Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Vocabulary is one of the most important element in a language. It is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing all together. Vocabulary is a bridge which can express ideas from the speaker to listener, from the writer to reader. Without vocabulary, the communication will be difficult and almost possible to do. Because of that, vocabulary is very important to learn by the students who want to master a language. In learning English in Indonesia, vocabulary is an important element that should be learnt by students. Based on the explanation above, it is known that vocabulary is needed in order to express an idea of someone. Without a good and accurate vocabulary, the speaker or writer will be difficult to send his or her message to listener or reader and tend to miscommunication. Moreover, the amount of vocabulary that mastered by someone is one of some indicators that can influence students to master a language. It is because the fluency of someone in a language can be seen from how much vocabulary they have and how they can use them effectively. Because of that vocabulary is very important to learn by the students. When I was observing at MTs Darussalam junior high school Ulujami, I found that teaching vocabulary was done explicitly. In syllabus and lesson planning are not explained how to teach vocabulary. Technique and ways of 2 teaching were fully depend on the teacher. In the observation in some classes, the main problems in teaching vocabulary were the technique and the method which were used monotone and less of variation. From that main problem then rose another problem that is the students felt bored with monotone teaching technique and would lost their focus in learning vocabulary. Beside that the students will get difficulties to improve their vocabulary. The main problem in teaching and learning vocabulary is technique in teaching vocabulary that less of variation and tend to be monotone. In the class that I observed, teacher taught vocabulary by listing new vocabulary, then translated the meaning one by one into native language. After that the teacher showed the students how to read each vocabulary. Teacher asked the students to take a note and give 5 until 10 minutes to memorize those vocabulary. After that the teacher asked several students the meaning of those vocabulary randomly. This technique has been done so many times by the teacher and the teacher did variation of technique teaching vocabulary hardly. Few variation of technique made the students got another problem, the students felt bored with that technique. The students did not interest and pay attention what the teacher explained. When the teacher asked to memorize the new vocabulary, the students did not memorize it and the effect is the students’ vocabulary did not develop. The other effect of that is the students have difficulties to follow the next material which contain the new vocabulary. The condition of students in Darussalam Junior High School is limited English vocabulary. Learning vocabulary is very needed for the students but the less of technique variation which applied by the teacher and feeling bored that came from that technique made the students difficult to develop their vocabulary. The students said that so difficult to memorize English vocabulary because they did not pay attention and rarely to use that vocabulary in daily life or in the class. Based on the explanation above I conclude that the solution of the problem of teaching vocabulary is by making an activity that students can involved to use the new vocabulary in the class, and efficient because it relates to the learning time students in the class. 3 To handle that problem can be used Guessing game as an alternative activity to solve the problem. As it is an activity that can be applied in the classroom in the limited time. With the game, the students can join to the activity and use the vocabulary in that activity. Teacher only needs a box that contain of some words that relate to the material, and then the teacher makes several groups of the students. After that the leader of each group take the word and describe it to his or her group, and let the members of group guess the words. This activity is designed to build up the students’ interest and more focus to the material. Besides that, guessing game can be played by all of the students in the class. Topic and material of vocabulary that be used can be varied to the material such as animal, sport, movies, and others. In this research, the writer limit vocabulary that be played in the class only to active vocabulary. Active vocabulary is vocabulary that mostly used by the students in their daily activities. This research will be conducted in 2 nd grade of MTs Darussalam. I choose MTs Darussalam because the location is not far from my house. MTs Darussalam has big classes and the character and level of the students are same with Islamiyah Junior high school which is the place I had observed previously. The method that the teachers used in MTs Darussalam also same that is using translating and memorizing method. To sum up, the writer interest is to know how the guessing game can be applied in teaching vocabulary in the classroom, and how effective the guessing game method would improve the students’ vocabulary. The title of this research is “The Effectiveness of Using Guessing Game in Teaching Vocabulary at MTs Darussalam”.

B. Problem Identification