CHAPTER II
THEORITICAL REVIEW
A. Vocabulary
This section deals with some theoretical background to lexis since the main focus of the study is vocabulary.
1. Importance of Vocabulary in Learning English Language
For many years vocabulary has been undervalued in the field of second language teaching and learning, but the last decades have seen a change of attitude towards vocabulary. Laufer (1997, p. 147) says: ―vocabulary is no
longer a victim of discrimination in second language learning research, or in language teaching. After decades of neglect lexis is now recognized as central to any language acquisition process, native or non native. What many language teachers might have intuitively known for a long time, that a solid vocabulary is necessary in every stage of language learning, is now being openly stated by some language researchers‖.
been recognized as a key area of language knowledge. Hatch1978 believes that the foreign language learner needs for lexical elements in early stage as well as in later stage of the learning process, is often far greater than the need for grammatical rules, this why travelers take dictionaries not grammar books when going abroad. Vocabulary is central to English language teaching because without sufficient vocabulary students cannot understand or express their own ideas Wilkins (1972, p. 111) states: While without grammar very little can be conveyed without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed‖.
2. What Does It Mean to Know a Word?
Writers such as McCarthy (1990), Medani (1994) and Taylor (1990) have discussed many aspects of this question. It seems to be clear for the learner for the first time but it involves different ideas and points of view. (Taylor, 1990; Finegan, 1994; Mc Carthy, 1990). Others stated that knowledge of a word exists on various levels. The answer to this question is not as easy as it seems. Medani (1994, p. 39) states that knowing a word is know the lexical information or aspects that is related to it, and involves questions of whether the information about a particular lexical item, is available (easy accessible) for both comprehension and production or whether it is only available for comprehension.
3. Type of Vocabulary
understand‖ (e.g. When reading a text) but which they will not need to use
themselves, call them ―passive vocabulary‖, words which students will need to understand and also use themselves, we call them ―active vocabulary‖. Fromkin (2011, p. 11) States that ―in English‖, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverb makes the largest part of vocabulary. They are ―open classes‖, because we can and regularly do add new words to these classes. The other syntactic categories are for the most part ―closed set‖ As the
personal pronouns (I, me, mine, he, she, it). Finegan (1994, p. 84) stated that ―morphemes‖ that can stand alone as words are called
(freemorphemes). such as boy, lend, motion, etc, Morphemes, which cannot stand alone are called ―Boundmorphemes‖ Such as, Tele, in, non,
and, er. Nation (1990, p. 4) classifies vocabulary into three groups high frequency words, low frequency words and specialized vocabulary. What is important here is that learners should know the criteria of how to choose, and understand words. This will be achieved when they are able to differentiate between types of vocabulary. They are not in need to know every word which confronts them.
4. Aspect in learning vocabulary
There are five aspects in learning vocabulary those are: a. Meaning
meaning and remember it because when they know the meaning of word they can classify the word well.
b. Word classes
All words belong to categories called word classes (or parts of speech) according to the part they play in a sentence. The main word classes in English are listed below.
1) Noun
A noun is a word that identifies: a person (woman, boy, doctor, neighbor): a thing (dog, building, tree, and country): an idea, quality,
or state (truth, danger, birth, happiness). 2) Verb
A verb describes what a person or thing does or what happens. For example, verbs describe: an action – jump, stop: explore an event –
snow, happen: a situation – be, seem, have: a change – evolve, shrink, widen.
3) Adjective
An adjective is a word that describes a noun, giving extra information about it. For example: an exciting adventure, a green apple, a tidy room.
4) Adverb
An adverb is a word that’s used to give information about a verb,
adjective, or other adverb stronger or weaker, and often appear between the subject and its verb (She nearly lost everything.)
5) Pronoun
Pronouns are used in place of a noun that is already known or has already been mentioned. This is often done in order to avoid repeating the noun. For example: Laura left early because she was tired. Anthony brought the avocados with him.
That is the only option left. Something will have to change.
6) Preposition
A preposition is a word such as after, in, to, on, and with. Prepositions are usually used in front of nouns or pronouns and they show the relationship between the noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. They describe, for example, the position of something, the time when something happens, or the way in which something is done.
7) Conjunction
A conjunction (also called a connective) is a word such as and, because, but, for, if, or, and when. Conjunctions are used to
connect phrases, clauses, and sentences. The two main kinds are known as coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. 8) Determiner
this dog, those dogs, every dog, many dogs). The determiner the, is sometimes known as the definite article and the determiner a (or an) as the indefinite article.
9) Exclamation
An exclamation (also called an interjection) is a word or phrase that expresses strong emotion, such as surprise, pleasure, or anger. Exclamations often stand on their own, in writing they are usually followed by an exclamation mark rather than a full stop.
c. Spelling
Spelling is a spoken word or form of words held to have magic power. In learning vocabulary, the students have to know how to spell the word that they have already learnt.
d. Pronunciation
Pronunciation is the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect.
e. Word use
5. Techniques of Teaching New Lexis
In teaching vocabulary, there are some techniques that used by the teachers. The writer took the theory from the journal ―Teaching Vocabulary: The Relationship between Techniques of Teaching and Strategies of Learning New Vocabulary Items‖ (Tariq Elyas and Ibrahim
Alfaki). The following techniques are the most common techniques which are adopted by Sudanese teachers of English as a foreign language.
a. Translation
One of the most common techniques is translation that is to translate the word in question into a learner’s native language. Some
experts however do not recommend this technique (Doff, 1988, p. 12) ―if we only give a direct translation, the students cannot see how the word is used in an English sentence‖. Translation is simple, clear and
structural equivalent in the two languages. As the word (is) in (He is working hard). Nation (1990, p. 52) thinks that the value of translation depends on how and when we use it.
Translation into them other tongue presents the same processes as translation into a picture, a description in English. Hill (1965, p.23) criticizes translation into mother tongue as a way of communication or teaching meaning. They believe that generally there is usually no exact correspondence between one language and another. Translation into the learner’s native language is indirect. The use of the mother tongue takes
time which could better be spent in using English. But Harmer (1985, p. 86) thinks that it seems silly not to translate if by doing so a lot of time can be saved. If the student does not understand a word and the teachers cannot think how to explain it, he can quickly translate it. But this should be well controlled as Wallace (1987, p. 48) states that ―translation of vocabulary into the mother tongue should be kept under
light control‖.
b. Giving Examples
that a meaning can be shown with very simple sentences. The example sentences used to explain meaning should obviously teach the meaning of the new word. Showing meaning of words via context is very fruitful specially, when the word in question is from the list-of abstract lexis like, hate, hesitate, think and possible.
c. Realia
It is obvious that a new item can be taught by presenting the real object in question into the classroom, a process which is called using ―realia‖ by which teachers mean the real object. Although a type of this
teaching technique will enable teacher to teach a quite limited set of vocabulary. For example an object, this can easily be brought into the classroom, such as: pen, cup, book, hand, desk, ruler, etc. But it is one of the most beneficial techniques.
d. Concept
is the same is all these examples. According to Carroll (1964, p. 34) there are several conditions, which help the establishment of concept Firstly, they should be positive examples of the concept, secondly, there should be negative examples. That is to say the learners are shown things that are not (bodies). They are told that these are not (bodies), thirdly, these positive and negative examples need to be arranged in the best way of learning.
e. Description and Definition
Providing definitions or descriptions of new words is also a way of teaching meaning. Bright (1970, p. 40) states that ―the ability to produce short, clear relevant definitions of words is important to the teacher‖. The teacher thinks about the feature that he should capture and
f. Pictures and Mime
Pictures and mimes can be used to teach the meaning of new vocabulary items. By pictures we mean photos, blackboard drawing, wall pictures, chart and flash card. If the teacher is intended to teach words like vegetables, clothes and markets the used of pictures will be very important because it will be very difficult and time-consuming to explain them. Pictures can also be used to create a situation or context (Harmer, 1985, p. 85).In this situation; teachers can use e.g. a city map, school map and then try to introduce the item in question. The usage of mimes in teaching new words is also considered of great value, especially with actions such as jumping, running, writing and smoking. A type of these concepts is easily explained if the teacher pretends to do them before the class
B. Learning vocabulary
Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning a language. The more words you know, the more you will be able to understand what you hear and read; and the better you will be able to say what you want to when speaking or writing.
strategies (Hatch and Brown, p. 372). The five processes are described in more detail below.
a. Encountering new words
The first essential step for vocabulary learning is encountering new words, that is, having a source of word. The student strategies here included ―learning new words byreading books,‖ ―listening to TV and
radio,‖ and ―reading newspaper and magazines‖ (Payne, 1998, p. 33).
b. Getting the word form
This step was shown in comments such as ―associating new words
with words that sound similar in my native language,‖ ―writing the
sounds of words using sound symbols from my native language,‖
―associating words that are similar to words in other language I have
studied,‖ ―associating a word with a similar sounding English word I know,‖ and ―seeing a word that looks like another word I already know‖ in this step. The important of getting form of the word also
appears when students are asked to give definitions for words.
c. Getting the word meaning
This step includes such strategies as ―asking people who speak my
native language the meaning of new words,‖ making pictures of word meanings in my mind,‖ and ―explaining what I mean and asking
d. Consolidating word form and meaning in memory
Many kinds of vocabulary learning drills, such as flash cards, matching exercises, crossword puzzles, etc., strengthen the form-meaning connection. Oxford divides these strategies into four general categories: (1) creating mental linkages, (2) applying images and sounds, (3) reviewing well, (4) employing actions. Many of these strategies specially mention vocabulary, expressions, or words. Those that do not mention vocabulary explicitly still can be applied to vocabulary study, for example, reviewing at carefully spaced intervals.
e. Using the word
The final step in learning words is using words. Some would argue that this step is not necessary if all that is desired is a receptive knowledge of the word. However, if the goal is to help learners move as far along the continuum of word knowledge as they can, word use is essential.
C. Problems of Learning Vocabulary
Learning vocabulary seems to be one of the easiest things about learning a language, but it is also one of the hardest things to do, especially when you have reached a certain level. Learning vocabulary needs practice and time and in our days time is a problem.
The basic problems of learning vocabulary for the beginners are pronunciation, spelling, memorizing and also words using in sentences or in oral communication too. This is briefly described below:
1. Pronunciation Problem
Actually, students want to be able to speak English fluently, with understand pronunciation. So that, they can communicate without scare as good pronunciation make receiver easier to understand. The following aspect, which cause pronunciation problem is: similar sound in two words into language which have different variants, sequences of sound in one word, classification of sound.
2. Spelling Problem
Besides learning pronunciation, learning spelling is also important, because it can improve the learners’ ability of language skills especially
The following are some of spelling problem; understanding between speaker and hearer and the students do not know the spelling of words.
3. Memorizing Problem
It is a fact that students target is to remember all the vocabularies that they have learned. The students have the problem to memorize several new words was given. They have difficult to recall the word when the teacher asks them.
4. Meaning Problem
It is reasonable that the Indonesian learners are difficult to understand the meaning of English words. Sometimes the meaning of words changes because of the function in sentences.
D. Basic Assumption
Vocabularies are the basic one for students to learn English as a foreign language. It makes the students understand the language. Vocabularies will make the students know how to use the word and the techniques of teaching vocabulary is the important part to help the students in using the words and complete them into sentence correctly.
from scratch, which makes it relatively easy to teach words than grammar especially at lower-level classes. It seems that the benefits of learning vocabulary come faster too because individuals words alone can make successful communications in some circumstances, which doesn’t hold true for grammar. In order to elicit the benefits associated with learning vocabulary, teachers should design their vocabulary teaching with the purpose of making words retain longer in students’ minds and helping them produce words in different contexts.
In teaching vocabulary, there are some techniques such as: translation, giving example, relia, concept, description and definition, pictures and mime. These all are the techniques that common used by the teachers in teaching vocabulary.
