dc.description.abstract | Vocabulary, as one of the most important aspects in foreign language
learning, is a tool we need when we want to communicate or to express our ideas.
Wilkins (2005: 13) says that there is very little can be conveyed without grammar,
but there is nothing can be conveyed without vocabulary. Therefore, in English
language teaching and learning, vocabulary cannot be neglected. Studying new
vocabulary is not easy for the students at junior high school. Most of them experience
difficulties to memorize the vocabulary and the spellings which are quite different
from those of their mother language. Therefore, the teacher should try to teach
English vocabulary as interestingly as possible. One of the ways to make teaching
and learning process more various and interesting is by using teaching media.
Arsyad (2006:5) says that media are components of learning sources or physical
modes which contain instructional materials in learners’ environment which can
stimulate the students to study. There are many benefits of using media in teaching
and learning process. As stated by Gairns and Redman (1998:103) that media can be
used for presentation, practice, revision, and testing. Moreover, they are very useful
to help the effectiveness of learning process and deliver the message of the lesson
done by the teacher.
One of the alternative media in teaching vocabulary is Word Cards. Teaching
vocabulary by using Word Cards is believed to be useful and good for students
because Word Cards have some benefits as follows, (1) they help students retrieve the
word meaning and the form from the memory, (2) they help students learn a large
amount of receptive and productive vocabulary learning at an initial stage of word
learning, (3) they help students use time efficiently on the unknown words, (4) they
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allow students to use L1 translation, (5) they are very convenient for students to bring
with them anytime anywhere (6) they are recognized as a fun and effective way to
learn, reinforce, test and retain information, and (7) word cards can be used for self or
group study (Nation, 2008:66).
This research was a quasi experimental research. The objective of this
research was to know whether or not there was a significant effect of using Word
Cards on the seventh grade students’ vocabulary achievement at SMPN 14 Jember.
The area of this research was SMPN 14 Jember. This school was chosen purposively
because the use of Word Cards had never been applied in teaching learning process
this school by the teams. The population of this research was the seventh grade
students of SMPN 14 Jember. The research respondents of this research were chosen
by using cluster random sampling by lottery since the population was homogeneous
based on the result of homogeneity test. The total number of the respondents was 72
students which consisted of 36 students of VII C as the experimental group which
was taught vocabulary using Word Cards, while the control group consisted of 36
students of class VII B which was taught vocabulary without using Word Cards.
The data of this research were collected from students’ scores of vocabulary
test, interview, and documentation. The vocabulary achievement collected from the
vocabulary post test score. Then, these scores were analyzed statistically by using ttest
formula to find the significant difference between the experimental and the
control groups. The result of t-test formula analysis showed that the value of t-test
was higher than that of t-table (3.866>2.000). It means that there was a statistical
difference between the experimental and the control groups. It indicated that there
was a significant effect of using Word Cards on the seventh grade students’
vocabulary achievement at SMPN 14 Jember. | en_US |