1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the researcher introduced the set of the problem. It consisted of background, identified the relevance of the problem, limitation, formulation, specified purpose, significance, and clarified the key term
1.1 Background of the Problem
Vocabulary is crucial in foreign language acquisition because without its appropriate and sufficient knowledge learners cannot comprehend others or express their emotions. The ability to produce well-structured written texts and comprehension of both depend on having a working knowledge of a foreign language's vocabulary (Viera, 2016).
There are so many electronic dictionary applications in smartphones that are used as learning media, especially to help students with vocabulary. By following the progress of an increasingly practical era, these innovations must be utilized as efficiently as possible by both students and teachers in learning to improve the quality of better mastery of vocabulary. According to Rezaei & Davoudi (2016) in the process of learning a language, vocabulary learning necessitates specific learning strategies. The use of dictionaries is a great aid in learning vocabulary, and nowadays the development of electronic dictionaries has added a fresh and important resource.
Based on the researcher’s pre-observation at the SMA Negeri 4 Tanjungpinang, the researcher found the problems obtained through the process and results of the assignment faced by the tenth-grade students in vocabulary
material. The researcher has also validated this by conducting interviews with students and teachers about the problems in vocabulary scope.
Indicated of the problem by tested on vocabulary mastery and given the assignment, the students ask to be given more time, even students unable to complete several vocabulary assignments as followed competence curriculum.
The scores also told that more than fifty percent of students who were given assignments in class did not cross the standard of minimum completeness of mastery learning. The systematic on results of the assignments were still very messy in choosing vocabulary. Marked by word-for-word combinations those were difficult to understand in terms of structure. Therefore, mastery of vocabulary is very essential to form complete sentences, many choices of what learning media may be properly used in the vocabulary lesson make students difficult to master vocabulary in English. Consequently, most of the students in the class not showing enthusiasm or excitement in the discussion of learning vocabulary materials, and students tended to be more unresponsive to various lessons related to vocabulary. Eventually, the appropriate tool is needed by students to be able to facilitate students in their vocabulary mastery. This is used as an effort to try to make the process of teaching vocabulary not uncommon to use electronic media as an innovation.
Based on the explanation above, taking everything into account, the researcher needs to lead an examination and uses U-dictionary as a medium to know whether or not there is significant effectiveness of using U-dictionary with the hope to provide resistance to the problems experienced by students. The
researcher would conduct research entitled “The effectiveness of using U- dictionary application toward students’ vocabulary on tenth-grade students at SMA Negeri 4 Tanjungpinang.”
1.2 Identification of the Problem
Based on the background of the problem explained above, the researcher classified some issue:
1. The students had lack vocabulary.
2. The students had difficulty in mastering vocabulary.
3. The students had less interest in a vocabulary subject.
4. The students had unable to complete the task of vocabulary properly.
5. The process of teaching vocabulary rarely used electronic dictionaries as medium.
1.3 Limitation of the Problem
Given the researcher's limits in terms of time, ability, energy, and money, it follows that not all problems will be solved based on the problem's diagnosis above. Thus the researcher limited the research on the effectiveness of using U- dictionary application toward students’ vocabulary on tenth-grade students at SMA Negeri 4 Tanjungpinang.
1.4 Formulation of the Problem
Based on the limitation of the problem above, the formulation of the problem in this research is, “Is there any effectiveness of using U-dictionary application toward students’ vocabulary on tenth-grade students at SMA Negeri 4 Tanjungpinang?.”
1.5 Purpose of the Problem
The purpose of the research is to find out whether or not there is significant effectiveness of using U-dictionary application toward students’ vocabulary on tenth-grade students at SMA Negeri 4 Tanjungpinang.
1.6 Significance of the Research
The following section elaborates on how this study's findings should be useful both theoretically and practically.
1.6.1 Theoretically
1. The findings of this study are expected to advance knowledge and expand scientific research by demonstrating the efficacy of using the U-dictionary application to improve students' vocabulary.
2. It is anticipated that the findings of this study will be useful for the instructor in determining the best medium for teaching vocabulary to the class's students.
3. This research should be a useful resource for students as they learn vocabulary and serve as a guide for selecting the best learning tools.
4. This study is anticipated to provide information to help other researchers carry out comparable research.
1.6.2 Practically
1. For students, using U-dictionary app is very helpful for students’
vocabulary.
2. For teachers, it can be helpful for English teachers to know their students’
vocabulary learning needs. In addition, this research will provide teachers
with a better understanding of how students should be encouraged to use U- dictionary apps.
3. For writers, through this research, the writer wishes to have more information to identify the types of problems that students learning vocabulary often face. And, the writer can gain new experiences and knowledge for the future of his life.
4. For school, hopefully, it can be uses to develop the creativity of English teachers in teaching vocabulary in the classroom.
1.7 Definition of the Key Terms
In this part, to dodge misinterpreting and misconception, there are necessary to clarify some of the terms as follows:
1. Effectiveness
Effectiveness is a metric for measuring the caliber of an accomplishment and how much impression is made on an object.
2. U-dictionary
U-dictionary is an online/offline digital dictionary app for smartphones and very useful for learning English, can find definition, translate and perform language related purposes. language with many of its features.
3. Vocabulary
Vocabulary is the knowledge of an alphabetical list of words with their meanings or definitions and included in verb classifications.
