A STUDY ON THE TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING VOCABULARY TO THE FIFTH STUDENTS OF SD MUHAMMADIYAH 1 BANCAR IN THE 2007/2008 ACADEMIC YEAR

A STUDY ON THE TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING VOCABULARY TO THE FIFTH STUDENTS OF SD MUHAMMADIYAH 1 BANCAR
IN THE 2007/2008 ACADEMIC YEAR



CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher presents introduction which consists of background of the study, statement of the problems, purposes of the study, significance of the study, limitation of the study, and definition of the key terms.
1.1 Background of the Study
A language is a meaningful way for communication (Soekemi, 1995:4). It means that a language is sound, which is produced, connected between the kinds of sounds the speakers of a language make and their culture. (A language is an instrument for communication).
English as foreign language is taught in Indonesia from elementary school until university level. They are some reasons why English has been taught in elementary school that is introduction English in early years is profitable for their basic in studying English furthermore. Another important reason is from psychological and linguistic point of view. The psychological conditions of the tenth years old and under children have good memory.
In addition, English subject can be taught in elementary school if it is needed by society and supported by a teacher who has ability to teach, so that at the end of elementary school the student has capacity of reading, writing, listening, and speaking in English. And to support for skill – language, it is needed language component that is vocabulary.
Vocabulary as one of the important aspect of English language will make the students easy to communicate to each other and master other aspects of language.
As we have known that in the English curriculum elementary students have to master vocabulary at least 500 words and to develop pupil’s vocabulary. The teacher must have teaching technique so that they can receive English easily, however the students must develop vocabulary themselves too. Actually that vocabulary is the foundation to learn English and vocabulary is one of the component of language, there is no language without vocabulary.
Vocabulary in English as a foreign language is taught at school for the purpose of providing the students the four language skills, they are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Some general statements say that techniques of teaching reading comprehension and other (Mujiono, 1993)
This study mainly concerns with the techniques of teaching English vocabulary at elementary school. Moreover, the role of the teacher’s competence of mastering the various techniques is very important to make the students to be able to do or achieve the aim of the instructional program on mastering vocabulary. Ur (1996) states “It is better to teach vocabulary in separated, spaced sessions than to teach it all at once”.
The writer may say that vocabulary is the important elements of language and it should be taught effectively and purposefully. To do it effectively, the teacher must have both theoretical and knowledge about subject matter. That theoretical are cognitive theory and creative construction theory. Ryan and Cooper (1984: 302) stated “To do this effectively the teacher must have theoretical, knowledge about learning and human behavior and knowledge about subject matter be taught”.
The writer believes that English is really important for the beginner and the interaction of teacher and learners are needed in teaching learning process.
In this skripsi, the writer tries to describe the Techniques of Teaching Vocabulary to the Fifth Year Students of SD MUHAMMADIYAH 1 BANCAR.


1.2 Statement of the Problems
The writer intents to investigate the following matters:
1. What kinds of techniques are used by the teacher in teaching English vocabulary?
2. How does teacher apply the techniques in classroom?
3. How are the students attitude towards the techniques applied by the teacher?

1.3 Purposes of the Study
Based on the statement of the problems above, the purposes of the study are:
1. To described kind of techniques used by the teacher in teaching English vocabulary.
2. To described the implementation of those techniques in classroom.
3. To described the response from the students about this techniques.

1.4 Significance of the Study
The finding of the study are expected to give valuable information to serve as a feedback which contributes to improve the techniques in teaching learning process and finding the best the techniques of teaching English vocabulary and improve the knowledge about vocabulary items. The head master and the English teacher of SD MUHAMMADIYAH 1 BANCAR would know how well the teaching and learning has fulfilled the need of the pupil and achieve the goal of learning and teaching English.

1.5 Hypothesis
Hypothesis is primary answer of research problem, and it must be tested to get its truth. And usually it is used in research because the research will be directed to the problem being researched.
Based ob the opinion above, the writer feels it is necessary to state some hypothesis. Concerning with the research problem, the writer formulates the hypothesis as follows:
 If student mastery English vocabulary, they will be more active in teaching and learning process and can use or develop four English skills.
 The students is more interested in learning vocabulary with this techniques.
 If students mastery English vocabulary, they can be successful in their English study in Elementary School.

1.6 Limitation of the Study
This study that is carried out at SD MUHAMMADIYAH 1 BANCAR focuses on the aspect of English Language and also the techniques, because of limited times and energy, the writer limited the problem as follow:
1. The kind of techniques in teaching English vocabulary at SD MUHAMMADIYAH 1 BANCAR.
2. The implementation of those techniques on the fifth year students at SD MUHAMMADIYAH 1 BANCAR.

1.7 Definition of Key Terms
To avoid misunderstanding in the interpretation of words used in this research, the terms used are as follow:
1. Study : The activity of the learning or gaining knowledge from book (Hornby As, 1995: 187)
2. Techniques : The ways of presenting the material of vocabulary to the students that take places in the classroom (Prasasti Enik, 2004: 6)
3. Teaching : The activities done by the teacher in presenting English material (Horny As, 1974: 150)
4. Vocabulary : List of words with their meanings, especially at the back of a book used for teaching a foreign language. (Hornby As, 1992 : 46)

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this chapter, the researcher presents about definition of vocabulary, vocabulary as words and their meaning, kinds of vocabulary, the techniques of teaching vocabulary, and the theory of teaching and learning language for your learner.
Definition of the Vocabulary
The are many definitions of vocabulary that come from linguist actually one is not really different from the other. Gairns and Redman (1992:44) state “At a very basic level of survival in a foreign language, we can satisfy many of our needs with vocabulary and a bilingual dictionary”. “Other opinion from Hornby (1992: 46) state “Vocabulary means total number of word in a language used by a person”. In this case, Webster’s (1982: 53) as quoted by Widodo (1005: 10) gives better definitions is better. It defines vocabulary as “All the words of a language similarly”.
From definitions above, the writer employs vocabulary as her field of study because it is regarded as the key in learning language especially English. People can express their idea if they have enough vocabularies. On the other hand, if some one has very few vocabulary they will get difficulties in using English.

Vocabulary as Words and their Meaning
Finoechiaro (1989: 68) as quoted by Widodo (1005: 11) state “Words become meaningful only when studied and considered in context, that is with all the other surround them and helping to give them their meanings”.
In this items, the writer tries to describe about the words and their meaning focusing on five items:
2.2.1 Polysemy, Homonym
According to Gairns and Redman (1992:14):
 Polysemy : we use this term to describe a single word from with several different but closely related meanings. In English, for example, we can talk about the “head” of a person, and the “head” of pin, on the “head” of an organization.
 Homonym : when a single word has several different meanings, which are not closely related, we use the term homonym e.g. a file/fail/ may be used for keeping papers in, or may be tool for cutting or smoothing hard substances.
2.2.2 Synonym, Antonym, Hyponym
 Synonym : items that mean the same, or nearly the same; for example; bright, smart; may serve as synonyms of intelligent (Ur, 1996:62). According to Yule (1987:95) states “Synonym is two or more terms, with very closely related meaning which are often, but not always, intersubstitutable in sentences”, as quoted by Widodo (1005:12)
 Antonyms : items that mean the opposite, e.g. rich is and antonym of poor (Ur, 1996:62). “Antonym is a word of opposite meaning (Kustoyo, 1998:28) as quoted by Widodo (2005:13).
 Hyponyms : items that serve as specific examples of a general concept; dog, lion, mouse are hyponyms of animal.
2.2.3 Multi-Word Verb
Gairn and Redman (1992:33) state that we are using this term to describe the large number of English vocabulary consisting of two, or sometimes three parts:
 A “base” Verb-Preposition e.g. look into (investigate), get over (recover from)
 A “base” Verb and Adverbial Particle (Phrasal Verb) e.g. break down (collapse), call of (cancel).
 A “base” Verb-Adverbial Particle-Preposition e.g. put up with (tolerate).
As the writer example illustrate that there are Verb-Preposition combination that meaning is not clear from the individual parts; this probably explains why certain grammar book and course writers include semantically opaque preposition verbs in the treatment of phrasal verb. In our experience the distinction does not pose of significance the teaching problem, but if you to pursue the different the writer refer you to one of the grammar books listed in the bibliography. For the reader the writer will use the term “Phrasal Verb” when referring specially to verb-adverbial particle, and multi-word verb to include semantically opaque prepositional verbs as well.
In some cases phrasal verbs retain the meaning of their individual verb and particle e.g. sit down, while in others the meaning can not be deducted from an understanding of the constituent parts e.g. take in (deceive or cheat some body). It is this later category that creates most difficulty and contributes to the mystique which surrounds multi-word verb for many foreign learners. Also contributing to the mystique is the fact that many phrasal verbs have-multiple meaning e.g. pick up can mean lift, acquire, collect, etc. grammatically, students need to know whether a transitive multi word verb is phrasal or preposition. This is because phrasal verbs are separable.
e.g. take off your hat take it off
take your hat off (but not take off it)
while the prepositional verb are not:
e.g. look after the children
look after them.
(but not ‘look the children after or look them after’)
Finally, there is question of style, some command phrasal verb are informal and have one-word equivalents which are preferred in more formal contexts (e.g. put off/ postpone; get long means manage). Students will need to be aware of restrictions of these kinds.
2.2.4 Idiom, Collocation
 An Idiom is a sequence of word which operates as single semantic unit and like many multi-words verb the meaning of the whole can not be deduced from an understanding of the parts e.g. never mind, hang on, under the weather, etc. (Gairns and Redman, 1992:35)
 Collocation according to Ur (1996: 61) is “the typical of the particular items are another factor that makes a particular combination sound “right” or “wrong” in a given context.
2.2.5 Componential Analysis
According to Gairns and Redman (1992:40) componential analysis is a systematic means of examining sense relations. If the writer take items from the same semantic field (and which therefore have some features it common with each other) the writer can, by breaking them down into their constituent parts, examine the similarities and differences between them.
Example : Boy = + human + male + child
Girl = + human – female + child

Kinds of Vocabulary
There are two kinds of vocabulary:
 Active vocabulary is vocabulary that often used by a person to express his idea and sense. Example: cry, laugh, and so on.
 Passive vocabulary is vocabulary that often best present it quite quickly with a simple example. If it is appears as part of a text or dialog, we can often leave student to guess the word from the context Cristina (1998:43)
Gairns and Redman (1992) divided vocabulary into two kind’s namely respective vocabulary and productive vocabulary.
 Respective vocabulary means language items, which can only recognized and comprehended in the context of reading and listening materials.
 Productive Vocabulary means language items, which the learner can recall and use appropriately in speech and writing (these terms are often called passive and active vocabulary).
From that opinions shown that actually those vocabularies almost the same with active and passive vocabulary.

The Techniques of Teaching Vocabulary
Before discussing the technique of presenting materials for young learners. It is important to know that teaching English to the elementary school students is different from teaching English secondary or high school students. Kasbolah (1995 : 25) as quoted by Purwati (2003 : 13) points out that the goal of teaching English as the local content for the elementary school students should be stressed on building the positive point of view toward English. Furthermore, he said that the materials for the beginners should contain mostly some activities, such as singing, playing games, and reading poems. Brumfit (1991: 5 – 6) says that in teaching a second language words not enough, so we need a lot of object to work. Furthermore, he suggest to let the students play the language and make the variety the classroom.
The techniques of teaching vocabulary is a procedure or a collection way used in the classroom teaching vocabulary (Hubbard – Jones – Thornton: 31) (as quoted by Prasasti, 2004: 15). From the meaning techniques above the writer has assumption that techniques are very important and most needed in the teaching learning process.
In this study the writer can mention some techniques for teaching vocabulary, they are:
 Say the word clearly and write it on the board.
 Get the class to repeat the word in.
 Translate the word into the students own language.
 Ask student to translate the word.
 Draw a picture to show what the word means.
 Give example to show how the word is used.
 Ask question using the new word.
In showing the meaning of words, there are three ways to showing the meaning of new words:
 By showing the a real object
Anything that is ready in the classroom; furniture, clothes, part of the body. Also many object that can be brought into food (grapes, mango, orange) small object from home (soap, cups, keys, cupboard).
 By showing a picture
This can be done in two ways:
 By drawing a picture on the board
 By showing a picture prepared before the lesson
From above, we can combine different techniques, they are:
 Picture on the board (interesting, so the student remember it)
 Facial expression (gives meaning clearly) e.g. (show how “smile” is used as a verb)
 Translation (to make sure everyone understand)
Point out that each technique is very quick (a few seconds), and they all reinforce each other. For example:



 Teacher : Look, they are smiling. Now look at me. I’m smiling (show by facial expression smile). We smile when we are happy. Smile (gesture)
 Students : Smile
 Teacher : Good. What does it mean? (student give translation)
 By explanation
Explanation the meaning of vocabulary item can be very difficult, especially at beginner and elementary levels. But we can be used. It is worth remembering that explaining the meaning of word use, which are relevant. If the writer explaining the meaning of “mate” (friend) we have to points out that is a colloquial word used in informal contexts and that it is more often used for males than for females according to Jeremy Harmer (1996: 162) as quoted by Widodo (2005: 20).

The Theory of Teaching and Learning Language for Your Learner
The last few years have seen a growing tendency among children in Indonesia to learnt English. Although English has been taught to SD (Primary School) students in some private school, most of these children learn English from non-formal education. It is kind of education that make use of and benefits from this trend and situation. We, at International Language Programs, for example, started this program in June 1989 and it has been a successful and business.
It is since the new curriculum (1994) was introduced that school could teach English formally at primary level. This curriculum reflects the recognition of teaching English from an early age and hopefully stops the controversies on this matter.
This paper is intended as a basis for the further study of teaching English to children in particular those who sit at the primary level or early years of the SMP (Secondary School) and searches for better approaches towards this matter. It examines what teaching is like and how to do it.
 Some facts about children and adults
The different between children and adult:
 Children like playing and moving whereas adults seem reluctant to move and regard playing as childish.
 Children can absorb new things easily whereas adults find it difficult to absorb new things.
 Children feel at ease dealing with one thing at a time whereas adults are eager to know a lot of things at one time.
 Children get bored easily whereas adults can spend a long time doing something especially if it is of their interest.
 Children also differ in their knowledge background from adults. Adults have gained some k knowledge of it as they learn at school or from other sources.

 Teaching activities
Children differ from adults in many ways. Consequently, teaching them requires different approaches. The above fact about children have to be accommodated according and activities in class should be in line with these facts. The following are points to consider when teaching children:
 Teach One Thing at a time
 Activities Should Vary
 Lessons Should be Interesting
 Lessons Recycle
 Teaching/ Learning Stages
According to Harmer (1983) about learning stages in English lessons:
 Introducing a new language
 Practice
 Communicative activities
 Writing Activities
Unlike adults, children cannot automatically write what they hear or say. This is, again, because they are new to the language and not familiar with it. Their writing skills are also shaky as they are still learning to write. This skill, therefore, has to be built up gradually. Special attention has to be paid to spelling. Any (speaking) practice should not involve much writing. If it does (as it can be avoided) the teacher has to make sure that his students are familiar with the spelling. If not, it will inhibit the smoothness and fluency of the activity. For children, writing can be copying, completion, answering question, telegraph writing, writing dictation. The teacher should not be too strict about spelling mistakes.
 Teaching Preposition
This preparation often takes longer than the teaching it self and involves a lot of thought. Preparation includes: lesson-planning; seeking, choosing, cutting, and sticking pictures; writing, developing, and typing material; photo –copying, and so on. This certainly requires time-devotion, skill, and experience on the part of the teacher(s). the availability of aids, books, and resources is also essential.
 Application at School
One of the most important requirements is qualified teachers. At least two qualifications are needed from the teacher:
 A qualification in English is essential as the teacher is the model for his students. He relates to them and they learn to speak from him.
 A teaching qualification is includes a sound knowledge of how to teach children and the ability to implement it in class.