USING CHILDREN LITERATURE IN CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY ACQUISITION: TEACHER’S STRATEGY

Abstract

Vocabulary is viewed as the important aspect in learning a language. Nation (cited in Nation & Waring, 1997) has proposed a circular process in learning a language. He claims that by knowing the vocabularies, it enables learners to understand the language use which increases the vocabulary knowledge. Next, the knowledge of the vocabulary enables learners to the increasing knowledge of vocabulary and language use and so on. In relation to learn a second language, Gass (cited in Alemi & Tayebi, 2011) mentions that learning the vocabulary is the basic in learning a language. Thus, the vocabulary here is the key point in learning a language. In learning a vocabulary of second language, the teacher’s strategy is needed to host all the activities that happen in the class. The teacher needs to prepare his strategy to deliver the material. Recently, many English teachers use children literature as the tool to teach the English vocabulary, (see, Fojkar, Skela & Kovač, 2013 and Alli, 2006). Hunt (1999: 3) says that children book is a book which is written for different audiences, with different skills, different needs and different ways of reading. It reflects a story whose the primary readers are children. Moreover, many of children literature are completed with some illustrations. The illustrations are created to support the story in the book. As Wrigth (1989: 2) claims that “the representation of pictures toward places, objects and people are the essential part of the overall experiences we must help the learners to cope with”. Thus, it shows that using children literature in classroom activities is the right decision of the teacher since it is beneficial for the learners to improve their vocabulary knowledge. This study aims to know and describe the strategy of the teacher in using children literature. Next, the learner’s perspective also will be analyzed. The study is held in SDN 1 Jatiroto, Jember, East Java. It is because the English teacher in this institution regularly uses children literature while teaching the students. In addition, the English teacher and 15 students from the fifth grade are chosen to be the participants of this study. Qualitative method is employed. The data come from the results of observation, interview and field notes. Theory of Richards & Theodore and Boran (in Intrapanich, 2012) is applied to categorize the types of the teaching strategy. The results of this study show that the teacher applies the direct method (TDM) teaching strategy. In addition, the teacher also applies the three Cs, i.e. conveying the meaning, checking the meaning and consolidating the meaning. In addition, it shows that all the students enjoy the children literature book which is given by the teacher. On the contrary, there are some students who get confused to comprehend the new vocabularies when their teacher uses the children literature book while teaching them the English vocabulary. It means that not all students get new vocabularies by reading children literature. However, all the students state that they understand the material and prefer to use children literature rather than the student’s work sheets.