Vocabulary Component Of Language

Vocabulary Component Of LanguageVocabulary is an measurable component of linguistic communication cook a go at itledge because without knowing a exhaustively deal of phraseology students entrust get difficulty when they express their ideas. As Zhihong (200018) verbalize, Without a sufficient reciprocationing, one stoolnot communicate effectively or express ideas. It means that having limited dictionary might cause difficulty for students as opposed language learners to communicate with others and express their ideas. They might be stuck when using the language. check to Luppescu and Day (1993 266), Building a large diction is essential when larn English because people with large vocabularies ar more proficient than those with limited vocabularies. In other family, when students have piles of language, they can communicate relatively well than those who lack of expression. therefore, students should have enough English diction in order to be able to under tell apart their studies favoredly.Having lots of English vocabulary is important for anyone who wants to use the language. Decarrico (2001 205) states, Vocabulary attainment is central to language acquisition, whether first, second, or foreign. It means that learning vocabulary is the prior component that mustiness be accustomed to the students during their field of operation of the language. They must he exposed with the vocabulary of the language they argon poring over. Thus, teachers be expected to develop their studentsrI2vocabulary by giving them the techniques or strategies of learning vocabulary. In the same fashion, students atomic number 18 in like manner expected to have their con gibee strategies in learning vocabulary. According to August and her colleagues (available at pwww.readinrockets.orWarticle/9943), vocabulary learning strategies include Dictionary useIn this strategy, learners can find multiple volume piths as well as splendor of choosing the remove de finition to fit the split upicular context. Morphemic AnalysisThis strategy is the process of deriving a spoken language meaning by analyzing its important parts or morphemes. Such word parts include root linguistic communication, prefixesand suffixes. Contextual AnalysisIt involves inferring the meaning of an unfamiliar word by scrutinizing the text surround it. Instruction in contextual analysis gener ally involves breeding students to employ both generic and specific types of context clues.They besides suggest several strategies that take care to be particularly valuable for building the vocabularies of English Language Learners. These strategies include taking advantage of students first language if the language shares cognates with English, education the meaning of prefatory speech communication, and providing sufficient review and reinforcement. establish on the several strategies partn above, it can be said that vocabulary learning strategies are specific actions i nterpreted by the learner to make3learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations. body politic (19863) has listed 3,000 advanced-frequency English words and recommends these words as the basis of selection and order of vocabulary in teaching English at schools. He said that the learners of English as a foreign language need to master a productive knowledge and heart-to-heart knowledge of 1,000 and 2,000 high-frequency words. These skills bequeath enable learners to communicate their ideas in the language they are thinking whether in oral or written.Nurweni and Read (1999 161) conducted the hold in Lampung and discovered that students had aboutwhat knowledge of 1226 English words. They similarly cited several questiones Quin (1968) conducted a vocabulary size of High schoolhouse students graduated in Salafga and discovered that the subjects knew less than 1,000 of the most frequent English words after six years of study in high school and another study conducted by Suwarno Kartini (1998) in Bengkulu, they discovered that the students knew around 2,000 of the high-frequency words. All of the researches were about the vocabulary size of Indonesian learners specially students of High School (University level) the chair showed that their vocabulary knowledge was still limited.The recent researches about vocabulary knowledge were conducted by Karwuur (2005) and Kurniawati (2004ii). Karwuur conducted her research by analyzing the junior high schools English standards. She analyzed three English textbooks used by junior high school levels and discovered that those books4contain 1196 high-frequency words out of 2000 high-frequency words listed in res publica (198610-80). Kurniawati conducted a study of vocabulary knowledge of junior high school stuqents in several state junior high schools in Jakarta and discovered that the students were estimated to know 819 words receptively and 409 words productively out of 1,000 and 2,000 vocabulary levels.In Indonesia, English is a compulsory subject for students from primary school to university level. As utter in the 1999 English Curriculum, students of junior high school are expected to have solid language skills so that they are able to communicate well. Based on it, students in junior-grade High School level are expected to cover 1,000 words.From all the research above, thither has not been any research yet to discover the vocabulary size ofjunior high school ground on English textbooks. The explanation above excite the researcher to find out more about the size of students English vocabulary at Junior High School in Jakarta based on the vocabulary found in their textbooks used at Junior High School level.1.2 Problem StatementBased on the background of the study above, the researcher is interested in finding out the number of words known by the students of Junior High School based on their textbooks. The research question of this study is formulated as follow How much is the size of the junior high school students knowledge of the English vocabulary learned from their textbooks?51.3 Target PopulationThe population of my research is Junior High School (SMP) level students. From this population, the sample for this particular survey is the third level of SMP students. They are students who are taken from several cloak-and-dagger schools in Jakarta.1.4 Purpose of the StudyThe purpose of the study is to investigate the English vocabulary size of Junior High School students, especially those from private schools in Jakarta..1.5 Limitation of the studyThis study is limited to third graders junior high school students located in Jakarta. The number of the students include is 311 students.1.6 Weaknesses of the StudyThe researcher realized that this study has some weaknesses. Among them areThis study is emphasized only in English vocabulary size in that location is no clear border between receptive and productive competence in order to time vocabulary size ofjunior high school students6 The era taken is limited because the population was existence prepared for the National examination, so that the researcher has limited condemnation to take the data needed.1.7 Benefit of the StudyHopefully, this study gives information about the vocabulary size ofjunior high school students. It is expected that the information is useful as an input for English teachers to know their students English exercise especially their vocabulary. Thus, the teacher might be able to prepare the lesson with good techniques and strategies in order to lead the students more interested and traveld in expanding their vocabulary, especially the high-frequency words and studying English.C7CHAPTER IILITERATURE REVIEWIn this chapter, vocabulary in language learning will be firstly discussed, followed by tryouting vocabulary, then vocabulary selection and kinds of vocabulary size test. Finally, measuring v ocabulary size will be explained in the last part of this chapter.2.1. Vocabulary in Language LearningCoady and Hicklin (19975) stated that, Vocabulary is central to language and of critical important to the typical language learner. Zhang Xi (19923 3) also says that, Mastering vocabulary is an important aspect of learning a language. It can be concluded that vocabulary is very crucial for the language learners to acquire and master. In English learning process vocabulary is still quite difficult for students to acquire new or unfamiliar words. In fact, if the students do not know enough words, it is im thinkable for students to understand ideas to express their thought. As Luppescu Day (1993265) said, Building a large vocabulary is essential when learning language because learners with large vocabularies are more proficient than those with limited vocabularies. It means that students will succeed if they have much vocabulary because they know what should they speak, write and they can comprehend what they hear and read. It is also supported by Anderson and Freebody (1981 77), Vocabulary knowledge is an excellent predictor of general language ability. In the language use, vocabulary becomesn8important to them so it must be paid forethought by both teachers and students. In this case teachers have many social occasions in the process of teaching and learning vocabulary because not only the meaning of words moreover also the words knowledge whereas the students should be active in learning process. Harmer (199 1242) states that, In play the role of facilitating, the teacher should always be ready to offer help if it is needed and is available whenever the students wish to consult them. Thus, the teacher should make a good plan in teaching English especially vocabulary and prepare the lesson by using an interesting method.Courtright and Wesolek in their research report (20013) indicate that, It is an importance to incorporate interactive vocabulary activitie s into English classes. It can be designed to fulfill the following purposes1. Exposure (concept of clarifying word meaning and illustrate appropriate usage)2. Expansion (concept of using the appropriate word form in context)3. Expression (concept of demonstrating word knowledge in either oral or written buffer expression using the target words)While each of the three purposes should be covered at each level of language proficiency, the proportion of class judgment of conviction spent on activities for each purpose will vary according to the level of the students. At beginning levels like junior high school students for example, teachers scat to spend more time clarifying the meaning or exposing the students to the words and refining usage. Moreover the material and interesting media selection need to be given more.9attention to the teachers as a facilitator in the learning process in order to increase the students vocabulary size.In the learning process, the goal of learning pla ys an important role in the main point. As stated in the English curriculum ofjunior high school (Depdiknas 1999) that the goal of vocabulary learning of Junior high school student who use English as a foreign language is to prepare themselves with vocabulary that can be used in expressing idea and communicating with other people. Furthermore, they are also expected to master 1,000 words. The curriculum states both the number of words which should be acquired and the list of words that should be taught. In the other words, junior high school students are provided with the amount of vocabulary which is classified advertisement into some topics. Based on this reason, students need to prepare themselves with a good language skill in order.to be able to communicate their ideas in the target language both oral and written.According to the foreign language teaching methodology, linguistic competence is generally categorized into skills that refer to both receptive competence (listening a nd reading) and productive competence (speaking and writing). As cited by Herudjati and Hendarti (2004v), The crucial role of teachers is to help students master the target language. It means that the process of mastering the target language, the students need teachers role to fulfill final purpose of the learning language. In this case, the teachers as both motivators and facilitators must be wisely motivated, facilitated, and encouraged students to improve their productive competence. Thus the teachers role is very important toII10motivate their students in learning vocabulary especially to stimulate the students in producing their vocabulary whether in oral or written language.Besides teachers role, textbook usage is also one of important factors to support the learning process. According to Kizilirmak (1991 47)The textbook, after all, is the main resource of the material for most language teachers. It was also agreed by Karwuur(2005i3), that textbook is one of the teaching mater ials which is the most accessible and effective for most teachers to support their teaching programs. Thus, the students achievement should be considered with the role of the textbook usage during the learning process.From the surmise above, this study will be focused on the studentsvocabulary achievement based on their textbooks target.2.2 Testing VocabularyAccording to Novozhilova (Available atjip//www. natek.freenet.kz/novozhilova.html), Testing is an important part of each teaching and learning experience. Well-made test of English can help students in at least two ways. First, such tests can help make out positive attitudes toward the ciass. Second, English tests can benefit students is by helping them master the language. Properly, made English test can help create positive attitudes toward instruction by giving students a sense of accomplishment and a feeling that the teachers evaluation of them matches what he has taught them. It is also agreed by Nation (19998). He said that testing usually has two effects (1) It provides information for the teacher and learners (2) it influences the teachersI11and learners attitudes. That is, testing can encourage learning and upgrade interest in it.Besides those effects of the testing above, good English tests also help students to learn the language by requiring them to study hard, emphasizing course objectives, and showing them where they need to improve. In other word, the result of tests can help teachers answer the important question Have I been effective in my teaching? It means that the tests can be used to cite our own efforts as well as those of our students. Then, test is beneficial for students, teachers, and even administrators by confirming win that has been made and showing how can trounce redirect our future efforts. In addition, good test can sustain or enhance class team spirit and aid learning.Test of language sub skills do not show exactly how well a person uses English, and they can help teachers diagnose students strengths and weaknesses in oral or written communication. Generally, language tests are simply instruments or procedures for gathering particular kinds of information, typically information tie in with students language abilities. In this case, the test of vocabulary is used to diagnose areas of student needs or sources of learning difficulties, to reflect on the effectiveness of materials and activities, and to encourage students involvement in the learning progress for further classroom- based applications of language test. Novozhiiova adds that the reasons for testing can be identified as follows1. Testing tells teachers what students can or cannot do-in order words, tests show the teachers how successful their teaching has been. It providesI12wash-back from them to adjust and change course content and teaching style where necessary.2. Testing tells students how well they are progressing. This may stimulate them to take learning more seriously.3. By identifying students strength and weaknesses, testing can help identify areas for remedial work.4. Testing will help evaluate the effectiveness of the program, course-books, material, and methods.Thus, teaching and testing are two inseparable aspects of the teachers task. They have an essential role in developing the students communicative competence.2.3 Vocabulary SelectionVocabulary selection is related to the materials in used to enrich and develop students vocabulary. According to Read (2000148) Vocabulary size test is merely samples of items representing their perspective frequency level, not words that are of interest in their own right. It means that to select the vocabulary that will be tested, the test taker must consider to the criteria of vocabulary selection. Karwuur (200510) notes that the selection of vocabulary should be based on the learners needs and the consideration of whether it is useful to them or not. Not to be different from them, Richards (200 17) said that there are two major(ip) criteria that should be considered by the teacher in selecting and organizing vocabulary from the classroom, they are frequency and cuckold of words. It is also13agreed by Nation (1990 18-19) that frequency and range of the words are the main criteria in making selection of vocabulary for teaching learning in a class.Moreover, vocabulary selection is also related to direct and indirect vocabulary learning. In direct vocabulary learning, the students do exercises and activity that focus their attention on vocabulary. Word-building exercises, guessing word from context, learning word in lists, and vocabulary games are included in direct vocabulary learning. In indirect vocabulary learning the students attention is focused in some other feature such as message that is conveyed by a speaker or writer. As cited in Nation (19992), Krashen (1981 a) said that those arethe input surmisal of language learning. Nation (19993) also states that there are quaternity way s in selecting vocabulary. They are as followsI. Material is prepared with vocabulary learning as a consideration. In this case the selection and grading of vocabulary has been given a lot of attention before the course begins.2. Words are dealt with as they happen to occur. It means that if an unknown word appears in the reading passage, the teacher gives some attention to it at the moment it causes a problem.3. Vocabulary is taught in joining with other language activities. In other words, it should be concerned with real life.4. Time is spent either in class or out of school.From all the ways above it can be said that selecting words is not an easything to do because there are not only some aspects determining the vocabularyI14selection but also the curriculum guidance on English subject coveriiig the words should be taught and which should be left out.Having good enough vocabulary influences the students in some waysthey understand what they read, what they hear, what they want to say, and write. Because vocabulay is an important component in language learning, it is used in all ianguage skiHs whether in reading, listening, speaking, or writing. It can not be separated each other. Vocabulary learning in the Junior High School level needs more attentions because according to the previous researches found that the problem ofjunior high school students is they lack of vocabulary so they could have difficulties in both receptive and productive English skills. therefore, this study focused on the words included in the junior high school textbooks used by the students the result gained will indicate that the junior high school students have a progress in learning the vocabulary. The textbooks refer to the 1999 curriculum guidance.2.4 Types of Vocabulary Size TestBased on the frequency and the word range, Nation (20026) dividedvocabulary into 4 groups. They areI. High frequency wordsHigh frequency words are words that occur frequently in running text orspeech o f the native speaker. These words are very important so the studentsshould be familiar with those words.152. Academic wordsThe academic words are the words that used in the common academic text.3. Technical wordsThese words are closely related to the topic discussed.4. Low frequency wordsThese kind of words are included all the words that are not high frequencywords, not academic words and not technical words for a particular subject.He also says that the word-frequency counts help teachers and course designers in several ways. (a) They can help a teacher develop a feeling about which words are useful and should be given attention and which are infrequent. (b) They can provide a principled basis for developing words list for teaching, for designing graded courses and reading texts, and for preparing vocabulary test. (c) Where frequency counts give information on range, they are also useful for developing specialized words list. Thus, the vocabulary for the junior high school student s that useful is high-frequency words which have a wide range.The test is very important in order to know the students progressive and the teacher effectiveness in teaching learning process. There are several types of test that can be used to test the vocabulary sizeI. Multiple choice testCross the choice that gives the best meaning of the wordA tome 1. a rough split2. a pain in the back163. a large, heavy book4. a type of horse2. Yes/No or checklist testTick the words you knowexploreachieve _____survive _______environment ______3. Translation test realize the underline word into your first language.A bird has two wings.4. Matching itemsoriginalprivate completeroyal firstslow not unexclusivesorrytotalThose types of vocabulary test have the advantages and disadvantages. According to Nation (200181), they areMultiple-choice itemsMultiple-choice items are difficult and need more time to make it but they are very quick and easy to score if the answers are clear. The test takers perform ance is too dependent on the choice of distracters and they black market to guess the answer.172. The Y/N or checklist itemsAre easy to make and score but this tent to make the test taker overestimate of their vocabulary knowledge.3.. Translation itemsThe rendition test are easy to produce and they ask the students to perform a task which is equal to what they do when reading or listening, but the scoring can be complicated and scorer need to know the students mother tongue.4. Matching itemsThe matching items are quick and easy to produce but it gives the test taker an opportunity to guess whey they answer.There are several types of test to measure students vocabulary size. Inchoosing the suitable test type, the principles suggested by Nation (2001345) are1. The test has plenty of items.2. The test item type requires the learner to use the kind of vocabulary knowledge that wants to be tested.3. The test is easy to make, mark, and interpret, and has good effect on the learning and teaching.After the purposes and uses of the testing have been decided, the next point to consider is what kinds of information have to be known. In this case, to know the vocabulary size of the junior high school students, the researcher gave a test used to measure their vocabulary. Considering all the types of vocabulary size tests presented above, this study used explanation test as a tool to measure18students vocabulary size. In this test, the students are expected to translate the target words given. As Rebecca (1990 84) stated that, Translating can be helpful strategy early in language learning, as long as it is used with care. In this test, the students are allowed to use their own language as the basis for understanding what they hear or read in the new language. Thus, the English vocabulary size ofjunior high school students will be obtained.19CHAPTER IIIRESEARCH METHODOLOGYThis chapter incLudes research objective, the research methodology, the subjects of the study, target vocabulary, techniques of data collection method, and data analysis.3.1. Research ObjectiveThe aim of this research is to find out whether the students have the adequate vocabulary size. In order to know the size of the students vocabulary knowledge, the translation test was employed. The test is intended to measure how much the junior high school students know the vocabulary they learned from their English textbooks.3.2. Research MethodologyThe methodology used in this research is survey. As stated on the website available at http//www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/survey.htm), survey research is one of the most important areas of measurement in applied social research. The resistant area of survey research encompasses any measurement procedures that involve asking questions of respondents. In survey, the samples are highly preferred a big class. Denscombe (199222) stated that being enhanced representative of the samples and allows greater confidence to making generalization use t he large sample.20I3.3. Subject of the studySubjects in this study were private Junior High School students in Jakarta. The subjects were taken from nine different private schools in Jakarta by using a purposive ergodic sampling. The researcher took 9 schools out of 685 schools. The selection was based on their achievement in the study exam score. First, the researcher selected three private schools randomly that had the highest national exam score and classified them as high-level private schools. Then, the researcher selected another three private schools that had the average national exam score and classified them as medium-level schools. At the last, the researcher selected three private schools that had the lowest national exam score and classified them as low-level schools. One class was taken as a sample from each school. The main purpose of having high, medium, and low-level is to discover whether there is a significant difference in the achievement of the students vocabul ary size learned from their textbooks.3.4. Target VocabularyThe target vocabulary was taken from the words in English textbooks for Junior High School. Before the sample was taken, the words were edited. Function words like the, a, to, in, that were not included in the test of this kind of words articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries, etc.- are called as function words and seen as the grammar of the language. Thus the researcher sets out to test vocabulary by focusing on the content words as the target words.21The target vocabularies were selected from 2235 words which are used in Junior High School English textbooks. Following Thorndike and Lorges method of estimating vocabulary size as cited by Nation (199076), the researcher selectedevery tenth word of the lists after the function words were elirninated. Consequently, there are 200 words tested to the participants.3.5. Data Collection methodThe translation test is employed to collect the data in order to know how many English words were known by the students. In the test, each target word was provided in the sentences which are underlined, then, the students were asked to write the meaning. in Indonesian on the answer sheet provided. The direction was also given in Indonesian.The test consisted of 200 items. each(prenominal) item consisted of one short-simple sentence in English in which the target word was underlined. The students were asked to write the meaning of the underlined word into Indonesian.The translation test is as followsVOCABULARY-SIZE testing FOR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTSIN JAKARTATes mi dimaksudkan untuk mengetahui banyaknya kosakata yang telah saudara kuasai berdasarkan buku bahasa Inggris yang dipakai. Setiap soal terdiri atas satu kalimat yang di dalamnya terdapat sat kata yang digaris bawahi. Tuliskan makna kata tersebut dalam bahasa Indonesia pada lembar JAWABAN yang telah disediakan.Coba kerjakan tes dibawah mi1. She uses a dictionary to check difficult words. 2. The room is dark,3. She gave you an example.22There are two points in collecting the data, here are as follows3.5.1. Try Out of the InstrumentThe pilot study was conducted to calculate the reliability and hardihood of the test. The try out was calculated by using the Spearman Brown Method. The try out result indicated that the reliability coefficient for translation test is 0,8 8. Thus, it can be said that the test was reliable.The following is the formula of the Spearman Brown method N-(X)(Y)2(rXy)r11 = (i+rXy )Wherer = Pearson r= the sum of score in X-distribution-= the sum of score in Y-distributionXY = the sum of the products of pairs X- and Y-scores= the sum of the squared scores in X-distributionY2 = the sum of the squared scores in Y-distributionN = the number of paired X- and Y- scores (subjects)23Based on the computation, the result is 0.88, while the rt for N 20 IS 044. So the result of the sensibleity and reliability is higher thanthe critical r. It can be concluded that the test is valid and reliable enough to be used as a test instrument.3.5.2. Scoring TestThe type of the test used in this study is the translation test. It isused to identify whether the students knew the words in the textbooks they use.Following Nurweni and Reads study on vocabulary size ofIndonesian university students which also used translation test, there were four possible answers, which were acceptable, they areI. The answers gave a meaning of the word that was in likeness to the context and grammatically correct.2. The answer which gave a meaning of the word that was in relation with the context but it was grammatically incorrect.3. The answer gave a meaning of the target word that was not in relation with the context but it was one possible meaning of the target wordand grammatically correct.4. The answer gave a meaning that was not in relation with the context but it was one possible meaning of the target word and grammaticallyincorrect.24In this study, the four dif ferent types of answer were all accepted as correct. For example He is pjtin the room with risque colour. The answers might be mengecat, cat, melukis, lukis. All the answers are considered correct. Every correc