CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1

Definition of Vocabulary Learning a foreign language cannot be separated from practicing vocabulary.

Vocabulary is the central of language teaching and learning. According to Kridalaksana (1993:127), vocabulary is a component of language that maintains all of information about meaning and using word in language. There are some experts who give definition of vocabulary. Furthermore, Hatch and Brown

(1995:1) define vocabulary as a list or set of words for a particular language or a list or set of word that individual speakers of language might use. It plays an important role in the four language skills. It gives contribution to the learners to perform or practice their skills better. It means that by mastering the vocabulary, the learners will be able to produce so many sentences easily either in spoken or written one. Basically vocabulary is a list or collection words arranged in alphabetical order and explained a dictionary or lexicon, either of a whole language, a single work or author-a branch of science, of the like. Vocabulary is also is a sum or stock of words employed (McClauley, 2005: 1). It is impossible for the learners to

perform their English well if their vocabularies are very poor. The students will find any difficulties in expressing or mastering their language skills because of having too limited vocabularies. Therefore, vocabulary mastery must be on the first priority in English language teaching and learning. Without mastering the vocabulary, the learners will be difficult to master the other language skills.

2.2

Level of Vocabulary Notion (2008: 7) divided vocabulary into four levels on the basis of how

often it occurs in the language. They are high frequency words, academic words, technical words, and low frequency words. These levels can be explained as follows:

1. High Frequency Words High frequency words are the most important group of words. These words occur very frequently in all kinds of use of the language. They are needed in formal and informal uses of the language. The high frequency words of English have the following characteristics: 1) Each high frequency word occurs very often, so the effort of learning it will be repaid by plenty of opportunities to

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meet and use it, 2) The high frequency words are useful no matter what use is made of English, 3) Because of the frequency and wide range they make up a very large proportion of the running words in all kinds of texts and language use, and 4) They are relatively small group of words that could be covered in a school program over three to five years. 2. Academic Words Academic words are words that do not appear in daily conversation frequently, less than 25 percent of the running words in conversation are from the academic words list, but frequent and widely used within specialized area. These words are very important for learners who will use English for academic study either in upper secondary schools or technical institutes (academic words occur in all kinds of academic subject areas like Botany, Politics, Accounting, and Family Law)

3. Technical Words Technical words occur in more specialized area than academic words. These words are very important for anyone who specializes in a particular area. There have not been many statistical studies of technical vocabulary, but it seems that at least 20 percent of the

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running in most technical texts, such as anatomy text and economics text, are likely to be technical words.

4. Low Frequency Words This last words group is the biggest group among the other three. Low frequency words are diverse group. They include 1) words that are not quite frequent or wide range enough to be high frequency words, 2) technical words from other areas (one persons technical vocabulary is another persons low frequency

vocabulary), and 3) words that just occur rarely. Low frequency words have the following characteristics: 1) Each word does not occur very often. 2) Most low frequency words have a very narrow range. They are not needed in every use of the language. 3) The low frequency words make up a very small proportion of the running words in a text. 4) They are a very large group of words.

The usage of those kinds of vocabulary above can be shown from the table 2.1 below: Table 2. 1

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Kinds of Vocabulary

Level High frequency words Academic vocabulary Technical vocabulary Low frequency words Total

Number of Words 2,000 800 2,000 123,200 128,000

Text Coverage, % 87 8 3 2 100

English has a very large of vocabulary. No one, even native speakers, is able to know them all. Fortunately, we do not need to know them all in order to use English. We only need to know those that are relevant to our practical purposes.

2.3

Teaching Vocabulary in EFL Classroom There have been a great number of different approaches to language

learning, each with a different outlook on vocabulary (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). At times, language teaching methodologies have attached great importance to vocabulary learning, and sometimes it has been neglected (Schmitt, 2000). English language teaching has changed its perspective on the teaching and learning of vocabulary in foreign language classes. Brown (1994:7), learning is a relatively permanent change in a behavioral tendency and is the result of reinforced practice. Similarly, teaching which is implied in the first definition of learning, may be defined as showing or helping

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someone to learn how to do some knowledge, causing to know or understand as mentioned by Brown (1994). Although deliberate vocabulary teaching is only one of the least efficient ways of developing vocabulary knowledge, it is also significantly required for a well-balanced vocabulary program. Vocabulary teaching helps learners when they feel it is the most needed one especially for the message-focused activities involving listening, speaking, reading, and writing (Nation, 2005).

2.4

The Development of Teaching Vocabulary Vocabulary development is not just learning more words but also about

expanding and deepening word knowledge. According to Cameron (2001:73), vocabulary development is about learning more about those words and about learning formulaic phrases or chunk, finding words inside them, and learning even more about those words. Nowadays, some experts and researchers who are concerned with vocabulary teaching have invented several methods that are considered newer and more effective methods. Based on empirical research, there are vocabulary teaching methods that are considered to be more effective.

2.4.1

The Direct Method

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The direct methods is the method for teaching vocabulary where English should be more like the learners first language-lots of oral interaction, spontaneous use of the language, no translation between English and the learners L1, and just a few or no analysis of grammatical rules (Brown, 2001:21-22). The direct method is suggested by Thombury (2002). In practice, the direct method stands for the following principles and procedures as summarized by Richards and Rodgers (2001:12) below: 1. Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target language. 2. 3. Only everyday vocabulary and sentence were taught Oral communication skills were built up in a carefully traded progression organized around question-andanswer exchanges between teachers and students in small, intensive classes 4. 5. 6. Grammar was taught inductively New teaching points were introduced orally Concrete vocabulary was taught demonstration, objects, and pictures; abstract vocabulary was taught by association of ideas 7. Both speech and listening comprehension were taught

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8.

Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized

2.4.2

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) CLT is a set of approaches which have similar beliefs that the goal of

language teaching is based on the communicative competence covering grammatical competence, social linguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence. Richards and Rodgers (2001) said that some features of CLT as follow: 1) Contextualization is a basic premise. 2) Language learning is learning to communicate. 3) Effective communication is sought. 4) Drilling may occur, but peripherally. 5) Comprehensible pronunciation is sought. 6) Any device which helps the learners is accepted varying according to their age, interest, etc. 7) Attempts to communicate may be encouraged from the very beginning. 8) Translation may be used where students need or benefit from it. 9) The target linguistic system will be learned best through the process struggling to communicate. 10) Teachers help students in any way that motivates them to work with the language. 11) Students are expected to interact with other people, either in the flesh, trough pair and group works, or in the writing. 12) Intrinsic motivation will spring from an interest on what is being communicated by the language.

2.4.3

Total Physical Response (TPR)

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Total Physical Response (TPR) is the other forms of teaching method that offers the kinesthetic learning style. Brown (2001) noted that children, in learning their first language, appear to do a lot listening before they speak, and that their listening is accompanied by physical responses (reaching, grabbing, moving, looking and so forth). In TPR classroom is often focusing of too much anxiety, so it becomes as stress-free, where learners would not overly self-conscious and defensive. For instance, if the command Close your eyes is given, the correct response is a physical action. In this case young learners may not be able to give a linguistic response to the instruction but they can give a physical response. In brief, TPR means that students use their whole body to learn. The basis for TPR is seen in everyday activities, in every classroom in every country around the world where it is based on the idea that the natural response to understand a command is a physical respond (Musthafa. 2008:13). Young learners will be willing to demonstrate comprehension through a physical action long before they are willing to give linguistics response. Additionally, TPR gives more opportunities for the students to activate their memorized through learners response. Performing their action through moving their bodies can show their understanding. In other words, these physical responses are important for the childrens learning as they do not learn in conscious intellectual way and learn by thinking. On the other hand, children learn by doing (Musthafa, 2008).

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More specifically, the teacher also describes that TPR has several positive aspects. First, it utilizes the auditory, visual, and tactile learning channels. The learners listening watch as the commands are given. Last, the learners have a chance to use all three channels: they listen, watch one another, and do the commands themselves. Second, TPR helps to teach children to follow direction and listen attentively. Third, in keeping with developmentally appropriate notions or thoughts, children are allowed to listen and then choose when they feel comfortable to start speaking. Fourth, this method can easily be adapted in many different ways for young learners. There are many different ways that TPR can be used with young learners. For children who are just beginning to study English, variety of simple one word commands, such as stay, stand, wave, and wiggle can be used. Gradually, more complied child-friendly commands can be introduced. However, when TPR is used for five, six, or seven year olds, be sure to give only one command a time because they will have trouble to pay attention to multi-step instruction due to their overall development. Since TPR is a lot of fun, students will enjoy it and it can be real stirrer in the class. Hence, this method is very effective with young learners. TPR can be used to teach and practice many things. They are summarized as follow: 1. Vocabulary connected with actions (smiles, cut, chop, headache, wriggle)

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2. Tenses past/ present/ future and continuous aspects (every morning I`` clean my teeth, I make my bed) 3. Classroom language (open your books) 4. Imperative instructions (stand up, close your eyes) 5. Storytelling.

2.5

Strategies of Teaching English Vocabulary to Young Learners Teaching strategies play a central role in the process of teaching and

learning. Strategies are specific methods of operation for achieving a particular or planned design for controlling and manipulating certain information (Brown, 1994: 192). In order to use an appropriate strategy, the teacher needs to consider teaching objectives in teaching learning activity. Some strategies commonly used by the teachers are described as follows:

2.5.1 Direct Instruction The selection of a model of learning used by teachers is strongly influenced by the nature of the material to be taught, it is also influenced by the goal to be achieved in teaching and student ability levels. At the same time, each model of learning always has the stages conducted by students with teacher guidance. One

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of the models used by teacher in teaching process is direct instruction. Direct instruction model is a teaching approach that can assist students in learning basic skills and obtain that can be taught step by step. Teaching approaches often called the direct teaching model (Kardi and Nur, 2000). According to Arends (2001), a teaching model that is aimed at helping student learns basic skills and knowledge that can be taught in a step by step fashion. For our purposes here, the model is labeled the direct instruction model. When the teacher used direct instruction model, teachers have a responsibility to identify goal of learning and great responsibility to level of structure or skill, explain to students, modeling/ show, combined with training, provide opportunities for students to practice the concepts or skills they have learned and provide feedback. Arends (2001) also said that direct instruction is a teacher centered model that has five steps: establishing set, explanation and or demonstration, guided practice, feedback, and extended practice. A direct instruction lesson requires careful orchestration by the teacher and a learning environment that businesslike and task oriented. Later on demonstration deal with how the teacher conveys the lesson to the children by demonstrating the process and situation along with oral explanation this strategy enables the children to understand the lesson easier because they can use their sense: hearing and seeing. It enables them to imagine the explanation and have a clearer picture regarding the process of something. This strategy makes the instruction clearer, concrete and interesting (Lang and Evan, 2006).

2.5.2 Questioning for Comprehension Checking or QCC strategy

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Questioning for Comprehension Checking (QCC) strategy is a two way communication between the teacher and the children in which the teacher asks the children and the children answer the teachers questions, the children attention can be attracted and focused, the children are stimulated to think and memorize some things, and the children are encouraged to express their ideas (Fisher and Frey, 2007). In this strategy, the teacher asked students to answer the questions. Before begin the lesson, the teacher asked students a question related to the material based on their own experienced and objects around them. However, if the teacher cannot encourage the children and create a conducive atmosphere in the classroom, the children will be afraid when the teacher addresses them the question.

2.5.3 Visual Scaffolding Visual Scaffolding is support that includes images and words that can be seen as well as heard. According to Herrel and Jordan (2004:19), visual scaffolding is strategy in which the language used in instruction is made more understandable by the display of drawing or photograph, maps, and video that allows the children to hear English words and connect them to the visual images that are being displayed. When children can see an image of what the teacher is describing and see the key words that the teacher is explaining, this is not only to make the input considerably more comprehensible, but also to remove the

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affective filter which results from the fear or boredom that comes of understanding in the class.

2.5.4 Drilling Drilling is the process of students listening to and repeating sentences, phrases and words modeled by the teacher. Drilling is a strategy to improve pronunciation by imitating and repeating words, phrases and even whole utterances (Thombury, 2002:63). It means that it might be useful noticing technique since it has been attention to the material that learners might not otherwise have registered. The effect of repeating of bound salience, move new items from working memory to long-term memory. It provides a mean for gaining articular control over language of getting the tongue round it.

2.5.5 Games Although vocabulary is considered as the most important language component, not all English teachers give great attention in the way of teaching it. Meanwhile, it is teachers responsibility to seek an interesting way to make students more motivated to learn. Therefore, games can be applied in vocabulary teaching. Generally, Elementary school students like playing something funny and

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relaxing. Children enjoy constructive activity play and games. Game is a kind of forms of strategies in teaching English to young learners that can be funny and relaxing. It is not only motivating and fun but also it can also provide excellent practice for improving pronouncing, vocabulary, grammar, and the four language skills. In addition, for young learners games also provide an important link between home and school which helps to make them to feel more secure and confident. Further, Musthafa (2008:12) stated game is a potentially useful to enhance children learning because it is really a part of day-to-day menu for children in every culture. When a lesson consists of game, then it is not a lesson in the eyes of young learners, therefore it is greatly appreciated. For example a lesson that gives the teacher the opportunity to help learners acquire new forms and lexis in the easiest and most effective with the young learners who find it difficult to understand a long list of rules. It is a strong argument for incorporating them in EFL of young learners classroom. Then, the teacher discusses that language game is a healthy challenge to a childs analytical thought where the keys to a successful language game are clear rules and well defined the ultimate goal. In addition, Philips (1993:79) proposed that games in the language classroom help children to see learning English as enjoyable and rewarding. Games are one way which can develop the ability of children to cooperate, to compete without being aggressive.

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2.5.6 Song Most children enjoy singing songs. For the teacher, using songs in the classroom can also be a nice break from following a set curriculum. It will give opportunity for children to have listening and speaking experiences. In the age of learning foreign language, children may have a few opportunities to speak English to other people outside the classroom. A teacher must be able to balance the serious study of English with the more entertaining activities. A good teacher is an entertainer, students enjoy being entertained and amused. However, a balance has to be stuck between entertainments. According to Paul (2003:58), songs can add feeling and rhythm to language practice that otherwise be felt, help children remember things more easily, and draw them. Most children feel that there is a barrier between the classroom world and their world away from the classroom where they play with their friends and their daily lives. If the teacher wants the English language plays a more central role in the daily lives of children, the teacher must find a way to solve this barrier. One of the ways to solve this barrier is song, because song can make children enjoy in learning process.

2.6

English for Young Learner Teaching language to children is different from teaching teenagers or adults.

Cameron (2001:1) proposed that children are often more enthusiastic and lively as

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learners than adults. They always have an activity to be done even when they do not quite understand why or how. In learning English as foreign language, children need to play with the language. According to Mustafa (2008), try it out, test it, receive feedback, and try again. Thus teaching materials should be appropriate with childrens need in mastering English. There are: (1) Learning should be fun and natural for young learners. In order for them to be successful in learning the target language, there must be the absence of stress. It is commonly believed that the environment of foreign language learning often causes stress and anxiety. Young learners are believed not to learn language forms directly: commands are believed to be helpful for children to interpret meanings. This activity is believed to liberate selfconscious a stressful situations. (2) The language should be first presented through sounds, not written symbols. Listening and speaking are worked on as the learners produce meaningful utterances concerning physical object and their own experience. After young learners can produce sounds in the target language and connect the sounds in the truth, they may begin to read symbols in the target language. This process can begin after the children are able to understand what other people speak (listening) and able to produce the language (speaking). (3) Young learners are more sensitive to anything that can be touched and sensed; they react easily to physical objects, language is taught by having the students use their senses, touch, listen, smell, and even taste necessary. This will help them relate the linguistic signed to the truth that they perceive with their senses. (4) Meaning should be made perceptible through concrete objects or by the

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presentation of experience. When language learners make mistakes or misconception of something, teachers do not correct it through translation but they need to show to something to make the meaning are better. (5) The idea that teaching should start from what the students already know in order to encourage association processes seem to favor children. By teaching through this way, young learners are expected to know not only by saying but also by doing something without being aware of what they are doing. In order to make them aware, the new materials have to have relationship between previous one so that they can easily make an association since association process is necessary part of learning. Thus language teacher should build upon the meaning process by adding new segment of language to the previous one; he or she starts from what the language learners already know in order to encourage association process. According to Moneey (2000:64), there are four stages of Cognitive Development in children. All children go through identifiable stage of cognitive developments as follows: Sensomotoric period (birth +/- years), children tend to explore the words physically and grasp things. Preoperational (2-7 years), this staged marks the beginning language and vocabulary, and the first learning of good and bad. Concrete Operational (7-12 years), when children used reference to familiar actions, objects, can reason with concept relationship, abstract properties, and theories. Based on the cognitive development above, the fifth grade students of Elementary School, who are involved in this research, are in the concrete

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operational stage. It means that they are in the beginning stage of learning language and vocabulary and thinking more concrete to actions, objects, and properties. Teachers require plenty of object and pictures to work, and to make full use of the school and their surroundings. Thus, the students will learn by doing things since they learn naturally. By seeing and doing what the teacher has said, they will understand the lesson unconsciously. Young learners are usually full of enthusiasm and energy, and the language lesson will be full of variety and change activity. Thus, the teachers should be very creative in planning the lesson be considered when teaching young learners. Many aspects deals with young learners characteristics proposed by Harmer (2007:82) are as follow: children have their own culture and learning preference. Children learn by way of physical activities. Children have relatively short attention and concentration span. Children learn naturally. Children learn best when learning is meaningful, interesting and functional. Non-verbal language is important because children will indeed attend very sensitively to the teachers facial features, gestures, and touches. Further explanation about each of the characteristics is explained below. First, young learners have their own culture and learning preference. It means that the instruction should be child friendly. Therefore, they will find the instruction easily.

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Second, young learners learn by way of physical activities (learning through hand-on activities, learning by doing). It is believed that students physically can internalize the language they are learning especially vocabulary. Third, young learners have relatively attention and concentration span; unless the activities are extremely engaging, they can easily get bored, losing interest after ten minutes or so. Forth, young learners learn naturally. As part of their development, children are always active in exploring their environment and accumulating knowledge and experiences. For this exploration, children construct their understanding of how things work, including the language they use as both a system and tools for communication. Also learning for everything around them rather than only focusing on the precise topic they are being taught. Fifth, young learners learn best when learning is meaningful, interesting, and functional. Young learners will find things meaningful, interesting, and functional when they are relate these things with their needs and personal experiences. Sixth, non-verbal language is important because young learners will indeed attend very sensitively to the teachers facial features, gestures, and touches. The last one is young learners often learn indirectly rather than directly, they take in information from all sides, learning for everything around them rather than only focusing on the precise topic they are being taught.

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2.7

Teaching Difficulties Teaching English vocabulary especially to very young learners is not an

easy job to do, we know that a child who cannot read even speak not fluently have to learn foreign language. The teacher may find some difficulties when teaching English vocabulary to young learners. The difficulties might include the followings:

Table 2.2 Teaching difficulties by Moon (2005)

No a b c d a b c d e

Difficulties Difficulties from Teacher Limited English profiency Time management Adjustment to childrens language Teachers feedback Difficulties from Students Childrens interest Children limited attention span and short concentration Children have less awareness to learn Children level knowledge Children dealing with their memory

Teacher may have limited English or insufficient fluency in the language, so this way may enable to give students incorrect models. It is because young learners have special sensitivity to pronunciation though they will not be able to

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make use to this particular instinct. Thus teachers need to possess very good English language skills since they provide the main language input for children who may have limited exposure outside the classroom. Teacher also may have difficulties in time management. This kind of difficulties could cause the planned activities unaccomplished well. The incapability in classroom management becomes one of the obstacles coming from the teacher in teaching vocabulary. It surely could affect the process of teaching and learning where all the planned activities could not be accomplished. Teachers need to be flexible to be able to adjust their language to the childrens level knowledge of English. So, they can provide feedback and a rich knowledge of the culture so as to get children interested. Young learners were not interested in learning vocabulary. Since the students were not interested on the vocabulary learning, they did not focus and pay much attention during the learning process. It is an effect of the use of English by the teacher. According to Moon (2005), students, who are anxious to do the activity, can lose their interest and concentration because the students have limited English. Students have less awareness of children to learn. It is because the age of five or earlier, as stated Moon (2005), will be less able to reflect on their learning in a conscious way as this ability to reflect consciously and to analyze is linked to young learners of cognitive development.

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In a review by Kim cited in Moon (2005) it is pointed out that one of the difficulties that appears in teaching vocabularies because of the gap in word knowledge among children. Teachers may get obstacles especially if the teacher intends to have some exposure of English to the students without using native language at all during the class. The gap can distract the accomplishment of vocabulary instruction. It is as same as the use of full English during the class that students may need too much effort to try to understand, and this situation can make them feel low motivated. The existence of young learners with special needs in an ordinary classroom can create another difficulty. The problem dealing with their memory is one of learning obstacles. Young learners have special sensitivity to hearing or pronunciation though they will not be able to make use to this particular instinct if their teachers lack fluency of foreign language. Therefore, very young learners need good English teachers with good strategies in teaching, because very young learners are in basic level for learning, if teachers give incorrect models, they will follow it. Teachers should facilitate vocabulary learning by teaching learners useful words and by teaching strategies to help learners figure out meaning on their own (Nation, 2003) From statement above, it can be concluded that there were several difficulties appeared along the process of teaching and learning faced by the teacher. All of the difficulties were related to the implementation and the

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preparation of strategies employed in those three observations. The difficulties were adjustment to young learners language, the students interest in learning and young learners limited attention span and short concentration.

2.8

Previous Study Some studies have been conducted previously concerning teaching

vocabulary and young learners. They are the studies conducted by Schippert (2005) and Huyen and Nga (2003). Schippert (2005) entitled Read Aloud about Vocabulary: A New Way of teaching. The research focused on investigating the students vocabulary by reading aloud at first grade elementary school. The first goal is the teacher reads a book to the children for pure enjoyment. Thus, children would acquire two or three words in each week; teachers went back and reread the passage that contained the vocabulary words. Further, teacher introduced and read a new story aloud. Then, teacher reviewed vocabulary words from the story and before by showing words written on sentence strips and asking children about their meaning. Second goal children make a personal connection with these words. Then, teacher posted the words on bulletin in the classroom. Teacher set up a box for children to find new words they wanted the class to learn. Overall, children showed a new awareness of vocabulary in the world around them.

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Another study is proposed by Huyen and Nga (2003) explained that learning vocabulary through games. The research focused on effective in helping students to improve their vocabulary building skills. The research used communicative language teaching (CLT) approach, learners are required to take part in a number of meaningful activities with different tasks. This is to improve learners' communicative competence by encouraging them to be a part of the lessons themselves. The research used observation and interview to find difficulties of teaching vocabulary. After collecting data by observing CLT teachers' classes, interviewing teachers and students, and from our reflections of applying games in the classes we are teaching, we have some findings that will be helpful for teaching and learning vocabulary. The results will be displayed in three subsections, (i) students' expectations and attitudes, (ii) students' progress and (iii) unanticipated problems. The results of this research suggest that games are used not only for mere fun, but more importantly, for the useful practice and review of language lessons, thus leading toward the goal of improving learners' communicative competence.