IMPROVING VOCABULARY USING ILLUSTRATION FOR FIFTH YEAR STUDENTS OF SD N GENDINGAN 4 NGAWI Improving Vocabulary Using Illustration For Fifth Year Students Of SD N Gendingan 4 Ngawi In 2011/2012 Academic Year.
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IMPROVING VOCABULARY USING ILLUSTRATION FOR
FIFTH YEAR STUDENTS OF SD N GENDINGAN 4 NGAWI
IN 2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR
PUBLICATION PAPER
by
ANINDITA PUSPA WIDAYANTI
A 320 070 033
SCHOOL OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA
2013
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IMPROVING VOCABULARY USING ILLUSTRATION FOR FIFTH YEAR
STUDENTS OF SD N GENDINGAN 4 NGAWI
IN 2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR
Anindita Puspa Widayanti
Anam Sutopo
Nur Hidayat
English School of Teacher Training and Education
Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta
[email protected]
SUMMARY
This study aims at describing the procedures of teaching vocabulary using
illustration and its influence to the students’ vocabulary mastery and for clarifying
the strengths and weaknesses of the illustration to teach vocabulary. The research
was held in SD N Gendingan 4 Ngawi. The writer took 28 students of the fifth
year as the subject. To collect the required data the writer compared the results of
pre-test and post-test. We could see that improving vocabulary using illustration
was able to achieve a good result. It means that the teaching-learning process was
effective and successful. In pre-test the mean score was 64. 07, in post-test 1 the
mean score was 80.46, and in post-test 2 the mean score was 83,89. It could be
seen from the increasing result of students’ achievement of the post-test 2 and was
better than post-test 1. Post-test1 was better than pre-test. It means that teaching
vocabulary using illustration in SD N Gendingan 4 has a good result. The use of
illustration in teaching vocabulary is very appropriate and helpful in teachinglearning process. The advantages of this research are the students have high
interest in learning English and the students are motivated to be active in the class.
The disadvantages of this research are the teacher needed much time to prepare
material and she used the native language in the class.
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A. Introduction
Human being living in the society needs language. It is an important tool
that helps people make communication among individuals or even nation. As an
international language, English is studied for science, politics, and as a school
subject. In Indonesia, English is learned formally by students in Junior High
School for the first time.
Teaching English in elementary school is useful. Young students
especially students in elementary school have big memory to memorize
everything they learn. Thus, in elementary school, English is taught as an
additional subject besides gardening, painting, region singing and handicraft. As
elementary school is the place for students to learn English for the first time, the
students just learn the basic vocabulary and grammar.
To master vocabulary the student should have ability in understanding and
using vocabulary. Vocabulary mastery itself deals with words and meaning. The
students are not only expected to select whether words are suitable to be taught to
them but also to be able to use the words for communicating and expressing their
idea both in oral and written forms. There are several criteria that learners can
fully master a word; the learners are able to recognize the vocabulary in its spoken
and written forms, spell and pronounce it correctly, relate it to appropriate objects
or concepts, use the vocabulary in the grammatical form, recall it correctly, know
in what ways it can combine with others words, also aware of its connotations and
associations, and use it in appropriate situations.
To know the problems faced by the students in mastering vocabulary,
the writer conducted observations, interviews, and pre-test. The following is
the problems observed during the teaching-learning process of English in SDN
Gendingan 4:
1. The students had difficulty to memorize the meaning of words.
2. They had bad pronunciation. They tended to pronounce the letters of the
word in mother tongue.
3. They were not interested in English class. They thought that English is a
difficult lesson, because the ways to pronounce and write are very
different.
The observation also reveals the possible causes of the problem above, they are:
1. The technique of teaching vocabulary based on the book presentation. The
students were passive. The teacher focused on the book and the students
did the exercise from the book during the teaching-learning process. The
teacher never uses games, song, story, and realia.
2. The time to practice is limited. The English class was only once a week.
3. The material to teaching vocabulary only from a book. The students study
vocabulary only seeing small picture from the book. The teacher never
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brings other teaching aids such as bigger picture or the teacher give body
movement to get their interest.
Before implementing the technique, the researcher gave a pre-test to
the students to know the students’ knowledge first. The result of pre-test
showed that the students had low ability in mastering vocabulary. Most of the
students had the difficulty to pronounce and spell the words. They also had
difficulty in memorizing the meaning of words. When they did the test, they
were worried and always cheating. They looked difficult in doing the pre-test.
In the pre-test, the highest score was 86 and the lowest score was 30. It could
be seen that the mean score of the students’ pre-test was 64.07. From the result
of the students’ vocabulary mastery and the mean score of the students’ pretest, it could be concluded that the result of pre-test was fair.
From the discussion above, the writer is interested in carrying out a
research dealing with vocabulary teaching experiment using illustration.
Illustration is one of teaching vocabulary methods, it looks like guessing word
but it is more general than guessing word. Illustration not only uses sentences
in giving clues but also uses pictures. The students must guess the word by
those pictures. This method is useful for the students in memorizing word and
grammar. From the teacher’s sentence question they can learn the sentence
pattern. So, they learn grammar indirectly.
By this technique, it is expected that the teacher will be able to
motivate the learners to learn and pay attention to the English materials, which
the teacher presents, so they will not get bored. Brown (1973: 1) emphasizes
that using various media will increase the English ability since students will
earn the language skill they are expected to develop. Because of that, the
writer writes a research paper entitled “IMPROVING VOCABULARY USING
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE FIFTH YEAR STUDENTS OF SD N
GENDINGAN 4 NGAWI IN 2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR”
.
Based on the background of the research, the problems are formulated
as follows:
1. Can illustration improve students’ vocabulary in SD N Gendingan 4?
2. How is the implementation of teaching vocabulary using illustration at SD
N Gendingan 4 Ngawi?
3. What is the result of teaching vocabulary using illustration at SD N
Gendingan 4 Ngawi?
4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of teaching vocabulary using
illustration at SD N Gendungan 4 Ngawi?
In the study, the writer introduces some previous researchers who have
conducted the research about vocabulary mastery. They are Yeni Iswati (2007)
and Yulfika Yasmin (2005). Yeni Iswati (2007) conducted a research entitled
“Improving Vocabulary Mastery by Using Puzzles of SDN II
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KARANGANYAR”. The problem of her research that students were not
interested in English class. They thought that English is a difficult lesson. She
concludes that the games using English puzzle is good for student to improve
their vocabulary mastery.
The second researcher is Adelia Lutfia Sari (2004) conducted a
research entitled “The Use of Visual Aids To Improve Vocabulary Mastery
The Fourth Year Students (An Action Research at SDN Gumpang 2
Kartasura). The problem of her research is the material to teaching vocabulary
only from a book, the students study only seeing small picture from the book.
The result of the study shows that the use visual aids in mastering vocabulary
can overcome the students’ problem effectively. Their achievements of
vocabulary improved as well as their motivation and attention in learning
English. The students seem to be active in asking and answering the writer
commend. They like to have interaction with the writer to ask the English term
of something relating to the topic discussed.
The research above is not the same with the research done by the
writer. The difference is, that the writer focused on the illustration of daily
activity, either home and school to enrich vocabulary in SDN Gendingan 4
Ngawi.
The objectives of the study are:
1. To know whether or not illustration can improve vocabulary in SD N
Gendingan 4.
2. To describe the procedures of teaching vocabulary by using illustration in
SD N Gendingan 4 Ngawi.
3. To find out the result of teaching vocabulary using illustration.
4. To describe the strengths and weaknesses of teaching vocabulary using
illustration.
B. Research method
In this chapter, the writer discusses the research method. In this chapter the
writer elaborates (a) the type of research, (b) subject of the study, (c) object of the
study, (d) data and data source, (e) method of collecting data, (f) technique for
analyzing data, (g) teaching action, (h) teaching material, (i) testing technique.
In this research the writer used qualitative method. Qualitative method
often involves no statistical analysis, it is associated with hypothesis generating
and developing an understanding. Qualitative method collects the data through
observation and then come up with a theory account for the data. It looks for
hypotheses or theories that can explain the data collected or the facts that are
observed. Thus, qualitative method is concerned more with the process.
The object of this research is teaching vocabulary to elementary school
students in the fifth year of SD N Gendingan 4 by using illustration.
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The subject of this research is the fifth year students of SD N Gendingan 4
in the 2011/2012 academic year. The writer takes the fifth year that has 28
students. Consist 12 male and 16 female.
The form of data is the result of teaching action and the result of interview
and also the test notes accumulated at the first and the last meeting. The data
sources are: (1) Event, (2) Informant, (3) Document, (4) Test.
In this classroom action research, the researcher used test, observation, and
interview to collect the data.
1. Test
Test consists of vocabulary items. It is given before meeting and after the
action to know whether the students’ vocabulary increases or not. There
are two kinds of test. Written test is done to measure the ability of the
students to know the meaning of the words while oral test is done to know
19the students ability in pronouncing the words. But in this research the
writer only uses written test.
2. Observation
The researcher observes all of the students’ activities during the teaching
learning process.
3. Interview
Interview took from the students and teacher about English teaching
learning process. Master and Alton (1971: 271) describe interview as a
conversation between interviewer and respondent with the purpose of
eliciting certain information from the respondent.
The data taken from two kinds of tests: pre-test and post-test. Pre-test
is held before the teacher teaches new materials by using illustration. Teacher
gives a test to the students by taking the previous materials. Post-test is given
in order to know the ability of the students after getting the material. Finally,
the score obtained from the post-test are analyzed. There are three steps of
activities that occur in this research, they are:
1. Analyzing the data (pre-test and post-test)
After the writer gives pre-test and post-test to the students, she analyzes
the pre-test and the post-test. She analyzes in how the students answer the
question that the writer gives to them. The writer analyzes in each answer,
which answer that have a lot of mistake and which answer that have a lot
of correctly answer.
2. Grouping and interpreting the answer of interview.
After did interview with the correspondents (students and headmaster), the
writer is grouping the result of interview and then interpreting the result in
English.
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3. Concluding the data by comparing the pre-test and post-test after the
writer gets the result of pre-test and post-test, she is comparing the result
of them. If the result of post-test is better than pre-test, it means that the
writer’s explanation is successful.
The writer takes the material from English Book for Elementary
School at fifth year students published by PT. INDAHJAYA Adipratama and
“Kamus bergambar Tiga Bahasa” by Farida.
After giving the material, the writer gives a test (post-test) to the students.
The writer gives an hour for the students to do the test. In this study, the
objectives of the test are:
1. To measure the students achievement in understanding vocabulary using
illustration
2. To compare the students achievement in understanding words.
C. Findings and discussion
C.1. Findings
In this chapter, the writer is going to discuss the objective teaching
vocabulary, the instructional design, procedures in conducting vocabulary
learning in the classroom, teacher’s and students’ roles, the implementation of
action research, the result of teaching vocabulary using illustration, the strength
and weakness of using illustration in teaching vocabulary.
1. The Description of SD N Gendingan 4
SD N Gendingan 4 is a one of the elementary school in gendingan village,
Widodaren subdistrict, Ngawi regency. It has ± 3750 m2, consist of 1 office, 6
classroom, 1 clinic, 1 library, 1 canteen, 1 mosque, and school yard for
ceremony and sport. SD N Gendingan 4 has 12 staff, consist of headmaster, 8
teachers, 3 staffs administration. SD N Gendingan 4 has 170 students, consist
of grade 1 has 27 students, grade 2 has 24 students, grade 3 has 24 students,
grade 4 has 43 students, grade 5 has 28 students, and grade 6 has 24 students.
2. Pre-cycle
Before implementing the technique, the researcher gave a pre-test to the
students to know the students’ knowledge first. This was aimed to measure
students’ knowledge of the topic before the treatment, make a comparison
with the post-test and know whether or not the student vocabulary improved.
The topics of pre-test were about transportations, occupations, and daily
activity. The pre-test consisted of 10 items of oral test (pronunciation) and 20
items of questions test. After doing pre-test the researcher calculates the mean
score of the students’ pre-test as follow:
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It could be seen that the mean score of the students’ pre-test was
64.07. From the result of the students’ vocabulary mastery and the mean
score of the students’ pre-test, it could be concluded that the result of pretest was fair.
3. While- cycles
The teacher and researcher analyzed the result of the research which was
collected in several sources of data such as lesson plan, classroom material,
observational report, score of pre-test and post-test of each cycle. Researcher
findings also included improvement of students’ vocabulary mastery and
teaching-learning process of improving vocabulary mastery. Students’
vocabulary mastery was improved by using illustration in teaching-learning
process. Students could pronounce, spell, and understand the meaning of the
word correctly. They could practice to write the English word and had courage
to speak up in English. The class became more attractive and fun. The
students also more familiar with group activity. The improvement of the result
of the action can also be identified from the comparison between the mean
score of the pre-test and post-test. The mean result for pre-test was 64.07
while the post-test was 83.89.
Based on the result of the cycle, illustration could improve the students’
ability in understanding and mastering vocabulary such as pronunciation,
spelling, writing, and translating the words correctly.
The general achievement of improving vocabulary mastery using
illustration could be seen from the mean score of the students. To know the
summary of each cycle, it could be seen from the table 1 below:
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Table 1: The result of students’ score.
Name
Pre-test
Post-test 1
80
60
Chindy A
76
66
Intan M.P
83
43
Rolistio Choirul
80
70
Umi Nur Fadilah
73
30
Panji Ahmad Z
80
76
Lina Wati N
90
86
Safira A
80
46
Ramadhan WH
80
56
Reza Arya S
80
70
Rory Andra R
83
66
Bisma
83
70
Ikhfa Nanda
80
83
Gian Syahputra
86
76
Yesaya Trixi M
80
63
Hesti Dita P
80
63
Habibah
Post-test 2
86
80
86
83
80
86
96
83
83
83
86
83
83
90
86
83
7
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
Setiana Ixti
Septina Dwi H
Erista Eviani
Yuli
Rufa’i Aldi F
Ellen Fika Lorenza
Kukuh Bagaskara
Ludyawan Hanifa D
Patricia Argi Satuti
Ayu Mega Utami
Anisa Putri Ayu D
Muhammad MH
N=28
60
70
63
60
60
80
66
63
66
46
56
60
M. pretest=64,07
83
83
83
76
80
83
76
73
83
80
76
83
M. posttest=80,46
86
83
86
83
80
86
83
76
80
83
80
86
M. posttest=83,89
Where:
N: the total (amount of the students).
M: the average of the students’ score.
4. The Strengths
Illustration
and the Weaknesses of Improving Vocabulary Using
Based on the teaching action in SD Negeri Gendingan 4 Ngawi, the
writer found the strengths and weakness of teaching vocabulary using
illustration as follows:
1. The strengths of teaching vocabulary using illustration
a. The students have high interest in following the teaching learning
process. Most of the vocabulary materials are concrete vocabulary.
The teacher demonstrated the illustration in teaching the concrete
vocabulary. Most of children are more interested in guessing word
than listening to the teacher’s long explanation.
b. The vocabulary taught daily vocabulary, such as train, pilot, bus, etc. it
is easy to be understood, memorized, and also remembered by the
students.
c. The teacher focuses on the speaking and writing vocabulary.
It means that the teacher and the students pronounce and write the
words correctly. In writing, the teacher used the way of dictating the
words studied before.
d. The students are motivated to be active in the class.
Students can be motivated to be active in the class when the teacher
explains about the guessing word to the class and asks the students to
give a response.
e. The students are interested in learning English. They memorize the
word more quickly by illustration because they like a game.
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2. The weakness of teaching vocabulary using illustration
a. The teacher must spend her spare time at home to prepare material and
design the classroom activity. It includes the kind of sentence and
pictures that will be used.
b. Difficult to control the class. Students always chats their self to discuss
the material and little pay attention of teacher’s explanation.
c. The students use mother tongue because when they speak they do not
know the words in English. When the students use mother tongue, the
teacher tells the words in English.
C.1. Discussion
The process of improving vocabulary mastery using illustration was
conducted by using classroom action research (CAR). It involved four steps
such as planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. This research was
implemented into two cycles. Each cycle consists of four meetings and each
meeting took 80 minutes. The procedures are opening in teaching-learning
process, Building Knowledge of Field (BKOF), Modeling of Text (MOT),
Joint construction of Text (JCOT), Independent Construction of Text (ICOT)
and closing.
The implementing in cycle 1 was generally well organized although the
researcher found some weaknesses. Some students were not repeated the
teacher’s pronunciation. Some students’ spelling was still poor although their
vocabulary mastery in generally increased. Situation of the class was very
noisy when they made their group free. Some students looked ashamed when
teacher asked them. They were unfamiliar to work in a group because they
never worked in group before. But in general, they paid more attention to the
lesson.
The implementing in cycle 2 made great improvement result, it was better
than cycle 1. Students more paid attention to the lesson, answer teacher’s
questions, and took part in learning activities. The class became more
attractive and fun. The poorest component of vocabulary in the result of posttest 1 was about spelling because sometimes students still made incorrectness
for spelling some words. Teacher gave more spelling activities. As the result,
students could practice to write the English word and had encouraged to speak
up in English.
We could see that improving vocabulary using illustration was able to
achieve a god result. It means that the teaching-learning process was effective
and successful. In pre-test the mean score was 64. 07, in post-test 1 the mean
score was 80.46, and in post-test 2 the mean score was 83,89. It could be seen
from the increasing result of students’ achievement of the post-test 2 and was
better than post-test 1. Post-test1 was better than pre-test.
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Based on the result of each cycle, illustrations improve students’ ability in
understanding the vocabulary such as pronunciations, spelling, writing, and
translating the words correctly. The strengths of improving vocabulary using
illustration are; students have high interest in following the teaching learning
process. The vocabulary taught daily vocabulary, it is easy to be understood,
memorized, and also remembered by the students. The teacher focuses on the
speaking and writing vocabulary. It means that the teacher and the students
pronounce and write the words correctly. The weaknesses of improving
vocabulary using illustration are; teacher must spend her spare time at home to
prepare material and design the classroom activity. It includes the kind of
sentence and pictures that will be used. Difficult to control the class. Students
always chats their self to discuss the material and little pay attention of
teacher’s explanation. The students use mother tongue because when they
speak they do not know the words in English. When the students use mother
tongue, the teacher tells the words in English.
D. Conclusion
Based on the teaching action of teaching vocabulary using illustration in
the SD Negeri Gendingan 4 Ngawi, the writer can summarize several points.
1. The implementation of teaching vocabulary using illustration in SD N
Gendingan 4 Ngawi are as follows:
a. Opening
Starting from the teacher came to the class then greeting to the
student.
b. The teacher asking some questions about the topic to the students.
c. The teacher explaining the illustration to the students
d. The students imitating the teacher’s pronunciation
e. The students pronouncing the name of word that teacher has been
explaining.
f. The teacher wrote the spelling of the words on the blackboard and the
students pay attention to the teacher.
g. After that the teacher dictating the words that students studied before
h. Closing
The teacher closed the teaching-learning process by give greeting to
the students and saying good bye to them.
2. The result of teaching vocabulary using illustration at fifth year students of
SD N Gendingan 4 in the academic year 2011/2012.
We could see that improving vocabulary using illustration was able to
achieve a god result. It means that the teaching-learning process was
64 the mean score was 64. 07, in post-test
effective and successful. In pre-test
1 the mean score was 80.46, and in post-test 2 the mean score was 83,89.
It could be seen from the increasing result of students’ achievement of the
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post-test 2 and was better than post-test 1. Post-test1 was better than pretest.
3. The strength and the weakness of teaching vocabulary using illustration.
a. Strengths
1) The students have high interest in following the teaching learning
process.
2) The vocabulary taught daily vocabulary, such as train, pilot, bus,
etc. it is easy to be understood, memorized, and also remembered
by the students.
3) The teacher focuses on the speaking and writing vocabulary.
4) The students are motivated to be active in the class.
5) The students are interested in learning English. They memorize the
word more quickly by illustration because it likes a game.
b. Weaknesses
1) The teacher must spend her spare time at home to prepare material
and design the classroom activity. It includes the kind of sentence
and pictures that will be used.
2) Difficult to control the class. Students always chats their self to
discuss the material and little pay attention of teacher’s
explanation.
3) The students use mother tongue because when they speak they do
not know the words in English. When the students use mother
tongue, the teacher tells the words in English.
E. Suggestion
At the end of this chapter, the writer proposes some suggestions, which
will be useful for the researcher and readers:
1. To the other researcher
It is expected that the other researcher can develop this research based on
their own views and their different objects. In other words, they can use
this research as the reference to get information and find the books, which
are related to their research paper.
2. To the readers
If the readers want to read and understand more about teaching vocabulary
using illustration at elementary school, they can read some books that the
writer includes in bibliography.
11
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, French Virginia. 1983. Technique in Teaching Vocabulary. New York:
Oxford American English.
Bell, Judith. 1998. Doing Your Research Project. Second Edition. Buckingham:
Open University Press.
Brown, S. W, R. B. Lewis, Harcleroad.1973. Audio Visual Instruction Technology
Media and Methods. New York: Mc. Graw hill Book Company.
Carter, Ronald, Michael Mc. Carthy.1997. Vocabulary and Language Teaching.
London and New York: Longman.
Concoran, B. G. Gertrude. 1970. Language Arts in the Elementary School : A
Modern Linguistic Approach. New York: Ronald Press Company.
Depdikbud. 1995. GBPP Muatan Lokal SD Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris.
Semarang: P dan K.
Farida. 2008. Kamus Bergambar Tiga Bahasa. Semarang: Aneka Ilmu
Fauziati, Endang. 2003. Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Surakarta:
Muhammadiyah University Press.
Harris, David. 1979. Testing English as a Second Language. New York: Mc.
Graw Hill Book Company.
Haycraft, A. 1998. An Introduction to English Teaching. Singapore: Ban Mash
Press Pte, Ltd.
Muhtar, Andi. 1996. “The Significance of Action Research in Investigating
Language Teaching and Learning”. ELE, 2 (1).
Suharsimi, Arikunto. 1993. Prosedur Penelitian. Jakarta: PT. Bina Angkasa.
IMPROVING VOCABULARY USING ILLUSTRATION FOR
FIFTH YEAR STUDENTS OF SD N GENDINGAN 4 NGAWI
IN 2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR
PUBLICATION PAPER
by
ANINDITA PUSPA WIDAYANTI
A 320 070 033
SCHOOL OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA
2013
1
2
3
IMPROVING VOCABULARY USING ILLUSTRATION FOR FIFTH YEAR
STUDENTS OF SD N GENDINGAN 4 NGAWI
IN 2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR
Anindita Puspa Widayanti
Anam Sutopo
Nur Hidayat
English School of Teacher Training and Education
Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta
[email protected]
SUMMARY
This study aims at describing the procedures of teaching vocabulary using
illustration and its influence to the students’ vocabulary mastery and for clarifying
the strengths and weaknesses of the illustration to teach vocabulary. The research
was held in SD N Gendingan 4 Ngawi. The writer took 28 students of the fifth
year as the subject. To collect the required data the writer compared the results of
pre-test and post-test. We could see that improving vocabulary using illustration
was able to achieve a good result. It means that the teaching-learning process was
effective and successful. In pre-test the mean score was 64. 07, in post-test 1 the
mean score was 80.46, and in post-test 2 the mean score was 83,89. It could be
seen from the increasing result of students’ achievement of the post-test 2 and was
better than post-test 1. Post-test1 was better than pre-test. It means that teaching
vocabulary using illustration in SD N Gendingan 4 has a good result. The use of
illustration in teaching vocabulary is very appropriate and helpful in teachinglearning process. The advantages of this research are the students have high
interest in learning English and the students are motivated to be active in the class.
The disadvantages of this research are the teacher needed much time to prepare
material and she used the native language in the class.
1
A. Introduction
Human being living in the society needs language. It is an important tool
that helps people make communication among individuals or even nation. As an
international language, English is studied for science, politics, and as a school
subject. In Indonesia, English is learned formally by students in Junior High
School for the first time.
Teaching English in elementary school is useful. Young students
especially students in elementary school have big memory to memorize
everything they learn. Thus, in elementary school, English is taught as an
additional subject besides gardening, painting, region singing and handicraft. As
elementary school is the place for students to learn English for the first time, the
students just learn the basic vocabulary and grammar.
To master vocabulary the student should have ability in understanding and
using vocabulary. Vocabulary mastery itself deals with words and meaning. The
students are not only expected to select whether words are suitable to be taught to
them but also to be able to use the words for communicating and expressing their
idea both in oral and written forms. There are several criteria that learners can
fully master a word; the learners are able to recognize the vocabulary in its spoken
and written forms, spell and pronounce it correctly, relate it to appropriate objects
or concepts, use the vocabulary in the grammatical form, recall it correctly, know
in what ways it can combine with others words, also aware of its connotations and
associations, and use it in appropriate situations.
To know the problems faced by the students in mastering vocabulary,
the writer conducted observations, interviews, and pre-test. The following is
the problems observed during the teaching-learning process of English in SDN
Gendingan 4:
1. The students had difficulty to memorize the meaning of words.
2. They had bad pronunciation. They tended to pronounce the letters of the
word in mother tongue.
3. They were not interested in English class. They thought that English is a
difficult lesson, because the ways to pronounce and write are very
different.
The observation also reveals the possible causes of the problem above, they are:
1. The technique of teaching vocabulary based on the book presentation. The
students were passive. The teacher focused on the book and the students
did the exercise from the book during the teaching-learning process. The
teacher never uses games, song, story, and realia.
2. The time to practice is limited. The English class was only once a week.
3. The material to teaching vocabulary only from a book. The students study
vocabulary only seeing small picture from the book. The teacher never
2
brings other teaching aids such as bigger picture or the teacher give body
movement to get their interest.
Before implementing the technique, the researcher gave a pre-test to
the students to know the students’ knowledge first. The result of pre-test
showed that the students had low ability in mastering vocabulary. Most of the
students had the difficulty to pronounce and spell the words. They also had
difficulty in memorizing the meaning of words. When they did the test, they
were worried and always cheating. They looked difficult in doing the pre-test.
In the pre-test, the highest score was 86 and the lowest score was 30. It could
be seen that the mean score of the students’ pre-test was 64.07. From the result
of the students’ vocabulary mastery and the mean score of the students’ pretest, it could be concluded that the result of pre-test was fair.
From the discussion above, the writer is interested in carrying out a
research dealing with vocabulary teaching experiment using illustration.
Illustration is one of teaching vocabulary methods, it looks like guessing word
but it is more general than guessing word. Illustration not only uses sentences
in giving clues but also uses pictures. The students must guess the word by
those pictures. This method is useful for the students in memorizing word and
grammar. From the teacher’s sentence question they can learn the sentence
pattern. So, they learn grammar indirectly.
By this technique, it is expected that the teacher will be able to
motivate the learners to learn and pay attention to the English materials, which
the teacher presents, so they will not get bored. Brown (1973: 1) emphasizes
that using various media will increase the English ability since students will
earn the language skill they are expected to develop. Because of that, the
writer writes a research paper entitled “IMPROVING VOCABULARY USING
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE FIFTH YEAR STUDENTS OF SD N
GENDINGAN 4 NGAWI IN 2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR”
.
Based on the background of the research, the problems are formulated
as follows:
1. Can illustration improve students’ vocabulary in SD N Gendingan 4?
2. How is the implementation of teaching vocabulary using illustration at SD
N Gendingan 4 Ngawi?
3. What is the result of teaching vocabulary using illustration at SD N
Gendingan 4 Ngawi?
4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of teaching vocabulary using
illustration at SD N Gendungan 4 Ngawi?
In the study, the writer introduces some previous researchers who have
conducted the research about vocabulary mastery. They are Yeni Iswati (2007)
and Yulfika Yasmin (2005). Yeni Iswati (2007) conducted a research entitled
“Improving Vocabulary Mastery by Using Puzzles of SDN II
3
KARANGANYAR”. The problem of her research that students were not
interested in English class. They thought that English is a difficult lesson. She
concludes that the games using English puzzle is good for student to improve
their vocabulary mastery.
The second researcher is Adelia Lutfia Sari (2004) conducted a
research entitled “The Use of Visual Aids To Improve Vocabulary Mastery
The Fourth Year Students (An Action Research at SDN Gumpang 2
Kartasura). The problem of her research is the material to teaching vocabulary
only from a book, the students study only seeing small picture from the book.
The result of the study shows that the use visual aids in mastering vocabulary
can overcome the students’ problem effectively. Their achievements of
vocabulary improved as well as their motivation and attention in learning
English. The students seem to be active in asking and answering the writer
commend. They like to have interaction with the writer to ask the English term
of something relating to the topic discussed.
The research above is not the same with the research done by the
writer. The difference is, that the writer focused on the illustration of daily
activity, either home and school to enrich vocabulary in SDN Gendingan 4
Ngawi.
The objectives of the study are:
1. To know whether or not illustration can improve vocabulary in SD N
Gendingan 4.
2. To describe the procedures of teaching vocabulary by using illustration in
SD N Gendingan 4 Ngawi.
3. To find out the result of teaching vocabulary using illustration.
4. To describe the strengths and weaknesses of teaching vocabulary using
illustration.
B. Research method
In this chapter, the writer discusses the research method. In this chapter the
writer elaborates (a) the type of research, (b) subject of the study, (c) object of the
study, (d) data and data source, (e) method of collecting data, (f) technique for
analyzing data, (g) teaching action, (h) teaching material, (i) testing technique.
In this research the writer used qualitative method. Qualitative method
often involves no statistical analysis, it is associated with hypothesis generating
and developing an understanding. Qualitative method collects the data through
observation and then come up with a theory account for the data. It looks for
hypotheses or theories that can explain the data collected or the facts that are
observed. Thus, qualitative method is concerned more with the process.
The object of this research is teaching vocabulary to elementary school
students in the fifth year of SD N Gendingan 4 by using illustration.
4
The subject of this research is the fifth year students of SD N Gendingan 4
in the 2011/2012 academic year. The writer takes the fifth year that has 28
students. Consist 12 male and 16 female.
The form of data is the result of teaching action and the result of interview
and also the test notes accumulated at the first and the last meeting. The data
sources are: (1) Event, (2) Informant, (3) Document, (4) Test.
In this classroom action research, the researcher used test, observation, and
interview to collect the data.
1. Test
Test consists of vocabulary items. It is given before meeting and after the
action to know whether the students’ vocabulary increases or not. There
are two kinds of test. Written test is done to measure the ability of the
students to know the meaning of the words while oral test is done to know
19the students ability in pronouncing the words. But in this research the
writer only uses written test.
2. Observation
The researcher observes all of the students’ activities during the teaching
learning process.
3. Interview
Interview took from the students and teacher about English teaching
learning process. Master and Alton (1971: 271) describe interview as a
conversation between interviewer and respondent with the purpose of
eliciting certain information from the respondent.
The data taken from two kinds of tests: pre-test and post-test. Pre-test
is held before the teacher teaches new materials by using illustration. Teacher
gives a test to the students by taking the previous materials. Post-test is given
in order to know the ability of the students after getting the material. Finally,
the score obtained from the post-test are analyzed. There are three steps of
activities that occur in this research, they are:
1. Analyzing the data (pre-test and post-test)
After the writer gives pre-test and post-test to the students, she analyzes
the pre-test and the post-test. She analyzes in how the students answer the
question that the writer gives to them. The writer analyzes in each answer,
which answer that have a lot of mistake and which answer that have a lot
of correctly answer.
2. Grouping and interpreting the answer of interview.
After did interview with the correspondents (students and headmaster), the
writer is grouping the result of interview and then interpreting the result in
English.
5
3. Concluding the data by comparing the pre-test and post-test after the
writer gets the result of pre-test and post-test, she is comparing the result
of them. If the result of post-test is better than pre-test, it means that the
writer’s explanation is successful.
The writer takes the material from English Book for Elementary
School at fifth year students published by PT. INDAHJAYA Adipratama and
“Kamus bergambar Tiga Bahasa” by Farida.
After giving the material, the writer gives a test (post-test) to the students.
The writer gives an hour for the students to do the test. In this study, the
objectives of the test are:
1. To measure the students achievement in understanding vocabulary using
illustration
2. To compare the students achievement in understanding words.
C. Findings and discussion
C.1. Findings
In this chapter, the writer is going to discuss the objective teaching
vocabulary, the instructional design, procedures in conducting vocabulary
learning in the classroom, teacher’s and students’ roles, the implementation of
action research, the result of teaching vocabulary using illustration, the strength
and weakness of using illustration in teaching vocabulary.
1. The Description of SD N Gendingan 4
SD N Gendingan 4 is a one of the elementary school in gendingan village,
Widodaren subdistrict, Ngawi regency. It has ± 3750 m2, consist of 1 office, 6
classroom, 1 clinic, 1 library, 1 canteen, 1 mosque, and school yard for
ceremony and sport. SD N Gendingan 4 has 12 staff, consist of headmaster, 8
teachers, 3 staffs administration. SD N Gendingan 4 has 170 students, consist
of grade 1 has 27 students, grade 2 has 24 students, grade 3 has 24 students,
grade 4 has 43 students, grade 5 has 28 students, and grade 6 has 24 students.
2. Pre-cycle
Before implementing the technique, the researcher gave a pre-test to the
students to know the students’ knowledge first. This was aimed to measure
students’ knowledge of the topic before the treatment, make a comparison
with the post-test and know whether or not the student vocabulary improved.
The topics of pre-test were about transportations, occupations, and daily
activity. The pre-test consisted of 10 items of oral test (pronunciation) and 20
items of questions test. After doing pre-test the researcher calculates the mean
score of the students’ pre-test as follow:
6
It could be seen that the mean score of the students’ pre-test was
64.07. From the result of the students’ vocabulary mastery and the mean
score of the students’ pre-test, it could be concluded that the result of pretest was fair.
3. While- cycles
The teacher and researcher analyzed the result of the research which was
collected in several sources of data such as lesson plan, classroom material,
observational report, score of pre-test and post-test of each cycle. Researcher
findings also included improvement of students’ vocabulary mastery and
teaching-learning process of improving vocabulary mastery. Students’
vocabulary mastery was improved by using illustration in teaching-learning
process. Students could pronounce, spell, and understand the meaning of the
word correctly. They could practice to write the English word and had courage
to speak up in English. The class became more attractive and fun. The
students also more familiar with group activity. The improvement of the result
of the action can also be identified from the comparison between the mean
score of the pre-test and post-test. The mean result for pre-test was 64.07
while the post-test was 83.89.
Based on the result of the cycle, illustration could improve the students’
ability in understanding and mastering vocabulary such as pronunciation,
spelling, writing, and translating the words correctly.
The general achievement of improving vocabulary mastery using
illustration could be seen from the mean score of the students. To know the
summary of each cycle, it could be seen from the table 1 below:
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Table 1: The result of students’ score.
Name
Pre-test
Post-test 1
80
60
Chindy A
76
66
Intan M.P
83
43
Rolistio Choirul
80
70
Umi Nur Fadilah
73
30
Panji Ahmad Z
80
76
Lina Wati N
90
86
Safira A
80
46
Ramadhan WH
80
56
Reza Arya S
80
70
Rory Andra R
83
66
Bisma
83
70
Ikhfa Nanda
80
83
Gian Syahputra
86
76
Yesaya Trixi M
80
63
Hesti Dita P
80
63
Habibah
Post-test 2
86
80
86
83
80
86
96
83
83
83
86
83
83
90
86
83
7
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
Setiana Ixti
Septina Dwi H
Erista Eviani
Yuli
Rufa’i Aldi F
Ellen Fika Lorenza
Kukuh Bagaskara
Ludyawan Hanifa D
Patricia Argi Satuti
Ayu Mega Utami
Anisa Putri Ayu D
Muhammad MH
N=28
60
70
63
60
60
80
66
63
66
46
56
60
M. pretest=64,07
83
83
83
76
80
83
76
73
83
80
76
83
M. posttest=80,46
86
83
86
83
80
86
83
76
80
83
80
86
M. posttest=83,89
Where:
N: the total (amount of the students).
M: the average of the students’ score.
4. The Strengths
Illustration
and the Weaknesses of Improving Vocabulary Using
Based on the teaching action in SD Negeri Gendingan 4 Ngawi, the
writer found the strengths and weakness of teaching vocabulary using
illustration as follows:
1. The strengths of teaching vocabulary using illustration
a. The students have high interest in following the teaching learning
process. Most of the vocabulary materials are concrete vocabulary.
The teacher demonstrated the illustration in teaching the concrete
vocabulary. Most of children are more interested in guessing word
than listening to the teacher’s long explanation.
b. The vocabulary taught daily vocabulary, such as train, pilot, bus, etc. it
is easy to be understood, memorized, and also remembered by the
students.
c. The teacher focuses on the speaking and writing vocabulary.
It means that the teacher and the students pronounce and write the
words correctly. In writing, the teacher used the way of dictating the
words studied before.
d. The students are motivated to be active in the class.
Students can be motivated to be active in the class when the teacher
explains about the guessing word to the class and asks the students to
give a response.
e. The students are interested in learning English. They memorize the
word more quickly by illustration because they like a game.
8
2. The weakness of teaching vocabulary using illustration
a. The teacher must spend her spare time at home to prepare material and
design the classroom activity. It includes the kind of sentence and
pictures that will be used.
b. Difficult to control the class. Students always chats their self to discuss
the material and little pay attention of teacher’s explanation.
c. The students use mother tongue because when they speak they do not
know the words in English. When the students use mother tongue, the
teacher tells the words in English.
C.1. Discussion
The process of improving vocabulary mastery using illustration was
conducted by using classroom action research (CAR). It involved four steps
such as planning, implementing, observing, and reflecting. This research was
implemented into two cycles. Each cycle consists of four meetings and each
meeting took 80 minutes. The procedures are opening in teaching-learning
process, Building Knowledge of Field (BKOF), Modeling of Text (MOT),
Joint construction of Text (JCOT), Independent Construction of Text (ICOT)
and closing.
The implementing in cycle 1 was generally well organized although the
researcher found some weaknesses. Some students were not repeated the
teacher’s pronunciation. Some students’ spelling was still poor although their
vocabulary mastery in generally increased. Situation of the class was very
noisy when they made their group free. Some students looked ashamed when
teacher asked them. They were unfamiliar to work in a group because they
never worked in group before. But in general, they paid more attention to the
lesson.
The implementing in cycle 2 made great improvement result, it was better
than cycle 1. Students more paid attention to the lesson, answer teacher’s
questions, and took part in learning activities. The class became more
attractive and fun. The poorest component of vocabulary in the result of posttest 1 was about spelling because sometimes students still made incorrectness
for spelling some words. Teacher gave more spelling activities. As the result,
students could practice to write the English word and had encouraged to speak
up in English.
We could see that improving vocabulary using illustration was able to
achieve a god result. It means that the teaching-learning process was effective
and successful. In pre-test the mean score was 64. 07, in post-test 1 the mean
score was 80.46, and in post-test 2 the mean score was 83,89. It could be seen
from the increasing result of students’ achievement of the post-test 2 and was
better than post-test 1. Post-test1 was better than pre-test.
9
Based on the result of each cycle, illustrations improve students’ ability in
understanding the vocabulary such as pronunciations, spelling, writing, and
translating the words correctly. The strengths of improving vocabulary using
illustration are; students have high interest in following the teaching learning
process. The vocabulary taught daily vocabulary, it is easy to be understood,
memorized, and also remembered by the students. The teacher focuses on the
speaking and writing vocabulary. It means that the teacher and the students
pronounce and write the words correctly. The weaknesses of improving
vocabulary using illustration are; teacher must spend her spare time at home to
prepare material and design the classroom activity. It includes the kind of
sentence and pictures that will be used. Difficult to control the class. Students
always chats their self to discuss the material and little pay attention of
teacher’s explanation. The students use mother tongue because when they
speak they do not know the words in English. When the students use mother
tongue, the teacher tells the words in English.
D. Conclusion
Based on the teaching action of teaching vocabulary using illustration in
the SD Negeri Gendingan 4 Ngawi, the writer can summarize several points.
1. The implementation of teaching vocabulary using illustration in SD N
Gendingan 4 Ngawi are as follows:
a. Opening
Starting from the teacher came to the class then greeting to the
student.
b. The teacher asking some questions about the topic to the students.
c. The teacher explaining the illustration to the students
d. The students imitating the teacher’s pronunciation
e. The students pronouncing the name of word that teacher has been
explaining.
f. The teacher wrote the spelling of the words on the blackboard and the
students pay attention to the teacher.
g. After that the teacher dictating the words that students studied before
h. Closing
The teacher closed the teaching-learning process by give greeting to
the students and saying good bye to them.
2. The result of teaching vocabulary using illustration at fifth year students of
SD N Gendingan 4 in the academic year 2011/2012.
We could see that improving vocabulary using illustration was able to
achieve a god result. It means that the teaching-learning process was
64 the mean score was 64. 07, in post-test
effective and successful. In pre-test
1 the mean score was 80.46, and in post-test 2 the mean score was 83,89.
It could be seen from the increasing result of students’ achievement of the
10
post-test 2 and was better than post-test 1. Post-test1 was better than pretest.
3. The strength and the weakness of teaching vocabulary using illustration.
a. Strengths
1) The students have high interest in following the teaching learning
process.
2) The vocabulary taught daily vocabulary, such as train, pilot, bus,
etc. it is easy to be understood, memorized, and also remembered
by the students.
3) The teacher focuses on the speaking and writing vocabulary.
4) The students are motivated to be active in the class.
5) The students are interested in learning English. They memorize the
word more quickly by illustration because it likes a game.
b. Weaknesses
1) The teacher must spend her spare time at home to prepare material
and design the classroom activity. It includes the kind of sentence
and pictures that will be used.
2) Difficult to control the class. Students always chats their self to
discuss the material and little pay attention of teacher’s
explanation.
3) The students use mother tongue because when they speak they do
not know the words in English. When the students use mother
tongue, the teacher tells the words in English.
E. Suggestion
At the end of this chapter, the writer proposes some suggestions, which
will be useful for the researcher and readers:
1. To the other researcher
It is expected that the other researcher can develop this research based on
their own views and their different objects. In other words, they can use
this research as the reference to get information and find the books, which
are related to their research paper.
2. To the readers
If the readers want to read and understand more about teaching vocabulary
using illustration at elementary school, they can read some books that the
writer includes in bibliography.
11
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, French Virginia. 1983. Technique in Teaching Vocabulary. New York:
Oxford American English.
Bell, Judith. 1998. Doing Your Research Project. Second Edition. Buckingham:
Open University Press.
Brown, S. W, R. B. Lewis, Harcleroad.1973. Audio Visual Instruction Technology
Media and Methods. New York: Mc. Graw hill Book Company.
Carter, Ronald, Michael Mc. Carthy.1997. Vocabulary and Language Teaching.
London and New York: Longman.
Concoran, B. G. Gertrude. 1970. Language Arts in the Elementary School : A
Modern Linguistic Approach. New York: Ronald Press Company.
Depdikbud. 1995. GBPP Muatan Lokal SD Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris.
Semarang: P dan K.
Farida. 2008. Kamus Bergambar Tiga Bahasa. Semarang: Aneka Ilmu
Fauziati, Endang. 2003. Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Surakarta:
Muhammadiyah University Press.
Harris, David. 1979. Testing English as a Second Language. New York: Mc.
Graw Hill Book Company.
Haycraft, A. 1998. An Introduction to English Teaching. Singapore: Ban Mash
Press Pte, Ltd.
Muhtar, Andi. 1996. “The Significance of Action Research in Investigating
Language Teaching and Learning”. ELE, 2 (1).
Suharsimi, Arikunto. 1993. Prosedur Penelitian. Jakarta: PT. Bina Angkasa.