.

Other person believed to be involved in the birth of classroom action research is Kurt Lewin (McNiff & Whitehead, 2002: 40; Reason & Bradburry, 2001: 2). Lewin was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. Lewin’s work was in the industrial contexts and it was about how participation in decision-making

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could lead to enhanced productivity. Lewin’s theory of action research involved planning, fact-finding (reconnaissance), and execution (Lewin, 1946 cited in McNiff & Whitehead, 2002: 41).

b. Definitions, Characteristics, and Functions of Classroom Action Research It is indisputable that there are several definitions which try to explain what a classroom action research is. A classroom action research is a form of reflective research done to enhance the researcher’s own teaching, test the assumptions of educational theory in practice, implement and evaluate a particular teaching strategy (Hopkins, 1949; and Carr & Kemmis, 1986 cited in Madya, 2006). A classroom action research is a sub-area of inquiry; it is the act or process of seeking the answer to questions (Cohen & Manion, 1994 cited in Wallace, 1998: 10). Other proponent, Elliot (1991 cited in Hopkins, 1993: 45), defines a classroom action research as “the study of social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it”. Meanwhile, in defining what a classroom action research is, Wallace (1998) emphasizes the value of experience, where based on the experience in teaching after a period of practice the expectation of improvement to the teaching practice arises. Based on several definitions above, it can be drawn that classroom action research is a reflective research which is conducted by implementing a new teaching strategy, collecting information on the teaching practice, and analyzing it to find out how to improve the teaching in the future.

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Cohen & Manion (1980 cited in Madya, 2006: 11) elaborates some general characteristics of classroom action research. First, it is situational, contextual, in small scale, practicable, and relevant to the real situation. It is related to the investigation of a problem in order to solve it, and the subjects can be varying. Second, it gives clear and regular research framework. Third, it is flexible and adaptable. It enables the researcher makes some changes to improvement. Fourth, it is a participatory research. The researcher can determine whether he will take part in the research or not. Fifth, it includes the researcher’s self-evaluation. And sixth, the changes to improvement were based on the data gathered.

Meanwhile, McNiff & Whitehead (2003 cited in Madya, 2006: 12) also identifies some specific characteristics of classroom action research. First, there is a commitment to improvement in education in a classroom action research. Second, classroom action research includes clear purposes in evaluating and improving one’s understanding to his own teaching. Third, the subject and the object of the research are the researcher(s). Fourth, it includes actions that are based on knowledge, commitment, and purposes. Fifth, it involves authentic description of the actions. Sixth, classroom action research requires clear explanation to the actions done. Seventh, there is a new way in reporting the result of the research i.e. written report of self-reflection, written conversation, narration, etc. And eight, it requires validity to the statements made.

Besides elaborating the general characteristics of classroom action research, Cohen & Manion (1980 cited in Madya, 2006: 26) identifies five functions of classroom action research in education. First, it functions as a means to

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problem-solving or teaching practices improvement. Second, it functions as a practical means leads to professional development (Wallace, 1998: 4). Third, it functions as a means to include new strategy or technique of teaching. Fourth, it functions as a means to improve communication between the researcher and the teacher, as well as the researcher and the students and the teacher and the students. And fifth, it functions as a means which provides alternative approach in classroom problem-solving.

c. Theory of Classroom Action Research

The theory of classroom action research was developed firstly by Lewin (1946 cited in McNiff & Whitehead, 2002: 41) as a spiral which involved planning, fact-finding (reconnaissance), and execution. Later, it was refined, formalized, and applied in education by Stephen Kemmis (Kemmis & Mc Taggart, 1988 cited in Hopkins, 1993: 48). Kemmis’ classroom action research theory is also known as an action-reflection cycle, which consists of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. Citing in Hopkins (1993: 48), Kemmis has summarized his approach to classroom action research in education as presented in figure 2.3 (Classroom Action Research Cycle).

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Figure 2.3 Classroom Action Research Cycle (From Kemmis & Mc Taggart (1988) cited in Hopkins (1993:48))

Further description to the phases in a classroom action research cycle is elaborated by Madya (2006) and is presented in the following:

1) Planning

Planning in classroom action research is structured actions which lead to real actions. It realizes that social actions are unpredictable and risky so it must be flexible enough. Therefore, planning in action research should, first, be able to help the researchers solve problems and act properly, and second, be able to help the researchers be aware of their potential to gain their professional development.

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Planning is compiled based on reflective observation on how teacher helps students to take part in the lesson, how teacher helps students in learning, etc. 2) Acting

The action must be done consciously and in control, and it contains innovation in the teaching practice and it must be based on the plan.

3) Observing

Observation functions to document the process of implementing the action and its result. Things that are observed include the process of implementing the action, the effects of the action, situation, obstacles, etc.

4) Reflecting

Reflection is the process of remembering and thinking deeply what have been written in the observation sheets. The researchers try to understand the process in implementing the action, the problems, obstacles, etc. and try to find out the solution to improve the future teaching. The reflection is used by the researcher to evaluate and re-plan the future teaching and learning practice (fig. 2.3; 3.1).

B. Theoretical Framework

The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning implies that the students’ vocabulary mastery is tightly related to their ability to communicate by using the target language. Students’ lack of vocabulary mastery even becomes the major cause of difficulty in both receptive and productive ability of language use (Nation, 1990). The lack of vocabulary which occurs

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among students of Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantu, Yogyakarta is recognized to be the reason for their inability to perform the productive and receptive use of language well. What the teachers can do related to this issue is to facilitate learners to have good vocabulary mastery by promoting them to be autonomous learners.

Autonomy in learning, which can be described as “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” (Holec, 1979) or “the capacity to take control of one’s own learning” (Benson, 2001), involves the students’ ability to manage as well as monitor and evaluate their own learning in order to reach the goal expected. By being autonomous learners, it is expected that the learners can improve their vocabulary mastery by themselves to meet the need of it in language learning. Thus, they will be able to involve themselves in the communicative activities in the target language well.

Contextual guessing strategy, a strategy which emphasizes the ability to find the meaning of unknown words by examining its context (Nation, 2002; Read, 2000; Bruton & Samuda, 1981 cited in Nation, 1990: 161) is proposed as a means to facilitate learners to be autonomous learners in learning vocabulary. Two problems arise are about the implementation of contextual guessing strategy in enhancing students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary and the ways contextual guessing strategy enhances students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary.

Thus, a classroom action research is conducted in one class in Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta in order to find out the answer of the research questions. Classroom action research is a type of research

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which includes planning, acting, observing, and reflecting within it. In carrying out the classroom action research, several learning materials which employ contextual guessing as the strategy are implemented to grade XI students of Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta.

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40 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides five general descriptions on the research method, research participants, research instruments and data gathering techniques, data analysis techniques, and research procedure.

A. Research Method

A classroom action research (CAR) was employed in carrying out this research. According to Reason & Bradbury (2001: 1), classroom action research can be defined as “a practice for the systematic development of knowing and knowledge but based in a rather different form from traditional academic research”. The goal of classroom action research is to develop the researcher’s skills, understanding and knowledge of teaching, as well as to enhance the students’ learning.

In order to obtain the goal mentioned above, classroom action research carries out a cyclical process which consists of four phases as presented in figure 3.1 (Classroom Action Research Phases). Figure 3.1 shows that a classroom action research cycle has four phases; those are planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The results of the reflection are used to re-plan the next teaching practice. It occurs continually and forms a spiral namely classroom action research spiral (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988 cited in Hopkins, 1993).

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Figure 3.1 Classroom Action Research Phases (From: McNiff & Whitehead, 2002)

The main problem of this research was the implementation of contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary which was used to enhance students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary. Thus, a classroom action research (CAR) was conducted in order to describe how contextual guessing strategy in vocabulary learning was implemented and how it enhanced students’ autonomy in vocabulary learning.

B. Research Participants

The participants of the research were grade XI students of Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta. The numbers of the participants were thirty-six.

Planning

Observing

Acting Reflecting

Re‐Planning

Reflecting Acting

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A: Dibaca lagi teksnya beberapa kali sambil dicocokkan apa arti kata-kata yang sudah saya cari sudah tepat dengan yang dimaksudkan atau belum.

Q: Kapan anda melakukannya? A: Setelah selesai ngerjainnya

Q: Lalu tadi anda bilang sudah cukup sering menerapkan strategi iniuntuk belajar sendiri. Bisa dijelaskan?

A: Saya kan suka baca-baca berita atau cerita Bahasa Inggris, untuk belajar gitu. Biasanya ambil dari internet. Suka dengerin lagu-lagu Bahasa Inggris juga untuk latihan

listening. Sering waktu baca cerita atau dengerin lagu-lagu banyak kata-kata yang ga tahu. Kalau dulu sih terus buka kamus, tapi setelah tahu ada strategi ini jadi ga perlu sering-sering pakai kamus lagi. Dilihat konteksnya gitu.

Q: Perencanaan waktu dan tempatnya bagaimana?

A: Kalau waktunya ga pasti, asal ada waktu luang gitu. Terus biasanya download dari internet tapi belajarnya di rumah.

Q: Pelaksanaannya?

A: Pelaksanaannya kurang lebih sama kaya tadi yang ngerjain PR, tapi kalau yang ini ga bareng teman.

Q: Jadi bagaimana anda mengevaluasinya?

A: Sama, dicocokkan dengan teks bacaan atau lagu aslinya. Tapi diperiksa sendiri karena ga ada teman.

Q: Apakah hasilnya memuaskan?

A: Lumayan sih, meskipun masih banyak kata-kata yang tidak bisa saya cari artinya dari konteks. Yang pasti saya bisa belajar kosakata sendiri.

Q: Menurut anda apa yang membuat ada kata-kata tidak bisa dicari artinya dari konteks? A: Petunjuknya dikit, kadang ga ada, seperti di lagu-lagu itu.

Q: Kesulitan belajar kosakata dengan strategi ini apa? A: Repot dan lama

Q: Kalau kelebihannya?

A: Kita bisa mandiri, bisa belajar sendiri di rumah atau di tempat lain selain di sekolah karena strategi ini bisa diterapkan di mana saja dan kapan saja.

Q: Apa kesimpulan anda?

A: Yang jelas kalau saya sedang membaca-baca berita di koran atau cerita yang berbahasa Inggris tidak perlu repot-repot buka kamus lagi.

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Appendix 10: Raw Data of the Results of the Interview

Interviewee #1: Mr. Brown

1. At first, he thinks that learning vocabulary by guessing from context is difficult and complicated. At last, he thinks that it is not as difficult as what he has imagined, especially when he has understood the steps.

2. He says that the words learned are easier to be remembered.

3. He has ever implemented this strategy twice (homework completion).

a. First implementation:

∞ Planning: time

∞ Obstacle: there were many other tasks, so he found difficult to plan the time

∞ Execution:

- Time: on Sunday

- He read the text, underlined the words he didn’t know, listed in a piece of paper, guessed them.

- Obstacle: he wasn’t able to guess many words in his list

- Cause: limited clues to guess

- Solution: nothing

∞ Result: not really good

b. Second implementation:

∞ Planning: time and source

∞ Execution:

- Time: went to internet café after school to get a text and did the task at the night.

- Source: internet

- Obstacle: he found difficulties in finding the good text (the one interesting and not too difficult); he still wasn’t able to guess many words in his list

∞ Result: better

4. He admitted that the result of his learning is increasing from time to time (from the first to the second).

5. He actually wanted to use this strategy to learn vocabulary by himself again and again but he had many other school tasks to finish.

6. Difficulty: it’s difficult to determine the correct meaning although he had understood the context

7. Advantage: The words learned can be remembered better.

Interviewee #2: Ms. White

1. At first, she also thinks that learning vocabulary by guessing from context is difficult and complicated. She had never known it in her former schools. At last, she thinks it is not as difficult as before, especially when she had understood the steps and also the context.

(3)

2. It’s interesting and the new words’ meaning can be remembered faster because she found it by herself.

3. He has ever implemented this strategy out of the class twice (homework completion).

a. First implementation:

∞ Planning: time and procedures

∞ Obstacle: there were many other tasks, so she found difficult to plan the time; she hadn’t understood well how to do it

∞ Solution: tried to manage time well; did it with some friends in the dormitory

∞ Execution:

- Time: Thursday night (usually there was no homework on that day; she

would still have longer time to check before it was collected)

- She did the task with some friends in the dormitory. They read the text,

listed the unknown words, and then guessed it.

- Obstacle: She and her friends hadn’t completely understood the concept of

this strategy; they weren’t able to guess the meaning of some words

- Solution: asked the teacher

- Evaluation: no result evaluation

∞ Result: not really good

b. Second implementation:

∞ Planning: time (search the text in the afternoon and did the homework in the

evening) and source (internet)

∞ Execution:

- Time: search the text in the afternoon and did the homework in the

evening

- Source: internet

- She did the second task in the same way as the first task.

- Evaluation: she checked her work by reread the text and replaced the

unknown words with her guessing.

∞ Obstacle: it was difficult to find the text I wanted

∞ Result: better than before

c. She admitted that the result of his learning in the second execution was better

d. She wanted to use this strategy to learn vocabulary by himself again and again but she hadn’t known when it was. She still had many homework to do.

e. Difficulty: it’s quite difficult to understand the context. She thinks that she wouldn’t able to guess if she didn’t able to understand the context first.

f. Advantage: Faster; once she possesses this strategy she won’t need much help from

dictionary; the words can be remembered better

Interviewee #3: Mr. Blue 1. At first: difficult

2. At last: easier, interesting, the unknown words can be learned easier; he enjoyed learning English

(4)

a. First implementation:

∞ Planning: time and procedure

∞ Obstacle: there were many other assignments; hadn’t really understood this

strategy

∞ Solution: did it on Sunday; have as many as practice

∞ Execution:

- Time: on Sunday

- Evaluation: evaluate the work

b. Second implementation:

∞ Planning: time and source

He explained that he had to get the text before Sunday. He would search the text from the internet.

∞ Execution:

- Time: got the text on Sunday and did the assignment on the same day

- Source: several English course-books he had

- Obstacle: no

- Evaluation: he checked the result of it by reading again the text and the meanings he guessed, then compared them

∞ Result: quite good

c. Third implementation:

∞ He once implemented this strategy when his English teacher gave homework

on reading a text and answering questions about it. At first, he didn’t plan to use this strategy. When he found many difficult words in the text, he used contextual guessing strategy.

∞ First, he read the text and the questions. Then, he marked the unknown words,

especially the words he needed to be able to answer the questions.

∞ Obstacle: many words couldn’t be guessed

∞ Solution: nothing. The most important thing for him was being able to do the

task (answered the questions) and understood the content of the text.

4. He actually wanted to use this strategy to learn vocabulary by himself again and again but he had many other school tasks to finish.

5. Difficulty: understanding the context (the words preceding and following), the part of speech, etc.

6. Advantage: more useful because it can be implemented also in other subjects; help

him much especially in learning vocabulary by himself

Interviewee #4: Ms. Red

1. At first: contextual guessing strategy was difficult

At last: still found it quite difficult, but she had understood it better than before

2. She admitted that learning the new vocabulary learned by employing contextual

guessing was better remembered. She said that because she knew the process of finding the meaning, so could remember it easier.

(5)

c. First implementation:

∞ Planning: time (in the evening after the homework was given)

∞ Execution:

- She planned to do it in the evening after the homework was given but in

fact there was another homework that should be collected in the next day. So, after she had finished doing the homework for the next day, she only read the text (Pinocchio). She admitted that the most important thing was that she was able to get the content of the text. She decided to continue it in the next evening.

In the next evening, she read again the text and marked the unknown words, then tried to guess their meaning.

- Evaluation: Re-read the text and also the answers and compared, if it felt alright then the answers might be correct

∞ Result: not really good, not sure with the answer

∞ Solution: had more and more practice

d. Second implementation:

∞ Planning: time and source

∞ Execution:

- Time: went to an internet café after school to get a text and did the task at the night.

- Source: internet (there were many choices)

- Obstacle: there were words that couldn’t be guessed

- Solution: tried to guess its meaning but there were some words that still couldn’t be guessed

∞ Result: a little bit better

4. Difficulty: if there were many unknown words in a text but the clues were limited, it was very difficult to guess and get the meaning

5. Advantage: although difficult, contextual guessing strategy is advantageous for we

don’t need to rely much on dictionary and we can learn vocabulary by ourselves at home

Interviewee #5: Ms. Black 1. At first: very difficult

At last: still felt difficult but she enjoyed learning by using this strategy

2. She admitted that basically she hadn’t understood contextual guessing strategy at all but she has been able to use it quite good. she said that the words learned were easier to be remembered

3. She has ever implemented this strategy several timers (six or seven times), where the first and second were in the homework accomplishment.

a. First implementation:

∞ Planning: time

(6)

- Time: on Sunday (because the homework was to be collected on Monday, there was enough spare time)

- First, he read the text three up to four times until he got the image of what the story was about. Then, she marked the unknown words and listed it in a piece of paper. Next, she tried to guess its meaning

- Obstacle: he wasn’t able to guess some words in her list

- Solution: discussed it with her friends

∞ Result: quite good

b. Second implementation:

∞ Planning: time, source, and procedure

∞ Execution:

- Time: went to internet café on Sunday afternoon and did the assignments

after getting the text

- Source: internet

- Obstacle: no

- Evaluation: Read again the text and check the guessing.

∞ Result: better than before

c. Other implementation:

∞ She likes reading English stories or news and also listening to English songs

downloaded from the internet. When reading the articles or listening to the songs, she often found many unknown words. After knowing this strategy, she wanted to practice it by herself.

∞ She admitted that she could perform contextual guessing in learning new

vocabulary better after she had more practices.

d. Difficulty: limited context used to guess the meaning, tiring, and time-consuming

e. Advantage: can help us learn something esp. vocabulary autonomously anywhere and

anytime

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Dokumen yang terkait

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