IMPROVING THE 8th GRADE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY ACHIEVEMENT BY USING PICTURE FILES AT SMP NURIS JEMBER IN THE 2011/2012 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

English as one of the foreign language should be learnt by Indonesian students as a local content at elementary school and as a compulsory subject at secondary schools and universities. Learning English means learning the four language skills, namely speaking, listening, reading and writing. In addition, the students should have enough vocabularies as the basic requirement to master those four language skills. Thus, vocabulary plays a very important role in language learning. This classroom action research was intended to improve the 8th grade students’ vocabulary achievement by using picture files at SMP Nuris Jember in the 2011/2012 academic year. The research subjects were the students of class 8 that were determined population by consulting to the English teachers at SMP Nuris Jember. According to the results of preliminary study in the form of interview with the English teacher, it was found that SMP Nuris Jember had only one single class of the 8th grade students; The students still had problems in mastering vocabulary; The 8th grade students were lack of motivation and they had difficulties in learning English. It was proven by their English mean score that was 62.02 which had not reached the standard score of Ketuntasan Minimum (SKM) that was 70. The English teacher in that school used the conventional techniques, such as lecturing method, question and answer, and drilling the students with exercises and giving them assignments, like working with the students’ worksheet (LKS) in order to make their students master the vocabulary. These kinds of techniques are xiv less challenging. Besides, she had never used picture files as the media of teaching vocabulary, but she only taught vocabulary based on LKS. Therefore, to overcome the problem above, the writer conducted a Classroom Action Research (CAR) to the 8th grade students of SMP Nuris Jember by using picture files in teaching vocabulary. The main concern, in this research was the use of picture files which facilitated language learning and provided the opportunities to the students to be more active in the vocabulary teaching and learning process. This classroom action research was done in two cycles in which each cycle covered four stages of activities, namely planning the action; implementing the action; observing and evaluating; and analyzing the data and reflecting the action. Each cycle was conducted in two meetings. The data about the students’ vocabulary achievement were collected by administering the vocabulary achievement test after the actions given. Observation was used to monitor the process of teaching vocabulary using picture files and the students’ active participation in the classroom. The results of this research were as follows: the students’ English mean score improved from their previous mean score that was 62.02 to 67.8 after being taught vocabulary by using picture files in the first cycle. In the first meeting in cycle 1, there were 24 of 36 students (66.7%) who actively participated in the teaching and learning vocabulary by using picture files. In the second meeting, there were 25 students or 69.4% of 36 students who were active participation during the teaching and learning vocabulary by using picture files. In the second cycle, the result of vocabulary achievement test mean score that was 72.9 (28 students or 77.8% of the students got the score at least 70 or higher). The score was improved from cycle 1 the mean score which was 67.8 to 72.9 in cycle 2. In the first meeting in cycle 2, there were 28 students (77.8%) of 36 students who actively participated in the teaching and learning process of vocabulary by using picture files. In the second meeting, there were 31 students or 86.1% of the 36 students who actively participated during the teaching and learning of vocabulary xv by using picture files. It means that the result of vocabulary achievement test and students’ active participation in cycle 2 achieved the target research. The results showed the use of picture files in teaching vocabulary could improve the 8th students’ vocabulary achievement as well as their active participation during the vocabulary teaching learning process at SMP Nuris Jember. This finding supported the theory by Scott and Ytreberg (1992:108) that the lesson will be much easier and much exciting for the students if the teacher uses the picture piles optimally to help the students understand the material taught. In other words, picture files could help the teacher deliver information to the students and they also understood and got the information easily because the teacher showed the picture files while teaching the materials to the students. This was because picture files provided the students concrete and direct experience with the language, especially in learning vocabulary. By considering the result of the implementation of picture files in teaching vocabulary that could improve the students’ vocabulary achievement and the students’ active participation; some suggestions are proposed to the English teacher to apply picture files in teaching vocabulary. The students are suggested to increase their vocabulary by using picture files and other researchers as sugested to conduct another research with a similar problem using different research design to develop the students ‘vocabulay achievement and their active participation.