T1 112008074 Full text
VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES USED BY FLL STUDENTS IN
EXTENSIVE READING CLASS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Stanley Deddy Dwitama
112008074
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2015
VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES USED BY FLL STUDENTS IN
EXTENSIVE READING CLASS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Stanley Deddy Dwitama
112008074
Approved by:
Anne Indrayanti Timotius, M.Ed.
Supervisor
Victoria Usadya Palupi, MA-ELT.
Examiner
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Copyright@ 2015. Stanley Deddy Dwitama and Anne Indrayanti Timotius, M.Ed.
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Education Program, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian
University, Salatiga.
Stanley Deddy Dwitama
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Vocabulary Learning Strategies used by FLL Students in Extenive Reading
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Date
: August 10, 2015
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Approved by
Thesis Supervisor
Anne Indrayanti Timotius, M.Ed.
Thesis Examiner
Victoria Usadya Palupi, MA-ELT.
Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by FLL Students in Extensive Reading
Class
Stanley Deddy Dwitama
Abstract
It’s been long that researchers in the area of second language learning, such as
Asgari (2011), said that one of the most important challenges that learners will face
during the process of second language learning is learning vocabulary. Learning
vocabulary can be done in many ways. One of which is through reading. Yet, learning
vocabulary through reading is not an easy job. Thus, there is a need to apply some
strategies in the process of learners’ vocabulary learning that can be done by the
activity of reading. This study concerned on the kinds of strategies students used in
learning new vocabulary through reading. This study was scouted by research
question of “What are the vocabulary learning strategies used by the student’s in
learning new words when they read graded readers when they took Extensive
Reading?” A hundred Extensive Reading students of Satya Wacana Christian
University were given questionnaires about strategies they used. The questionnaire
was categorized according to the strategies proposed by Schmitt (2000). The
strategies are determination strategies, social strategies, memory strategies, cognitive
strategies, and metacognitive strategies. The findings of this study present the highest
number of the questions of each category. The results showed that among the five
vocabulary learning strategies, Determination Strategy occured as the most frequent
strategy used by the students, while, the Social Strategy occured as the least.
Key word: strategies, vocabulary learning, extensive reading.
INTRODUCTION
Language is very crucial for us to communicate other people because
language is one of the most important tools for us to convey messages. Moreover, in
communicating in a foreign language, ones need to be equipped with some skills of
the language. There are four major skills in learning a language. There are speaking,
writing, listening, and reading. Assia (2010) mentioned the four skills are needed to
acquire a language. Along those four major skills there are also grammar and
vocabulary which we cannot exclude as they play important roles in language
learning.
For a long time grammar had been one of the focuses to be learnt for most
people in learning a new language. People with a good grammar surely can make and
comprehend good sentence structure, but, it cannot be done if their vocabulary bank
is limited. Wilkins (1974: 111) states, "Without grammar very little can be conveyed,
without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed". From Wilkins’ statement as well as
the writer’s experience in learning English as his foreign language, it may be
concluded that without a good vocabulary one will struggle in transferring his/her
messages to others. Richard (n.d) also claimed that, “learning vocabulary is one of the
keys to learning a new language. Without knowledge of the L2’s vocabulary, no
progress can be made”. Asgari (2011) mentioned that “vocabulary has been
recognized as crucial to language use in which insufficient vocabulary knowledge of
the learners led to difficulties in second language learning”. The lack of vocabulary
bank often becomes an obstacle for communicating with others. This idea was also
supported by Assia (2010) who states that, “It is clear, therefore, that a lack of
adequate vocabulary knowledge is already an obvious serious obstacle for university
student in the reading comprehension module”. Therefore, vocabulary plays a very
important role to help the learners to be able to comprehend as well as communicate
using a foreign language.
However, learning vocabulary is not an easy job. Learning vocabulary might
be challenging. Asgari (2011) mentioned that “one of the most important challenges
that learners will face during the process of second language learning is learning
vocabulary”. Every learners might have different way to face the challenges of their
vocabulary learning processes. Thus, there are many ways for someone to learn
vocabulary. One of them is through reading a story. The writer himself feels that
reading is sometimes helpful for improving his vocabulary bank. Very often the
writer finds new words from a book. The most improving period was when the writer
took Extensive Reading class. Extensive Reading class forced the writer to read lots
of stories and journals. Throughout the course, the writer was assigned to read
endless of books. Aside from that, by reading, a lot the writer found tons of difficult
words. In this case the writer also has his own strategies to learn vocabulary.
Guessing from context and looking in dictionary are the most used strategies that the
writer chose. Guessing from the context uses context to understand a difficult word
whereas dictionary is when the writer use dictionary to understand difficult words.
The writer himself found it very useful to use this because one word may have several
meanings, depending on the context. For example a simple word like “buy” can have
different meaning in different context. “I need to buy a new book to finish my thesis”.
In this sentence the word “buy” means to purchase something. Another sentence with
a different meaning of buy is, “I need you to buy me some time, so that the terrorists
won’t notice me entering the building”. The word buy here means that, the speaker
asks the other person to distract the terrorists so that the speaker could enter the
building safely”.
However the writer also found a little obstacle in using the strategies. In this
strategy the learner’s background knowledge affects learner’s understanding. The
writer had an experience when he did his teaching practicum. The writer was asked
his students in one of his teaching practice class. Here, the writer found that most of
the students would commonly answered the meaning of an English word with a word
in Bahasa Indonesia which has similar pronounce as the English word itself. For
instance, the students mostly answered “praktis” for the equivalent word of “practice”
in English, which means practical in English. From the writer’s experience, it was
clearly shown that the learner’s background plays important role in understanding a
new words. Thanks to that the writer was able to greatly improve his vocabulary
bank.
Extensive Reading has long been believed as one of strategies for improving
vocabulary skills because of its aim to make the students read a lot of stories.
Previous study done by Lai (1993, as cited in Hui, et al, n.d), tested two groups of
four schools, the experimental groups that practiced in extensive reading and the
control groups that did not practice in extensive reading, for vocabulary recognition.
The findings revealed that there were three experimental groups that performed better
scores in vocabulary recognition compared to the control groups. Day, Omura, and
Hiramatsu (1991) also studied that students learn vocabulary incidentally while
reading. The subjects of the study were two groups of EFL learners. There were 397
university students that were divided to a control or a ‘treatment’ group and 191 high
school students who were randomly assigned individually. The ‘treatment’ group was
asked to read a short story. Both of the groups were not allowed to use dictionaries
and given a vocabulary test in order to test their lexical development. The results
showed that the ‘treatment’ group got higher score on the vocabulry test than the
control group. The research showed that extensive reading helps students to learn
vocabulary. These studies had clearly shown that extensive reading boost students’
vocabulary bank.
The reason why this study was conducted is because the writer was interested
on what are the students’ strategies to cope with new words that are met in reading
books assigned in Extensive Reading class. Therefore, this research was aimed to find
out the vocabulary learning strategies used by the FLL students in Extensive Reading
class. Exploring their strategies in their vocabulary development needed to
understand the ways they used to gain more vocabulary in English. This research will
hopefully be useful for FLL students to be more aware to choose the most efficient
vocabulary learning strategies, so that they can perform better in the future. So, this
study aimed to answer this research question:
1. What are the vocabulary learning strategies used by the student’s in learning
new words when they read graded readers in Extensive Reading class?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Vocabulary
According to Nguyen and Khuat (2003), vocabulary is one of the major skills
in learning English that connects the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and
writing all together. In this research the writer purposely take vocabulary because of
the importance of its role that connects the four major skills in English. As stated by
Stahl and Nagy (2006) in National Center for Reading First Technical Assistance
(2008), “Vocabulary encompasses all of the words we know and use when listening
and speaking, as well as all of the words we know and use in print when reading and
writing”.
Reading
Hill and Holden (1990, p.91) stated that “reading as the most useful skill for
students to develop the feeling of satisfaction in understanding a text in many ways”.
Generally in order to understand a book, one needs to understand the content, and
without understanding the vocabulary it is impossible to grasp the content. By
reading, the learners are forced to read and digest the meaning of the book. Walker
(1992, p.37) also supports Hill and Holden’s (1990) idea by defining that reading as
an active, the process of problem solving in which predicting or guessing what the
author says were included in it, based on expectations about story events. Walker
(1988) clearly stated that reading involves guessing, which is one of the vocabulary
learning strategies. So, they support the idea that reading is a learning process that
could enrich the students’ understanding which involves strategies to help them
understand the content of the reading.
Extensive Reading
According to some experts (Chou, 2011; Stahl & Stahl, 2004; Vacca et al,
2003) in Hsiang and Mark (n.d) “the relationship between vocabulary and reading is
believed to be reciprocal”. It means that there is a mutual relationship between
reading and vocabulary in which reader can gain more new words throgh the activity
of reading. Furthermore, Hill and Holden’s, (1990, p.92) research shows that students
who do more pleasure reading are better readers, better writers and have a greater
vocabulary and grammatical competence. It can be concluded from those two
researches that learner will perform better if they like what they read. It makes the
idea that extensive reading is best method in learning because learner may choose
their own story in extensive reading. However (Hui et al, n.d) stated that, “extensive
reading can not only improve students’ motivation in learning a second language, but
it can also encourage students to acquire new vocabulary through reading and thus
build their vocabulary recognition naturally.” He also hypothesized that “Extensive
reading can enhance student vocabulary acquisition”. His research shown that
extensive reading could build learner’s vocabulary because have more reading input
could improve their vocabulary recognition.
Vocabulary Learning Strategies
There are many strategies for learning vocabulary. Williams and Burden
(1997) define language learning strategies as techniques used by learners to help
make their language learning be more effective and increase their independence and
autonomy as learners.
Gu and Johnson (1996) list second language vocabulary learning
strategies (VLS) as metacognitive, memory and activation strategies. According to
Gu and Johnson (1996):
Metacognitive strategies consist of selective and self-initiation; cognitive
strategies entail guessing, strategies, skillful use of dictionary and notetaking strategies; memory strategies are classified into rehearsal and
encoding categories. Rehearsal includes word lists and repetition, while,
encoding
categories
includes association, imagery,
visual,
auditory,
semantic and contextual encoding as well as word structure; activation
strategies include those strategies include those strategies through which
the learners actually use new words in different context
Table 1. Gu and Johnson‟s (1996) VLS classification
Strategies
Metacognitive
Cognitive
Memory
Selective attentive:
Guessing:
Rehearsal:
Identifying essential Activation
Word
list
words
background
repetition, etc
for comprehension
knowledge, using
- Encoding:
- Self-initiation:
linguistic items
association
using a variety of - Use of dictionary (imagery
means to
Note-taking
visual,
auditory,
make the meaning
etc)
of
words clear
Activation
- Using new
words in different
contexts
Another vocabulary learning strategies is proposed by Schmitt (2000). He
groups ‟vocabulary learning strategies into five categories, there are determined
strategies,
social
strategies,
memory
strategies,
cognitive
strategies,
and
metacognitive strategies. Below is the definition of each strategy.
Determination strategies are individual learning strategies. It assists learners
to dig up the meaning of words by themselves without help from peers, like
guessing the words from the context (Schmitt, 2000).
Social strategies allow learners to get involve in interaction with their peers,
and it assists them to learn from each other, like observing their classmates
and asking their teacher for a word meaning (Schmitt, 2000).
Memory strategies are strategies in which learners were engaged in learning
the
new
word through mental processing. It was done by associating
learners’ existing or background knowledge with the new word (Schmitt,
2000).
Cognitive strategies are more mechanical. It does not engage learners in
mental processing. Repeating the pronunciation of new words is one of the
examples (Schmitt, 2000).
Metacognitive strategies are strategies relating to processes involving one’s
progress in monitoring, decision-making, and evaluation. This kind of
strategies help the learner in determining appropriate VLS for learning new
words (Schmitt, 2000).
Table 2. Schmitt’s VLS (Schmitt, 1997, pp. 207-208)
1. Strategies for the discovery of a new word’s meaning
Strategy group
Determination
Strategy
- Analyzing part of speech
- Analyzing affixes and roots
- Analyzing and available pictures or
gestures
- Guess meaning from textual context
Use a dictionary (bilingual or
monolingual)
Social
- Ask teacher for a synonym, paraphrase,
or L1 translation of new word
- Ask class mates for meaning
2. Strategies for consolidating a word once it has been encountered
Strategy Group
Strategy
Social
- Study and practice meaning in a group
Memory
Cognitive
Metacognitive
- Interact with native speakers
- Connect word to a previous personal
experience
- Associate the word with its coordinate
- Use semantic maps
- Image word forms
- Group words together to study them
- Study the spelling of a word
- Say new aloud when studying
- Use physical action when learning a
word
- Verbal repetition
- Written repetition
- Word lists
- Put English labels on physical objects
- Keep a vocabulary notebook
- Use English language media (songs,
movies, news, casts, etc)
- Use spaced word practice (expanding
rehearsal)
- Test oneself with word tests
- Skip or pass new word
- Continue to study word over time
For this study, the writer used the Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies
in because the writer consideres Schmitt’s strategies very specific to be used as bases
for conducting the research.
THE STUDY
Context of the Study
The study was conducted in Satya Wacana Christian University (SWCU). It is
located at Jl. Diponegoro 52-60, Salatiga, Central Java. The writer decided to choose
the students from Faculty of Language and Literature (FLL). The reason why the
writer selected this faculty was because Extensive Reading (ER) was one of required
courses that the students need to complete. In this faculty, Extensive Reading was
offered at the beginning of the semester. ER was a 3 credit hours course which
enables students to read extensively, mostly outside the class. The reading texts in
form of graded readers were all authentic (unabridged), and the students were
expected to read them before class. Class activities include discussions on content and
language as well as student interpretations.
Participants
The participants of this study were 100 FLL students. The writer has selected
students who already passed the ER class in order to collect the data. The writer
selected students who had passed the course.
Instruments of Data Collection
This research was a quantitative research, done by distributing questionnaires
to 100 FLL students. This study used VLS proposed by Schmitt (1997). It consists of
close-ended questions of VLS used by students in learning new words in their ER
class. The questionnaire was written in English because it is the writer thought that
FLL students were proficient enough to understand the questions.
Data Collection Procedure
Before distributing the questionnaire, the writer asked some questions orally
to the students of FLL, whether they had taken ER class or not. If they have taken the
course the writer would ask them to fill the questionnaires. The writer had predicted
that the questionnaire could be finished in 5 minutes for each student. As explained
before the questionnaires were distributed to 100 students. The last step was
collecting the paper that had been distributed to the students outside their class.
Data Analysis Procedure
After the data was collected using the questionnaire, the writer analyzed the
data using Microsoft Excel in order to get the clear data of the strategies used by the
students. The data was analyzed so that the data met the research objectives.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This section presents research findings and the discussion of the findings in
attempts answer the research question: What are the vocabulary learning strategies
used by the student’s in learning new words when they read graded readers when they
took Extensive Reading? The findings on 100 ELTD students of Satya Wacana
Christian University on vocabulary learning strategies they used are divided into five
categories as proposed by Schmitt (2000). The categories are determination
strategies,
social
strategies,
memory
strategies,
cognitive
strategies,
and
metacognitive strategies. The following is an overall graph that averaged the number
of the used of each strategy:
Graph 1. Average Number of the Used of Strategies
Metacognitive Strategies
Cognitive Strategies
Always
Often
Memory Strategies
Seldom
Social Strategies
Never
Determination Strategies
0
10
20
30
40
50
A. Determination Strategies
As stated by Schmitt (2000) that determination strategies assist learners to
discover the meaning of words without assistance from peers.In the first category of
questionnaire (questions number 1-6), participants were asked about their frequency
of using the determination strategies during their reading. The result is presented in
the following chart.
Graph 2. The Use of Determination Strategies
56
55
55
51
47
44
40
28
27
23
37
33
38
28
Seldom
22
3
Q1
Q2
4
1
Q3
Q4
Q5 A
1
Q5 B
Often
17
10
4
3
18
17
16 15
14
12
Never
11
5
Q5 C
9
Always
Q6
It can be seen from the chart for question number 1 until 4, the highest
number was ‘Often’. For question number one, which is “analyze part of speech, (e.g.
noun, verb, adjective)”, 56 out of the total 100 participants of ELTD students often do
analyze the parts of speech during their reading. For question number two, which is
“analyze affixes and roots to guess the meaning of words, (e.g. replay – re means do
it again)” 55 out of 100 participants obviously often do analyze the affixes and roots
to help them guessing the meaning of new words. For the next questions, from 100
participants, 47 of them often do the question number 3 that is “use the pictures or
gestures to understand the meaning of words”. While, for the questions number 4, the
chart had showed that 51 out of the total participants in this study often guess the
meaning of words from textual context.
The writer divided the question number 5 “Look up word in dictionary” into
three parts: look up in English-English dictionary (Q5A); English-Indonesian
dictionary (Q5 B); and Indonesian-English dictionary (Q5 C). For Q5 A, the highest
number was ‘Seldom’ in which 40 out of 100 participants chose. Meanwhile, 55
participants’ answer for Q5 B and 44 participants’ answer for Q5 C was ‘Often’. For
the last question in the first category (question number 6), that is “List vocabulary
and review it”, it was shown in thechart that the highest number with 38 out of the
total 100 participants’ answer was ‘Often’.
The finding of the first category indicates that mostly students were trying to
help themselves in understanding new words during their reading on their own
without helps from others. Since, it was shown in the chart that mostly of the
questions has the highest number for ‘Often’. The used of this strategy can be done
by guessing the words through textual context, looking up the words in the
dictionary, or analiyze the part of speech, pictures, and gestures to help them guessing
the words. In my analysis, this strategy needs a high proficiency level of the learners
itself since this strategy includes the activity of guessing an unknown words which
refers to presuming a word’s meaning from the peripheral words in a written text. In
other words, it can be used by those who are advance English learners, like ELTD
students as the subject of this study. It was supported by the study of Schmitt (2000)
who stated that the learners should also have enough background knowledge of the
subject and the strategic knowledge of how to sucessfully work with the process of
inferrencing, since it also includes the ability to accurately decode the orthographical
form of new words.
B. Social Strategies
The second category of this study is social strategies. A social strategy as
defined by Schmitt (2000) is the strategies of understanding new words where
learners are interacting with peers. The following chart is the evidence of the
questionnaire about the learners’ frequency in the use of social strategies as written in
the questions number 7 to 13.
Graph 3. The Use of Social Strategies
53
52
42
32
40
38
25
14
10 10 11
5
Q7
Q8
50
43
36
33
Q10
Often
16
13
8
7
Q11
Never
Seldom
25
24
3 4
Q9
43
4
Q12
7
11
Always
Q13
The chart showed that the highest number in question number seven was
‘Seldom’, in which 42 out of 100 participants rarely asked their teachers to translate
the words they did not understand. Next, the highest number in question number 8
was ‘Often’. It showed that 40 out of the total participants frequently asked their
teachers about synonyms of new words. For questions number 9 that is “Ask the
teacher to make a sentence using the new words”, 52 participants chose to answer
‘Seldom’. For the question number 10 and 11, the answer ‘Often’ presented the
highest number that 53 participants were often asking their classmate for meaning
(Q10) and 43 participants were often discovering the meaning through group work
activity (Q11). On the other hand, the answer ‘Seldom’ in the chart presented the
highest number for question number 12 “Ask the teacher for learners’ word lists for
accuracy” and question number 13 “Interact with native speaker”. In here, there were
50 participants chose ‘Seldom’ for question number 12 and 43 participants for
question number 13.
To summarize, the answer ‘Seldom’ presented the highest number for 4 out of
the total 7 questions in the second category. It indicated that instead of interact with
native speaker or asking the teacher for accuracy checking, sentences making, or
words translating, learners were more likely ask their classmate and discuss with
them about new words. Learners were only asking their teacher for synonyms of new
words, since it might difficult for them to find the appropriate words which has
similar meaning that suit the context.
In my analysis, discussing with classmates through the used of social strategy
with less intervention of the teacher enabled the students to learn and practice
vocabulary cooperatively through the interaction with their classmates. As stated by
Dansereau in his study (1988, in Schmitt, 2000), learning cooperatively promotes
active processing of information and cross modelling/imitation, while, the social
context enhances the learners’ motivation and give them more time to actually use
and manipulate the language.
C. Memory Strategies
The third strategy is memory strategies in which learners were engaged in
learning the new word through mental processing that was done by associating their
existing or background knowledge with the new word (Schmitt, 2000). There were
13 questions in the questionnaire of this category that written from question number
14 to 26. The following chart is the proof from the questionnaire.
Graph 4. The Use of Memory Strategies
59
56
55
48
50
49
39
38
34
24
13
46
43
42
19
15
10
1
Always
7
2
Seldom
Often
12
6
0
29
20
17
15
13
3
Never
33
26
23
12 12
38
36
32
30
27
6
5
38 38
45
11 10
11
9 8
4
5
1
Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 Q19 Q20 Q21 Q22 Q23 Q24 Q25 Q26
As it showed in the chart that the answer of ‘Seldom’ and ‘Often’ performed
the highest number on the most of questions. Question number 14 showed the highest
number in which there are 42 out of 100 participants chose seldom to study the word
with picture. While, question number 15 showed the highest number with 59 of
participants’ answers is often connect the words with their own experiences.
Next, the question number 16 and 17 got ‘Seldom’ as the highest number on
it. There were 48 participants chose seldom for ‘make a list of vocabulary in
alphabetical for reviewing (Q16)’ and 49 participants for ‘make a list of vocabulary
arranged by topic or group for reviewing (Q17)’. In my analysis, making a list of
vocabulary might too time consuming, thus, the students are rarely doing it.
Instead of making a vocabulary lists, it might be more effective to memorize
and enrich the vocabulary bank by using the words for communication. It is proved in
the question number 18 and 19 with the highest number is ‘Often’. It can be seen in
the chart that 55 out of 100 participants chose often for ‘Try to use the new words at
once after learning (Q18)’ and 50 participants for “Associate the word with other
words you have learned (Q19)”. It indicated that students are more likely find an ease
to memorize the new words by using it rather than to list them.
On the other hand, the answer of ‘Often’ performed as the highest number
again for questions number 20 (Review the word you have learned by spelling it
aloud) and question number 21 (Remember a word from its strange form,
pronunciation, and difficult spelling). The chart showed that there are 39 students
chose often for Q20 and 56 participants for Q21. Meanwhile, the chart showed equal
number for the answer of‘Seldom’ and ’Often’in question number 22 (Saying the
word aloud when studying in order to easily remember). Each answer had 38 out of
100 participants on it. For the question 23, ‘Remember the word by underlining the
first letter’, there were 43 out of 100 participants chose‘Seldom’.
Next, for the question 24 that is ‘Learn the words by paraphrasing the words
meaning’, there were 46 participants who chose ‘Often’. Finally, the last two
questions number 25 (Learn the words of the idiom) and 26 (Use physical action
when learning a word) had ‘Seldom’ as the highest number. There were 45 out of 100
participants chose seldom for question number 25 and 38 out 100 participants answer
the same for question number 26.
To sum up, here, students were more likely memorize the new words by
connecting it to the previous knowledge they had learn before, then, trying to use it
once after learning. In my analysis, using new words by trying to use it for
communicating or making a sentence by associate the new words with words they
had learnt before help them to learn faster and recall better. The reason was simply
because the activity of associating the new words with the existing words students
have for making a sentence will give them an ease to memorize the new vocabulary
rather than only memorize the list of the new words only. It was supported by the
explanation of Thompson (1983 in Schmitt, 2000) who said that the integration of
new material with existing cognitive units in mnemonics utilization provides retrieval
cues that enable learners learn faster and recall better.
D. Cognitive Strategies
The third strategy is called Cognitive Strategies in which learners are engaged
in mental processing but is more mechanical (Schmitt, 2000). There were 6 questions
of this category that is written in question number 27 until number 32. It can be seen
in the chart below.
Graph 5. The use of Cognitive Strategies
62
59
53
47
43
Never
37
23
21
2
Q27
8
6
2
Q28
24
23
Q29
10
Q30
Always
7
Q31
Often
18
16
12
6
Seldom
28
27 25
6
Q32
For questions number 27 until 30, ‘Often’ showed the highest number in the
chart. In here, there were 62 out of 100 participants chose ‘Often’ for question
number 27 (Learn the words through verbal repetition); 59 out of 100 participants for
the question 28 (Learn the words through written repetition); 37 out of 100
participants for the question number 29 (Take notes in class); and 30 out of 100
participants for the questions number 30 (Use the vocabulary section in textbook).
In my analysis, questions number 27 until 30 did help the learners in their
vocabulary improvements. Repeating the new words both through verbal and written
is the effective way to memories the words. So does with the taking notes activity in
class and using vocabulary section in learners’ textbook. The writer was also
experience it when learning new words. This is what the most students would do in
order to easily memorize the new words, so that most of the participants also often
use these strategies. It is similar with the study of O’Malley (1985 in Schmitt, 2000)
who found that repetition was the most commonly mentioned strategy rather than
strategy requiring more active manipulation of information. Thus, it seems that more
mechanical strategies, like cognitive strategy, are often favored over more complex
ones.
Nonetheless, the answer of ‘Seldom’ showed the highest number for the last
two questions in this category. There were 43 out of the total 100 participants who
answer ‘seldom’ for question number 31 that is ‘Listen to a tape of words lists’.
Meanwhile, there were 47 out of 100 participants chose to answer ‘seldom’ for
question number 32 that is ‘Keep a vocabulary note wherever you go’.
E. Metacognitive Strategies
The last category of vocabulary learning strategies stated by Schmitt (2000) is
Metacognitive Strategies. This strategy relate to processes involving monitoring,
decision-making, and evaluation of one’s progress.The following chart is the proof
from the questionnaire.
Graph 6. The Use of Metacognitive Strategies
64
56
53
51
48
41
35
36
31
22
15
1
5
Q33
42
26
10
0
Q35
Q36
22
17 16
15
1
Never
Seldom
20
7
Q34
40
39
4
6 5
Q37
10 9
Q38
Q39
Often
Always
5
Q40
For the question number 33 that is ‘Use English Media (e.g. song, movie,
newspaper, etc)’, 53 out of the total 100 participants’ answer were ‘Always’ as the
highest number in the chart for this question. In my analysis, more than a half of the
total participants are agreed to use it since English media is such a good media in
which learners not only learn new words but also know how to use it in an
appropriate context.
On the other hand, the answer of ‘Often’ performed as the highest number for
the questions number 34 until 36 in the chart. There were 41 participants in it for the
questions number 34 (Test yourself with words tests); 56 participants for the
questions 35 (Translate the meaning of the word from Indonesian into English); and
64 participants for the question number 36 (Translate the meaning of the word from
English into Indonesian).
For questions number 37 until 39, the highest number was ‘Seldom’. There
were 48 participants who chose ‘Seldom’ for question number 37 (Continue to study
the word overtime); 40 participants for the question number 38 (Practice by doing
vocabulary exercises); and 42 participants for the question number 39 (Play
vocabulary games). Finally, for the last question that is number 40 (Try to speak and
describe things in English), there were 51 participants agreed to choose ‘Often’.
The used of metacognitive strategy in vocabulary learning deals with the
activity of controlling and evaluating students’ own learning, by having an overview
of the learning process in general. In my analysis, metacognitive strategy concerns
with more efficient learning. As stated by Schmitt (2000) in his study that it is
important to maximize exposure to efficiently acquire an L2 by using resources that is
used as a controlling principle of language learning. It means that, it is essential to
elaborate and monitoring the learners knowledge of vocabulary in order to acquire
the target language efficiently that can be done through metacognitive strategy.
CONCLUSION
This study was aimed to find out what are the vocabulary learning strategies
used by the FLL students in Extensive Reading class. To do that, 100 questionnaires
had been delivered to the students. Then, the writer had divided the findings into five
categories based on the theory of Schmitt (2000).
As the writer can concluded from the first category, Determination Strategies,
the chart presents that most VLS that the participants often used. For the second
category, Social Strategy, it was shown that most of the participants rarely used this
kind of strategy. Next for the third category, Memory Strategies, the result showed
that half of the total participants often used this strategy, but the rest stated that they
rarely used it for their vocabulary learning. For the fourth and fifth category,
Cognitive Strategies and Metacognitive Strategies, the result showed that most of the
participants in this study often used these two strategies. It can be concluded that the
theory of Schmitt (2000) about the types of vocabulary learning strategies are often
used by the FLL students in learning new words. The way in learning can be done in
various ways according to each category. For instance, by looking up the new words
in dictionaries as included in the Determination Strategies or asking their peers as
included in the Social Strategies.
Nonetheless, the result of this study cannot be generalized into all contexts. It
is because of the time limit, this research was conducted only on a small size of
population that is in one institution only. Therefore, to generalize the results for larger
groups, the study should have involved more participants in more than one institution.
In addition to widening the scope of study and the perspectives in future
research, it could be seen as very interesting to study about vocabulary learning
strategies on students’ reading. It is strongly suggested for the other researcher to dig
deeper about it. Overall, the writer hopes that the findings on this study can be useful
and enrich our knowledge on the strategies of vocabulary learning for reading.
References:
Barcoft, J. (2009). Strategies and performance in intentional L2-vocabulary learning.
Language Awareness, 18 (1), 74-89.
Fan, M. (2003). Frequency of use, perceived usefulness, and actual usefulness of
second language vocabulary strategies: A study of Hong Kong Learners.
The Modern Language Journal, 87 (2), 222-241.
Gu, Y., & Johnson, R. K. (1996). Vocabulary learning strategies and language
learning outcomes.
Language Learning 46 (4), 643 – 79.
Hill, D., and Holden, S. (Eds). (1995), Language Teaching: 1988 Milan Conference
Organized
by The Britisho Council. Ÿÿÿÿÿÿ, London: Modern
English Publications.
Holden, W. R. (1999). Learning to Learn: 15 Vocabulary Acquisition Activities.
Modern English Teacher, 8 (2), 42-47.
Min, H. T. (2008). EFL Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention: Reading Plus
Vocabulary Enhancement Activities and Narrow Reading. A Journal of
Research and Language Studies (58), 73-115.
Nguyen, & Khuat. (2003). Learning Vocabulary through Games. Asian EFL Journal .
Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
Schmitt, N. (1997).Vocabulary learning strategies. In N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy
(Eds.),
Taheri, M. (2014). The Effect of Using Languages Games on Vocabulary Retention
of Iranian Elementary EFL Learners. Journal of Language Teaching and
Research, 5 (3), 544-549.
Tseng, W., & Schmitt, N. (2008). Toward a model of motivated vocabulary learning:
a structural equation modelling approach. Language Learning, 58 (2),
357-400.
Vocabulary: description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp.199-228). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Walker, B.J. (1988). Diagnostic Teaching of Reading: Techniques for Instruction and
Assessment. N.Y.: Merrill Publishing Company.
Williams, M. and Burden, R.(1997). Psychology for Language Teachers. A Social
Constructivist Approach. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press
Wilkins, D.A. (1974). Linguistics in Language Teaching. London: Billing and Sons
Ltd.
EXTENSIVE READING CLASS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Stanley Deddy Dwitama
112008074
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2015
VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES USED BY FLL STUDENTS IN
EXTENSIVE READING CLASS
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Stanley Deddy Dwitama
112008074
Approved by:
Anne Indrayanti Timotius, M.Ed.
Supervisor
Victoria Usadya Palupi, MA-ELT.
Examiner
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
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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@ 2015. Stanley Deddy Dwitama and Anne Indrayanti Timotius, M.Ed.
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 of the English Language
Education Program, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian
University, Salatiga.
Stanley Deddy Dwitama
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Name
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Student ID Number : 112008074
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Kind of Work
: Undergraduate Thesis
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Vocabulary Learning Strategies used by FLL Students in Extenive Reading
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Made in
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Date
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Verified by signee,
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Approved by
Thesis Supervisor
Anne Indrayanti Timotius, M.Ed.
Thesis Examiner
Victoria Usadya Palupi, MA-ELT.
Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by FLL Students in Extensive Reading
Class
Stanley Deddy Dwitama
Abstract
It’s been long that researchers in the area of second language learning, such as
Asgari (2011), said that one of the most important challenges that learners will face
during the process of second language learning is learning vocabulary. Learning
vocabulary can be done in many ways. One of which is through reading. Yet, learning
vocabulary through reading is not an easy job. Thus, there is a need to apply some
strategies in the process of learners’ vocabulary learning that can be done by the
activity of reading. This study concerned on the kinds of strategies students used in
learning new vocabulary through reading. This study was scouted by research
question of “What are the vocabulary learning strategies used by the student’s in
learning new words when they read graded readers when they took Extensive
Reading?” A hundred Extensive Reading students of Satya Wacana Christian
University were given questionnaires about strategies they used. The questionnaire
was categorized according to the strategies proposed by Schmitt (2000). The
strategies are determination strategies, social strategies, memory strategies, cognitive
strategies, and metacognitive strategies. The findings of this study present the highest
number of the questions of each category. The results showed that among the five
vocabulary learning strategies, Determination Strategy occured as the most frequent
strategy used by the students, while, the Social Strategy occured as the least.
Key word: strategies, vocabulary learning, extensive reading.
INTRODUCTION
Language is very crucial for us to communicate other people because
language is one of the most important tools for us to convey messages. Moreover, in
communicating in a foreign language, ones need to be equipped with some skills of
the language. There are four major skills in learning a language. There are speaking,
writing, listening, and reading. Assia (2010) mentioned the four skills are needed to
acquire a language. Along those four major skills there are also grammar and
vocabulary which we cannot exclude as they play important roles in language
learning.
For a long time grammar had been one of the focuses to be learnt for most
people in learning a new language. People with a good grammar surely can make and
comprehend good sentence structure, but, it cannot be done if their vocabulary bank
is limited. Wilkins (1974: 111) states, "Without grammar very little can be conveyed,
without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed". From Wilkins’ statement as well as
the writer’s experience in learning English as his foreign language, it may be
concluded that without a good vocabulary one will struggle in transferring his/her
messages to others. Richard (n.d) also claimed that, “learning vocabulary is one of the
keys to learning a new language. Without knowledge of the L2’s vocabulary, no
progress can be made”. Asgari (2011) mentioned that “vocabulary has been
recognized as crucial to language use in which insufficient vocabulary knowledge of
the learners led to difficulties in second language learning”. The lack of vocabulary
bank often becomes an obstacle for communicating with others. This idea was also
supported by Assia (2010) who states that, “It is clear, therefore, that a lack of
adequate vocabulary knowledge is already an obvious serious obstacle for university
student in the reading comprehension module”. Therefore, vocabulary plays a very
important role to help the learners to be able to comprehend as well as communicate
using a foreign language.
However, learning vocabulary is not an easy job. Learning vocabulary might
be challenging. Asgari (2011) mentioned that “one of the most important challenges
that learners will face during the process of second language learning is learning
vocabulary”. Every learners might have different way to face the challenges of their
vocabulary learning processes. Thus, there are many ways for someone to learn
vocabulary. One of them is through reading a story. The writer himself feels that
reading is sometimes helpful for improving his vocabulary bank. Very often the
writer finds new words from a book. The most improving period was when the writer
took Extensive Reading class. Extensive Reading class forced the writer to read lots
of stories and journals. Throughout the course, the writer was assigned to read
endless of books. Aside from that, by reading, a lot the writer found tons of difficult
words. In this case the writer also has his own strategies to learn vocabulary.
Guessing from context and looking in dictionary are the most used strategies that the
writer chose. Guessing from the context uses context to understand a difficult word
whereas dictionary is when the writer use dictionary to understand difficult words.
The writer himself found it very useful to use this because one word may have several
meanings, depending on the context. For example a simple word like “buy” can have
different meaning in different context. “I need to buy a new book to finish my thesis”.
In this sentence the word “buy” means to purchase something. Another sentence with
a different meaning of buy is, “I need you to buy me some time, so that the terrorists
won’t notice me entering the building”. The word buy here means that, the speaker
asks the other person to distract the terrorists so that the speaker could enter the
building safely”.
However the writer also found a little obstacle in using the strategies. In this
strategy the learner’s background knowledge affects learner’s understanding. The
writer had an experience when he did his teaching practicum. The writer was asked
his students in one of his teaching practice class. Here, the writer found that most of
the students would commonly answered the meaning of an English word with a word
in Bahasa Indonesia which has similar pronounce as the English word itself. For
instance, the students mostly answered “praktis” for the equivalent word of “practice”
in English, which means practical in English. From the writer’s experience, it was
clearly shown that the learner’s background plays important role in understanding a
new words. Thanks to that the writer was able to greatly improve his vocabulary
bank.
Extensive Reading has long been believed as one of strategies for improving
vocabulary skills because of its aim to make the students read a lot of stories.
Previous study done by Lai (1993, as cited in Hui, et al, n.d), tested two groups of
four schools, the experimental groups that practiced in extensive reading and the
control groups that did not practice in extensive reading, for vocabulary recognition.
The findings revealed that there were three experimental groups that performed better
scores in vocabulary recognition compared to the control groups. Day, Omura, and
Hiramatsu (1991) also studied that students learn vocabulary incidentally while
reading. The subjects of the study were two groups of EFL learners. There were 397
university students that were divided to a control or a ‘treatment’ group and 191 high
school students who were randomly assigned individually. The ‘treatment’ group was
asked to read a short story. Both of the groups were not allowed to use dictionaries
and given a vocabulary test in order to test their lexical development. The results
showed that the ‘treatment’ group got higher score on the vocabulry test than the
control group. The research showed that extensive reading helps students to learn
vocabulary. These studies had clearly shown that extensive reading boost students’
vocabulary bank.
The reason why this study was conducted is because the writer was interested
on what are the students’ strategies to cope with new words that are met in reading
books assigned in Extensive Reading class. Therefore, this research was aimed to find
out the vocabulary learning strategies used by the FLL students in Extensive Reading
class. Exploring their strategies in their vocabulary development needed to
understand the ways they used to gain more vocabulary in English. This research will
hopefully be useful for FLL students to be more aware to choose the most efficient
vocabulary learning strategies, so that they can perform better in the future. So, this
study aimed to answer this research question:
1. What are the vocabulary learning strategies used by the student’s in learning
new words when they read graded readers in Extensive Reading class?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Vocabulary
According to Nguyen and Khuat (2003), vocabulary is one of the major skills
in learning English that connects the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and
writing all together. In this research the writer purposely take vocabulary because of
the importance of its role that connects the four major skills in English. As stated by
Stahl and Nagy (2006) in National Center for Reading First Technical Assistance
(2008), “Vocabulary encompasses all of the words we know and use when listening
and speaking, as well as all of the words we know and use in print when reading and
writing”.
Reading
Hill and Holden (1990, p.91) stated that “reading as the most useful skill for
students to develop the feeling of satisfaction in understanding a text in many ways”.
Generally in order to understand a book, one needs to understand the content, and
without understanding the vocabulary it is impossible to grasp the content. By
reading, the learners are forced to read and digest the meaning of the book. Walker
(1992, p.37) also supports Hill and Holden’s (1990) idea by defining that reading as
an active, the process of problem solving in which predicting or guessing what the
author says were included in it, based on expectations about story events. Walker
(1988) clearly stated that reading involves guessing, which is one of the vocabulary
learning strategies. So, they support the idea that reading is a learning process that
could enrich the students’ understanding which involves strategies to help them
understand the content of the reading.
Extensive Reading
According to some experts (Chou, 2011; Stahl & Stahl, 2004; Vacca et al,
2003) in Hsiang and Mark (n.d) “the relationship between vocabulary and reading is
believed to be reciprocal”. It means that there is a mutual relationship between
reading and vocabulary in which reader can gain more new words throgh the activity
of reading. Furthermore, Hill and Holden’s, (1990, p.92) research shows that students
who do more pleasure reading are better readers, better writers and have a greater
vocabulary and grammatical competence. It can be concluded from those two
researches that learner will perform better if they like what they read. It makes the
idea that extensive reading is best method in learning because learner may choose
their own story in extensive reading. However (Hui et al, n.d) stated that, “extensive
reading can not only improve students’ motivation in learning a second language, but
it can also encourage students to acquire new vocabulary through reading and thus
build their vocabulary recognition naturally.” He also hypothesized that “Extensive
reading can enhance student vocabulary acquisition”. His research shown that
extensive reading could build learner’s vocabulary because have more reading input
could improve their vocabulary recognition.
Vocabulary Learning Strategies
There are many strategies for learning vocabulary. Williams and Burden
(1997) define language learning strategies as techniques used by learners to help
make their language learning be more effective and increase their independence and
autonomy as learners.
Gu and Johnson (1996) list second language vocabulary learning
strategies (VLS) as metacognitive, memory and activation strategies. According to
Gu and Johnson (1996):
Metacognitive strategies consist of selective and self-initiation; cognitive
strategies entail guessing, strategies, skillful use of dictionary and notetaking strategies; memory strategies are classified into rehearsal and
encoding categories. Rehearsal includes word lists and repetition, while,
encoding
categories
includes association, imagery,
visual,
auditory,
semantic and contextual encoding as well as word structure; activation
strategies include those strategies include those strategies through which
the learners actually use new words in different context
Table 1. Gu and Johnson‟s (1996) VLS classification
Strategies
Metacognitive
Cognitive
Memory
Selective attentive:
Guessing:
Rehearsal:
Identifying essential Activation
Word
list
words
background
repetition, etc
for comprehension
knowledge, using
- Encoding:
- Self-initiation:
linguistic items
association
using a variety of - Use of dictionary (imagery
means to
Note-taking
visual,
auditory,
make the meaning
etc)
of
words clear
Activation
- Using new
words in different
contexts
Another vocabulary learning strategies is proposed by Schmitt (2000). He
groups ‟vocabulary learning strategies into five categories, there are determined
strategies,
social
strategies,
memory
strategies,
cognitive
strategies,
and
metacognitive strategies. Below is the definition of each strategy.
Determination strategies are individual learning strategies. It assists learners
to dig up the meaning of words by themselves without help from peers, like
guessing the words from the context (Schmitt, 2000).
Social strategies allow learners to get involve in interaction with their peers,
and it assists them to learn from each other, like observing their classmates
and asking their teacher for a word meaning (Schmitt, 2000).
Memory strategies are strategies in which learners were engaged in learning
the
new
word through mental processing. It was done by associating
learners’ existing or background knowledge with the new word (Schmitt,
2000).
Cognitive strategies are more mechanical. It does not engage learners in
mental processing. Repeating the pronunciation of new words is one of the
examples (Schmitt, 2000).
Metacognitive strategies are strategies relating to processes involving one’s
progress in monitoring, decision-making, and evaluation. This kind of
strategies help the learner in determining appropriate VLS for learning new
words (Schmitt, 2000).
Table 2. Schmitt’s VLS (Schmitt, 1997, pp. 207-208)
1. Strategies for the discovery of a new word’s meaning
Strategy group
Determination
Strategy
- Analyzing part of speech
- Analyzing affixes and roots
- Analyzing and available pictures or
gestures
- Guess meaning from textual context
Use a dictionary (bilingual or
monolingual)
Social
- Ask teacher for a synonym, paraphrase,
or L1 translation of new word
- Ask class mates for meaning
2. Strategies for consolidating a word once it has been encountered
Strategy Group
Strategy
Social
- Study and practice meaning in a group
Memory
Cognitive
Metacognitive
- Interact with native speakers
- Connect word to a previous personal
experience
- Associate the word with its coordinate
- Use semantic maps
- Image word forms
- Group words together to study them
- Study the spelling of a word
- Say new aloud when studying
- Use physical action when learning a
word
- Verbal repetition
- Written repetition
- Word lists
- Put English labels on physical objects
- Keep a vocabulary notebook
- Use English language media (songs,
movies, news, casts, etc)
- Use spaced word practice (expanding
rehearsal)
- Test oneself with word tests
- Skip or pass new word
- Continue to study word over time
For this study, the writer used the Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies
in because the writer consideres Schmitt’s strategies very specific to be used as bases
for conducting the research.
THE STUDY
Context of the Study
The study was conducted in Satya Wacana Christian University (SWCU). It is
located at Jl. Diponegoro 52-60, Salatiga, Central Java. The writer decided to choose
the students from Faculty of Language and Literature (FLL). The reason why the
writer selected this faculty was because Extensive Reading (ER) was one of required
courses that the students need to complete. In this faculty, Extensive Reading was
offered at the beginning of the semester. ER was a 3 credit hours course which
enables students to read extensively, mostly outside the class. The reading texts in
form of graded readers were all authentic (unabridged), and the students were
expected to read them before class. Class activities include discussions on content and
language as well as student interpretations.
Participants
The participants of this study were 100 FLL students. The writer has selected
students who already passed the ER class in order to collect the data. The writer
selected students who had passed the course.
Instruments of Data Collection
This research was a quantitative research, done by distributing questionnaires
to 100 FLL students. This study used VLS proposed by Schmitt (1997). It consists of
close-ended questions of VLS used by students in learning new words in their ER
class. The questionnaire was written in English because it is the writer thought that
FLL students were proficient enough to understand the questions.
Data Collection Procedure
Before distributing the questionnaire, the writer asked some questions orally
to the students of FLL, whether they had taken ER class or not. If they have taken the
course the writer would ask them to fill the questionnaires. The writer had predicted
that the questionnaire could be finished in 5 minutes for each student. As explained
before the questionnaires were distributed to 100 students. The last step was
collecting the paper that had been distributed to the students outside their class.
Data Analysis Procedure
After the data was collected using the questionnaire, the writer analyzed the
data using Microsoft Excel in order to get the clear data of the strategies used by the
students. The data was analyzed so that the data met the research objectives.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This section presents research findings and the discussion of the findings in
attempts answer the research question: What are the vocabulary learning strategies
used by the student’s in learning new words when they read graded readers when they
took Extensive Reading? The findings on 100 ELTD students of Satya Wacana
Christian University on vocabulary learning strategies they used are divided into five
categories as proposed by Schmitt (2000). The categories are determination
strategies,
social
strategies,
memory
strategies,
cognitive
strategies,
and
metacognitive strategies. The following is an overall graph that averaged the number
of the used of each strategy:
Graph 1. Average Number of the Used of Strategies
Metacognitive Strategies
Cognitive Strategies
Always
Often
Memory Strategies
Seldom
Social Strategies
Never
Determination Strategies
0
10
20
30
40
50
A. Determination Strategies
As stated by Schmitt (2000) that determination strategies assist learners to
discover the meaning of words without assistance from peers.In the first category of
questionnaire (questions number 1-6), participants were asked about their frequency
of using the determination strategies during their reading. The result is presented in
the following chart.
Graph 2. The Use of Determination Strategies
56
55
55
51
47
44
40
28
27
23
37
33
38
28
Seldom
22
3
Q1
Q2
4
1
Q3
Q4
Q5 A
1
Q5 B
Often
17
10
4
3
18
17
16 15
14
12
Never
11
5
Q5 C
9
Always
Q6
It can be seen from the chart for question number 1 until 4, the highest
number was ‘Often’. For question number one, which is “analyze part of speech, (e.g.
noun, verb, adjective)”, 56 out of the total 100 participants of ELTD students often do
analyze the parts of speech during their reading. For question number two, which is
“analyze affixes and roots to guess the meaning of words, (e.g. replay – re means do
it again)” 55 out of 100 participants obviously often do analyze the affixes and roots
to help them guessing the meaning of new words. For the next questions, from 100
participants, 47 of them often do the question number 3 that is “use the pictures or
gestures to understand the meaning of words”. While, for the questions number 4, the
chart had showed that 51 out of the total participants in this study often guess the
meaning of words from textual context.
The writer divided the question number 5 “Look up word in dictionary” into
three parts: look up in English-English dictionary (Q5A); English-Indonesian
dictionary (Q5 B); and Indonesian-English dictionary (Q5 C). For Q5 A, the highest
number was ‘Seldom’ in which 40 out of 100 participants chose. Meanwhile, 55
participants’ answer for Q5 B and 44 participants’ answer for Q5 C was ‘Often’. For
the last question in the first category (question number 6), that is “List vocabulary
and review it”, it was shown in thechart that the highest number with 38 out of the
total 100 participants’ answer was ‘Often’.
The finding of the first category indicates that mostly students were trying to
help themselves in understanding new words during their reading on their own
without helps from others. Since, it was shown in the chart that mostly of the
questions has the highest number for ‘Often’. The used of this strategy can be done
by guessing the words through textual context, looking up the words in the
dictionary, or analiyze the part of speech, pictures, and gestures to help them guessing
the words. In my analysis, this strategy needs a high proficiency level of the learners
itself since this strategy includes the activity of guessing an unknown words which
refers to presuming a word’s meaning from the peripheral words in a written text. In
other words, it can be used by those who are advance English learners, like ELTD
students as the subject of this study. It was supported by the study of Schmitt (2000)
who stated that the learners should also have enough background knowledge of the
subject and the strategic knowledge of how to sucessfully work with the process of
inferrencing, since it also includes the ability to accurately decode the orthographical
form of new words.
B. Social Strategies
The second category of this study is social strategies. A social strategy as
defined by Schmitt (2000) is the strategies of understanding new words where
learners are interacting with peers. The following chart is the evidence of the
questionnaire about the learners’ frequency in the use of social strategies as written in
the questions number 7 to 13.
Graph 3. The Use of Social Strategies
53
52
42
32
40
38
25
14
10 10 11
5
Q7
Q8
50
43
36
33
Q10
Often
16
13
8
7
Q11
Never
Seldom
25
24
3 4
Q9
43
4
Q12
7
11
Always
Q13
The chart showed that the highest number in question number seven was
‘Seldom’, in which 42 out of 100 participants rarely asked their teachers to translate
the words they did not understand. Next, the highest number in question number 8
was ‘Often’. It showed that 40 out of the total participants frequently asked their
teachers about synonyms of new words. For questions number 9 that is “Ask the
teacher to make a sentence using the new words”, 52 participants chose to answer
‘Seldom’. For the question number 10 and 11, the answer ‘Often’ presented the
highest number that 53 participants were often asking their classmate for meaning
(Q10) and 43 participants were often discovering the meaning through group work
activity (Q11). On the other hand, the answer ‘Seldom’ in the chart presented the
highest number for question number 12 “Ask the teacher for learners’ word lists for
accuracy” and question number 13 “Interact with native speaker”. In here, there were
50 participants chose ‘Seldom’ for question number 12 and 43 participants for
question number 13.
To summarize, the answer ‘Seldom’ presented the highest number for 4 out of
the total 7 questions in the second category. It indicated that instead of interact with
native speaker or asking the teacher for accuracy checking, sentences making, or
words translating, learners were more likely ask their classmate and discuss with
them about new words. Learners were only asking their teacher for synonyms of new
words, since it might difficult for them to find the appropriate words which has
similar meaning that suit the context.
In my analysis, discussing with classmates through the used of social strategy
with less intervention of the teacher enabled the students to learn and practice
vocabulary cooperatively through the interaction with their classmates. As stated by
Dansereau in his study (1988, in Schmitt, 2000), learning cooperatively promotes
active processing of information and cross modelling/imitation, while, the social
context enhances the learners’ motivation and give them more time to actually use
and manipulate the language.
C. Memory Strategies
The third strategy is memory strategies in which learners were engaged in
learning the new word through mental processing that was done by associating their
existing or background knowledge with the new word (Schmitt, 2000). There were
13 questions in the questionnaire of this category that written from question number
14 to 26. The following chart is the proof from the questionnaire.
Graph 4. The Use of Memory Strategies
59
56
55
48
50
49
39
38
34
24
13
46
43
42
19
15
10
1
Always
7
2
Seldom
Often
12
6
0
29
20
17
15
13
3
Never
33
26
23
12 12
38
36
32
30
27
6
5
38 38
45
11 10
11
9 8
4
5
1
Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 Q19 Q20 Q21 Q22 Q23 Q24 Q25 Q26
As it showed in the chart that the answer of ‘Seldom’ and ‘Often’ performed
the highest number on the most of questions. Question number 14 showed the highest
number in which there are 42 out of 100 participants chose seldom to study the word
with picture. While, question number 15 showed the highest number with 59 of
participants’ answers is often connect the words with their own experiences.
Next, the question number 16 and 17 got ‘Seldom’ as the highest number on
it. There were 48 participants chose seldom for ‘make a list of vocabulary in
alphabetical for reviewing (Q16)’ and 49 participants for ‘make a list of vocabulary
arranged by topic or group for reviewing (Q17)’. In my analysis, making a list of
vocabulary might too time consuming, thus, the students are rarely doing it.
Instead of making a vocabulary lists, it might be more effective to memorize
and enrich the vocabulary bank by using the words for communication. It is proved in
the question number 18 and 19 with the highest number is ‘Often’. It can be seen in
the chart that 55 out of 100 participants chose often for ‘Try to use the new words at
once after learning (Q18)’ and 50 participants for “Associate the word with other
words you have learned (Q19)”. It indicated that students are more likely find an ease
to memorize the new words by using it rather than to list them.
On the other hand, the answer of ‘Often’ performed as the highest number
again for questions number 20 (Review the word you have learned by spelling it
aloud) and question number 21 (Remember a word from its strange form,
pronunciation, and difficult spelling). The chart showed that there are 39 students
chose often for Q20 and 56 participants for Q21. Meanwhile, the chart showed equal
number for the answer of‘Seldom’ and ’Often’in question number 22 (Saying the
word aloud when studying in order to easily remember). Each answer had 38 out of
100 participants on it. For the question 23, ‘Remember the word by underlining the
first letter’, there were 43 out of 100 participants chose‘Seldom’.
Next, for the question 24 that is ‘Learn the words by paraphrasing the words
meaning’, there were 46 participants who chose ‘Often’. Finally, the last two
questions number 25 (Learn the words of the idiom) and 26 (Use physical action
when learning a word) had ‘Seldom’ as the highest number. There were 45 out of 100
participants chose seldom for question number 25 and 38 out 100 participants answer
the same for question number 26.
To sum up, here, students were more likely memorize the new words by
connecting it to the previous knowledge they had learn before, then, trying to use it
once after learning. In my analysis, using new words by trying to use it for
communicating or making a sentence by associate the new words with words they
had learnt before help them to learn faster and recall better. The reason was simply
because the activity of associating the new words with the existing words students
have for making a sentence will give them an ease to memorize the new vocabulary
rather than only memorize the list of the new words only. It was supported by the
explanation of Thompson (1983 in Schmitt, 2000) who said that the integration of
new material with existing cognitive units in mnemonics utilization provides retrieval
cues that enable learners learn faster and recall better.
D. Cognitive Strategies
The third strategy is called Cognitive Strategies in which learners are engaged
in mental processing but is more mechanical (Schmitt, 2000). There were 6 questions
of this category that is written in question number 27 until number 32. It can be seen
in the chart below.
Graph 5. The use of Cognitive Strategies
62
59
53
47
43
Never
37
23
21
2
Q27
8
6
2
Q28
24
23
Q29
10
Q30
Always
7
Q31
Often
18
16
12
6
Seldom
28
27 25
6
Q32
For questions number 27 until 30, ‘Often’ showed the highest number in the
chart. In here, there were 62 out of 100 participants chose ‘Often’ for question
number 27 (Learn the words through verbal repetition); 59 out of 100 participants for
the question 28 (Learn the words through written repetition); 37 out of 100
participants for the question number 29 (Take notes in class); and 30 out of 100
participants for the questions number 30 (Use the vocabulary section in textbook).
In my analysis, questions number 27 until 30 did help the learners in their
vocabulary improvements. Repeating the new words both through verbal and written
is the effective way to memories the words. So does with the taking notes activity in
class and using vocabulary section in learners’ textbook. The writer was also
experience it when learning new words. This is what the most students would do in
order to easily memorize the new words, so that most of the participants also often
use these strategies. It is similar with the study of O’Malley (1985 in Schmitt, 2000)
who found that repetition was the most commonly mentioned strategy rather than
strategy requiring more active manipulation of information. Thus, it seems that more
mechanical strategies, like cognitive strategy, are often favored over more complex
ones.
Nonetheless, the answer of ‘Seldom’ showed the highest number for the last
two questions in this category. There were 43 out of the total 100 participants who
answer ‘seldom’ for question number 31 that is ‘Listen to a tape of words lists’.
Meanwhile, there were 47 out of 100 participants chose to answer ‘seldom’ for
question number 32 that is ‘Keep a vocabulary note wherever you go’.
E. Metacognitive Strategies
The last category of vocabulary learning strategies stated by Schmitt (2000) is
Metacognitive Strategies. This strategy relate to processes involving monitoring,
decision-making, and evaluation of one’s progress.The following chart is the proof
from the questionnaire.
Graph 6. The Use of Metacognitive Strategies
64
56
53
51
48
41
35
36
31
22
15
1
5
Q33
42
26
10
0
Q35
Q36
22
17 16
15
1
Never
Seldom
20
7
Q34
40
39
4
6 5
Q37
10 9
Q38
Q39
Often
Always
5
Q40
For the question number 33 that is ‘Use English Media (e.g. song, movie,
newspaper, etc)’, 53 out of the total 100 participants’ answer were ‘Always’ as the
highest number in the chart for this question. In my analysis, more than a half of the
total participants are agreed to use it since English media is such a good media in
which learners not only learn new words but also know how to use it in an
appropriate context.
On the other hand, the answer of ‘Often’ performed as the highest number for
the questions number 34 until 36 in the chart. There were 41 participants in it for the
questions number 34 (Test yourself with words tests); 56 participants for the
questions 35 (Translate the meaning of the word from Indonesian into English); and
64 participants for the question number 36 (Translate the meaning of the word from
English into Indonesian).
For questions number 37 until 39, the highest number was ‘Seldom’. There
were 48 participants who chose ‘Seldom’ for question number 37 (Continue to study
the word overtime); 40 participants for the question number 38 (Practice by doing
vocabulary exercises); and 42 participants for the question number 39 (Play
vocabulary games). Finally, for the last question that is number 40 (Try to speak and
describe things in English), there were 51 participants agreed to choose ‘Often’.
The used of metacognitive strategy in vocabulary learning deals with the
activity of controlling and evaluating students’ own learning, by having an overview
of the learning process in general. In my analysis, metacognitive strategy concerns
with more efficient learning. As stated by Schmitt (2000) in his study that it is
important to maximize exposure to efficiently acquire an L2 by using resources that is
used as a controlling principle of language learning. It means that, it is essential to
elaborate and monitoring the learners knowledge of vocabulary in order to acquire
the target language efficiently that can be done through metacognitive strategy.
CONCLUSION
This study was aimed to find out what are the vocabulary learning strategies
used by the FLL students in Extensive Reading class. To do that, 100 questionnaires
had been delivered to the students. Then, the writer had divided the findings into five
categories based on the theory of Schmitt (2000).
As the writer can concluded from the first category, Determination Strategies,
the chart presents that most VLS that the participants often used. For the second
category, Social Strategy, it was shown that most of the participants rarely used this
kind of strategy. Next for the third category, Memory Strategies, the result showed
that half of the total participants often used this strategy, but the rest stated that they
rarely used it for their vocabulary learning. For the fourth and fifth category,
Cognitive Strategies and Metacognitive Strategies, the result showed that most of the
participants in this study often used these two strategies. It can be concluded that the
theory of Schmitt (2000) about the types of vocabulary learning strategies are often
used by the FLL students in learning new words. The way in learning can be done in
various ways according to each category. For instance, by looking up the new words
in dictionaries as included in the Determination Strategies or asking their peers as
included in the Social Strategies.
Nonetheless, the result of this study cannot be generalized into all contexts. It
is because of the time limit, this research was conducted only on a small size of
population that is in one institution only. Therefore, to generalize the results for larger
groups, the study should have involved more participants in more than one institution.
In addition to widening the scope of study and the perspectives in future
research, it could be seen as very interesting to study about vocabulary learning
strategies on students’ reading. It is strongly suggested for the other researcher to dig
deeper about it. Overall, the writer hopes that the findings on this study can be useful
and enrich our knowledge on the strategies of vocabulary learning for reading.
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