THE EFFECT OF USING ENGLISH SONGS ON THE FIFTH YEAR STUDENT’S VOCABULARY ACHIEVEMENT OF SDN KASIYAN TIMUR 03 PUGER, JEMBER

Abstract

Vocabulary is the basic thing in learning language. It helps the students to communicate well and to master the four language skills, namely listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Lack of vocabulary will make the students difficult to master the language. However, learning new vocabulary is not easy for the Indonesian elementary school students who are regarded as young learners. Based on a preliminary study, the students faced some problems in learning English. They felt bored and loss motivation in learning English. They also faced difficulties in learning vocabulary, memorizing new words and its meaning. It was caused by the way the English teacher gave vocabulary material which was quite monotonous. There was no variation or other teaching media used by the teacher. The teacher just explained the materials from textbooks, asked the students to memorize, and then asked the students to answer the questions given. This technique made the students feel bored and sleepy. To overcome the problem above, the teacher can use media in teaching process in order to make the students get motivated and interested in the subject. One of the media that can be used to teach vocabulary to children, especially in elementary school is English song. Teaching English using Songs is one of the interesting media that can be applied by the English teacher in teaching vocabulary. It can motivate the students and make them enjoy learning English. Besides, English songs help the students remember the new vocabularies that have been learnt. By using English Songs, the students can learn vocabulary easily and happily. This research was conducted to investigate whether or not there was a significant effect of Using English Songs on the Fifth Year Student’s Vocabulary Achievement of SDN Kasiyan Timur 03 Puger, Jember. The respondents of this research were VA as the experimental group and VB as the control group. Those two classes of the fifth year students of SDN Kasiyan Timur 03 Puger, Jember were taken by population sampling. The total number of the respondents was 50 students divided into experimental and control group. The experimental group consisted of 25 students who were taught vocabulary by using English Songs, and the control group consisted of 25 students who were taught vocabulary without using English Songs (lecturing). The primary data of this research were collected from the students’ vocabulary test, while the supporting data of this research were gained through interview and documentation. The primary data were collected and then analyzed by using t- test formula. The result indicated that the value of t- statistic was 2,649, while t- table was 2,021 with 5% significant level and degree of freedom 48. Thus, tstatistic was higher than that of t- table (2,649>2,021). It means that the null hypothesis (h0) that was formulated: “There is no significant effect of using English Songs on the Fifth Year Students’ Vocabulary Achievement of SDN Kasiyan Timur 03 Puger, Jember” was rejected. On the contrary, the alternative hypothesis( Ha) that was formulated:” There is a significant effect of using English Songs on the Fifth Year Students’ Vocabulary Achievement of SDN Kasiyan Timur 03 Puger, Jember” was accepted. It indicates that there was a significant mean difference between the experimental group and control group. The research results proved that there was a significant effect of using English Songs on the Fifth year students’ vocabulary achievement of SDN Kasiyan Timur 03 Puger Jember. Therefore it is recommended for the English teacher to use English songs as an alternative media in teaching vocabulary to develop the students’ vocabulary achievement and the students can use English songs in order to master English vocabulary. In addition, the research results are hopefully useful as a consideration to give information or input for other researchers to conduct further research dealing with similar problem but using different research design.