Improving students` vocabulary retention in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center - USD Repository
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION
IN OI 743 PETRA CHILDREN DEVELOPMENT CENTER
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By Dudy Virnandi
Student Number: 031214084
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : Dudy Virnandi Nomor Mahasiswa : 031214084
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION IN OI 743
PETRA CHILDREN DEVELOPMENT CENTERbeserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupaun memberikan royalty kepada saya selamA tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyatan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 10 March 2008 Yang menyatakan (Dudy Virnandi)
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that the the sis I wrote does not contain the works or parts of the works of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the bibliography, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, 15 February 2008 The Writer
Dudy Virnandi 031214084
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am so grateful to my dearest Lord Jesus for His blessing. His gracious love shines on me through many people around me by whom I have been given care, encouragement, assistance, and accompaniment. I would like to say my very best thanks to these beloved people.
My biggest gratitude goes to my major sponsor, F.X. Ouda Teda Ena, S.Pd., M.Pd., for his advice and guidance through the process of writing of this thesis, for endowing me his time to read and to correct it, and for his fatherhood in sharing his knowledge with me. Undeniably, I have received so much from him. His patience, friendliness, and care have comforted me in improving my writing through every thesis consultation I had with him.
I would also like to thank to my co-sponsor, Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., for patiently furnishing my thesis with her precious suggestions and for encouraging me through the writing process of this thesis. Her interest in details has improved my thesis and has changed it into a better one. I have learned many things related to grammar and the mechanics of formal writing from her.
My thankfulness goes to my beloved father, mother, brothers, and sister. They have become my motivation in accomplishing this thesis. I would like to thank them for their concern, encourage ment, prayer, and accompaniment.
I am also grateful to all my friends, for supporting me with their sincere friendship. I feel very happy with their criticism and suggestions toward the thesis I wrote. Their criticism and suggestions have been very helpful for the accomplishment of my thesis. It is my prayer to my gracious Lord to bless all who have so kindly supported and fostered me through all this time.
Dudy Virnandi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2.1.2.2 The Importance of Vocabulary ………………………….… 2.1.2.3 Vocabularies Proposed in the Curriculum ……………….
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2.1.2.4 Approaches to Vocabulary Learning …………………….... . i ii iv v vii x xi xii xiii xiv
2.1.2.1 The Meaning of Vocabulary ………………………………
Page TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………...… APPROVAL PAGES ……………………………………………………...…… STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY…………………………………… ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ……………………………………………………..… TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………………….
2.1.2 Vocabulary …………………………………………………
2.1.1 Teaching English as a Foreign Language ……………………
2.1 Theoretical Description ………………………………………
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
1.6 Definition of Terms ……………………………………………
1.5 Research Benefits ………………………………………………
1.4 Research Objective ……………………………………………
1.3 Problem Limitation …………………………………………
1.2 Proble m Formulation ……………….………………
1.1 Background ……………………………………………………
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
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ABSTRAK
LIST OF FIGURES …………………………………………………………...…… LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………………………… LIST OF APPENDICES …………………………………………….………...… ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………..……
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2.1.2.5 Techniques of Vocabulary Teaching ……………………… 2.1.2.6 Pictures in Vocabulary Teaching .. …………….
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2.1.2.7 Vocabulary Selection ……………………………………… 2.1.3 Children Language and Learning …………………………….
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2.1.3.1 Children as Active Processors ……………………………...
2.1.3.2 The Principle of Children Language Learning ……………..
2.1.3.3 The Principle for Teaching English to Children ……….…
2.1.4 Elementary School Students ………………………………… 2.1.4.1 Fifth Grade Students ……………………………………….
2.1.4.2 The Students’ Characteristics in Learning …………………
2.2 Theoretical Framework…………………………………………
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 Research Findings …………………………………………… 4.1.1 The Implementation of the Chosen Strategy …….
3.4 Data Gathering Techniques …………………………………….
3.3 Research Instruments …………………………………………..
3.2.2 Research Setting ……………………………………………...
3.2.1 Research Subject ……………………………………………..
3.1 Method ………………………………………………………… 3.2 Research Participants …………………………………………..
4.1.1.1The First Cycle …………………………………………....
4.1.1.1.1 Clarifying Vision …….………………………………….
4.1.1.1.2 Articulating Theories ……………………………………
4.1.1.1.3 Implementing Action and Collecting Data ………………
4.1.1.1.4 Reflecting and Planning Informed Action ………………
4.2.2 The Second Cycle ……………………………………………
3.5 Data Analysis Technique ……………………………………… 3.6 Research Procedure …………………………………………….
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4.2.2.1 Implementing Action and Collecting Data ………………
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4.2.2.2 Reflecting and Planning Informed Action …………………
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4.3 Discussions ……………………………………………………
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4.4 Other Findings …………………………………………………
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
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5.1 Conclusions ……………………………………………………
55 5.2 Suggestions ….……………………………………...
57 BIBLIOGRAPHY. …………………………………………………….….
59 APPENDICES ………………………………………………………….
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
2.1 The Relation in Communication Process (Wenden and Rubin, 1987: 80).. 21
3.1 The Action Research Cycle (Sagor, 2005: 96) ……………………… …. 36
4.1 The Relation in Communication Process (Nation, 1990: 10) .……….….. 44
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
3.1 Triangulation Matrix: Three ACR Questions (Sagor, 2005: 96)….. . 34
4.1 The Weekly Quiz Scores of the Subject ..…………………………. 51
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page Appendices Cover …………………………………………………….. 59 Appendix 1. Triangulation Matrix: Three ACR Questions ……………
60 Appendix 2. Triangulation Matrix Data ……………………..………... 61 Appendix 3. Learning Designs …..………………………………......... 68 Appendix 4. Weekly Quizzes ..………………………………….…….. 74 Appendix 5. Letter of Permission ...………………………………….... 76
ABSTRACT
Virnandi, Dud y. 2008. Improving Students’ Vocabulary Retention in OI 743 Petra Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Children Development Center. Program, Sanata Dharma University.
English learning is very essential in this modern era. One of the important factors for the improvement of English mastery is vocabulary mastery. In this research, the fifth grade students of elementary school in PPA OI-743 Petra Yogyakarta could not memorize English words optimally. The problem occurred when they were only able to memorize below 10 out of 15 English words. Considering the phenomenon, the writer tried to search for an effective strategy to teach English words toward the fifth grade students of elementary school in PPA OI-743 Petra as it is formulated in the research question. What is the teaching strategy that is appropriate to improve the vocabulary learning achievement of the fifth grade students in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center?
The writer applied Classroom Action Research (CAR) method in this research. The method allowed the writer to apply any strategy which was considered effective to teach English words. In order to evaluate the strategy used in the research, the writer used Triangulation Matrix and weekly quizzes as data gathering techniques.
To answer the research question, the writer used pictures as the strategy to teach English words. It had been proven from the first and the second result of the weekly quizzes that pictures were able to improve students mastery on English words. Thus, it could be concluded that the strategy (using pictures) worked effectively since it could improve the achievement of the fifth grade students of PPA OI 743 Petra in learning English vocabulary.
ABSTRAK
Virnandi, Dudy. 2008. Improving Students’ Vocabulary Retention in OI 743 Petra Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Children Development Center. Program, Sanata Dharma University.
Pembelajaran bahasa Inggris sangat penting di zaman modern ini. Salah satu faktor penting dalam peningkatan penguasaan bahasa Inggris adalah penguasaan kosa kata. Didalam penelitian ini, siswa kelas lima sekolah dasar di PPA OI-743 Petra Yogyakarta tidak mampu mengingat kosa kata bahasa Inggris secara maksimal. Permasalahan muncul ketika mereka hanya mampu mengingat dibawah 10 dari 15 kosa kata bahasa Inggris. Dengan mempertimbangkan hal ini, penulis mencoba untuk mencari sebuah strategi yang efektif untuk mengajar kosa kata bahasa Inggris ke anak-anak kelas lima sekolah dasar di PPA OI-743 Petra seperti yang sudah dirumuskan di pertanyaan penelitian ini. Apa strategi pengajaran yang efektif untuk meningkatkan pencapaian pembelajaran kosa kata anak-anak kelas lima sekolah dasar di PPA OI-743 Petra?
Penulis menerapkan metode Classroom Action Research (CAR) di penelitian ini. Metode ini memberikan kesempatan kepada penulis untuk menerapkan strategi yang dianggap efektif untuk mengajar kosa kata bahasa Inggris. Untuk mengevaluasi strategi yang digunakan didalam penelitian ini, penulis menggunakan Triangulation Matrix dan kuis mingguan sebagai teknik pengumpulan data.
Untuk menjawab pertanyaan penelitian ini, penulis menggunakan gambar sebagai strategi untuk mengajar kosa kata bahasa Inggris. Hal ini sudah dibuktikan dari hasil kuis mingguan pertama dan kedua bahwa gambar mampu meningkatkan penguasaan kosa kata bahasa Inggris. Oleh karena itu bisa disimpulkan bahwa strategi (menggunakan gambar) yang sudah dipilih berfungsi dengan efektif karena strategi ini mampu meningkatkan pencapaian anak-anak kelas lima PPA OI-743 Petra dalam pembelajaran kosa kata bahasa Inggris.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This research is conducted in order to investigate a strategy to improve
students’ retent ion in their vocabulary mastery. To achieve the goal of the research, there are some important points which will be discussed in this chapter.
They are background of this research, problem limitation, problem formulation, research objective, benefits, and definition of terms.
1.1 Background
One way to improve the prosperity of under average family is by donating the fund through social foundations with expectation that they deserve to obtain a better life. This fund comes from foreign people or local people. They donate their money through social foundations whether they are formal or informal. PPA OI 743 Petra is one of the social foundations which are registered in the local government as Children Development Center. It deals with children’s development. It helps the children to develop their religious, moral, attitude, behavior, health, and cognitive aspects. Moreover, the chance for the students to develop themselves is facilitated by some interesting and educative programs. One of the programs to facilitate students’ learning is by giving an English course toward the children. This program is provid ed for the fifth, sixth, seventh, and tenth grade students. Among the classes, a problem occurs in the fifth grade class. They have difficulties in memorizing the vocabularies they learn.
2 After the researcher ha ve been teaching in this foundation for about one year, the researcher find that students are weak in their vocabulary mastery..
Based on the researcher’s observation, the students face difficulty in memorizing the vocabulary of the previous meeting. Only one third of students of the fifth grade are able to memorize some of the words but two third of the students are not able to memorize English words they learn. Moreover, students are not accustomed to memorizing the written form effectively, so even though they are able to memorize the sound of the words, it is sometimes difficult for the m to write the written form of the vocabulary.
The reason for being interested in the lexical dimension of language is the fact that most people language is largely a matter of words. Stubbs (1986: 99) puts it as quoted in Exploring the Second Language Mental Lexicon written by David Singleton, “When people think of language, they think almost invariably of words.” It has been the concern of the researcher to be able to teach the students effectively, especially in their learning of vocabulary because as it is quoted in Singleton (1999: 9) “without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (Wilkins, 1972: 111).
Considering the situation of Children Development Center and the importance of vocabulary mastery, the researcher realizes that it is an important task to improve the mastery of vocabulary of the fifth grade students. Since the theories of children learning mentions that students have the capability of memorizing the vocabulary items effectively in Elementary level. Nation (1990) mention that in this age students are still equipped with fresh mind to memorize,
3 their mind is still developing, their brain is still functioning maximally and they are motiva ted to study. In spite of the difficulties which might appear in the class, the researcher believe that by choosing or even constructing an effective strategy, students will be able to learn English words effectively.
Since there is no curriculum of English available in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center, the researcher hover the chance to choose and to apply any useful strategy for the learning of the students. This opportunity brings the researcher to adopt and to do a research in the researcher’s class without being afraid of any inconvenience or objection from the chairman of the foundation.
This foundation is considered as Non-Government Organization; hence, it gives freedom to the researcher to set his learning as the researcher desired.
In this research, the researcher tries to investigate any beneficial strategy for the improvement of students’ retention in their vocabulary mastery. The track of finding or even constructing a strategy which is appropriate with students’ characteristics is considered from the previous actions taken by the researcher.
The researcher is aware that some strategies do not function for the students of OI 743 Petra Children Development Center. The researcher hopes that this research will establish an appropriate strategy to teach English words toward the students who face difficulties in memorizing English words they learn.
1.2 Problem Formulation
This research is going to answer the formulated problem as it is mentioned below.
4 What is the teaching strategy that is appropriate to improve the vocabulary learning achievement of the fifth grade students in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center?
1.3 Problem Limitation
It is the responsibility of a language teacher to understand the difficulties faced by the students in their achievement in English vocabulary learning.
Moreover, students in the age of Elementary school level are considered capable to obtain good memorization of English words. Based on critical period theory, young learners learn language better than adult s.
As it is mentioned that students tend to forget the English words they learn previously, the critical period theory has influenced the researcher to search for a strategy which is effective to teach English words to the fifth grade students in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center. The concern of this research is how to improve students’ retention in their English vocabulary learning. Therefore a strategy is looked for the teaching of English words in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center.
1.4 Research Objective
The objective is to investigate a teaching strategy which is appropriate to improve the achievement of the fifth grade students in their vocabulary learning in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center.
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1.5 Research Benefits
This research is expected to bring beneficial effects toward both the teacher and the fifth grade students of Elementary school level in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center. The benefits of this research are first, it is aimed to give a good view related to the process of retention that occurs in English vocabulary learning in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center.
Second, the result is expected to help the fifth grade students of Elementary school level in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center in their English learning. By providing an effective strategy, it is expected that they are able to increase their achievement in their English words learning.
Third, it will ease the ir formal English teacher in their formal study. The students of the fifth grade of Elementary school level in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center have been educated effectively in their vocabulary learning. They are expected to do better in their English formal study.
1.6 Definition of Terms
In order to support the reading of this report, some definitions are provided to help the reader to comprehend some difficult terms.
1. Vocabulary Hornby (1989: 1471), in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, defines vocabulary as (1) total numbers of words that make up language; (2) (body of) words known to a person used in particular book, subject; (3) list of words with their meanings. In this research, vocabulary is regarded as word that makes up
6 language. They can stand-alone or together. They may be different in meaning from each other.
2. Learning strategies Wenden and Rubin (1987: 71) define learning strategies as techniques, approaches, or deliberate actions that students take in order to facilitate the learning and to recall of both linguistic and content area information. In this research, the researcher bases the success of the research on the learning strategy which is used to teach English words. They participate as the main factor to solve the problem formulation of this research.
3. Cognitive As it is quoted in Wenden and Rubin (1987: 72), in Brown and Paliscar’s point of view, cognitive strategies are directly related to a specific task and learning objective and may not be applicable to different types of learning task. The researcher uses cognitive strategies hence they are suitable with the research
4. Retention Bauman (1980: 35) explains retention as an active process requiring learning. In this study, retention is focused on the active process of memorizing the English words. It uses required learning which is effective to improve students’ achievement in learning English vocabulary.
5. Triangulation Matrix: ACR Three Questions In order to collect the data in this research, the researcher records the teaching using Triangulation Matrix: Three ACR Questions. The form of
Triangulation Matrix: Three ACR Questions is adopted from Sagor (2005: 96) in
7 his book entitled The Action Research Guide Book. Sagor explains The
Triangulation Matrix as a tool designed to recount the data which occur in the
teaching and learning process. It is like a journal. It records written data from the research.
6. Children Development Center OI 743 Petra
It is one of the social foundations in Yogyakarta that deals with children. It is located in Jl. Ireda MGL/ 1039 Yogyakarta 55152. The programs are funded by foreign people and local people. The head office of this foundation is located in Bandung, West Java. In this place, the research is conducted. This foundation facilitates children with development programs to develop their religious, moral, attitude, behavior, health, and cognitive aspect. The cognitive aspect includes English mastery which is the main focus of the research.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This research is conducted to investigate the appropriate strategy to
improve the achievement of the fifth grade students in their English vocabulary learning in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center. Thus, the researcher bases the research on theories in language teaching and learning. The theories are used to search for an appropriate strategy in teaching English vocabulary toward students of the fifth grade of elementary school in OI 743 Petra Children Development Center in their English vocabulary learning.
2.1 Theoretical Description
2.1.1 Teaching English as a Foreign Language
As the rapid growth of advanced communication system, world seems to be shrinking very rapidly. It happens as the international barriers break down and people can more easily come into contact with other cultures and languages through travel, communication or new technology. Brewster et al. (2002: 1) state this so-called globalization of the world is a modern and sometimes controversial trend which looks as though it may be here to stay, at least for the time being.
The growing trend of using English as an international language has led into introduction of English language learning by many children all over the world. Brewster et al. (2002: 1) mention that pressure to introduce early English learning has often come from parents who strongly believe learning English as the
9 language skill will benefit their children greatly by giving them more opportunities to gain economic, cultural or educational advantages. As it is explained by Brewster et al. (2002: 1) that
Governments and private schools all over the world have decided to introduce English at primary level, because there is a strong “folk” belief, a sort of ‘act of faith’, that young children learn language better and more easily than older children. This means there is a wide spread belief that there are definite advantages to introducing language learning early in life which outweigh the disadvantages.
Therefore, English teachers might ask their selves whose language they teach, for what purpose and what their relationship with English, do they consider it to be foreign, second or native language. The term “foreign” is also used to distinguish the teaching of English in an area where there is an exposure toward English with an area where the access to English is almost impossible. Indonesian students are foreign language learners in which exposure toward native speaker of English is almost impossible to be daily meeting exposure. On the contrary, students face non-native English speakers in their English learning. It is why, the need of a very qualified strategy of teaching is necessarily required to help students learning.
2.1.2 Vocabulary
2.1.2.1 The Meaning of Vocabulary
Hornby (1989: 1471), in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, defines vocabulary as (1) total numbers of words that make up language; (2) (body of) words known to a person used in particular book, subject; (3) list of words with their meanings. In this study, vocabulary is regarded as a word that makes up
10 language. They can stand-alone or together. They may be different in meaning from each other.
According to Nation (1990: 31), “Learner’s vocabulary is divided into two groups, active and passive.” Active vocabulary is the vocabulary that the learner should use in speaking and writing. While passive vocabulary is words the learner needs to recognize in listening and reading. Speaking vocabulary is words used to communicate someone’s thoughts, feelings, and ideas to others. Writing vocabulary is words that the children use to express their thoughts on paper. As Nation (2002: 6) proposes
All words are created equal. Some occur much more frequently than others and are thus more useful for learners. This knowledge is very important pre-requisite for planning a vocabulary program, and for making day-to-day decisions about how to treat particular words.
Nation (2002: 6) divides vocabulary into four major groups. They are 1) High frequency words, 2) Academic words, 3) Technical words, and 4) Low frequency words. In this research, the researcher is going to use the high frequency words as the vocabularies which are frequently used in the English vocabulary teaching. This selection will help students to expose themselves with daily English words and to give them more exposure toward their needs of certain words related to their daily life.
2.1.2.2 The Importance of Vocabulary
Harris (1997) says in his book, Land Marks in Linguistic Thought, that human needs language to communicate their thoughts. Human knowledge consists of ideas or thoughts. Word as a mark or a sign of language is the vehicle of human
11 communication. It records the thoughts or ideas and drives them into others’ mind. Taylor (1990: 1) states:
In order to live the world, we must name it proposes another evidence of the importance of word. Names are essential for the construction of reality for without a name it is difficult to accept the existence of an object, an event, a feeling. Naming is the means whereby we attempt to order and structure the chaos and flux of existence, which would otherwise be an undifferentiated mass. By assigning names, we impose a pattern and meaning which allow us to manipulate the world.
She (1990: 1) mentions in foreign language teaching, vocabulary has for a long time been a neglected area. It happens because pride of place has been given to “structures” or latterly “function”. Course books have provided little guidance other than word list, so that apart from turning to the specialized supplementary material, such as dictionary workbooks, teachers have been hard to satisfy their students’ demand for “words”. Happily, this situation has changed in the opposite direction. Nowadays many of newer course books include word study section. Nation (1990: 2) argues The fact that simply increase learners’ vocabulary without giving attention to putting this knowledge to use may not be effective, but getting learners to do language task when their vocabulary is inadequate for the task is a frustrating experience. Finally, giving attention to vocabulary is unavoidable. Even the most formal communication directed approaches to language teaching must deal with the need of vocabulary as one important factor in the success of English language teaching.
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2.1.2.3 Vocabularies Proposed in the Curriculum
The goals of Indonesian government in teaching English to the fifth grade of elementary school are able to listen, to read, to pronounce, and to write some English words; the students have functional skill in sentences and English utterances dealing with student’s environment and student’s school (GBPP, 1994: 6). Those goals are related to English vocabulary teaching. The Indonesian government lists English in its curriculum and inside of it; there are English words for the fifth grade students.
2.1.2.4 Approaches to Vocabulary Learning
Nation (1990: 2) divides vocabulary learning into direct learning and in- direct learning. He defines the meaning of direct vocabulary learning as the learners do exercises and activities that focus their attention on vocabulary. Some examples of those activities are word-building exercises, guessing words from context when it is done as class exercises, learning words in list, and vocabulary games. On the contrary, indirect vocabulary learning is defined as the learners’ attention is focused on some other features, usually on the message that is conveyed by a speaker or a writer. Krashen (1981) as it is stated in Nation (1990: 2) believes that certain conditions must be applied for such learning to occur. First, the learners must be interested in understanding the message. Second, the messages should contain some items that are just outside the learner’s present level of achievement. Third, the learners should not feel worried or threatened by their contact with the foreign language.
13 Vocabulary teaching can fit into a language learning course in any of four ways. Nation (1990: 4) explains those four ways from the most indirect to the most direct as follows. 1) Material is prepared with vocabula ry learning as a consideration. The most common examples of this are the preparation of simplified material and the careful grading of the first lessons of learning English. 2) Words are dealt with as they happen to occur. This means that if an unknown word appears in a reading passage, the teacher gives some attention to it at the moment it causes a problem. 3) Vocabulary is taught in connection with other language activities. For example, the vocabulary of reading passage is dealt with before the learners read the passage. 4) Time is spent either in class or out of school on the study of vocabulary without an immediate connection with some other language activities. For example, time is spent on learning spelling rules or on activities like dictionary use, guessing words, the use of word parts or list learning.
The method in vocabula ry learning is “grading” (Nation, 1982). It means the grades in learning vocabulary are constructed based on many factors, such as time needed to learn, number of words to be learned, the difficulty of words and the repetition of the words. These factors should be the consideration for choosing the appropriate strategy in vocabulary learning.
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2.1.2.5 Techniques of Vocabulary Teaching
There are two general techniques in foreign vocabulary learning, namely “receptive and productive learning” (Wallace, 1991: 21). Receptive learning makes the students able to recall the translation of foreign word when the foreign word has been seen or heard. For example, the teacher says the word ‘red’, the students hear the word and are able to remember the meaning in their first language.
Productive learning supports the students to produce the foreign word by speaking and writing. It requires more time than receptive learning. For productive learning, “saying the words aloud brings faster learning with better retention” (Wallace, 1991: 29). For instance, the teacher shows a picture of an elephant and asks the student to word in English. It can be concluded that based on the techniques, the research deals with receptive and productive learning. First, students need to be able to recall translation of the word and second, the students are required to speak the word in oral way and to write the word in script form.
2.1.2.6 Pictures in Vocabulary Teaching
If learning is to take place, it usually involves the collaboration of two people. They are teacher and learner. The teacher cannot do it all alone and most learners find the difficulties of doing it alone overwhelming. Wenden and Rubin (1987: 71) state that learning strategies are techniques, approaches or deliberate actions that students take in order to facilitate the learning and to recall of both linguistic and content area information. As it is quoted in Wenden and Rubin
15 (1987: 72), Brown and Paliscar (1982) classify general learning strategies as metacognitive or cognitive. Their point of view, metacognitive strategies involve thinking about the learning process, planning for learning, monitoring for learning while it is taking place and self-evaluation of learning after the learning activity.
Metacognitive strategies can be applied virtually all types of learning task whereas cognitive strategies are more directly related to a specific task and learning objective and may not be applicable to different types of learning task.
Based on the above explanation, the researcher proposes the cognitive strategies, thus, they involve manipulation or transformation of material to be learned; in other words, learners interact directly with what is to be learned (Wenden and Rubin, 1987: 72). Cognitive strategies can vary in the amount of leaners’ interaction or transformations involved; greater involvement is thought to result in increased learning.
Quoted in Wenden and Rubin (1987), Brown and Paliscar (1982) divide cognitive strategies into several kinds. They are repetition, resourcing, directed physical response, translation, grouping, note taking, deduction, recombination, imagery, auditory representation, key word, contextualization, elaboration, transfer, and differencing.
In the connection between learner’s strategies and vocabulary learning, Nation (1990: 51) explains that the meaning of words can be communicated in many different ways. They are by demonstration or pictures: (1) using an object, (2) using a cut-out figure, (3) using gesture, (4) performing an action, (5) photographs, (6) blackboard drawing or diagrams, and (7) pictures from books.
16 The other way is through verbal explanations. They are (1) analytical definition, (2) putting the new word in defining context, and (3) translating into another language
Nation (1990: 52) draws the relation in communication process as in Figure 2.1, the relation in communication process.
Encoding Decoding Information
Information Transmitter Receiver
Source Destination
Figure 2.1 The Relation in Communication Process Wende n and Rubin, 1987: 80)( In vocabulary teaching information source may be the teacher’s brain.
Transmitter can be many things—for examples, the teacher’s voice (if giving a verbal explanation), the teacher’s hands (if drawing or pointing to a picture), the teacher’s body (if giving a demonstration), and a real object (if the teacher shows it to the class).
In this research, the researcher uses one type of cognitive strategies which is called imagery. In this research, learning vocabulary could be done with demonstrations and using pictures. Nation (1990: 53) explains all strategies are well applied to condition in which it does translate the idea from the information source. He also suggests that English language teachers could help their learners to grasp the concept by varying the situation in which it is demonstrated and by giving verbal definition as well as nonverbal one. In this case, Wenden and Rubin (1987: 77) state that imagery is used by relating new information to visual concepts in memory via familiar easily retrievable visualizations, phrases or
17 locations. Those visual concepts are suitable and helpful for students’ strategy in memorization of English words.
2.1.2.7 Vocabulary Selection
It is important to decide the kind of vocabulary and the amount of English words which are going to be used for vocabulary teaching. This information should be provided in the curriculum. In the local 1994 content curriculum, there
nd rd
is no syllabus for the 2 and 3 grades of Elementary School level. In the research the researcher selects the English words, determines number of the words to teach and makes lesson plans for English words teaching.
Lado (1964: 119) states “the teacher needs to rely on certain criteria of vocabulary selection in order to meet the needs of various goals and conditions.” In the vocabulary selection, teacher should recognize the criteria of vocabulary for his/her students. He/she should understand the objective which will be achieved, learners’ level, background of the students, needs of learning, and learning source.
2.1.3 Children Language and Learning
2.1.3.1 Children as Active Processors
Lindfors (1980: 176) clarifies the term “imitation” in children language learning that children reformulate (rather than repeat) the input sentence according to their own language system, if it is beyond the bounds of their rule system. Thus, their imitation may omit elements or recognize elements, though it will generally retain the input order of elements. Children apparently imitate primarily