Erna Ma'rifah CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Vocabulary 1. Definition of Vocabulary Vocabulary is word which is known and used by someone to deliver
her or his idea in written or oral. Wu (2009:128) points out vocabulary are the tool of thought, self-expression, translation and communication in any language teaching. Without sufficient vocabulary, people can not communicate effectively or express the ideas. According to Hiebert and Kamil (2005:3), vocabulary is the knowledge of meanings of words.
While Pikulski and Templeton (2004:1) cited that vocabulary is the sum of words that are used and understood by students. Vocabulary is”used” when someone speaks or writes something to express their idea, while someone “understood” vocabulary when someone read or listen.
In conclusion,vocabulary is knowledge or set of words that is used for communicating in oral or print with other people.
2. The Importance of Vocabulary Vocabulary is obviously a very important element in language.
TschirnerinNurhemida (2007:4) states that vocabulary size has been identified as one of the most important indicators of L2 reading proficiency and of academic language skills in general. Wilkins in Wu (2009:128) said that people could describe few things without grammar, but they could express nothing without vocabulary. The more vocabulary the learners have, the easier for them to improve their skills. It means that vocabulary related to listening, speaking, and writing and reading. AsRussell in Sukrong(2010:2) mentioned that vocabulary comprehension led to the improvement in the four skills those four skills are reading, listening, speaking and writing. In writing, for example, by having many vocabularies, the students are easy to improve their English skills.In addition, the more one’s vocabulary develops, and the easier it is to add new word (Nunan 1991:118). Rivers in Nunan (1991:117) also argued that the acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is essential for successful second language because without an extensive vocabulary we will be unable to use the structure and the functions we may have learned for comprehensible communication.
3. The types of vocabulary
The term vocabularyrefers to words which are needed to know and to communicate with others. Hatch and Brown (1995: 370) mention that vocabulary can be divided into two types. They are receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulcxary or passive and active vocabulary. Haycraft (1978) in Hatch and Brown (1995: 370) defines that receptive vocabulary is words that the student recognizes and understands when they occur in a context, but which he cannot produce correctly. Then, productive vocabulary is words which the student understands, can pronounce correctly and use constructively in speaking and writing. While Hiebert and Kamil (2005:3) argues that words come in at least two forms: oral and print. Oral vocabulary is the set of words for which we know the meanings when we speak or read orally. Print vocabulary consists of those words for which the meaning is known when someone writes or read silently.
4. The Scope of Vocabulary
Vocabulary is one element that links the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. However, vocabulary covers those four skills; there are major word classes which are mostly used in communication. According to Hatch and Brown (1995:218) word class is an important feature in semantic analysis; those word classes are as follows: a.
Nouns Nouns refer to a person; place, or thing, nouns can be divided into some subclasses as follows:
1) Common nouns like woman, sate, etc.
2) Abstract noun like understanding, hope, etc. 3)
Concrete noun like chair, table, etc And noun can be in the form of subject, object and so b.Verbs
Verbs are words that denote action. Verbs have principal part; infinitive (run), past (ran), participle (run).
c.
Adjectives Adjectives are used to highlight or attributes. Certain adjectives are typically used to describe particular nouns, for example; light, dark, bright, and smart. d.Adverbs
Adverbs are typically assign attributes to verb, to clause, or to entire sentence rather than to nouns.Adverbs can be divided into some part.
5. Learning Vocabulary a. Aspects of LearningVocabulary
In learning vocabulary, there are some vocabulary aspects that teacher should be taught to the students. According toLado (1972: 1) as cited in Mardianawati (2012: 11), there are several vocabulary aspects that students should need to know and learn, they are: meaning, spelling, pronunciation, word classes, and word use. 1)
Meaning When conveying the meaning to the students, teachers should teach their students that a word may have more than one meaning when used in different contexts. In order to discover the meaning, the teacher can use ways such as guided discovery, contextual guesswork and using dictionaries. 2)
Spelling Many letters can represent more than one sound. This is seen, for example, in the letter a, which can represent /æe/ as in airplane, or /a:/ as in ask. On the other hand, many sounds can be represented by more than one letter or combination of letters; for example, /u/ appear in put, boot, and could. 3)
Pronunciation
the act or manner of pronouncing words. Most of
Pronunciation is
words have only one pronunciation, but sometime a word has two or more
pronunciations. English pronunciation is difficult to be learnt because it is
not related to the spelling of words. Good pronunciation avoids misunderstanding in communication, thus it makes receiver eaiser to communicate. 4)
Word classes Word classes are categories of word. The classification of the words of a language in this way depends on their function in communication. The word classes can be in the form of noun, verb, adjective, and adverb.
5) Word use
Word use is how a word, phrase, or concept is used in a language. Word use may also involve grammar and thus be the subject of profound analysis.
In this case, the aspects of vocabulary that will be taught to the students are pronunciation, spelling, word classes and meaning. The reason for choosing those aspects is it is appropriate with the material being taught in the class using magic square.
b. Problems of Learning Vocabulary
The core failure of mastering vocabulary is mainly determine by the limited stock of word, which will build up the meaning of spoken and written form.According to Lado cited in Mardianawati (2012:11)those problems of learning vocabulary are as follows: 1)
Pronunciation problem The aspects which cause pronunciation problems are; similar sound in two words which have different variants, sequences of sound in one word, and classification of sound. 2)
Spelling problem The spelling problems are as follows:
a) Misunderstanding between speaker and hearer. for example: if the teacher say “she”, then the students write “see”.
b) The students do not know the spelling of words.
For example; the students do not know how to spell the word correctly like “blackboard”. The students tend to write or say “blekbor” in spelling its word
3) Memorizing problem
There are some memorizing problems namely:
a) The students have low motivation in learning vocabulary.
b) The students are reluctant to memorize the new words.
c) The students do not always use the words they had known to communicate in daily activities d)
Some English teachers do not find and use proper techniques which maintain the students’ ability of memorizing the words. 4)
Meaning problem It is reasonable that Indonesian learners are difficult in understanding the meaning of English words. Moreover the meaning of English word not only has one meaning but also has more than one meaning.
In short, teaching vocabulary needsmedia or technique to make student mastering vocabulary in written or spoken form.
c. Method of Learning Vocabulary
According to Lado (1972:1) there are some methods which are able to help the learners to learn and master vocabulary well, as the followings: 1)
Dictionary Obviously, a language learner has to have a good vocabulary. Meanwhile she has a trouble in catching the meaning of words. Dictionaries can be used effectively to find the meaning of difficult words. 2)
Note Book One of the most effective ways to control the learning process of new words is to keep a small one in our pocket so that you can write done words whenever we hear or see them. 3)
Guessing the Meaning In reading the students will find the words which exact meaning is not absolutely necessary for us to know in order to understand the sentences. Therefore, the students do not run the dictionary every time when findnew words. Guessing meaning can be used to know the meaning of word based on the context.
From the explanation above, the method which is used in this research is guessing the meaning. The students are asked to guess the meaning using clues in the magic square.
d. Principle of Learning Vocabulary
An English teacher has been naturally interested in how learners study about vocabulary. If the teacher knows about learner strategies, the teacher can helps the learners acquire more profitable. Related to that idea, Brown and Payne in Hatch and Brown (1995: 372) suggest the principle of vocabulary, those are as follows: a)
Having source for encountering new words The first essential principle for learning vocabulary is encountering new words, which are having a source words. This means that the studentslearn new words by reading books, listening to radio, tape recorder or watching television. Learners can encounter new words by text book, dictionary, or teacher.
b) Learning the meaning of words
In this principle, learners often gets close to the meaning of the English words, choosing means that have some of features of the words. For example “strong” and “hard” share some features with “heavy” but one also distinct in many ways.
c) Making a strong memory connection between the form and the meaning of words.
In this principle of learning vocabulary, many kinds of vocabulary learning such as making exercise, using media, creating games, etc which is strengthen of the form of meaning connection.
d) Using kind of word
The last principle of learning vocabulary is using the kind of words. To know the learners’ understanding of the English words, the teachers was used vocabulary test, so that the learners felt confident about their words knowledge when they have used the words.
7.Teaching vocabulary
Teaching is not only transferring the knowledge of the teacher to the students, but it should be taken an appropriate way in order to obtain the aim of teaching in learning process. Vocabulary is very important for second language learners; only with sufficient vocabulary learners can effectively express their ideas both in oral and written form.
Shukla cited (2012:67) Vocabulary should be taught to the learners as proficiency in vocabulary lead to proficiency in language. Thus, teacher should have a good idea of how to expand their vocabulary so that learners can improve their interest in learning vocabulary. A key parting English teacher knows how to help learners in learning vocabulary both well and successful. That is way a language teacher should be innovative and proficient in teaching vocabulary in a classroom situation. Sukhla (2012:68) mentions some of the key strategies to develop the information and meaning of a new word, those are as follows: a.
Definitions Definitions in the target language may be very handy if they are expressed in terms that are better known or more easily guessed than the word that is defined.
b.
Antonyms When one member of a pair of opposites is understood, the meaning of the other can be easily comprehended. This helps the student to understand the different shades of meanings of a word.
c.
Synonyms A synonym may be used to help the student to understand the different shades of meaning if the synonym is better known than the word being taught. Synonyms help to enrich a student's vocabulary bank and provide alternative words instantly.
d.
Pictures and Drawings Pictures of many types and colors can be used successfully to show the meaning of words and sentence.Pictures can also be used as there is no need to be very artistic.
Drawings can be used to explain the meaning of things, actions, qualities, and relations. A line drawing of a head, for example, provides many useful nouns and verbs.
e.
Parts of Words The parts of complex and compound words may be more common than the words themselves. Separating such words into their component parts generally elaborates the meaning. f.
Reading the Word Reading words aloud is also very beneficial. It makes a learner familiar with the word and also improves pronunciations of the learners.
g.
Writing the Word It will enable the class to write the new word while the auditory memory is fresh, even if the objective is only to read. Writing or copying the word from the blackboard will give the student a chance to understand the grammatical aspect of the word such as noun, verb, adverb, adjective etc.
h.
Matching Columns Once the new vocabulary has been taught, a useful way to test if students have understood the meanings of this new vocabulary is to ask them to match new words from one column with definitions from another column. The new words are numbered in column one and the definitions are mixed up and lettered in column two. Students can also make up sentences using this technique, matching the beginning of the sentence or phrase from column 1 with the end of the sentence or phrase from column.
8. TestingVocabulary competence
The knowledge of vocabulary can be shown by vocabulary achievement test. That is needed to look for some general indication of the adequacy students’ vocabulary.Gronlundand linn(:143) mentions the kinds of objective test items namely; a.
Short answer item Short answer item is a test which can be answered by a word, phrase, number, or symbol. This test uses a direct question, whereas the completion item consists of an incomplete statement.
Example: they ... English last night. b.
True-false or alternative-response True- false consist of a declarative statement that the pupil is asked to mark true or false, right or wrong, correct or incorrect, yes or no, fact or opinion, agree or disagree. Inthis case there is only one possible answer.
Example: The sun sets in the west. T/F This test item is used to measure the ability to identify the correctness of statement of fact, definition of term, statement of principals, etc.
c.
Matching exercise Matching exercise consists of two parallel columns, the first column is premises and the second column is called as responses.
a. b. A thing used for drinking. Broom c. d. A thing used for sweeping the floor Glass d.
Multiple Choice Multiple choices item consists of a problem and list of suggested solution. The problem may be stated as a direct question or an incomplete statement and is called the stem of the item. The list of suggested solutions may include words,numbers,symbols, or phrases and those are called as alternatives(also called choices or options). In multiple choice items,there is only one correct answer. The correct alternative in each item is called the answer,and the others alternatives are called distracters. Example: what is the closet meaning of “beautiful”? a.
Ugly b.Pretty c.
Handsome d.Slim In this research,the test which is used to measure the students’ vocabulary is multiple choicethat consists of stem (question) and four choices; one correct answer and three distracters. The elements of this test are synonym and antonym consists of ten questions for each element.
B. Media 1. Definition of media
Media in a process of teaching is not a new thing for the teacher. Most of the teachers use media to help them giving particular information to the students. According to Djamarah (2010:120) media is a tool that is used for transforming information and delivering massage. In teaching learning process, media has an important role, in that it helps the teacher in explaining indistinctness lesson. Djamarah (2010:121) also cited that without media, all the material is difficult to be accepted and processed by learners.
Hamalik argued that (1983:23), media is tool, method and technique which is used in making communication and interaction between teacher and students more effective in teaching and learning in the school.
Meanwhile, National education association in Sadiman (2008:7) cited that media is the forms of communication, either printed or audiovisual and all tools. According to Sadiman (2008:7) media should be able to manipulated, visible, audible and readable.
2. Kinds of media
From some scientists there are some kinds of media for teaching learning process. According toDjamarah (2010:124) cited the kinds of media,those are as follows: a.
Auditif/audio media Audio media is media that only use auditory ability, such as:radio, cassette recorder. This media is inappropriate for deaf people. b.
Visual media Visual media is media that only use visual ability. This media show silentpicture likes film strip,slidephoto,picture,and printed.
c.
Audiovisual media Audiovisual media is media that have sound and picture element.
This media has more ability in that it covers both of audio and visual media.This media divided into: a)
Silent audiovisual namely media that show sound and silent picture such as:soundslide,film sound strip, and printed sound.
b) Motion audiovisual namely media that show sound and motion picture such as: sound film, cassette video.
While Kemp and Dayton in Arsyad (2007:37) categories the kinds of media into eight, two of them are as follows: a.
Printed media Printed media which included the materials which is prepared on the paper for teaching and information, for example: texts book, brochure, newsletter, guide sheet.
b.
Display media This media is usually used to deliver massage or information in front of small group. The example of this media is: blackboard, flip chart. In this study, the writer chose printed media, in such much as the media that is used in teaching and learning process is magic squares.
C. Magic Squares 1. Definition of Magic Squares
Magic squares belong to printed media. It is like a matching activity. Magic square is matching activity which students have to match the term column with clues column. Using matching the clue and the term, the students write the answer on the magic squares. It consists of blanks squares, and two-column list as the clue; one column is a lettered list of terms (answer choices); the other column is a numbered list of definitions or clues. Its clue can be in phrase, synonym, antonym, definitions or picture form related to its word. Magic squares is media which answering the question by matching the answer by putting the answer on the squares. Itlikes filling crossword puzzle but in magic squares the answers are provided.
In magic squares there is a contextual clue for each word that should be matched. Carnine at al cited in Kolahi (2013:273) that using contextual clues can be useful and important in different ways. Those readers who use contextual clues seem to be able to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words better Bycontextual clue, the students will be easy in understanding the vocabulary in reading text. According to Cai and Lee in Kolahi et al (2013:273) contextual clue can affect the process and outcome of word inference. Students match the definitions to the terms and place the number of the definition or place the word in the box. By using magic squares the students will be easy in match the word with the definition, in such as much; there is a clue for each word. That clue can be in definition, synonym, antonym, or using picture related to its word. Sukhla (2012:68) cited that: a.
Definitions in the target language may be very handy if they are expressed in terms that are better known ormore easily guessed than the word that is defined. b.
Antonym, when one member of a pair of opposites is understood, the meaning of the other can be easily comprehended. This helps the student to understand the different shades of meanings of a word.
c.
A synonym may be used to help the student to understand the different shades of meaning if the synonym is better known than the word being taught. Synonyms help to enrich a student's vocabulary bank and provide alternative words instantly.
d.
Pictures of many types and colors can be used successfully to show the meaning of words and sentence.
Vocabulary comes alive when using Magic Squares. ESA Regions (2006:26) cited that this makes matching more interesting and interactive for students’. On the other hand, Allen (2006:102) states that the magic square is an enjoyable helpful way for reinforcing, checking, and testing knowledge of words. Students are able to check the accuracy of their matches, because correct matches will yield the same numerical total for each row across and down. If a given row doesn’t add up to the magic number, students have made an error in matching words and definitions.
In this research, magic squares is used for teaching certain reading text namely; narrative and recount text where the words that will be taught in teaching vocabulary is focus on four word classes namely; noun, verb, adjective, and adverb.
2. Type of Magic Squares
According to Allen (2006:102) there isone type of magic squaresnamely number magic square, but in this research this type is modified become word magic square. The explanation of two type of magic square e as the following: a.
Numbers Magic Squares Number magic square is a media that is used for matching activity.
In this activity, the students are asked to match the definition or clues with the word by placing the number in each box. Example: Descriptive Text
There is a new hotel in my city. It is a four star hotel. It is located downtown. The hotel is not very big but the architecture is very beautiful. It looks like a classic castle in Europe. According to the brochure, it has
E. A soft thing which you rest your head in bed
10.Downtown
J. Something is part of a large group, amount or process
9.Castle
H. Someone who comes in your house or visitor. 8.bath-tub
7.Fancy
sitting
G. A thing that you can take a bath or washing your body by
6.Brochure
F. The synonym of cupboard, for keeping the clothes in
5.Comfortable
4.Guests
100 rooms, a fancy restaurant, complete sports facilities including a swimming pool, tennis court, gym and sauna, there are also a coffee shop and a karaoke room.
any pain
D. The nice condition or make you feel relaxed ant do not cause
3.Pillows
C. Beautiful
2.Including
1.Bellboys B. A building where the king and queen usually live.
A. Synonym of city
Clues Words
The brochure says "Hospitality is our trademark." The staff of that hotel, from the receptionists, house keepers, and bellboys are trained to be polite and to help guests in any way they can.
The pictures of the rooms in the brochure are very nice. The rooms look very comfortable. It they contain a big spring bed with big pillows, a nice sofa, a wardrobe and a television system with programs from all over the world. The bathroom is very beautiful although it is not very big. It has a bath-tub with hot and cold water so guests can bath in it comfortably.
I. Synonym of servant
K. A thin book wit pictures and information, usually advertising
11.Trained Something
L. Teaching someone how to do something
12.Wardrobe
A B C D
10
9
7
5 E F G H
3
12
8
4 I J K L
1
2
6
11 Allen (2006:103)
b.Word Magic Squares Word magic square is a printed media that is used for matching activity. This type is modified from the original magic squares where in this activity, the students are asked to match the definition or clues with the word by write down the word in each square. The difference of this type is only how the way writes down the answer on the squares. In number magic squares the students write down the number, but in word magic squares the students have to write down the word in the squares. Example:
I Have a Cat
Spot is a regular house cat. He is an adorable cat. He has orange fur with white and black spots. I like to cuddle him because his fur feels soft. Every morning I give Spot milk. Spot does not like rice, so I give him cat food. Spot is an active animal. He likes to run around the house. He likes to chase everyone in my house. When he feels tired or sleepy, Spot usually sleeps on the sofa in the living room or sometimes under the table.
Clues Words A.
A. Adorable
H. Sleepy I. Rice 3. The aspect of vocabulary to learn in magic square a.
G. Tired
F. Chase
E. Fur
D. Soft
C. Cuddle
B. Spot
Cuddle Magic squares
Very attractive or interesting Soft B.
Fur I. our main food
Spot H. Want to sleep
Rice G. Feeling that you want to rest or sleep
Sleepy F. Run after someone or animal in order to catch them
Adorable E. Thick hair that cover animal body
Tired D. Not hard
Putting arms around someone to show that you love it.
A small, round mark with different color Chase C.
Pronunciation Pronunciation is one of the aspects that can be learn using magic square.After the magic square have been filled, the students have to pronounce the word in magic square one by one. b.
Word classes Using magic square, the students are asked to categories or identify the word in magic square into word classes. The word classes that is use n is noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. So the students know whether the word belongs to verb, noun, adjective, or adverb c.
Meaning The essential aspect to be learned in magic square is the meaning of word. Using magic square, it is hoped that the students can understand the meaning using clues in magic square.
d.
Spelling By write down the word in magic square, it is hoped that the students can memorize the spelling of word.
4. The advantages of magic squares vocabulary
We can find some advantages of magic squares vocabulary, those are as follows: 1)
It is an easy media for the teacher to be made. The teacher can make this media related to the word context of the text taught. 2)
Using magic squaresmakes matching activity more interesting and interactive for students’ (ESA Regions, 2006:26). 3)
The students will easy in understanding the meaning of vocabulary, in that a there areclues related to the words. 4)
Allen (2006:104) mentions that, using magic squares, the students (and teachers) enjoy this activity and find it a helpful way for reinforcing, checking, and testing knowledge of words.
D. Teaching English Vocabulary Using Magic Squares
To get an effective effort in learning language, the teacher should be able to use a good media especially to attract the interest of the students. The use of media is needed to reach the purpose of effective teaching and learning and it should be various as stated by Brown et al (1964: 1), using a variety media will increase the probability that the students will learn more, retain better what they learn and improve their performance of the of the skill they are expected to develop. Generally the teacher’s role in implementing magic squares vocabulary is as the facilitators who provides the magic squares worksheet and control the students in doing magic squares vocabulary.There are some steps that should be done implementing magic squares, those are as follows: 1) Distribute the magic squares to the students. 2)
Explain the general directions to the students 3) Ask the students to match the clues column with terms (words)column. and ask the students to write the word in the appropriate squares. 4) The teacher checks the students’ answer of magic square. 5) Ask the students to pronounce or spell the word in magic square.
E. Basic Assumption
According to explanation above, vocabulary is the basic element in language.by mastering vocabulary students will master the other language skills namely; reading, listening, speaking and writing. As the English teacher, it is better to provide an interesting and effective media in teaching learning process that can motivate students in joining learning process.
Magic square is one of printed media that can be made by teacher easily.It can be used in teaching vocabulary. The students will more in understanding vocabulary because there are contextual clues. By rewrite and re-read the vocabulary, it will help students to understand the meaning and spelling of vocabulary longer. Having long term memory about the vocabulary makes them easily to retrieve it when they need it. In this case, it is assumed that teaching vocabulary using magic squares is effective.
F. Hypothesis
The hypothesis of this research is that magic squares as media is effective to teaching vocabulary to the eight grade students of SMP N 1 Padamara in academic year 2013/2014.