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IMPROVING ENGLISH VOCABULARY ABILITY WITH

WORD SEARCH GAME METHOD

ALFIATI NUR FADHILAH

10.1.01.08.0016

Univesity of Nusantara PGRI

ABSTRACT

English language is one of the difficult languages to learn. One of the causes can makes students difficult to mastering English is the less of vocabulary ability. Vocabulary is an aspect of language that has been taught by the teacher inteaching English as a second language or foreign language. Teaching vocabulary is  important because it is as a basic to communication. Because there is teaching vocabulary by using games considered a good technique because it gives much practice and fun in learning. Considering the phenomena mentioned above, the writer is interested in attempting to overcome the learners’ problem by means of using a technique called word search game. And the result, The use of Word Search Game in improving vocabulary will proved to be very effective. In line with this, the English teachers are highly suggested to use this technique continuously and make effective use of different kind of Word Search Game.

Key Words: Vocabulary Ability, Word Search Game

INTRODUCTION

Language plays a central role in human life. It provides a vehicle for communication, a tool for thinking, a means of creativity and a source of pleasure. An understanding of language and the ability to use it effectively gives students access to knowledge, enables them to play an active part in the society and contributes to their personal growth. Language is the most significant possession of human being. It is means for human beings to communicate their ideas and to convey information.

English is very important in communication, science and technology, as an International language. It is widely spoken in all over the world. Therefore it should be introduced as early as possible to the students. “Language is the most important clement in human life, because language is a means of communication. So that communication can proceed smoothly and well, than we have to master the language is a mean of communication the form of sound symbols produced by the tool human said.” (Keraf, 1993:1)

English language is one of the difficult languages to learn, because there is significant different between English language and native language. One of the causes can makes students difficult to mastering English is the less of vocabulary ability. This is because learners get vocabulary by finding words in the dictionary alphabetically so that their vocabullary have got easily forgotten. Therefore the creativity of the teacher is necessary to select the media or teaching technique that can attract the attention of students to learn English, especially in learning vocabulary.

Vocabulary is an aspect of language that has been taught by the teacher inteaching English as a second language or foreign language. Teaching vocabulary is  important because it is as a basic to communication, if learners don not recognize the meaning of keywords they will be unable to participate the conversation, even if they know the morphology and syntax, so the students firstly should master a large number of vocabulary, without having this they can not express themselves clearly and effectively. 

Learning vocabulary through Incidental, Intentional and Independent Approaches requires teachers to plan a wide variety of activities and exercises. As learners’ vocabulary expands in size and depth, extensive reading and the use of independent strategies may be increasingly emphasized. Extensive Reading and Listening, Translation, Elaboration and Fluency Activities, Guessing from Context and Using Dictionaries, all have their own roles to play in systematically developing vocabulary of learners.

Vocabulary learning is central to language acquisition, whether the language is first, second, or foreign. Although vocabulary has not always been recognize as a priority in language teaching, interest in its role in second language(L2) learning has grown rapidly in recent years and specialist now emphasize the need for a systematic and principle approach to vocabulary by both the teacher and the learner ( Murcia, 2001: 285)

Vocabulary is the main tool for language learners, especially the students in the process of learning, mastering and using the language they learn  language as an important means of communication. According to Hornby (1978: 1331), Vocabulary is the total number of words, which make up language. He believes that a number of meaningful words or a phrase builds a language.

Words are very important in language learning – words are the tools we use to think, to express ideas and feeling, and to learn about the world, because words are very foundation of an educational priority.Hill (1999) in reniti (2009:8) explains that most learners with ‘good vocabularies’ have problem with fluency because their’ collocational competence’ is very limited and that especially from intermediate level, we should aim at increasing their collocation competence with the vocabulary they have already got. For advance learners he also suggests building an what already know, using better strategies and increasing the number of items they meet outside the classroom.  

One important objective of studies into language learning strategies is often to determine effective ways of learning a new language (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990).The field of vocabulary learning strategies is no exception as the effectiveness of strategies for learning new words has been under scrutiny for several decades now (e.g. Cohen and Aphek, 1981; Brown and Perry, 1991; Ellis and Beaton, 1993, Lawson and Hogben, 1996; Gu and Johnson, 1996; Schmitt, 1997a; and Fan, 2003). This article is expected to be uses as a  valuable input or feedback in increasing the effectiveness of techniques at improving the student’s ability in English vocabulary.

TEORY

Vocabulary Ability

Vocabulary learning is central to language acquisition, whether the language is first, second, or foreign. Although vocabulary has not always been recognize as a priority in language teaching, interest in its role in second language(L2) learning has grown rapidly in recent years and specialist now emphasize the need for a systematic and principle approach to vocabulary by both the teacher and the learner ( Murcia, 2001: 285)

Vocabulary is the main tool for language learners, especially the students in the process of learning, mastering and using the language they learn  language as an important means of communication. According to Hornby (1978: 1331), Vocabulary is the total number of words, which make up language. He believes that a number of meaningful words or a phrase builds a language. Some one who is skillful in the four English skills (speaking, listening, writing and reading) must have rich and extended mastery of vocabulary items, words and phrases, which constitute of the bulk of the language. 

Teaching vocabulary is very challenging and interesting tasks for the teacher. Several techniques and tools can be used in teaching vocabulary. It is very difficult to determine with one is the best way: however, the teacher should be able to select them. Some of the most common techniques used in teaching vocabulary item: (1) Teaching vocabulary through song: (2) Teaching vocabulary through pictures, and (3) Teaching vocabulary through games. Teaching vocabulary by using games considered a good technique because it gives much practice and fun in learning.  Jeremy Harmer (2007:238) states that there are many games which are appropriate for use with collection of vocabulary items which designed to engage students with a list of vocabulary items.

Learners must be able to master in active and also in passive vocabulary. Active vocabulary is the words they should be able to use in speaking and writing. Passive vocabulary is the words they should be able to recognize and understand when they are listened to someone or when they are reading (Heaton, 1989:9). Some research findings also disclose that learners who have acquired more vocabulary items, they will be more likely to have better ability to articulate and communicate the massage. Further more, vocabulary has four aspects namely: pronunciation, spelling, meaning, and usage. It is mean that in learning vocabulary the students must be able to pronounce the words correctly, to spell the words, to know the meaning of words and to use the words.

Vocabulary is one of the major problems encounter by teaching of English as a foreign language (TEFL). It is considered to be the most important aspect in foreign language learning. Many students fail to communicate effectively because they do not have sufficient vocabulary mastery.

Penny – Ur (1998:60 ) assert that vocabulary can divined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language.  However, a new item of vocabulary maybe more than single word, which made up two or three words but expresses a single idea. deduced from an analysis of the component words. A useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary items, rather than words.

Mastering vocabulary is also very important in order that learners are able to understand the meaning. e.g. the text in English. In the Budiawan in Kasmawati (2008:10) say that second language or foreign language, readers often cited ‘lack of vocabulary ‘as one of the outside to text comprehension. It means that the readers ‘comprehension upon the text will be influenced by they familiarities with vocabulary in it. By mastering a large number of vocabularies, the learners will be able to understand the massage of the text well.

Now days it is widely accepted that vocabulary Teaching should be part of the Syllabus, and taught in well-planned and regular basis. Therefore, it could be said that vocabulary plays an important role in target language, as the object of language teaching is to cultivate student’s skill namely reading, speaking, listening and writing. Vocabulary in needed to interact and to express the ideas in the target language. By mastering an adequate vocabulary, the learners will be able to communicate easily and fluently with other people and understand other’s ideas even to speak and write fluently.

Teaching vocabulary is very challenging and interesting tasks for the teacher. Several techniques and tools can be used in teaching vocabulary. It is very difficult to determine with one is the best way: however, the teacher should be able to select the most appropriate way and tool to ensure the improvement of the students “vocabulary mastery”. 

Vocabulary Teaching Strategy

According to Schmitt (1997), a vocabulary learning strategy is any strategy that results in the learning of vocabulary. Notably, this covers vocabulary teaching strategies as well since they also lead, or are meant to lead, to vocabulary learning. It will be argued here that vocabulary learning and teaching strategies should be defined in a mutually exclusive manner, and I suggest vocabulary learning strategies be defined, following (Sanaoui, 1995), as learners’ study habits of second language vocabulary and vocabulary teaching strategies as actions taken by the teacher to teach or practice target vocabulary. Thus, a learning strategy is self-initiated by the learner whereas a teaching strategy is teacher-initiated. 

The distinction between vocabulary learning and teaching strategies is not a superficial one, though. It might have important implications in terms of learning outcomes. A self-employed strategy has the advantage of being more meaningful to the learner and therefore, will induce higher motivation in and greater attention to the task of word learning. Thus, written repetition imposed by the teacher might turn mechanical in learners’ hurry to complete the task whereas written repetition self-selected by the learner would be geared more towards learning. It is possible, of course, to reverse the argument in favour of teaching strategies and say that a strategy will be designed and implemented more skilfully by the teacher, such as word analysis (i.e. analysis of roots and affixes), and thus will produce more positive learning outcomes. It follows from this that some teaching strategies might be more conducive to word learning than the corresponding learning strategies and vice-versa. Also, many teaching strategies would not normally appear in a vocabulary learning strategies taxonomy, e.g. relia, cut-out figures, pictures, charts, games, etc. 

The devised taxonomies can further be used in studies that survey teachers’ use and perception of the strategies or in experimental studies that test relative effectiveness of strategies for a given purpose (i.e. concept teaching) or for a given type of target words (e.g. nouns vs. verbs). The research by Chun and Plass (1996) is an example of experimental work on strategy effectiveness. In this study, Chun and Plass compared vocabulary learning in three different presentation modes as learners read a computerised text in a multi-media environment. The three modes available to the learners for look-up by a simple clicking were verbal definition, pictures and video and were provided only for a set of nouns. The modes of presentation used in the experiment are parallel to verbal (i.e. definition) and visual teaching strategies (i.e. picture and video) mentioned above. Although the study was conducted under laboratory conditions, the results can also be generalised to the language classroom since a language teacher may also use definition, picture or video to teach words. The study indicated that pictures and video were more effective than verbal definition and pictures were, in turn, more effective than the video. This result might be explained by the nature of the target words used, which uniformly belonged to the noun category. Nouns typically encode entities and states and less typically processes or actions. Thus, noun meaning is basically static, and this may be the reason why still pictures were more effective than motion pictures (i.e. video). Alternatively, video might turn out to be more effective in teaching verbs, as verb meaning is typically dynamic.

Word Search Game

Play or game is an important way to learn all types of skills and knowledge. learners are more motivated to do an activity if they are having fun doing it and pleasurable activities get repeated, therefore, give their more chances the practice the skills or recall a piece of knowledge. Word games are a great way to pick up new vocabulary and play with vocabulary that is already familiar (Huyen and Nga 2003 : 1). Based on the statement above, the writer argue that the increase in teaching vocabulary through game can be done by teacher using game such as word search game.

Some one who is skillful in the four English skills (speaking, listening, writing and reading) must have rich and extended mastery of vocabulary items, words and phrases, which constitute of the bulk of the language.  The writer want to know the use of word search game and the writer thinks that word search game can give enrichment to improve their vocabulary ability. The focus of the problems in this article arise from the fact thet most of students have low vocabulary ability, because the teacher only used a dictionary as media learning.

Jeremy Harmer (2007:238) states that there are many games which are appropriate for use with collection of vocabulary items which designed to engage students with a list of vocabulary items.

Considering the phenomena mentioned above, the writer is interested in attempting to overcome the learners’ problem by means of using a technique called word search game. Word search game is one type of activities that can be applied to give the learners practice in learning vocabulary. Moreover, it might be possible to improve the learners’ vocabulary through word search game.

Achievement test that measure the extent of this learning perhaps do have a part to play institutional testing. For those who believe the systematic teaching of vocabulary is desirable, vocabulary achievement tests are appreciated for their backwash effect. The usefulness of a general diagnostic test of vocabulary is not readily apparent. As far as placement test are concerned, we would not normally require, or expect, a particular set of lexical items to be prerequisite for a particular language class. All we would be looking for is some general indication of the adequacy of the students vocabulary. The learning of specific lexical items in class will rarely depend on previous knowledge of other, specified items. O ne alternative is to use a published test of vocabulary. The other is to construct one’s own vocabulary proficiency test.

Assessment can be administered by carrying out a series of tests. Test may be constructed primarily as devices to reinforce learning and to motivate the learners or primarily as a mean of assessing the learners performance in the language ( Heaton, 1998:5). In relation to this study, the writer will focus on testing the learner’s performance in vocabulary achievement when writer words search game as a tool. The anticipates that the test will give objective feedback for both learners and the writer.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of Word Search Game in improving vocabulary will proved to be very effective. In line with this, the English teachers are high suggested to use this technique continuously for the interest learners to study English and make effective use of different kind of Word Search Game.

REFERENCES

Chun, D.M. & Plass, J.L. (1996) ‘Effects of multimedia annotations on vocabulary acquisition’. The Modern Language Journal 80(2), 183-198.

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Heaton,J.B.1975. Writing English Language Test. A Practical Guide for  Teacher of English as a Foreign Language: Longman Group United.

Hornby, A.S. 1980. Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Third Edition. Oxford University Press.

Ida Ayu Made Sri Widiastuti, 2011.  Improving    English Vocabulary  Ability Through Word Search Game Of The Seventh Grade Students Of Smpn 2 Abiansemal In Academic Year 2009/2010. Jurnal Santiaji Pendidikan, 2011, 1(1): 51-61                                                   ISSN 2087-9016

Jeremy Harmer.2007. The Practice of English Language Teaching, England: Person Education Limited.

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Penny Ur.1998. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press

Pittman, W. (2003) Building vocabulary through prefixes, roots and suffixes. The Internet TESL Journal 9 (7). \[http://iteslj.org/]

Sanaoui, R. (1995). Adult learners’ approaches to learning vocabulary in second languages. The Modern Language Journal 79, 15-28.

Schmitt, N. (1998). Tracking the incremental acquisition of second language vocabulary: A longitudinal study. Language Learning 48 (2), 281-317.

Schmitt, N. (1997). Vocabulary learning strategies. In Schmitt, N. And M.McCarthy (Eds.) Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition, and Pedagogy (pp. 199-227). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Schmitt, N. & Schmitt, D. (1995) Vocabulary notebooks: Theoretical underpinnings and practical suggestions. English Language Teaching Journal 49 (2), 133-143.