JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS CONTEXTUAL-CLUES STRATEGY IN LEARNING VOCABULARY
Septavia Sekar Ellasa
ABSTRACT
Having the characteristics and advantages of incidental and intentional vocabulary learning strategies, the contextual-clues strategy has been considered as a useful alternative strategy for ESL and EFL learners in developing their vocabulary knowledge. Yet, many researchers believe that this strategy will only be advantageous if it is used by intermediate and advanced learners. Therefore, this study has a purpose to examine the attitudes of junior high school students towards the use of contextual-clues strategy. In order to achieve this research objective, two questionnaires adapted from Ali et al. (2012) were distributed to 10 junior high school students from a school in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia, and followed by focus-group interviews. The participants were involved in a set of vocabulary learning activities conducted in 4 weeks. The results of the study show positive attitudes from the participants in using the contextual-clues strategy and the change of attitudes influenced by several conditions of the learning activities. According to the results, suggestion is made for English teachers in junior high school to make effective use of the contextual-clues strategy and a recommendation of future research is proposed.
