CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
B. Vocabulary
5. The function of Vocabulary
Before discussing vocabulary function, first of all we should know the meaning of it. Vocabulary is total number of words which (with rules for combining them) make up a language, or (range of) words known to, or used by, a person, in trade, profession, etc.18
The word “use” has a meaning as the function or the advantage. So we can say that from the definition-above the vocabulary use is the function or the use of words which are used in language. It means that when we use words, we should know the function or the use of our words our vocabularies because it can guide us in understating the language which we learn.
Moreover, vocabulary is central to both the system and the use of language. The words that we pronounce write and organize into sentences and
17 Elfrieda H. Hiebert and Michael L. Kamil, Teaching and Learning Vocabulary;
Bringing Research to Practice, (London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005), p. 3.
18 A. S. Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, Sixth Edition, (London: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 1959.
other grammatical combinations. Words are also, what ordinary users think of as language. For, they are accessible and reflected more fully the whole culture and respond more quickly to changes in society than do other aspects of language.19
6. Importance of Learning Vocabulary
Vocabulary mastery is really important in learning English. Vocabulary, much more than grammar, is the key to students understanding what they hear and read in school and then communicating successfully with other people. Although their structure is low, if they master on vocabulary, it will make them better on their English skills. Recently methodologists and linguists emphasize and recommend teaching vocabulary because of its importance in language teaching.
Ur states “Vocabulary is the most important aspect of language to teach. You can understand a reading text and make your self understood with almost no grammar, but you can not get anywhere without vocabulary. It is more important than reading strategies for understanding a text. It is also the best single measure of proficiency.”20
Thornby quotes Wilkins’ statement that “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.”21 A good store of words is crucial for understanding and communication. A major aim of most teaching programs is to help students to gain a large vocabulary of useful words.
In every lesson, students have to introduce new words and practice them, making clear the meanings and the ways in which each can be used.
Furthermore, a good mastery of vocabulary helps the learners to express their ideas precisely. By having many stocks of word, learners will be able to comprehend the reading materials, catch other talking, give response, speak fluently and write some kind of topics. On the contrary, if the learners do not recognize the meaning of the words used by those who address them, they will be
19 Suzanne Romaine, The Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. IV, (Cambridge: UK, 1998), p. 57.
20 Penny Ur, Teaching Vocabulary: Going Beyond the Textbook, Some Research-Based Fact about Vocabulary Teaching, 2009, p. 1.
21 Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Vocabulary, (Essex: Longman Pearson Education, 2002), p. 19.
unable to participate in conversation, unable to express some ideas, or unable to ask for information.
7. What Student Need to Know
Learning vocabulary is not more than just the meaning of words but also understanding the knowledge implied both in general and for certain words in particular. As stated in Harmer, writes some components of vocabulary that students need to know, they are:22
a. Meaning
The first thing to realize about vocabulary items is that they frequently have more than one meanings. The words ‘book’, for example, refers to a noun as something you see to read from, or as a thing to be read, but it s also has meaning as a verb.
b. Word use
Students need to recognize metaphorical language use and they need to know words collocate. They also need to understand what stylistic and topical contexts words and expressions occur in. for example, if you meet your friend on the strret you may say “Hi”, or “Hello”(informal term) but if you meet your teachers you should great them with formal espression, “Good Morning Sir”.
c. Word formation
Word formation means knowing how words are written and spoken, and knowing they can change their form. Students need to know how words are spelt, how they sound, the way words are stressed because the way the words are stressed can change when their grammatical function is different, like a word “present” as in a gift has different stress with the word “present” as in low.
d. Word grammar
Language learners also need to master grammar because the aim of language learning is preparing the learners to higher level of education. It can summarize
“Knowing a word”.
22 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, (London: Longman Group, 1993), p. 156.
8. Problem in Learning Vocabulary
Learning vocabulary is not easy for students. Building up vocabulary is a complicated process, and one that takes a long time.23 There are a lot of problems that students face while they are learning vocabulary. One of the problem is well known. Students might get some difficulties in learning vocabulary. Some factors that often cause these problems are:
1. Pronounciation
Research shows that words are difficult to pronounce and more difficult to learn. Potentially difficult words will typically be those that contain sounds that are unfamiliar to some groups of learners.
2. Spelling
Words are containts silent letters are particulary problematic, such as listen, honor, foreign, honest, etc.
3. Grammar
Grammar associated with the words also problematic, especially if this differs from that of it is first language equivalent.
4. Meaning
When two words overlap in meaning, learners are likely to confuse them.24 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. It is because learning vocabulary does not only learn about the meaning of word. When learning vocabulary, students will also learn about other aspects of word such as usage, pronunciation, grammatical, and so on. So it often makes difficulties for the students to comprehend the vocabulary.
9. How to Teach Vocabulary
Vocabulary is basic to communication. If people do not recognize the meaning of the key words used by those who address them, they will not be able
23 Ronald Carter, Vocabulary, Applies Linguistic Perspective Second Edition, (London:
Routledge, 1998), p. 184.
24 Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Vocabulary, (Middlesex: Longman, Pearson Education, 2002), pp. 27—28.
to participate in the conversation. If they want to express ideas or ask for information, they must be able to produce words to convey their meaning. Thus vocabulary learning is very crucial in developing competence in a second or foreign language.
Teaching vocabulary is clearly more than just presenting a new word. In teaching vocabulary, the teachers are hoped to have some technique in order to make students familiar with the vocabulary so that they understand new word easily. The techniques functions not only to help the students grasp the meaning of new words quite easily, but also to vary the teaching activity in order to avoid the boredom on the part of students.
10. Media in Teaching Vocabulary
Harmer mentions that the following aids can help to explain new vocabulary are:25
1) Realia
This is the word to refer the use of real objects in the classroom. Thus the words book, pencil, or chair, can be easily explained by showing students a book, a ruler, or a chalk. This is clearly satisfactory for certain single words, but the use of realia is limited to things that can be taken easily from the classroom.
2) Pictures
Pictures are clearly indispensable for the language teacher since they can be used in so many ways. Pictures can be used to explain the meaning of vocabulary items: the teacher can draw pens, rulers, pencils, and books inthe blackboard/whiteboard, or have magazines picture of trucks, bicycle, train, or bus onto cardboard. The teacher might bring in a wall picture showing three people in a room that could be used for introducing the meaning of the sentence, for instance: there are three people in the classroom.
3) Mime, action, and gesture
It is often impossible to explain the meaning of words or meaning either with realia or in picture. An action, in particular, is probably better explained by mime. Gesture is useful for explaining word like ‘from’, ‘to’, etc. or indicating
25 Harmer, op. cit., p. 161.
that the past is being talked about (the teacher gestures backwards over his/her shoulder).
4) Contrast
A visual element sometime may not be sufficient to explain meaning and contrast can be used. Thus, the meaning of “full” is better understood in the context of “empty”, “big” in the context of “small”, etc.
5) Enumeration
The word “vegetable” is difficult to be explained visually. However teacher rapidly lists (or enumerates) a number of vegetables, the meaning will become clear.
6) Explanation
Explaining the meaning of vocabulary items can be extremely difficult just as grammatical explanations. It will be important in giving such explanations to make sure that the explanations include information about when the item can be used. For example, it would be unsatisfactory just to say that “mate” is a word for
“friend” unless you point out that it is colloquial informal English and only be used in certain context.
7) Translation
For many years, translation went out of fashion and was considered as something of sin. Clearly, if the teacher is always translating, this will impede the students‟ learning since they want to hear and use the target language, not their own. Nevertheless, it seems silly not to translate if by doing so; a lot of time can be saved. If the students do not understand a word and the teacher cannot think how to explain it, he can quickly translate it.
11. Technique in Teaching Vocabulary
Base on Adrian Doff, the techniques in teaching vocabulary are:26 1) Say the word clearly and write it on the board
26 Adrian Doff, Teach English a Training Course for Teacher on Teacher’s Work Book, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 1.
2) Get the class repeat the word in chorus
3) Translate the word into students’ own language 4) Ask the students to translate the word
5) Draw a picture to show what the word means
6) Give an English example to show how the word is used 7) Ask a question using new word
From statement above the writer gives a little clarification that some basic techniques for showing the meaning of words are:
Writing noun words on the board: “pencil”, “table”, etc. Now the question is how the students can easily to understand meaning of the words? In this case many ways to explain about that, for example:
By showing the real object of pencil, table and etc.
By showing pictures. This way can be done by drawing picture of pencil or table on the board and by showing the picture of pencil, table which have been already prepared before (photograph).
Writing verb words on the board: “stand”, “dance”, “close”, etc. Now the question is how the students can easily to understand meaning of these words?
For this case teacher can not show the thing to students because this is not a noun, so teacher show the students by practicing or showing pictures that related to the words.
Writing adjective words on the board: “sad”, “happy”, “angry”, etc. Now the question is how the students can easily to understand meaning of these words?
In this case, teacher can use mime to show it or give the simple explanation like “someone is crying, she is sad”. Teacher also can use a picture to show the meaning of that word, for example picture of emoticon that can describe happy, sad, angry and etc.
From explanation above general points about presenting vocabulary is using real object, mime or picture. There are many kinds of techniques in presenting vocabulary to the learners such as mentioned above. The writer summarized that the way in teaching English vocabulary is depend on the teacher
to choose the best way in order to make students feel enjoy in learning process, because as a facilitator, a teacher has to be able to choose the right technique to teach vocabulary.
12. Material in teaching vocabulary
At the seventh grade, there are so many material that teacher taught.
Narrative text and descriptive text are some of text that teacher used in teaching vocabulary.
1. Descriptve text
a. Definition of descriptive text
Descriptive text is a text which describes something. According to Djuharie, he said that descriptive text is a text which describes and gives more detail information about particular people, thing, place and animal.27 It means that descriptive text tells the readers to know about something specifically by giving characteristic of something which described.
Meanwhile, according to Oshima, descriptive text tells about the senses how something looks, feels, smells, tastes, and sound.28
In sum up, descriptive text is a text which describes something and includes of the characteristic of something. It tells the readers with detail information that can help them to imagine and to describe in their mind about what the content of the text.
b. Purpose of descriptive text
Every text has own purpose. The purpose of descriptive text is to describe people, thing, place, and animal. It means that descriptive text wants to give the
27 Otong Setiawan Djuharie, Gendre Dilengkapi 700 Soal Uji Pemahaman, (Bandung:
Yrama Widya, 2007), p. 24.
28 Alice Oshima and Ann Hogue, Introduction to Academic Writing 3rd Edition, (New York: Pearson Longman, 2007), p. 61.
description of something. According to Anderson‟s statement, the purpose of descriptive text is to tell about subject by describing the characteristic without including personal opinions, the example of descriptive text are description of a particular building, description of a specific animal, description of a particular place, and description of a specific person.29
In sum up descriptive text has a purpose to describe a particular person, places, animals, and things that tells about their characteristics. Next, it helps the reader to imagine what the text is about.
c. Schematic structure of descriptive text
Generally, descriptive text has a schematic structure, there are:30Identification and Description.
2. Narrative text
a. Definition of narrative text
The narrative text type tells a story. Its purpose is to present a view of the world that entertains or informs the reader or listener.31
Mark and Kathy Anderson said that there are some examples of Narrative text that can be founded are: fantasy novels, bedtime stories, historical fiction, and stories.32
b. Schematic structure of narrative text
Narrative text has a schematic structure, there are: orientation, evaluation, complication, resolution and reorientation.33
c. Purpose of narrative text
The social function of narrative text is to amuse, entertain and to deal with actual or vicarious experience in different ways; narratives deal with problematic events which lead to a crisis or turning point of
29 Mark Anderson and Kathy Anderson, Text Types in English, (South Yarra:
Machmillan Education Australia, 1998), p. 26.
30 Djuharie, op. cit., p. 24.
31 Anderson, op. cit., p. 6.
32 Ibid., p. 7.
33 Ibid., p. 12.
some kind, which is in turn finds a resolution. It has the following characteristics.34Research has shown that narrative constitutes an important discursive resource used by speakers across a range of social contexts and setting to accomplish many different social functions. It is clearly the case that “narratives are highly portable discursive units”.
Stories can be told to entertain (jokes, folktales, anecdotes), to justify and explain (accounts, and descriptions of events), to instruct (the
‘cautionary’ tale, fables), and to establish social norms (gossip). But even more importantly, stories tell us who we are: they are central to our social and cultural identity.35
C. Evaluation and Assessment
Evaluation or assessment or test, must be conducted in the teaching- learning activities to know how well the students’ understanding about the materials which has given by the English teachers, as a general evaluation is the process of systematic information collecting through the numbers, verbal description, analysis and information interpretation to give a score to the students’
work result. As Muslich stated about (class evaluation): “Collecting process and using information by the teacher for giving decision of student learning result based on the step of learning progress.So, it can be gained profile of student’s ability with competency that fixed in curriculum.”36
According to Brown, assessment has two main categories, they are:37
Formative assessment : The teachers applied this assessment whn the have explained one or two chapters of the material and the students give the feedback to improve their abilty.
Summative assessment : In this assessment, the teachers give two types of test, middle test examination and final test examination.
34 Wido H. Toendan, Reading Comprehension 2, (Bandung: Global House Publications, 2009), p. 105.
35 Joanna Thorn borrow and Jennifer Coates, The Sociolinguistics of Narrative, (Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing Company, 2005), p.3.
36 Masnur Muslih, KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan), (Jakarta: Bumi Aksara, 2007), p. 78.
37 H. Douglas Brown, Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices, (Longman: Pearson Education, Inc, 2001), p. 6.
The essential purpose of formative assessment is to move students’
learning forward while their learning is still in the process of developing. It operates as a feedback loop in which both teachers and students can play active roles enabling learning by consistently working to build and consolidates student understanding and skill during the course of a lesson.
D. Previous Study
The writer has found two relevant studies which related to this research.
The first study is conducted by student’s of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta by the title “The Teaching of Vocabulary through communicative language teaching (A Case Study at The First Grade of SMU 1 Ciputat)” written by Erwan. The objective of this study are to know more about the teaching English in the class, and about the evaluation in the class. The techniques used to collect the data are observation, questionnaire, documentation.
From the research above, the writer finds some differences and similarities things with the writer study. The differences are on objective, place, time and the way he collect the data. The writer used observation and interview in this study to collect the data while the study above used observation, questionnaire and documentation. The similarity on this study is vocabulary as a material and method that the writer used.
The second study was conducted by M. Adrian. The student of UIN Syarif Hidayatullah has studied and analyzed Teaching vocabulary by using cooperative learning (An Experimental study at first year of SMP Darussalam Ciputat Tangerang Selatan). He has studied to find the empirical data whether or not there is significant difference between students’ score in learning vocabulary by using cooperative learning and by using grammar translation method. The conclusion that the Students Team achievement Division (STAD) in teaching vocabulary is really helpful in increasing the students’ ability and achievement in English vocabulary.