T1 112009013 Full text

INDEPENDENT LEARNING STRATEGY TO DEVELOP STUDENTS’
VOCABULARY LEARNING

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Febriyant Jalu Prakosa
112009013

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013

i

ii

iii

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or
accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any
other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2013. Febriyant Jalu Prakosa and Prof. Dr. Gusti Astika, M.A
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature. Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
Febriyant Jalu Prakosa:

iv

INDEPENDENT LEARNING STRATEGY TO DEVELOP STUDENTS’
VOCABULARY LEARNING
Febriyant Jalu Prakosa
Abstract
This study aimed to examine whether or not independent learning strategy could help to

develop students‟ vocabulary learning. The participants were 9 junior high school students of
SMP Negeri 2 Tuntang, Salatiga who was in 7th grade. The data were collected through 8
series of pre-test, independent learning, and post-test of vocabulary. The findings of this
study discovered that independent learning strategy could help students to acquire new
vocabulary everytime it is conducted. This study also revealed that the independent learning
strategy could be an alternative way in teaching vocabulary. The development of each student
in conducting independent learning strategy was also included and presented in this study.
Keywords: vocabulary learning strategy, independent learning strategy, pre-test, posttest, gain score
Introduction
Background of the Study
Vocabulary learning has played an important role in language teaching and learning.
However, Allen (1983) stated that for the previous years, people always gave vocabulary
teaching and learning a small portion; they gave the big portion to grammar and language
skills teaching, especially pronunciation. Many teachers feel that their students need to learn
those things first before acquiring the vocabulary as Allen (1983) said. Interestingly, many
people and educational institutions nowadays believe that vocabulary is a kind of
1

“foundation” for language learning, in this case English language teaching and learning. It is
because people now realize that by learning vocabulary, a person can begin to understand

how to use a certain language. In other words, without knowing a word in a certain language,
a person will be unable to interact using that particular language, especially for English
learning in Indonesia where English is learned as a foreign language that is not used in
people‟s daily life.
By living in an EFL country, Indonesians need to learn many English words first
before learning how to use and put those English words in sentences; we can refer to the
function of a language, as mentioned by Zheng (2012), is to construct and communicate
meaning. Thus, to construct and communicate meaning, learners, especially those who learn
English as foreign language, need to learn vocabulary first in order to construct and
communicate meaning. However, vocabulary learning is not a simple matter, and we should
not just know words‟ meanings, but we also have to know how the words work in sentences
as stated by Allen (1983). Thus, people need to use what people know as vocabulary learning
strategy in order to help them acquiring new vocabulary in an appropriate and effective way.
There are many different strategies in teaching and learning vocabulary, such as rote
memorization or repetition. As a learner, I myself have experienced the use of some methods
to learn new English words, but my teachers from elementary until senior high school mostly
used rote-memorization to teach vocabulary. Nevertheless, we could not judge which strategy
that can work best to teach and learn vocabulary. After seeking several different strategies of
vocabulary teaching and learning, I found an interesting strategy. It is independent learning
strategy. The strategy is meant to make the learners learn or acquire words by themselves as

Dai and Yang (2011) said; the teachers will possibly assist their students‟ learning but they
will play minor role. The teachers will ask the students to find some difficult words from
2

their textbook and find the definition by themselves. The students are encouraged to use a
bilingual dictionary to find the meanings of new English words they encounter in the learning
process. Hopefully, by knowing the meaning or the definition of the new words by
themselves, the students can acquire new English words easily.
It is still debatable actually whether or not this strategy can effectively make the
students acquire new words in target language way more easily. Therefore, there is a need to
conduct a research toward this strategy to enable us to see whether independent learning
strategy (of vocabulary) would be effective enough to facilitate students in acquiring new
words of target language more easily or not. Thus, through this study, I hope that my findings
can provide useful evidence and new facts about independent learning strategy and its
implementation in real learning context.
Literature Review
There are many aspects in English learning such as grammar, vocabulary, and
pronunciation. As vocabulary learning is seen as the most vital aspect in English learning
these days (Allen, 1983; Carter & Nunan, 2001; Gairns & Redman, 1986), people should pay
more attention to vocabulary learning, or practically to provide more portion of vocabulary

learning in many English lessons all over the world. Based on that statement, vocabulary
learning had been the focus of this study. In the field of vocabulary learning, people can find
many types of strategy that can be used to facilitate learners in acquiring new English words
and those strategies are called vocabulary learning strategies.
Before going further to discuss vocabulary learning strategies, here are some scholars‟
point of views and arguments about learning strategies in general and also vocabulary
learning strategies. Asgari and Mustapha (2011) argued that learning strategies have been
3

used since previous thousands of years. However, the studies on language learning strategies
just started in 1960 (Oxford, 1990; cited in Asgari & Mustapha, 2011). Then, for the past
twenty years, there have been rapid developments of studies in language learning strategies
(Wenden and Rubin, 1987; O'Malley and Chamot, 1990 & Oxford, 1990; cited in Asgari &
Mustapha, 2011). Under the general learning strategies, there is the existence of language
learning strategies that covers all strategies in language learning. Subsequently, vocabulary
learning strategies position is under language learning strategies, or in other words
vocabulary learning strategies is defined as a part of language learning strategies (Nation,
1990; cited in Asgari & Mustapha, 2011), since vocabulary is also a part or one of the sub
categories of language. Vocabulary learning strategies is also defined as the steps taken by
language learners to learn or acquire new English words (Asgari & Mustapha, 2011).

Then, as I mentioned previously in the introduction, this study focused on a
vocabulary learning strategy called independent learning strategy where learners were
encouraged to learn vocabulary autonomously. Related to the independent learning, Sokmen
(1997) argued that learners need to be helped to learn vocabulary on their own (as cited in
Kalajahi and Pourshahian, 2012, p. 139). This research finding might provide a support
toward the argument from Sokmen since independent learning strategy requires the students
to be able to learn or acquire vocabulary by themselves. However, even though learning
vocabulary independently is seen as a good method for developing vocabulary learning,
Zheng (2012) finds out that in China, most of the students fail to learn vocabulary
independently because of the influence of teacher-centered classroom which is applied in
almost all places in China since the ancient times; the teacher-centered classroom limits
students‟ independence in learning. As another EFL country, just like China, Indonesia used
to have many teacher-centered classrooms, but now as communicative language teaching is
4

applied in many schools and other educational institutions in Indonesia, Indonesian students‟
learning style is seen to be more independent. Thus, the independent learning strategy is
worth applying.
Relevant Research Findings
Some scholars have found that the use of vocabulary learning strategies is very

helpful in developing learners‟ vocabulary learning or acquisition, as the research findings of
Bastanfar and Hashemi (2010) also discovered that several vocabulary learning strategies
attached in local Iranian Pre-University book enabled the learners there to learn new English
words more easily and the learners there also became more proficient in using English.
Furthermore, Zheng (2012) in his research finding stated that vocabulary learning strategies
made vocabulary learning easier. Accordingly, vocabulary learning strategies should be
conducted to ease or facilitate students‟ vocabulary learning.
For vocabulary learning strategies itself, just like mentioned before, there are many
different kinds of it that we can choose these days such as rote-memorization, dictionary use,
or repetition; however, there is no specific statement which mentions that a certain
vocabulary learning strategy works best in its appliance in the real learning process. Since
there are many vocabulary learning strategies that can be applied into many teaching and
learning situations, here in this study, let me put an emphasis on one specific strategy:
independent learning strategy. This independent learning strategy is adopted from a finding
of a research done by Dai and Yang (2011) which stated that it is important for students to
learn how to acquire new words by themselves. Instead of given list of vocabulary words that
they have to master, students were encouraged to make their own list. Apart from that, people
often distinguish vocabulary learning into two categories, incidental (non-intended learning)

5

and intentional (intended learning). Here based on those two types of vocabulary learning,
this independent learning strategy can be considered as an intentional vocabulary learning
strategy, not an incidental one, because the students focused on learning vocabulary
consciously, or in other words, the students realized that they are involved in a particular
vocabulary learning process using a certain vocabulary learning strategy.
Some say that incidental learning can give better result than learning vocabulary
intentionally, but Alemi and Tayebi (2011) in their research concluded that intentional
vocabulary learning is better than incidental vocabulary learning. The research finding of
Alemi and Tayebi (2011) shows that the result of the t-test they had conducted involving 30
Persian students from different majors passing the General English Course at Sharif
University of Technology indicates that the participants‟ mean score of incidentally acquired
vocabularies was 2.90 (M=2.90, SD=0.95), the mean score of etymology-based intentionally
learned vocabularies was 2.63 (M=2.63, SD=0.88), and the mean score of meaning-based
intentionally learned vocabularies was 3.03 (M=3.03, SD=0.80). Consequently, based on the
particular research findings mentioned above (meaning-based intentionally vocabulary
learning that gets the highest mean score), independent learning strategy as an intentional
vocabulary learning process should be conducted more frequently in the process of students‟
vocabulary learning in order to develop students‟ vocabulary. After that, since this
independent learning strategy is an intentional learning strategy which involves reading

activity too, I see an argument from Pora (2002) which stated that acquiring English
vocabulary through reading activity can be considered as an effective way to learn new words
in English as a supportive argument toward the implementation of this vocabulary learning
strategy.

6

Then, related to the autonomous learning style of this independent learning strategy,
Kafipour, Shokrpour, and Yazdi (2011) found out that the participants of their current study
preferred individual learning style more than any other learning styles. This finding showed
that the students learnt well when they worked alone. They could remember the information
they learnt for a longer time when they studied alone. Furthermore, understanding new
materials was easier and quicker when the learners learnt the materials alone. Progress in
learners‟ learning was good when the learners worked by themselves. However, it cannot be
said that the learners learnt the best when they worked alone since individual learning style
was found as a minor learning strategy and there are still may other strategies that can be
applied in the learning process. However, the focus of this study was still on the
implementation of independent learning strategy and the findings above shows supports why
this study needs to be conducted.
This independent learning strategy then required the students to use dictionary to seek

for the meanings of the new words they encountered in the learning process. Referring to the
research findings of Ali, Ayub, Baki, and Mukundan (2012), the use of dictionary in
vocabulary learning is advantageous; they found that 22 students out of 123 students involved
stated that the dictionary enabled them to know various definitions of a single word, while the
rest of the participants just understood limited meaning or definition of a certain word. This
implies that those 22 students tend to look at all the meanings that are in the dictionary to
know the meanings of the target word, not by conducting other methods, because they felt
that by using a dictionary to find words‟ meaning, they were able to freely choose the
meaning of the new words matched with the context of the passage they read. Related to that,
since the context of this research is EFL and the dictionary which was used is bilingual
dictionary, Hayati and Fattahzadeh argued that by using bilingual dictionaries, the students
7

can learn and acquire the new English words more feasibly as the translations provide the
definitions to be more specific (as cited in Ali, Ayub, Baki, and, Mukundan, 2012, p. 28).
Moreover, students felt more comfortable and familiar with the use of their mother tongue in
a bilingual dictionary and it makes them comprehend the essence of the translation more
(Chen, 2008; cited in Ali, Ayub, Baki, & Mukundan, 2012). Similar research findings came
from Tsai and Chang (2009). They found that “dictionary use” was the most frequently used
strategy among their student participants, and these research findings about the advantage of

dictionary use in learners‟ translation strengthen the need of conducting this study about
independent learning strategy in vocabulary learning by involving dictionary use method.
Therefore, based on the statements and research findings mentioned, this independent
learning strategy can be seen as an attempt to help learners in acquiring new English
vocabulary, especially in acquiring the vocabulary on their own. Consequently, Nation (2001)
argued that strategy training has been proved really helpful in improving students‟ strategic
knowledge (as cited in Kalajahi and Pourshahian, 2012, p. 138), and as a result, there was a
need for strategy training and extensive explanation about the independent learning strategy
for the learners in this study in order to make the learners familiar with the implementation of
independent learning strategy in their vocabulary learning process. As Bastanfar and Hashemi
(2010) in their research also found that the training for learners are very useful in making the
learners improve their vocabulary learning. Thus, it can be said that strategy training is much
needed here. In the training, the students were given clear instruction about the vocabulary
learning strategy, just like Zheng (2012) mentioned, instruction on vocabulary leaming
strategies can help students understand more about the learning strategies they use.
Furthermore, according to the research findings of Kalajahi and Pourshahian (2012), another
goal of strategy training for students is to promote learners‟ autonomy; here, it means that by
8

being trained, the students can develop their autonomy in learning. Thus, they could also
apply or practice the independent learning strategy they are conducting in their English
vocabulary learning more easily - because the characteristic of this independent learning
strategy is autonomy and strategy training helped the learners to develop their autonomy in
learning before they apply the independent learning strategy. By doing so, hopefully the
students were accustomed to use the particular strategy (independent learning strategy) in
their vocabulary learning so that from that moment on they can get the best result in learning
or acquiring new English vocabulary or even to develop their own vocabulary learning based
on the independent learning strategy. Moreover, there are other advantages that learners can
get from the vocabulary learning strategy based on two of five research findings from
Mizumoto and Takeuchi (2009). First, the learners can get higher vocabulary test scores;
second, learners‟ motivation will increase. Therefore, after discovering many advantages of
vocabulary strategy training from various scholars‟ research findings, I can say that there was
a big need to conduct vocabulary strategy training for the learners.
Nassaji (2003) concluded that learners‟ success in vocabulary learning was related to
the quality of the strategies used, not the amount of the strategies used (as cited in
Hassanzadeh, Khatib, and Rezaei, 2011, p. 138). It means that the vocabulary learning
strategy training should be conducted clearly in order to make the learners really comprehend
about the strategy used in the study, and even though not many strategies are used (even only
one strategy), as long as the strategy is understood well by the learners, the learning process
using that particular strategy was successful. Thus, based on the arguments above about
vocabulary learning strategies and its training, there will be homework for English teachers in
teaching vocabulary; they have to make their learners aware of the importance of vocabulary
learning strategies appliance in real learning context so that their learners can develop their
9

vocabulary learning through the vocabulary strategy that they learn from vocabulary learning
strategy training.
Research Question
Then, based on all arguments and research findings mentioned previously, there is a
need to conduct a specific study about independent learning strategy including giving an
intensive training to the learners about it and also the examination of its effectiveness in real
vocabulary learning context in order to answer these questions: “How can independent
learning strategy develop students‟ vocabulary learning?” and “Can independent learning
strategy help students improve their vocabulary learning effectively?”
Purpose of the Study
This study aimed to see how independent learning strategy could develop students in
acquiring new words in English learning as a foreign language context. Some scholars
believe that independent learning strategy is helpful in students‟ learning. However, there is
still a call for a deeper look to the strategy to answer those questions above - whether the
strategy is really helpful or not - and this requires a research toward the strategy to be
conducted. Thus, this study aimed to find out whether the independent learning strategy could
be developed into an effective strategy in vocabulary learning process or not by conducting
the strategy itself and testing it (through vocabulary pre-tests and post-tests for the students)
later on.
Significance of Research
Through this research, teachers and learners of English may be provided with another
alternative of vocabulary learning strategy which is independent learning strategy. Hopefully,
10

the strategy can be applied in many vocabulary learning conditions and can help learners of
English to enhance and acquire new words better.
Besides, the findings of this research may trigger other questions for conducting
further research in vocabulary learning strategies, especially the implementation of
independent learning strategy in vocabulary learning or acquisition. Further study may be
conducted in comparing the effectiveness of the appliance of this independent learning
strategy for vocabulary learning with other vocabulary learning strategies and also in the
development of this independent learning strategy.
The Study
Method
This study attempted to examine the effectiveness of independent learning strategy in
helping students‟ vocabulary learning development. The study tried to see how independent
learning strategy – a form of student‟s self study - help students in acquiring new words from
the target language that they are learning, in this case English. There was a group of 9 junior
high school students involved, and each student was given extensive explanation in every
meeting about how to conduct this learning. The independent learning, as Dai and Yang
(2011) stated, required them to: first, decide the words that they consider as difficult words,
derived from the text given to the students in every meeting. Then, translate those words by
themselves, and they were encouraged and also trained to use dictionary as their main
translation tool. After that, the students had to decide which definition of the words that is
relevant to the text where they get the words. Afterward, the students should write all of the
difficult words and the meanings in every meeting as their task. Not only that, in every
meeting, they were always be guided to conduct this learning process properly. Then, in
11

every meeting there were also some sets of pre-tests and post-tests and the results of the tests
were used to find the gain scores for the pre and post-tests in every meeting; the gain scores
were aimed to measure the effectiveness of this independent learning strategy in developing
students‟ vocabulary. Then, at the end of the study, the students‟ pre-test and post-test results
– which contain their new-words learning results – were collected as portfolio; the portfolio
then was used as another tool to reflect students‟ vocabulary learning development by
calculating all pre-test, post-test, and gain scores before.
Participants of the Study
Nine grade seven students of SMP Negeri 2 Tuntang, Salatiga, Central Java,
Indonesia participated in this study. Those students came from the same class and all of them
were also learning English in their schools. However, it was possible that they also had
different background knowledge of the use of English because the students came from
different background. I chose this group of English learners because they matched all the
criteria I need for being the participants in this study. Those criteria were first, attending
formal school, second, have been learning English at school, and third, have their own
dictionary that were used as their independent learning tool in this study.
Research instrument
As the study is aimed to examine the capability of the independent learning strategy to
develop students‟ vocabulary learning, pre-test and post-test were used in this study in order
to test students‟ vocabulary knowledge before and after conducting independent learning
strategy and to discover the score gap or the gain scores of pre-test and post-test scores. The
gain score here functioned as the indicator of acquiring new vocabulary.

12

Data collection
The data were collected through conducting 8 series of pre-test, independent learning
by using dictionary, and also post-test. Therefore, in each meeting, each student experienced
doing pre-test of a certain vocabulary list, and after that, each student was given a reading
passage where the vocabulary list were taken. The reading passage was used by the students
to determine which words that they considered difficult and had to find the meaning in the
dictionary. For the last step, each student did post-test from the same vocabulary list in order
to see their vocabulary development after conducting the independent learning strategy. After
those process, the students‟ pre-test and post-test scores were calculated in order to see the
gain scores of each pre and post-test of every student in every meeting. By compiling and
analyzing these students‟ vocabulary lists and also the students‟ pre-tests and post-tests gain
scores, I was able to gather more convincing data and I was also able to easily measure their
level of vocabulary understanding after doing this independent learning. Not only that, I was
also able to determine whether or not this independent learning is helpful for students‟
vocabulary development after reflecting to the students pre-test and post-test scores along
with the gain scores they obtained.
Data Analysis
The data obtained in the form of pre-test scores, post-test scores, and also gain scores
were processed and presented in the form of charts of students‟ overall gain score and also
students‟ individual pre and post-test. The charts were aimed to help in taking a closer look to
the development of students‟ vocabulary both individually in each meeting and also generally
from total of 8 meetings. These charts were also described to explain how independent

13

learning strategy worked with each student and also to explain the result of its usage for each
student specifically.
Findings and Discussion
Through this section, I would like to present the findings of my research which was
conducted in order to see whether or not independent learning strategy could develop
students‟ vocabulary. The findings are presented in the form of graphs of students‟ overall
gain scores and also students‟ individual pre and post-test scores along with their individual
gain scores as well as the explanation for each graph.
Figure 1. Overall Learning Gain Score of the Students

The overall learning gain score of the students was calculated from the gain scores of
their pre-test and post-test scores in every meeting. Then, the average gain score of each
meeting was counted and presented in the Figure 1.
Figure 1 shows that students‟ gain scores did not improve in a straight line. Figure 1
also shows that the students gained 28.50 points of gain score in meeting 1, but in the second
meeting the score dropped slightly to 27.11 points. The decrease continued to the third and
the fourth meeting when they obtained 25.00 and 20.00 points. Then, from the fifth meeting
14

to the sixth, students‟ scores improved to 25.28 and 33.17 points, but in the seventh meeting,
the scores went down again to 30.22 points. However, in the final meeting, the students‟ gain
score went up to 46.20 points. This fluctuation of scores could have happened since the
students did not always prepare themselves (conducting independent learning using
dictionary) well. Also, the students were not always in good mood and good physical
condition when they were involved in this study, and it may affect their performance.
The following sections present individual results of students‟ progress in learning
vocabulary.
Figure 2. Individual Pre-Test and Post-Test Scores of Student 1

Figure 2 shows that the first student got 34.00 points of gain score in her first meeting,
and in her second meeting, her gain score went up to 52.00 points. However, in her third
meeting, her gain score went down to 15.00 points. Then, in her fourth and fifth meeting, her
gain score went up again to 23.00 and 25.00 points. The first student‟s gain score went down
again in her sixth meeting to 11.50 points. Afterward, in her seventh meeting, the first
student‟s gain score went up again to 34.00 points, and in her last meeting, her gain score
went down, but not too low, to 31.00 points.

15

From Figure 2, it can be seen that overall, the first student always obtained gain
scores in this study, and it may mean that the first student gained some new vocabulary
through this 8 series of pre-test, self learning, and post-test activity. Not only that, through
Figure 2 it can also be seen that the first student obtained her highest gain score in the second
meeting (52.00 points) and her lowest gain score in the sixth meeting (11.50 points). The
highest gain score could have been achieved because of the relatively low pre-test score that
the first student obtained in the second meeting (31.00 points), while the materials given in
the second meeting was not too hard to master and it is believed that the first student‟s
motivation in involving herself in this study was still high, so that she could use dictionary
properly to master the vocabulary and prepare for the post-test. As a result, she obtained
83.00 points of post-test score in her second meeting. Then, the lowest gain score she
achieved could be affected by a relatively high pre-test score that the first student achieved in
her sixth meeting (57.00 points), while it is believed that in this sixth meeting the first student
faced a difficulty in finding the unknown new words in the dictionary or in other words did
not prepare well for the post-test, so that she could only achieve 68.50 points of post-test
scores.
Figure 3. Individual Pre-Test and Post-Test Scores of Student 2

16

Figure 3 shows that in the first meeting, the second student got 23.00 points of gain
score and her gain scores at her second to third meeting went up to 29.00 and 35.00 points.
However, in her fourth meeting, her gain score went down to 10.00 points. After that, from
the fifth to the sixth meeting, the second student‟s gain scores improved to 17.50 and 46.00
points. Even though in her seventh meeting the second student‟s gain score went down again
to 32.00 points, in her last meeting, the second student got her highest gain score in this study
(54.30 points).
Generally, the second student always obtained gain score in this study, and it may be
a sign of acquiring new vocabulary. The lowest gain score achieved by the second student is
in her fourth meeting (10.00 points), and it may indicate that the second student was quite
unprepared when she did the post-test of her fourth meeting, so that the post-test result was
not too high from her fourth pre-test and her gain score in this meeting became her lowest
gain score; this can be proven by looking at her fourth pre-test score (43.00 points) which
was her highest pre-test score and her fourth post-test score (53.00 points). If the second
student did her fourth post-test more preparedly, she could achieve higher post-test score.
After that, the highest gain score achieved by the second student (54.30 points) might be
achieved because she did not master most of the vocabulary tested in the eighth meeting, so
that she obtained only 5.70 points of pre-test score, and it is believed that she could make use
of the dictionary well in order to master those new vocabulary she could not know in the pretest. Thus, the second student could achieve 60.00 points of her eighth post-test score, 54.30
points higher than her pre-test score.

17

Figure 4. Individual Pre-Test and Post-Test Scores of Student 3

Through the first and second meeting, the third student achieved exactly the same
gain scores (23.00 and 23.00 points). The third student‟s gain score went up to 37.50 points in
her third meeting. In her fourth meeting, the third student‟s gain score went down to 17.00
points. Then, in the fifth meeting, the third student got her highest gain score (60.00 points),
but the score went down again to 20.00 points in her sixth meeting. However, from the
seventh meeting to her last meeting, the third student‟s gain scores went up to 31.00 and
46.00 points.
Figure 4 generally shows that the third student always obtained gain score in every
meeting of this study, just like two previous students. It can be inferred that the third student
also acquired new vocabulary through this study. The condition when the third student got
her lowest gain score in the fourth meeting (17.00 points) may indicate that the third student
did her fourth post-test with not enough preparation, just like the second student. This can be
proven by looking into the third student‟s fourth pre-test score (43.00 points) which was her
highest pre-test score and her post-test score (60.00 points) which was not her highest posttest score. Then, it is believed that the third student could find unknown words in her fifth
meeting with the help of the dictionary. Therefore, the third student could achieve 85.00
18

points of her eighth post-test score, 60.00 points higher than her fifth pre-test score (25.00
points).
Figure 5. Individual Pre-Test and Post-Test Scores of Student 4

The fourth student got 25.00 points of gain score in her first meeting, and in the
second meeting, her gain score went down to 9.00 points. The fourth student‟s gain score
went up in the third meeting when she obtained 20.00 points, but went down again in her
fourth meeting when she got 17.00 points. The fourth student got 12.50 points of gain score
in her fifth meeting. Then, the fourth student‟s gain score went up again in her sixth meeting
when she gained 23.00 points. The gain score went down one more time in the seventh
meeting, but not too low from the previous meeting because the fourth student gained 20.00
points, and in her final meeting, the fourth student could achieve her highest gain score which
is 52.00 points.
Overall, Figure 5 shows that like previous students, the fourth student always obtained
gain scores in her involvement in this study. This may also indicate that the fourth student
acquired new vocabulary. The fourth student‟s highest gain score (52.00 points) was achieved
in her last meeting, and it is believed that at first, the fourth student did not master most of the
vocabulary tested in the pre-test, so that she could only achieved 14.00 points. Nevertheless,
19

the fourth student seemed to find those new words quite easily in the dictionary and could
achieve way higher score in the post-test (60.00 points). Then, her lowest gain score (9.00
points) was achieved in the second meeting when her pre-test score was her second highest
(34.00 points), but the post-test score was only 43.00 points. It is believed that it was due to
the fourth student‟s inability to find the new words given in that meeting, not because of
lacking motivation in learning. The lowest gain score was obtained in the second meeting, an
early meeting, when students were still spirited in involving themselves in this study, so it is
believed that the factor was not the lack of learning motivation.
Figure 6. Individual Pre-Test and Post-Test Scores of Student 5

The fifth student here had a unique graph of gain score, because he experienced not
obtaining any gain score once in his fourth meeting. His gain score from first meeting was
17.00 points and went up in the second meeting to 26.00 points. The gain score then went
down in the third meeting to 22.50 points. After not obtaining any gain score in the fourth
meeting, the fifth student‟s gain score went up to 2.50 points, not far more than 0.00. Then, in
his sixth to seventh meeting, the fifth student‟s gain score improved to 40.00 and 45.00
points. For his final meeting, the fifth student‟s gain score went down again to 40.00 points,
not too far below his previous gain score.
20

Even though the fifth student had experience not achieving any gain score in his
fourth meeting, from his other 7 meetings, the fifth student obtained gain scores. This may
indicate that the fifth student still acquired new vocabulary in this study, just like other
students did. Then, through Figure 6, it can be seen that the extremely low gain scores from
the fourth and fifth meeting may be happened because of two different factors. First, his
fourth pre-test and post-test scores which were exactly the same (60.00 and 60.00 points). As
a pre-test score, 60.00 points is a relatively high score, which means that the vocabulary
given were not too difficult for the fifth student. By achieving exactly the same score in the
pos-test, it may indicate that the fifth student did not prepare at all for the post-test. The
second, his fifth pre-test and post-test scores were 30.00 and 32.50 points, and this may be
affected by the fifth student not yet mastering the vocabulary given combined with not
enough preparation for the post-test, so that both pre-test and post-test scores were low. Then,
in the seventh meeting, the fifth student was believed to did the preparation for the post-test
properly, so that he improved his score a lot from 26.00 points in the pre-test to 71.00 points.
The difference was 45.00 points and it was his highest gain score.
Figure 7. Individual Pre-Test and Post-Test Scores of Student 6

21

The sixth student obtained two exactly the same gain scores in his two first meeting
(20.00 and 20.00 points) and then his gain score went down in his third meeting when he got
12.5 points. After that, in his fourth meeting, the sixth student„s gain score improved to 23.00
points, but again, his gain score went down far enough to 2.50 points in his fifth meeting.
Then, in the sixth meeting, the sixth student could obtain his highest gain score (55.00
points). Nevertheless, in his seventh meeting, the sixth student‟s gain score went down again
to 12.00 points. In his last meeting, the sixth student managed to improve his gain score to
49.50 points.
Basically, the sixth student always achieved gain scores in his participation in this
study, so it may indicate that the sixth student also acquired new vocabulary through his
participation in this study. Afterward, there was no specific reason why the sixth student‟s
gain score went down very low in his fifth meeting, but it may be affected by his absence in
the actual post-test of the fifth meeting, and that made him had to attend an additional posttest by himself and he seemed not well-prepared back at that time, so it can be inferred that
this had influenced his performance in this post-test. After that, through Figure 7, it can also
be seen that the sixth student‟s highest gain score was obtained in his sixth meeting when he
obtained 11.00 points, a low pre-test score, and 66.00 points of post-test score. This may be
affected by a good preparation for his sixth post-test from the sixth student, so that the sixth
student could overcome the difficulty level of his sixth test.

22

Figure 8. Individual Pre-Test and Post-Test Scores of Student 7

Figure 8 shows that in her first meeting, the seventh student achieved 51.00 points of
gain score which was her highest gain score. Then, in the next two meetings, the seventh
student‟s gain scores went down to 22.00 and 12.5 points. In the fourth meeting, the seventh
student‟s gain score improved again to 29.00 points, but the gain score went down once more
to 25.00 points in her fifth meeting. The seventh student managed to improve her gain score
in the sixth meeting to 43.00 points, but, again, the gain score went down in her seventh
meeting to 37.00 points. In the last meeting, the seventh student could achieve 49.00 points of
gain score, better than the previous meeting.
Even if the gain scores of the seventh student went up and down, the seventh student
succeeded to obtain gain score in every of her meeting of this study. As the other students
did, this may also indicate that the seventh student acquired new vocabulary. Figure 8 also
shows that the seventh student‟s highest gain score was obtained in her first meeting (51.00
points), and it may possibly happened because she was well-prepared before doing her posttest and she was still highly motivated in the first meeting. Then, the lowest gain score was
obtained in the third meeting, when she achieved her highest pre-test score (67.50 points). As
a pre-test score, 67.50 points was relatively high and it showed that the seventh student
23

already mastered the vocabulary given. As a preparation for the post-test, the seventh student
seemed to put only a little effort to obtain a quite high score, 80.00 points.
Figure 9. Individual Pre-Test and Post-Test Scores of Student 8

The eighth student gained 32.00 points in her first meeting, and her gain score went
up in the second meeting when she achieved 34.00 points. Then, in her third meeting, the
eighth student‟s gain score went down far enough to 7.50 points. In the fourth meeting, the
eighth student‟s gain score went up to 17.00 points, and even in the fifth meeting she was
able to achieve her highest gain score, which was 57.50 points. After that, in the sixth
meeting, the eighth student went down again to 26.00 points. However, her gain scores in her
last two meetings went up to 32.00 and 46.00 points.
Like previous students, the eighth student‟s gain scores went up and down, but
overall, she managed to obtain gain scores in all of the 8 meetings in this study. It may be
inferred that the eighth student had also acquired new vocabulary through her participation in
this study. Figure 9 also shows that the lowest gain score (7.50 points) achieved by the eighth
student was in her third meeting when she obtained her highest pre-test score (42.50 points),
and it may indicate that the vocabulary from this meeting could be the ones she mastered the
most. However, the eighth student could not manage to improve his score a lot and it might
24

be because of the lack of preparation she had before the post-test. As a result, she could only
achieved 50.00 points in her post-test. Then, as her highest gain score, the eighth student was
able to achieve 57.50 points in her fifth meeting. It is believed that the eighth student
prepared well before the post-test of the fifth meeting so that she could obtain 80.00 points. It
was far better than her pre-test score (22.50 points) which may indicate that actually she did
not master the vocabulary given in the fifth meeting at first.
Figure 10. Individual Pre-Test and Post-Test Scores of Student 9

From Figure 10, it can be seen that the ninth student obtained 31.50 points of gain
score from her first meeting and went down to 29.00 points in her second meeting. Her
highest gain score was achieved in her third meeting, which was 62.50 points. In the fourth
meeting, the ninth student‟s gain score went down again to 44.00 points and the decrease
continued to her fifth meeting when she obtained 25.00 points. The gain score went up in the
sixth meeting (34.00 points), but, the score went down again to 29.00 points in the seventh
meeting. However, the ninth student managed to improve her gain score to 49.00 points in
her last meeting.
From Figure 10, it can also be seen that the highest gain score achieved by the ninth
student was in her third meeting. She only achieved very low pre-test score at that time (7.50
25

points), but managed to get far better post-test score (70.00 points). This may indicate that the
ninth student prepared really well for her post-test. After that, her lowest gain score was on
her fifth meeting when she achieved 22.50 points, which was her second best pre-test. It may
also mean that the vocabulary in that meeting were included into the ones that she could
handle the best. However, she may only put a little effort on her post-test preparation, so she
could only obtain 47.50 points. Even so, based on the data on Figure 10, the ninth student
gain scores can be considered high and she consistently obtained gain scores in 8 meetings.
Thus, it can be said that this student could really make use of the independent learning
strategy, and it can also indicate that the ninth student‟s vocabulary had much improved.

26

Conclusion
The findings which are presented through Figure 1 to 10 explain that the independent
learning strategy does not necessarily improve students‟ vocabulary score in a straight line.
On the other hand, the independent learning strategy can offer a certain kind of help to
improve students‟ vocabulary every time it is conducted. The result and the amount of
vocabulary acquired by the students depends on the difficulty level of the vocabulary
themselves, the preparedness in doing every step in this independent learning strategy, and
also the learning motivation and basic knowledge of the students. Furthermore, from the
findings above, it can be seen that this vocabulary learning strategy can positively facilitate
the students to acquire new vocabulary, which is indicated by the gain scores obtained by the
students. At last, I suggest that this independent learning strategy with dictionary use could be
carried out as an alternative way of teaching English vocabulary. I would also suggest that
further research about the development of this independent learning strategy needs to be
conducted. I would also suggest that there is a need to conduct a further research about
comparison of effectiveness between independent learning strategy and other vocabulary
learning methods.

27

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This thesis would not have been finished without the support of many sides. I
would like to thank Jesus Christ, my savior, who guided me in writing my thesis through His
way. I wish to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Bapak Prof. Dr. Gusti Astika,
M.A., who was abundantly helpful and patient in guiding me to accomplish this thesis. My

deepest gratitude is also for Ibu Martha Nandari, M.A. as my thesis examiner. Without
whose knowledge, this study would not have been completed. I would also like to thank Ibu
Antonia Indarti as the vice headmaster of SMP Negeri 2 Tuntang, who was willing to let me
conduct my research in SMP Negeri 2 Tuntang. Then, I also would like to thank the nine
participants of my study (Indah, Ken, Lina, Elizabeth, Dendi, Syauqi, Devi, Tata, and Nisa)
for being cooperative participants. I wish to express my deepest affection and gratitude to my
beloved mom (Ibu Supriyanti) and dad (Bapak Sudjoko) who always support me and pray for
me. Special thanks to Septavia Sekar Ellasa, who helped me a lot and supported me
continually in my thesis writing process. Finally, I would like to thank all of my friends from
the academic year of 2009 of English Department, Satya Wacana Christian University who
gave me friendship and support in my college life.

28

REFERENCES
Alemi, M., & Tayebi, A. (2011). The influence of incidental and intentional vocabulary
acquisition and vocabulary strategy use on learning L2 vocabularies. Journal of
Language Teaching and Research, 2 (1), 81-98.

Ali, Z., Ayub, A. F. M., Baki, R., & Mukundan, J. (2012). Second language learners‟
attitudes towards the methods of learning vocabulary. English Language Teaching, 5
(4), 24-36.
Allen, V. F. (1983). Techniques in teaching vocabulary: Teaching techniques in English as a
second language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Asgari, A., & Mustapha, G. B. (2011). The type of vocabulary learning strategies used by
EFL students in University Putra Malaysia. English Language Teaching, 4 (2), 8490.
Bastanfar, A., & Hashemi, T. (2010). Vocabulary learning strategies and ELT materials a
study of the extent to which VLS research informs local coursebooks in Iran.
International Education Studies, 3 (3), 158-166.

Carter, R., & Nunan, D. (2001). The Cambridge guide to teaching English to speakers of
other languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dai, W., & Yang, W. (2011). Rote memorization of vocabulary and vocabulary development.
English Language Teaching, 4 (4), 61-64.

Gairns, R., & Redman, S. (1986). Working with words: A guide to teaching and learning
vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
29

Hassanzadeh, M., Khatib, M., & Rezaei, S. (2011). Vocabulary learning strategies of Iranian
upper-intermediate EFL learners. International Education Studies, 4 (2), 144-152.
Kafipour, R., Shokrpour, N., & Yazdi, M. (2011). Learning styles and levels of vocabulary
learning among Iranian EFL learners. European Journal of Social Sciences, 25 (3),
305-315.
Kalajahi, S. A. R., Pourshahian, B. (2012). Vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary
size of ELT students at EMU in Northern Cyprus. English Language Teaching, 5
(4), 138-149.
Mizumoto, A., & Takeuchi, O. (2009). Examining the effectiveness of explicit instruction of
vocabulary learning strategies with Japanese EFL university students. Language
Teaching Research, 13 (4), 425-449.

Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Pora, Y. (2003). Enrich our vocabulary through readings and idioms: Memperkaya kosa kata
kita melalui bacaan dan idiom. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.

Tsai, C. C., & Chang, I. C. (2009). An examination of EFL vocabulary learning strategies of
students at the University of Technology of Taiwan. International Forum of
Teaching and Studies, 5 (2), 32-38.

Zheng, S. (2012). Studies and suggestions on English vocabulary teaching and learning.
English Language Teaching, 5 (5), 129-137.

30

Appendix A
Sample of pre-test