The use contextual guessing strategy to enhance students` autonomy in learning vocabulary - USD Repository

  THE USE OF CONTEXTUAL GUESSING STRATEGY TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ AUTONOMY IN LEARNING VOCABULARY

  A THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education

  By Kristina Widaninggar

  Student Number: 041214041 ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

  

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every

purpose under the heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is

planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones

together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to get, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

a time to rend, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time of war, and a time of peace………

  

HE has made everything beautiful in its time.

  

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-11)

Dedicated to my beloved Father and Mother..... .

  (In Memoriam: 10 July 2004 & 11 April 2005)

  ......& to my future

  

ABSTRACT

  Widaninggar, Kristina. 2008. The Use of Contextual Guessing Strategy to

  

Enhance Students’ Autonomy in Learning Vocabulary. Yogyakarta: Sanata

  Dharma University Vocabulary mastery is undoubtedly an important part in the process of learning languages, including English. In the common practices, the lack of vocabulary mastery which commonly occurs among students is caused by the limited time of exposure to vocabulary learning in class due to the demands to the materials that should be mastered. Therefore, teachers’ tasks to motivate and facilitate their students to develop autonomous learning, especially in increasing the students’ vocabulary mastery, are absolutely needed.

  This research investigated the implementation of contextual guessing strategy to enhance students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary. An action research was carried out in XI-Social 1 class of Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta, along with two research problems. They were (1) how contextual guessing strategy is implemented to enhance students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary and (2) how contextual guessing strategy enhances students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary.

  A classroom action research method and two data gathering instruments, which included observation and interview, were employed. There were two findings obtained from the research. First, contextual guessing strategy was implemented through several teaching and learning activities in two cycles of classroom action research, in which the phases in each classroom action research cycle were planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. Second, contextual guessing strategy enhanced students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary by promoting the use of metacognitive strategies, which included a planning of task accomplishment, problem-solving, monitoring, and evaluating.

  The researcher concludes that contextual guessing strategy is implemented through the activities of group presentation, individualized learning, and student- student interaction in the two cycles of classroom action research. It is also concluded that the students’ conscious use of metacognitive strategies could lead them to autonomy in learning English vocabulary. Meanwhile, the type of learning autonomy employed by the students in this research is categorized as reactive autonomy. It is a type of autonomy where the directions are set up by the teacher (Littlewood, 1999 cited in Benson, 2001).

  Key words: vocabulary, contextual guessing strategy, learning autonomy

  

ABSTRAK

  Widaninggar, Kristina. 2008. The Use of Contextual Guessing Strategy to

  

Enhance Students’ Autonomy in Learning Vocabulary. Yogyakarta: Universitas

Sanata Dharma.

  Penguasaan kosakata adalah bagian penting dalam proses pembelajaran bahasa asing, termasuk Bahasa Inggris. Dalam praktek sehari-hari, kurangnya penguasaan kosakata yang biasa terjadi pada siswa-siswa disebabkan oleh keterbatasan waktu untuk pemeblajaran kosakata di dalam kelas karena tuntutan materi yang harus dikuasai. Dalam hal ini, diperlukan peran para guru untuk memotivasi dan memfasilitasi siswa-siswanya agar mengembangkan kemandirian dalam belajar (autonomous learning) terutama untuk peningkatan penguasaan kosakata.

  Penelitian ini mengkaji tentang penerapan strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan untuk meningkatkan kemandirian siswa dalam belajar kosakata Bahasa Inggris. Penelitian tindakan telah dilaksanakan di kelas XI IPS 1 di SMA Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Bantul Yogyakarta dengan dua permasalahan utama yaitu: (1) bagaimana strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan konteks diterapkan untuk meningkatkan kemandirian siswa dalam belajar kosakata dan (2) bagaimana strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan konteks meningkatkan kemandirian siswa dalam belajar kosakata.

  Dalam penelitian ini, metode penelitian tindakan kelas dan dua alat pengumpulan data, yaitu observasi dan wawancara, telah digunakan. Ada dua hasil yang diperoleh dalam penelitian ini. Satu, strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan konteks yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini diterapkan melalui kegiatan-kegiatan belajar dan mengajar dalam 2 tahap penelitian tindakan kelas yang setiap tahapnya meliputi perencanaan, pelaksanaan, pengamatan, dan refleksi. Dua, strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan konteks meningkatkan kemandirian siswa dengan cara meningkatkan penerapan strategi metakognitif oleh siswa. Penerapan strategi metakognitif ini mencakup perencanaan pengerjaan tugas, pencarian dan penyelesaian masalah, pemantauan, dan penilaian.

  Peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa strategi menebak arti kata berdasarkan konteks diterapkan melalui kegiatan group presentation, individualized learning, dan student-student interaction. Disimpulkan pula bahwa penerapan strategi metakognitif oleh siswa secara sadar dapat membawa mereka menuju kemandirian dalam belajar kosakata Bahasa Inggris. Sementara itu, kemandirian belajar yang dimaksud disini adalah reactive autonomy. Ini adalah jenis kemandirian belajar dimana arahnya telah ditentukan oleh guru (Littlewood, 1999 cited in Benson, 2001).

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First and foremost, I would like to bestow my deepest gratitude to Jesus

  

Christ and Mother Mary for the blessing and spirit that finally I could finish my

  thesis entitled “The Use of Contextual Guessing Strategy to Enhance Students’ Autonomy in Learning Vocabulary”.

  I would thank my thesis sponsor, Gregorius Punto Aji, S.Pd., M.Hum., for his great guidance, motivation, and precious suggestions during the process of writing this thesis. My thankfulness also goes to all PBI lecturers and

  

secretariat staffs. Their guidance during my years in PBI has built me to be a

better and more mature person.

  In this occasion, let me give my appreciation to Drs. Markoes

Padmonegoro, the headmaster of SMA Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Bantul, and Y.

  

Bambang Suharyo, S.Pd., the English teacher of SMA Pangudi Luhur Sedayu

  Bantul, who have helped me so that I could conduct a research there. Let me also give my appreciation to the students of XI Social-1 class for their help and cooperation during my research.

  However, my achievement will be worthless without being grateful to the guidance, support, love, care, kindheartedness and warmth that I have ever got from my beloved parents, (Alm.) Ignatius Dalino and (Alm.) Ristituta Suminah. Hence, it brings me to give my deepest thank to my only brother, Didik Darmadi. My deep gratitude also goes to Mbak Dwi, all relatives: Pakdhe & Budhe

  

Sumija, Mbak Helen, Dewi, Pakdhe & Budhe Wakidi, Mbak Woro, Mbak

  

Eliz, Mas Win & Mbak Murti, and the others for helping and supporting me in

  passing my hardest times. My special thank also goes to Gagat for caring, loving, and supporting me much to finish this thesis soon.

  I owe a debt to all great friends: Shinta, Anas, Dias, Joni, Dito, Titis, Aan,

  

Riri, Eli, Rini, Risa, Indri, Retry, Indah, Yoyo, Astika, Dita, members of

Mudika Bhakti Dharma Kaliduren, members of EEPro for the support,

kindness, care, warmth, and valuable experiences we have ever shared together.

  Lastly, I would like to thank to the headmaster, all teachers, staffs, and

  

students of SD N Langensari Yogyakarta for the four-year time which is full of

  momentous and worthy teaching experiences and everybody who has helped me finishing my thesis whose name can not be mentioned one by one.

  I realize that there are many mistakes in this thesis, but hopefully everybody reading my thesis can still take advantages from it.

  Kristina Widaninggar

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Page

  TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………...…… i

APPROVAL PAGES…………………………………………………..… ii

PAGE OF DEDICATION…………………………………….………..... iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY…………………………. v

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………. vi

ABSTRAK…………………………………………………………………. vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………… viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………… x

LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………. xiii

LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………….. xiv

LIST OF APPENDICES………………………………………………… xv

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background……………………………………………………………..

  1 B. Problem Formulation……………………………………………………

  6 C. Problem Limitation……………………………………………………...

  6 D. Research Objectives…………………………………………………….

  7 E. Research Benefits………………………………………………………..

  7 F. Definition of Terms………………………………………………………

  8

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Description………………………………………………….

  10 1. Vocabulary Teaching and Learning…………………………………..

  10 a. Reasons for Vocabulary Teaching and Learning………………….

  11 b. Contextual Guessing Strategy……………………………………..

  13

  c. Teaching Materials………………………………………………… 19

  d. Teaching and Learning Activities…………………………………

  22

  2. Learning Autonomy………………………………………………….. 26

  a. Background of Learning Autonomy………………………………

  26 b. Concept of Learning Autonomy…………………………………..

  28 3. Classroom Action Research (CAR)…………………………………..

  32

  a. History of Classroom Action Research……………………………

  32

  b. Definitions, Characteristics, and Functions of Classroom Action Research………………………………………………………….. 33 c. Theory of Classroom Action Research…………………………...

  35 B. Theoretical Framework………………………………………………

  37 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Research Method………………………………………………………..

  40 B. Research Participants……………………………………………………

  41 C. Research Instruments and Data Gathering Techniques…………………

  43 D. Data Analysis Techniques………………………………………………

  45

  CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Implementation of Contextual Guessing Strategy………………………

  50

  1. Classroom Action Research Cycle 1…………………………………... 52

  2. Classroom Action Research Cycle 2…………………………………... 68

  B. Enhancing Students’ Autonomy in Learning Vocabulary…………….…

  77

  1. Planning……………………………………………………………….. 78

  2. Problem Solving………………………………………………………. 81

  3. Monitoring…………………………………………………………….. 84

  4. Evaluating……………………………………………………………... 85

  CHAPTER V: RESEARCH LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Research Limitations.…………………………………………………….. 88 B. Conclusions………………………………………………………………. 89 C. Suggestions………………………………………………………………. 91

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………. 93

APPENDICES…………………………………………………………….. 95

  

LIST OF FIGURES

  Page 2.1 Bruton and Samuda’s Guessing Procedure…………………………….

  15 2.2 Psychology of Autonomous Learning………………………………….

  30 2.3. Classroom Action Research Cycle……………………………………..

  36 3.1 Classroom Action Research Phases…………………………………….

  41 3.2 Data Triangulation of the First Research Question…………………….

  47

  

LIST OF TABLES

  Page 2.1 Components of Learning Words from Context Theory………………..

  18 3.1 Coding of the Interviewees’ Name…………………………………….

  43 3.2 Items of Observation…………………..……………………………….

  44 3.3 Items of Interview………………………………………………..…….

  45

  4.1 Teaching Practice Timetable…………………………………………... 51

  4.2 Teaching and Learning Activities of Classroom Action Research Cycle 1……………………………………………………………….. 53

  4.3 Teaching and Learning Activities of Classroom Action Research Cycle 2………………………………………………………………. 68

LIST OF APPENDICES

  Page Appendix 1: Research Permission Letter…………………………………… 95 Appendix 2: Standard Competence and Basic Competence of English

  Lesson for Senior High School Grade XI Semester I………… 97 Appendix 3: Vocabulary Learning Materials……………………………….. 99 Appendix 4: Lesson Plan of Classroom Action Research Cycle 1………… 118 Appendix 5: Lesson Plan of Classroom Action Research Cycle 2………… 121 Appendix 6: Observation Sheets…………………………………………… 124 Appendix 7: Guiding Questions for the Interview Session………..……….. 127 Appendix 8: Raw Data of the Results of the Observation…………………. 128 Appendix 9: Transcript of the Interview……………………….……..……. 131 Appendix 10: Raw Data of the Results of the Interview…………………… 141

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter elaborates six general descriptions namely research

  background, problem formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms.

A. Background

  Vocabulary plays an important role in learning English as a foreign language. As it is quoted from Richards, vocabulary is “the basic material in conducting the sentence” (Richards, 1976: 86). It means that before students are able to create or understand sentences of English, they have to master the vocabulary first. Mastering the vocabulary of English includes understanding the meaning and knowing the use of the vocabulary. Dale and O’Rourke (1971: 9) call this “an explosive effect” which happens in learning new vocabulary.

  Vocabulary also plays a role as the link of the four skills in a language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It is called an element of language. As it is quoted from Nation (1990: 1) that “words are the basic building blocks of language, the units of meaning from which larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs and a whole text are formed”, therefore, in order to be able to master the productive and receptive ability of language, students have to master the

  The lack of vocabulary mastery results on the students’ inability to produce and receive information in the target language. From the researcher’s experience when conducting the teaching practice in Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta, she found that numerous students have very limited vocabulary mastery. It was also found that those who have limited vocabulary mastery face difficulties in performing both productive and receptive ability of language. It was shown by their inability to e.g. write sentences or paragraphs of English, give opinion about a particular topic, find the main idea or particular information in a text, etc. However, it was recognized that it is impossible for the teacher to teach vocabulary to his students in class to increase their vocabulary mastery. The demands to the materials that should be mastered, which were set by the curriculum, are considered to be the reason of the teacher’s inability to give much exposure to vocabulary learning in class. Therefore, it is thought that students need to increase their vocabulary mastery by themselves.

  A saying quoted from Scharle & Szabo (2000: 4) that “you can bring the horse to water, but you can not make him drink” implies that although teacher can provide the necessary input, learning can only be performed if the learners are willing to do so. Their willingness is important because learning is a lifelong process that one should perform it along his/her life. For that reason, teachers have to facilitate students to be willing to perform learning by being autonomous learners. Students who are autonomous are those who have the responsibility to manage and control their own learning based on a particular purpose they expect

  “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” (Holec, 1979: 3). In line with Holec, Benson (2001: 13) describes autonomy as “a situation where learners worked under their own direction outside the conventional-teaching classroom”.

  Students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary, then, is understood as students’ ability to manage their own vocabulary learning. Autonomy in learning vocabulary can be an advantageous solution in increasing students’ vocabulary mastery. Since every learner is the only one knows his own ability, hence, autonomy in learning enables a learner determines the goal he is expected to reach as well as the place, the time, and the sources of the learning. The sources for students learn vocabulary autonomously can be vary from short story, novel, newspaper, news report, songs, etc. in the target language. By possessing autonomy in learning students can manage their learning as well as monitor and evaluate it to reach the goal expected.

  Learning autonomy in vocabulary learning includes choosing and applying a particular vocabulary learning strategy to accomplish the task. Based on some informal observations that have ever been conducted, it was found that the strategy which Senior High School English teachers are mostly employed when dealing with vocabulary learning is mechanistic approach. It is included as one strategy in direct vocabulary learning where the focus of the students is on the vocabulary itself (Nation, 1990: 2). Learning vocabulary by employing mechanistic approach is the simplest and easiest because it is only a matter of remembering. It works effectively when it is applied in learning high-frequency

  However, there are several weaknesses arise from the use of mechanistic approach in learning vocabulary. First, mechanistic approach contradicts with the actual learning practice. In the actual learning practice, the main goal of learning English is to be able to use it. Wei (2007) finds that when they learn vocabulary by employing mechanistic approach, “learners still concentrate too much on isolated short-term retention of form and in spite of their increasing awareness that passive knowledge of them alone does not help much in achieving communicative competence”. He concludes that the lack of contextualized practice to activate what they have learned obstructs their progress towards the goal of learning English. Therefore, learning new vocabulary by employing mechanistic approach hinders students’ progress to master English because they do not learn how to use those words in sentences or longer structures.

  The weakness of mechanistic approach arises from the fact that the number of low-frequency words, technical words, and academic words are higher than the number of high-frequency words. Citing in Nation, there are about 2,000 high-frequency words, 800 academic words, about 1,000 to 2,000 technical words, but 123,000 low-frequency words (Nation, 1990: 19). From the data above, it can be drawn that it is infeasible for students to remember all those vocabulary, especially the low-frequency words. Students will find learning vocabulary by mechanistic approach more difficult because low-frequency words only cover about 2% of the words in any text and they will only meet those words once or twice.

  Because of those problems, it is felt that there is a need to employ other strategy. The vocabulary learning strategy proposed is contextual guessing.

  Context refers to the sentence or utterance in which the target word occurs (Read, 2000: 29). In this respect, the meaning of a word can be different when it is used in different context. It is in line with Dale and O’Rourke’s opinion that the meaning of a word generally depends on its relationship to other words in a phrase or sentence, that is its context (Dale & O’Rourke, 1971: 37).

  Nation (2002: 28) argues that contextual guessing strategy serves as a major mean in vocabulary learning. Since it serves as the major mean, it is expected that contextual guessing strategy can be an important and useful strategy to help students learning new vocabulary. Dale and O’Rourke (1971: 36) also disputes that learning vocabulary by employing contextual guessing is important because it can help students sharpen their understanding of word inflection. While according to Read, contextual guessing strategy is a useful strategy because “it involves deeper processing to contribute to better comprehension of the text as a whole and it may result in some learning of the lexical item that would not otherwise occur” (Read, 2000: 53). Therefore, contextual guessing strategy does not only help students in learning new vocabulary but also make students understand about word inflection and able to comprehend texts better.

  B. Problem Formulation

  The problems of this research have been formulated into these two questions:

  1. How is contextual guessing strategy implemented to enhance students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary?

  2. How does contextual guessing strategy enhance students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary?

  C. Problem Limitation

  This research is dealing with English language teaching and it is examining a strategy used in vocabulary teaching and learning. It is about the implementation of contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary to find out how the strategy discussed enhances students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary.

  The lack of vocabulary mastery hinders students’ ability to produce and receive information in the target language. The lack of vocabulary mastery which occurs among students of Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta supports the need to implement other learning strategy that can assist students to be autonomous and responsible learners. The weaknesses found upon the traditional strategy that teachers are mostly employed in vocabulary learning also support the need to implement other learning strategy. Contextual guessing strategy is proposed for it is considered as a better strategy than the traditional one.

  This research, then, will explore how contextual guessing strategy is implemented to enhance students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary and how contextual guessing strategy enhances students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary.

  D. Research Objectives

  This research is directed:

  1. To implement contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary to grade XI students of Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta. In this research, it is proposed other strategy which can be used in learning vocabulary that is contextual guessing strategy. This strategy will be implemented in one class in Pangudi Luhur Sedayu Senior High School Bantul, Yogyakarta.

  2. To find out how contextual guessing strategy enhances students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary. After implementing contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary, it will be examined how the new strategy implemented enhances students’ autonomy in learning vocabulary by interviewing several participants of the research.

  E. Research Benefits

  This research is expected to be beneficial to:

  1. English teachers in general It is expected that any English teachers reading this thesis can obtain vocabulary especially to which contextual guessing strategy is employed. They might also use this thesis as a reference in conducting other action researches in their own classroom.

  2. The students It is expected that by being introduced and trained to implement contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary, students will be willing to implement this strategy to learn vocabulary by being autonomous learners. Thus, it can help students increase their vocabulary mastery.

  3. Any people who are interested in the same field It is hoped that the result of this research can be a foundation for those who are interested in the same field to do further researches.

  4. The writer It is also expected that by conducting this research, the more developed skills, understanding, and knowledge on teaching and learning vocabulary which employs contextual guessing as the strategy can be obtained.

F. Definition of Terms

  There are some terms presented below and those are directed to help the readers come to the better understanding of the research.

  1. Contextual guessing strategy Contextual guessing strategy is a strategy in vocabulary teaching and learning. The focus of this strategy is on finding the meaning of unknown words by examining the context where the words occur (Bruton & Samuda, 1981; and Clarke & Nation, 1980 cited in Nation 1990: 161). Contextual guessing strategy in this research refers to the learning strategy employed to find out the meaning of unknown words by guessing from the context. Students who apply contextual guessing strategy in learning vocabulary will examine the surroundings where those words occur and then guess its meaning.

  2. Context Based on Dale & O’Rourke (1971: 37), context is the relationship of a word to other words in a phrase or sentence. In this research, context refers to the sentence or utterance in which the target word occurs. As the result, the meaning of the word will also be different when the target word is used in different context.

  3. Autonomy in learning vocabulary Quoting from Holec, autonomy in learning of languages is “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” (Holec, 1979: 3). In this study, learning autonomy is discussed in the field of vocabulary learning. Autonomy in vocabulary learning, then, is used to describe the students’ ability to manage their own vocabulary learning in which the main goal of it is to increase students’ vocabulary mastery.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter will discuss the theories that underlie the research. It consists

  of two parts namely theoretical description and theoretical framework. The theoretical description discusses the underlying theories that are related to the implementation of contextual guessing strategy in vocabulary learning. Theoretical framework discusses a framework based on the theoretical description that has been discussed previously.

A. Theoretical Description

  Theoretical description provides the theoretical review related to the issue of the research. There are three main issues raised in this research, namely vocabulary teaching and learning, learning autonomy, and classroom action research (CAR). The discussion of those three issues is based on the previous literatures and researches.

1. Vocabulary Teaching and Learning

  In this part, the researcher provides four theories that underlie the discussion of vocabulary teaching and learning. Those are reasons for vocabulary teaching and learning, contextual guessing strategy, teaching materials, and teaching and

a. Reasons for Vocabulary Teaching and Learning

  Before getting into the discussion on the reasons for vocabulary teaching and learning it is wise to be knowledgeable about what vocabulary is first.

  Vocabulary is understood as all words in a language (Read, 2000:16). However, people may have different interpretations on distinguishing what a word is from another (Nation, 1990:2 9). As it is elaborated by Carroll (Carroll et al., 1971 cited in Nation, 1990), words are differentiated based on their form. In addition, the presence of capital letter is considered as different word. Nonetheless, Carroll’s definition is slightly different from those defined by Read (2000). Read elaborates that in the case of, for example, wait, waits, waited, waiting, and society, societies,

  

society’s, societies’ , those words are normally be regarded as the same word but

  with different forms. Meanwhile, different from those two definitions, words in the dictionary are distinguished based on the meanings (Nation, 1990: 30).

  In the present research, it will not be debated whose definition is the most correct. Rather, the discussion given on it is simply directed to provide better conception of what a word is.

  Furthermore, as it is stated by Dale and O’Rourke (1971: 9), mastering vocabulary implies not only knowing and understanding the meaning of the vocabulary but also the use of it. Carter (1998: 239) proposes seven characteristics of knowing a word of second or foreign language.

  …, knowing a word in a second or foreign language might be said to have the following characteristics:

  1. It means knowing how to use it productively and having the ability to recall it for active use, although for some purpose only passive knowledge is necessary and some words for some users are only ever known passively.

  2. It means knowing the likelihood of encountering the word in either spoken or written contexts or in both.

  3. It means knowing the syntactic frames into which the word can be slotted and the underlying forms and derivations which can be made from it.

  4. It means knowing the relations it contracts with other words in the language and with related words in an L1 as well.

  5. It means perceiving the relative coreness of the word as well as its more marked pragmatic and discoursal functions and its style-levels.

  6. It means knowing the different meanings associated with it and, often in a connected way, the range of its collocational patterns.

  7. It means knowing words as part of or wholly as fixed expressions conveniently memorized to repeat – and adapt – as the occasion arises.

  (Carter, 1998: 239) As the result of the demands in mastering vocabulary, it is thought that teaching and learning vocabulary plays very important role in second or foreign language learning. Nation (1990) asserts that there are at least two reasons for why teaching and learning vocabulary is important. First, everybody is aware of the importance of vocabulary in language learning. Language learners feel that the biggest difficulty arises in both receptive and productive of language use is caused by the lack of vocabulary mastery. In other words, the lack of vocabulary mastery causes language learners are unable to both produce and understand the language.

  Second, “giving attention to vocabulary is unavoidable” (Nation, 1990: 2). It means that in all approaches of language teaching and learning, either the most formal or informal, the need to vocabulary will always arise. Thus, teaching and learning vocabulary becomes very important as well as the fact that vocabulary is

b. Contextual Guessing Strategy

  When dealing with foreign language text either in the form of written or spoken, students often find many unknown words which then become boundaries for them in comprehending the information in the target language. There are numerous strategies available to deal with unknown words; one of the strategies developed is contextual guessing strategy. Contextual guessing strategy is a strategy in learning vocabulary in which the focus is on finding the meaning of unknown words by examining the context where the words occur (Bruton & Samuda, 1981; and Clarke & Nation, 1980 cited in Nation, 1990).

  According to O’Malley and Chamot (1990 cited in Thanasoulas, 2002), learning strategy is “the special thoughts or behaviours that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information”. This definition is in line with that of defined by Wenden (1998: 18 cited in Thanasoulas, 2002) in which “learning strategy is the mental step or operation that learners use to learn a new language and to regulate their efforts to do so”.

  The vocabulary learning strategy of contextual guessing emerges from the basic condition that the meaning of a word generally depends on the relationship of it to other words, phrases, or sentences within which it is embedded (Dale & O’Rourke, 1971; Drum & Konopak, 1987). In other words, the meaning of a word is tightly related to the context where the word occurs. In this respect, context refers to sentences or utterances where the words occur (Read, 2000; Dale & O’Rourke, 1971). Hence, the meaning of a word can be different if it is used in

  An example of a word meaning that has different meaning according to its context is the word “book”. When the word “book” is found in the sentence “This

  

book belongs to her.” , then the word “book” is categorized as a noun which

  means a number of printed sheets of paper fastened together in a cover (Hornby, 1989). Meanwhile, when the word “book” comes in the sentence “We booked the

  

tickets by telephone call.” then it is categorized as a verb which means reserve

(Hornby, 1989).

  Nation argues that in vocabulary learning, contextual guessing strategy serves as the “major means’’ (Nation, 2002: 28). This strategy is also said to be the most important strategy in vocabulary learning (Read, 2000: 53). Meanwhile, Sternberg (1987) articulates that the most effective way to enhance one’s vocabulary development is by teaching her/him learning from context. As it is elaborated by Sternberg, there are three basic facts about vocabulary that can explain his opinion of most vocabulary is learned from context. Those are:

  1) No disagreement that the typical adult has in his/her vocabulary tens of thousands of words 2) One’s level of vocabulary is highly predictive, if not determinative, of one’s level of reading comprehension 3) Vocabulary is probably the best single indicator of a person’s overall level of intelligence

  When dealing with contextual guessing strategy, it is also important to look at the stages needed to be able to guess a word’s meaning. Bruton & Samuda

  (1981 cited in Nation, 1990: 161) proposes a set of stages as presented in figure 2.1 (Bruton and Samuda’s Guessing Procedure).

  Stage 1 Focus on the Unknown Word Teacher Asks for Guesses

  Stage 2 Students Hazard Guesses Are Any Students Close?

  No Context Clues Leading to

  Stage 3 Approximate Meaning

  Yes Justify Choices

  Stage 4 Teacher Elaboration

  Stage 5 Backup

  Stage 6

Figure 2.1 Bruton and Samuda’s Guessing Procedure (From: Bruton & Samuda, 1981 in Nation, 1990) Clarke & Nation (1980 cited in Nation, 1990) also proposes a set of stages in contextual guessing strategy which is considered to be simpler than those proposed by Bruton & Samuda (1981 cited in Nation, 1990). Clarke & Nation’s stages of guessing words meaning are in the following.

  Step 1 Look at the unknown word and decide its part of speech. Is it a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb? Step 2 Look at the clause or sentence containing the unknown word. If the unknown word is a noun, what adjectives describe it? What verb is it near?

  That is, what does this noun do, and what is done to it? If the unknown word is a verb, what noun does it go with? Is it modified by an adverb? If it is an adjective, what noun does it go with? If it is an adverb, what verb is it modifying?

  Step 3 Look at the relationship between the clause or sentence containing the unknown word and other sentences or paragraphs. Sometimes this relationship will be signaled by a conjunction like but, because, if, when, or by an adverb like however, as a result. Often there will be no signal. The possible types of relationship include cause and effect, contrast, inclusion, time, exemplification, and summary. Punctuation may also serve as a clue. Semicolons often signal a list of inclusion relationship; dashes may signal restatement. Reference words like this, that, and such also provide useful information. Step 4 Use the knowledge you have gained from Step 1-3 to guess the meaning of the word. Step 5 Check that your guess is correct