Title IMPROVING STUDENTS' VOCABULARY BY USING SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK (FOCUSED ON FACEBOOK AT THE FIRST SEMESTER OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

PROGRAM IN STAIN PAREPARE)

A. Background Building vocabulary is foundational at any English skill. It's much more than grammar because is the key to communicating successfully with other people. Knowing more words gives our mind more ways to think about things and more tools to plan or figure out about something. There are many underlying reasons why people seek to improve their vocabulary. It could be a work situation or perhaps for social reasons. Whatever the rationale behind increasing our word knowledge, we should be aware of general obstacles that might confront along the way. This is not bad news, though, as these are easily overcome. It is important to aware of these road blocks before they come up. If aware, we wont feel inadequate as we begin the journey of improving our vocabulary. Teaching vocabulary in any level of education for English learners has become one of necessary thing to build and improve all of English skill. Teaching vocabulary to students will deal with what's method or what's media that can be applied in the class. One of the latest methods of teaching vocabulary deals with internet function. As internet grows, online learning has had more influence in the several countries with consequence that face to face discussion and paper resources still dominate public education. The Internet has become an increasingly important feature of the learning environment for teenagers. Research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in November and December 2000 shows that teens use the Internet as an essential study aid outside the classroom and that the Internet increasingly has a place inside the classroom. The Project surveyed 754 online youth ages 12-17 and their parents. Teens and parents

report that Internet is vital to completing school projects and has effectively replaced the library for a large number of online youth. 71% of students report using the Internet at their primary source for their last major project, and they also report accessing online study aids like Sparknotes or CliffNotes and as another fact that really helps the English learners to study. There are several sites that provide the English learners to study about English especially to improve their vocabularies such as www.vocabulary.co.il, www.vocabulary.com, www.learnenglish.de, www.english-daily.com, www.learn-english-vocabulary.com. Besides, sharing about difficulties in learning English or just sharing about several vocabularies and expressions for the English learners can be found in several forum sites as follow: www.englishforums.com, www.myenglishpages.com, www.eslgo.com. In recently year, social media network as one of the main part of internet developing has taken part also in the learning process. As a research by K. Walsh (2011) finds that social networking applications have a place in the classroom. Facebook as the most famous internet social networking is the best media to be used in teaching. Besides, it helps us connect and share with the people easily. For instance, Alessandro Cessarano, who teaches a beginning Spanish class in the University of South Florida (USF), uses Facebook for homework assignment and class discussions in lieu of blackboard. According to him, the Facebook page is better than blackboard because students have more access to authentic cultural material and not to waste class time to teaching them to use a new program because many of them already use Facebook. Using Facebook as a media to improve the students' English vocabulary in several schools and universities is a brand new. K. Walsh (2011) states that so many teachers, even those at online universities, are hesitant to use such popular tools, given their inherent risk of exploring students to inappropriate content. The hesitance of teachers is also happened for English students in STAIN Parepare. In the fact, several lecturers of STAIN Parepare don't

allow their students to open Facebook while they are studying. In this case, we have to consider not only Facebook as a media for entertainment and having fun but also how to use it as a media for English learning especially for the English learners in STAIN Parepare who study in the first semester that have vocabulary class as one of requirement subject. Therefore, writer will research about using social media network especially Facebook to improve the vocabularies of the students on the first semester of English Education Program (Program Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris/PBI) in STAIN Parepare. B. Problem Statement Considering the background above, the researcher would like to formulate the research are: 1. Is using social media network (facebook) able to improve students vocabulary at the first semester of English Education Program in STAIN Parepare? 2. What are methods that can we use to improve students vocabulary by using Facebook at the first semester of English Education Program in STAIN Parepare? C. Objective Of The Research Based on the formulation of the problems, the objectives of this research are: 1. To find the answer by using social media network (facebook) is able to improve students vocabulary at the first semester of english education program in STAIN Parepare or not. 2. To decribe several methods that can we use to improve students vocabulary by using Facebook at the first semester of English Education Program in STAIN Parepare. D. Significance Of The Research

The significance of the research is dividing into two benefits for a theory and application, where describe as follow: 1. Its expected for English teacher as one of method in the teaching process. 2. Its expected to make the students more interest to improve their vocabulary. 3. Its expected to inspire fun activities that can be done in English learning.