Improving Students English Vocabulary Mastery Using Pictures

INTRODUCTION

English as a second language in Indonesia is target in all level from Elementary School until University nowadays. English is also introduced in Kindergarten. In junior high school, senior high school and vocation high school, English is one of nationally – tested subject. So, English score is used as one of standards to pass for the third students. The English score can be from report books, school exam, and national exam. From this, English is compulsory subject in junior high school and senior high school a vocational school for all programs.

In vocational high school, English subject uses curriculum of degree of educational unit (KTSP). Based on this curriculum, English is divided into three levels, namely novice (the first class), elementary (the second class), intermedia-te (the third class). Each level involves listening, speaking, reading, and writing. To master such language skills, the students must master language elements first, namely vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. It mean that vocabulary mastery is an important factor in all language teaching as stated by Allen and Vallete (1977: 149), that vocabulary is an important factor in all language and students must continually learn word as they learn structures and as they practice the sound system.

Rivers (1983: 125) in Nunan (1991: 117) argues that acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is essential for successful language use. Without an extensive vocabulary students will be unable to use the structure and functions that they may have learned for comprehensible communication. It mean that vocabulary mastery is an essential part in learning second language , and an element of supporting structures on grammar and language function based on the four language skills covering listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Concerning with the English teaching, especially for the students of Vocational High School (SMK). English language teaching is not satisfactory yet. This is proven by the result of the mean of the formative test on vocabulary. From the result of observation carried out by the researcher, why the teaching of vocabulary is not satisfactory is because of factor follows: First, the techniques the teacher uses do not enhance students’ interest and motivation. Second, students tend to be passive in understanding the meaning of the words.They do not try hard to find the meaning of the words themselves, for example, by opening dictionary. Third, most vocabulary learned are related to the real things, for examples: machine, electricity, electronics, etc. Such words are difficult to find in dictionary on to example. So, those words can be presented through visual aids. Based on the evidence above, the writer conducts active research to using an the technique of teaching of vocabulary using pictures.

The presentation of pictures is interesting enough for the students of SMK, especially technical program as stated by Allen (1983: 33) as follows:

Pictures of vocabulary teaching come from many sources. In addition to those drawing by the students (or by teacher) there are attractive set which are intended for school. Pictures which have been cut of magazines and newspapers are useful.

Based on the background of study above, many problems arise. The writer identifies the problem as follows:

1. The technique of teaching learning process is boring for the students.

2. The students tend to be passive in finding out the meaning of the words.

3. The students feel difficult to find out the meaning of the words in dictionary.

In this study, the writer limits the problem on: whether using objects in the environment of the student’s life (animals, music, electrical and mechanical things, and simple tools) can improve the students’ vocabulary mastery, whether it can motivate the students in learning vocabulary, and whether it can make them easy to find out the meaning of words.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of the research study is to increase the SMK students’ vocabulary mastery by the use of objects in the environment of the student’s life (animals, music, electrical and mechanical things, and simple tools)

The research result is expected to be able to give some benefits practically and academically. Practically, the research can give the benefits for the teachers and the students. The benefit for the teachers is that this action can help the teachers to choose the most effective technique to apply in teaching vocabulary because there are many techniques in teaching vocabulary although all of them are helpful for the students. The chosen technique must be one that can motivate and improve the students’ mastery in commu-nications.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The term of vocabulary refers to a list or set of words for a particular language or list or set of words that individual speakers of language might use (Hatch and Brown, 1995: 1). It means that vocabulary is a list of words from particular language.

Vocabulary can also defined roughly as the words the teacher teaches in the foreign language, and a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word. For example, post office and mother – in – law which are made up of two or three words express a single idea. There are also multi-word idioms such as call it a day, where the meaning of the phrase cannot be deduced from an analysis of the component words (Ur, 1998: 60).

Vocabulary has an important role in language skills, namely listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Nation In Schmit and Mc Carthy (1997: 6) state that vocabulary knowledge is one component of the language skills such as reading and speaking. Richards and Long (1987: 312) add that skills in reading fall generally into four categories, mechanics, syntax, vocabulary, and comprehensions. It means that vocabulary gives ease to comprehend the text.

There are five essential steps in vocabulary learning (Brown and Payne, 1994) in Hatch and Brown (1995: 373), (1) having sources for encountering new words, (2) getting a clean image, either visual or auditory or both, for the forms and meanings of the new words, (3) learning the meaning of the words, (4) making a story memory constructions between the forms and meanings of the words, (5) using the words. Based on those steps, vocabulary learning is the process of finding new words through listening or reading and uses the new words in writing and speaking.

A pictures is defined as an imagine or likeness of an object, person, scene reproduced on flat surface, especially by painting, or photography, a mental imagine of impression, an idea (Webster, 1979:1357)

The pictures give a great motiva-tion for the students, make the subject. They are dealing with a clearer and illustrate the general idea and the form of an object or an action which are particular to a culture (Wright, 1997: 136).

Cross (1995: 6) divides pictures into three kinds, namely collections of useful pictures from magazines, sketches on the blackboard, and flashcard using a thick pen or large sheet of paper.

From the statements above, the sources of pictures for vocabulary teaching come from board drawings, and teacher’s and the students’ own drawings. They can be explained as follows:

Board drawings are kind of pictures taken from the cuttings of pictures of many sources like magazines, newspapers, or internets pasted on to piece of cardboard or put on the blackboard or whiteboard in front of the classroom.

In this research, the researcher uses the pictures and the teacher’s drawings. It means that the teacher cuts the pictures and draws the things related to the topic of vocabulary on the cardboard. The size of the cardboard is 60 cm x 85 cm. The topics of vocabulary are objects in the environment of the student’s life. They are animals, music, electrical and mechanical things, and simple tools. Each topic is made for one topic of vocabulary.

From the explanations above, the researcher tries to use their environment pictures (animals, music, electrical and mechanical things, and simple tools) in improving students’ English vocabulary mastery. As we know the use of pictures can give a great motivation for the students, make the subject they are dealing more clearly. Using pictures give meaning of words that are less ambiguous.

English has four skills; they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. All those skills will easily improve if the children understand the meaning of the words. So, vocabulary is very important in teaching English for students.

HYPOTHESIS

Using the environment pictures (animals, music, electrical things, transpor-tatin, simple tools) can improve vocabulary mastery of the tenth year students of TKR.E of SMK N 2 Sukoharjo.

METHODOLOGY

In this study, the method of the research the writer uses is the combination of qualitative and quantitative method. The kind of the research is a classroom action research. Kemmis and Mc Tagart (1988) in Nunan (1992: 17) argue that there are three characteristic of the action research. Firstly, the action research is carried out by practitioners (classroom teachers) rather than outside research. Secondly, the action research is collaborative, and thirdly, the action research is aimed at changing things.

In this case, the classroom action research the writer does is an attempt aimed to overcome the problem of vocabulary teaching that is not satisfactory yet in order that the students’ vocabulary mastery can improve. The problems are (1) The techniques the teacher uses do not enhance the students’ interest and motivation, (2) The students tend to be passive in understanding the meaning of the new words, and (3) Most vocabulary learned are related to the real things, for examples, machine, electricity, electronics, etc. Such words are difficult to find in dictionary or to explain.

The subject of the research is tenth year class of TKR.E of SMK N 2 Sukoharjo. The subject consists of thirty six students. Thirty five students are male and a student is female. The reason the writer chooses the class is that the mastery of vocabulary is still low.

Action research in this classroom action research uses the model developed by Kemmis and Mc Taggart in Hopkins (1993: 48).

The model of the action research above is the framework in undertaking a classroom action research, so the four steps (planning, acting, observing, reflecting) of the model above are included in the part of procedures of the action research.

The test (quantitative technique) is vocabulary test involving pre-test and post-test. Pre-test is given before the real action is implemented. The pre-test is taken from the materials that haven’t been taught before. The number of pre-test is 20 the form of pre-test is essay.

The post-test is given after the real action is implemented to know whether or not the students’ vocabulary mastery can improve. The number of items of the post-test is 20. The form of post-test is essay. The post-test is taken from the materials using pictures that is taught in one cycle maybe two cycles or more.

The classroom action research in this study will be successful if there is no longer any weakness in teaching learning process using pictures. The students become active and highly motivates in accepting the lesson.

Secondly, the classroom action research will be successful if the result of post test is satisfactory.

RESEARCH RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The result of the observation shows that using pictures can overcome the problems faced by the students. First, the students become to be more motivated and enthusiastic in learning vocabulary. The condition of the teaching learning becomes more interesting with the existence of the pictures in the classroom. In other words, the teaching learning process becomes alive and not qboring. The topics of the vocabulary that the students learn are clearer because they can see themselves the things through the pictures. In other words, they not only imagine but also see the things through the pictures.

Secondly, in cycle one, the students become active in understanding the meaning of the words. They try hard to find out the meaning of the new words into Indonesian because they can know the things through the pictures on the cardboard. Beside, they have been familiar with the things . Some students can answer the meaning of the new words easily in Indonesian. The new words are placed under or beside the pictures on the cardboard. In other words, an English new vocabulary is written below or beside each picture. They don’t need to open the dictionary. At last, all new English words can be found into Indonesian by the students with the help of the teachers.

In cycle two, the students become more active in understanding the meaning of the words. The pictures on the cardboard are not written in English new words below the pictures. In other words, the teacher does not need to write an English new word below each picture. The teacher writes down the new words on the white board next to the cardboard. Then, the teacher gives numbers to every new word. After all new English words are numbered, the teacher asks the students to match the words on the pictures on the cardboard by just writing number with the help of teacher’s explanation. Here, the students can guess themselves about the pictures through the help of teacher’s explanation.

Thirdly, the students know the new vocabulary related to the objects in the environment of the student’s life more clearly. In this case, if the students face a job interview in English, they will answer easily.

Teaching vocabulary at the vocational high school (SMK) needs much attention. Most vocabulary learned are related to the real things, for examples: machine, tools, electricity, electronics, etc. Such words are difficult to find out in dictionary or to explain.

The teaching of English vocabulary to the tenth year students of machine of SMK N 2 Sukoharjo requires the proper technique. The technique of the teaching must be able to enhance the students’ interest and motivation. So, the students become interested, motivated, and enthusiastic in learning new vocabulary.

Using pictures is one of the techniques that can be used to present the material of vocabulary. From the observation, using pictures is quite appropriate in teaching vocabulary for the tenth grade students of SMK N 2 Sukoharjo. The students are motivated and encouraged to learn new vocabulary. The students become more interested, more active, and more enthusiastic in teaching learning process. As the result, the mean score of vocabulary test increases, from pre-test (4.5) to post-test (7.0). During the teaching learning process, it is less communicative. The students just read the new words written besides or below the pictures. The students’ attention to the teaching learning process is lack. Some students just see the pictures and find out the meanings directly. They don’t think further to get the meaning of the new words.

By matching the available words with the pictures through the teacher’s explanation, it makes the teaching learning process make more live. Besides, the students will be able to remember the new words in their minds for longer time and can use the words in daily activities, especially when they practice in the workshop. As the result, the mean score of the test increase from the post-test of the first cycle (7.0) to post-test of the second cycle (8.5).

CONCLUSION

Having conducted the research, the writer concludes that using pictures can improve the quality of English teaching and learning process, especially vocabulary. The students become more active, more enthusiastic, more interested, and more motivated in learning new words, so the teaching and learning process become alive. Therefore, the students’ vocabulary mastery improves. The improvement of the students’ vocabulary mastery is reflected in the result of the tests. The tests indicate that the mean score of pre-test is 4.5, the mean score of post-test1 (cycle 1) is 7.0 and the mean score of post-test 2 (cycle 2) is 8.5.

Although the problems still exist as stated in the reflection of the result of observation, the teacher can find out the solution of the problems. The problem is that the teaching learning process is less communicative. The students just read the new words written beside or below the pictures. The students’ attention to the teaching learning process is lack. Some students just see the pictures and find out the meaning directly. They don’t think further to get the meaning of the new words. Then, the teacher asks the students to match the available words with the pictures through the teacher’s explanation, as the result, the teaching learning process becomes more live.

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