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IMPROVING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY
USING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
(A Classroom Action Research on the Sixth Grade of SDN Banaran 01 in the Academic Year of 2009/2010)
THESIS
By
IKE ANISA S890306018
Submitted to Fulfill One of the Requirements for Getting the Graduate
Degree of Education in English
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
GRADUATE SCHOOL
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
SURAKARTA
2011
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APPROVAL
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY
USING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
(A Classroom Action Research on the Sixth Grade of SDN Banaran 01 in the Academic Year of 2009/2010)
IKE ANISA S890306018
This thesis has been approved to be examined by the Board of Thesis Examiners of the English Department, Graduate School of Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta on April 4th, 2011.
Consultant 1 Consultant II Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd Dr. Abdul Asib, M.Pd. NIP. 19621231 198803 1 009 NIP. 19520307 198003 1 005
The Head of English Education of Graduate School
Sebelas Maret University of Surakarta
Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd NIP. 19621231 198803 1 009
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1
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Pronouncement
This is to certify that I myself write this thesis entitled “Improving
Students’ Vocabulary Mastery Using Experiential Learning (A Classroom Action
Research on the Sixth Grade of SDN Banaran 01 in the Academic Year of
2009/2010)”.
It is not a plagiarism or made by others. Anything related to others’ work
is written in quotation, the source that is listed on bibliography.
If then this pronouncement proves incorrect, I am ready to accept
academic punishment, including the withdrawal or cancellation of my academic
degree.
Surakarta, ………….2011
IKE ANISA
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Abstract
Ike Anisa. S890306018. IMPROVING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY USING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING (A Classroom Action Research on the Sixth Grade of SDN Banaran 01 in the Academic Year of 2009/2010). Thesis, Surakarta. English Education Department, Graduate School, Sebelas Maret University. 2011. The Supervisors: (I) Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd; (II) Dr. Abdul Asib, M.Pd. This research was conducted because of the low vocabulary mastery of the sixth grade students of SDN Banaran 01 Grogol Sukoharjo in the academic year 2009/2010. The research is aimed at finding out (1) whether the experiential learning method can improve students’ vocabulary mastery; (2) what happens in class when the teacher applies the experiential learning method. The researcher conducted a classroom action research. The action research was conducted in two cycles. Each cycle consisted of six steps: identifying the problem, planning the action, implementing the action, observing and monitoring the action, reflecting and evaluating the result of the observation, and revising the plan. There are two types of data in the research, namely the numerical and non numerical data which were collected by observation, interview, questionnaire, and test. The numerical data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, finding out the mean scores in the tests and the significant difference of the scores using t-test of non-independent variable. The non-numerical data were analyzed using Constant-comparative technique proposed by Glasser and Corbin consisting of the following steps: (1) comparing incidents applicable to each category; (2) integrating categories and their properties; (3) delimiting the theory; (4) writing the theory.
The result of the study showed that: (1) the use of experiential learning in the class improved students’ vocabulary mastery in terms of: (a) the improvement of understanding meaning; (b) the improvement of pronunciation; (c) the improvement of spelling and (d) the improvement of using the words. (2) experiential learning can improve classroom atmosphere: (a) making the classroom situation more alive; (b) improving students’ confidence, motivation, and involvement in English class.
Related to the research findings above, the researcher wanted to propose some recommendations for the English teacher to apply experiential learning to teach vocabulary. Experiential learning can be a highly effective educational method. Experiential learning can motivate the students, make them pay attention and take part in teaching learning process. Teaching vocabulary using experiential learning can attract students’ interest in learning English and help them to grasp and remember the vocabulary meaning.
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MOTTO
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
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Dedication
This thesis is dedicated to:
Her parents, for their love and pray.
Her beloved husband, Arseto Noorman, ST., for his great love and patience.
Her beloved daughter and son, Lintang Maharani and Abyan Surya; who always
give her spirit.
Her beloved sisters: Mbak Yay, Mbak Wulan, n Mbak Kris.
The Headmaster of SDN Banaran 01 Grogol, Sukoharjo, Hadi Warsito, S.Pd, who
gives the permission to the researcher to conduct the research in the school.
All of her friends in SDN Banaran 01 who always give the support to finish this
thesis.
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Acknowledgment
The researcher would like to address her greatest thanks to Allah SWT
WHO has given everything that helps the writer to finish this thesis as one of the
requirements for achieving the graduate degree of the English education. Without
His blessing, help, guidance, and love, the researcher can do nothing. Then, this
thesis can never be completed without helps, guidance, and supports from many
people. So, the researcher would like to express her great gratitude to:
1. The Director of Graduate School Sebelas Maret University, who gives
permission to write the thesis.
2. The Head of the English Education Department, Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd for giving
the researcher the permission to write the thesis.
3. Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd. and Dr. Abdul Asib, M.Pd., her consultants, for giving her
advice and guidance in accomplishing this thesis.
4. Mr. Walimin as her collaborator for his help and advice.
The researcher realizes that this is not perfect. Therefore, she hopes and
accepts comment and suggestion. Finally, she truly hopes that this thesis will be
useful for the readers.
Surakarta, February 2011
IA
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ……………………………………………………………….. i
APPROVAL ………………………………………………………………... ii
LEGITIMATION FROM THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS ……………… iii
PRONOUNCEMENT ……………………………………………………… iv
ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………... v
MOTTO …………………………………………………………………….. vi
DEDICATION ……………………………………………………………… vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT …………………………………………………. viii
TABLE OF CONTENT ……………………………………………………. ix
LIST OF APPENDICES …………………………………………………… x
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ………………………………………. 1
A. Background of the Study …………………………….. 1
B. The Problem Statement ………………………………. 7
C. The Objectives of the Study ……………….………… 8
D. The Benefit of the Study ……………………………. 8
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ……………… 9
A. Vocabulary …………………………………………… 9
1. General View of Vocabulary ……………………. 9
2. Definition of Vocabulary Mastery ………………. 11
3. Types of Vocabulary ……………………………. 13
4. Teaching Vocabulary ……………………………. 15
B. Teaching English to the Young Learners …………… 19
1. Definition of the Young Learners ………………. 19
2. Characters of the Young Learners ……………… 20
3. Teaching English is Elementary School ……...... 21
4. Procedure of Teaching Vocabulary …………….. 25
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C. Experiential Learning ……………………………… 26
1. The Nature of Experiential Learning ………….. 26
2. The Principles in Experiential Learning ……..... 29
3. Steps in Teaching of Experiential Learning …… 32
4. Strengths………………………………………... 34
5. Weaknesses…………………………………….. 35
D. Rationale ………………………………………… 36
E. Action Hypothesis ……………………………….. 39
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ……………………... 40
A. The Time and Place of Research ………………… 40
B. The Subject of the Study ………………………… 40
C. Research Design …………………………………. 41
1. The Nature of Action Research …………….…. 41
2. The Model of Action Research …………….…. 43
3. The Procedure of Action Research ………….... 44
D. Data Sources ….………………………………….. 46
E. The Technique of Collecting the Data ………….. 47
F. Technique of Analyzing Data …………………….. 49
CHAPTER IV THE RESULT OF THE STUDY ………………….…. 51
A. Introduction …………………………………….. 51
B. Research Finding ……………………………….. 53
C. Cycle 1 ………………………………………..… 54
1. Identifying the Problem …………………..… 54
2. Planning the Action ………………………… 55
3. Implementing the Action …………………… 56
4. Observing the Action ……………..…..……. 67
5. Reflecting of Cycle 1 ……………..…..……. 70
6. Revising the Plan ………………..……..…... 73
D. Cycle 2 ……………………………………..…… 75
1. Identifying the Problem ………………..…... 75
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2. Planning the Action ………………………... 75
3. Implementing the Action ……………...…… 76
4. Observing the Action ………………....……. 85
5. Reflecting of Cycle 2 ………………....….… 89
E. Discussion ……………………………….……... 92
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS, IMPICATIONS, AND
SUGGESTIONS ………………………………..……. 100
A. Conclusions ……………………………..………. 100
B. Implications ……………………………..………. 101
C. Suggestions ……………………………….…….. 102
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDICES
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Blue Print Angket Motivasi Belajar ……………………….. 106
Appendix 2 Angket Motivasi Belajar …………………………………… 107
Appendix 3 Table of Questionnaire ……………………………………... 110
Appendix 4 Questionnaire of Students Perception about the Action……... 111
Appendix 5 Blue Print of Pre Test ………………………………………. 112
Appendix 6 Pre Test Material …………………………………………… 113
Appendix 7 The Result of Validity and Reliability……………………… 116
Appendix 8 Lesson Plan for Cycle 1 (First meeting) ……………………. 120
Appendix 9 Lesson Plan for Cycle 1 (Second meeting) …………………. 123
Appendix 10 Lesson Plan for Cycle 1 (Third meeting) …………………… 126
Appendix 11 Worksheet for Cycle 1 (First Meeting) ……………………. 129
Appendix 12 Worksheet for Cycle 1 (Second Meeting)…………………. 132
Appendix 13 Worksheet for Cycle 1 (Third Meeting) …………………… 134
Appendix 14 Lesson Plan for Cycle 2 (First meeting) ……………….…… 136
Appendix 15 Lesson Plan for Cycle 2 (Second meeting) …..……………... 139
Appendix 16 Lesson Plan for Cycle 2 (Third meeting) …..……………….. 142
Appendix 17 Worksheet for Cycle 2 (First Meeting) ……………………… 145
Appendix 18 Worksheet for Cycle 2 (Second Meeting) …………………... 147
Appendix 19 Worksheet for Cycle 2 (Third Meeting) …………………….. 148
Appendix 20 Blue Print of Post Test Cycle 1 ………………………..……. 149
Appendix 21 Post Test of Cycle 1…………………………………………. 150
Appendix 22 Blue Print of Post Test of Cycle 2..…………………………. 153
Appendix 23 Post Test of Cycle 2 ………………………………………… 154
Appendix 24 The Result of Pre-Test Scores……………….…………….. 156
Appendix 25 The Computation of the Score in Cycle 1.………………….. 157
Appendix 26 The Computation of the Score in Cycle 2.………………….. 158
Appendix 27 The Result of All Scores ……………………..……………... 159
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Appendix 28 The Computation of the Scores in Cycle 1 ………………… 160
Appendix 29 The Computation of the Scores in Cycle 2…………………. 161
Appendix 30 Picture of Teaching and Learning Process …………………. 162
Appendix 31 Interview Notes …………………………………………….. 165
Appendix 32 Teachers’ Diary ……………………………………………. 168
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
As everybody knows, all countries in the world use English as an
international language. It plays an important role in every aspect of human
life such as communication, education, science, and technology. English is
mostly used in the world. English is mostly used in scientific fields such as
science and technology. There are so many books that are written in
English, especially in educational fields, from elementary school to college.
Because of the reasons, teaching English should be given from the
beginning, it should be given when the students sit in the elementary school
or in kindergarten.
In Indonesia, English is the first foreign language which is taught
formally from the junior high school to the university level. However,
nowadays, English is taught in some elementary schools, and even in the
lower level such as kindergarten and play groups. It means children are
introduced to English earlier. It is hoped that they will learn English more
naturally as they learn their mother tongue, besides it will be the basis for
the students to learn English in the higher level. According to Halliwel
(1992: p. 3), children come to primary school with this ability already
highly developed.
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A number of elementary schools in Indonesia have begun to
introduce English into their curriculum as a local content. It is clearly stated
in the curriculum of elementary education. “… pelajaran bahasa Inggris
tidak diwajibkan di Sekolah Dasar melainkan sebagai muatan lokal.”
(GBPP Muatan Lokal SD Bahasa Inggris (1995: p. 1).
At elementary school, English is introduced to the students through
learning its vocabulary because vocabulary is the most important element
that will become the basic competence in order to get other competences
like listening, speaking, reading, and writing. If the students have mastered a
number of vocabularies required in their level, it will be easier for them to
master those elements in English learning. Hardjono defines: “Dari semua
aspek dasar bahasa asing yang harus dikuasai siswa dalam proses belajar,
aspek kosakata yang paling penting tanpa penguasaannya tidak mungkin
orang biasa menggunakan bahasa asing.” (1998: p. 71). It means
vocabulary is essential thing that has to be learned by the students in order
to master English well.
Hatch and Brown (1995: p. 1) state that vocabulary is the foundation
to build language which plays a fundamental role in communication. It
means that vocabulary is the first priority in learning English.
As the basic component of the four language skills, vocabulary has
to be mastered by the learners. Vocabulary is the main point to learn
English. Without it a student will get difficulty to learn English. In
elementary school, vocabulary is the first step to learn English. By knowing
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the vocabulary from the beginning the children will get a lot of knowledge
and will not get difficulties in mastering language skills. Thus, vocabulary
should be on the first priority in the English language teaching and learning.
Vocabulary mastery has always been an essential part of English as
foreign language. There is no doubt that vocabulary mastery plays an
important role in the four language skills. They are listening, speaking,
reading, and writing. All four aspects are interrelated. But before students
master all aspects, they must master vocabulary first. Vocabulary must not
be neglected by anyone who learns English.
From the importance of vocabulary above, teachers should give
serious attention in teaching vocabulary especially to the children, because it
is a crucial thing in learning English. To teach vocabulary in elementary
school is not easy. There is a difference between teaching children and
teaching adults. Teachers must have extra power to teach them and the
children have certain characteristics and need a certain treatment. It is also
the first chance of learning a foreign language. So the teacher should find
the best or the effective method to teach English vocabulary.
To teach English, especially in Elementary School, teachers will face
some problems during the teaching learning process. Even though, teachers
have their own priority to manage their classroom, as Richards states
“teachers have primary responsibility for how they teach; they may assume
very different roles within their own classroom (1994: p. 97).” So, teachers
should make their classroom more comfortable and interesting, especially
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teaching English in Elementary School. Here, problems always occur when
teaching English is applied in Elementary School students. This can be
proven from pre research in the sixth grade students of SDN Banaran 01
Grogol Sukoharjo. From the pre research, the researcher found that the
students’ vocabulary mastery is low. It is because the students get
difficulties in mastering vocabulary. They are: (1) the students get
difficulties in grasping and memorizing the meaning of the words; (2) they
found it hard to spell the words correctly; and (3) they get difficulties in
pronouncing the words correctly; and (4) they get difficulties in using
vocabulary in a sentence.
They are able to use the vocabulary if they know the meaning, how
to pronounce, how to spell, and how to use them in a sentence. Knowing the
meaning of some words does not merely know its translation in different
language. Knowing means understanding how the words are put in different
contexts and used differently. For example: good morning. The students not
only know that good morning is selamat pagi but they can greet someone in
the morning using good morning.
How to pronounce can be understood from pronouncing the words
correctly. Students can distinguish the slightly different words such as, tree
and three. English has more complex pronunciation than Bahasa Indonesia,
and it often becomes a problem.
How to spell means that the students are able to spell the words. It
will be difficult thing when the words are similar to the others. For example:
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sea and see. Usually, it is tightly connected with knowing of words. When
students understand the word, they will be able to indicate whether to spell
sea or see.
How to use words is an ability to use or to apply the words either in
spoken or written. For example: a student says, “jump to the left” when the
teacher says “jump”. In another occasion, the student says: “jump to the
chair ”. In this case, of course, the student has already understood how to
use the word jump in different contexts.
By conducting observation and interview, the researcher found some
psychological barriers from the students. They feel shy and afraid to ask the
teacher if they find a difficulty. These problems may give a great influence
to their learning process.
The other reason that causes of the students’ failure is the teacher’s
teaching method. He/she is not creative when teaching the foreign language
to children. Sometimes it makes the students get bored and they also feel
that the teaching method doesn’t give more chances to them to internalize
the words in their memory.
In teaching English in Elementary School the method which is used
should be communicative and suited to the students’ characteristics as the
children. It is aimed to create the teaching learning process which is
interesting and comforting to the students so that they can reach the learning
goal and English becomes a more attractive subject for them.
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From the reason above, the researcher suggests experiential learning
method as the solution. Experiential learning method can be used in
teaching vocabulary to make the teaching learning process much interesting
and fun. It will increase students’ interest in learning process in the
classroom, because the circumstances become more interesting. It is suitable
with the characteristics of the young learners who like playing and talking
about ‘here and now’ so experiential learning can be helpful in teaching
vocabulary. Brown states that experiential learning is an especially useful
concept for teaching children, whose abstract intellectual processing
abilities are not yet mature (2001: p. 238).
There are some experiential learning that could be proved effective
to apply for the elementary students as “Role Play”, here the students are in
groups, and each group must take the topic/problem paper which is prepared
by the teacher, and then they do role play with their groups based on the
situation from the topic/problem paper they had chosen. Another
experiential learning that could be proved effective is “Roulete” (The
teacher flies a paper plane and when the paper plane lands on one student,
he/she must answer the question from the teacher). Then, if the student can
answer the question they will get score. He/she has a chance to fly the paper
to his/her friend, and he/she can give a question to his friend. But if the
student can’t answer the question, she/he must be punished.
From the explanation above, it is not doubtful that the researcher
chooses experiential learning because it has some strengths as follows:
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a. Helping learners involve actively in the learning process.
b. Providing a challenge which encourages learners to stretch
themselves (in order to answer the question).
c. Helping learners to forget they are studying: they lose themselves in
the fun activity of the learning process.
d. Encouraging collaborative learning: By having active interaction
among members of a group, learners are demanded to involve in real
communication.
Based on the reasons above, the researcher wants to use experiential
learning method as the method to improve student’s vocabulary mastery.
The researcher is interested in carrying out a study on “Improving Students’
Vocabulary Mastery Using Experiential Learning (A Classroom Action
Research on the Sixth Grade of SDN Banaran 01 in the Academic Year of
2009/2010).
B. The Problem Statement
Based on the background of the study above, the researcher focuses
on a certain problem related to the efforts to overcome students’ difficulties
or problems in vocabulary mastery. In this case, the problem can be
formulated as follows:
1. Can the experiential learning improve students’ vocabulary mastery?
2. What happens in class when the teacher applies the experiential learning
method?
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C. The Objectives of the Study
This research is aimed to improve students’ vocabulary mastery. In
details, this research has the objectives as follows:
1. To know whether the experiential learning method can improve
students’ vocabulary mastery.
2. To know what happens in class when the teacher applies the
experiential learning method.
D. The Benefits of the Study
The study result is expected to be able to give some benefits for the
teachers, students, and the other researcher. For the students, with the
students’ high vocabulary it is expected that they will be able to grasp the
meaning of words easily and also improve their reading, speaking, and
writing skills. Furthermore, the students will be motivated to learn English.
For the teachers, it is hoped that the result of the study will be one of
the considerations taken by teachers of Elementary School in teaching
vocabulary. For the school, it is expected that this new method of teaching
vocabulary will enrich teaching techniques in this school.
For the other researcher, this research is expected to be able to give
practical contributions to the other researcher on how to improve the
students’ vocabulary mastery using experiential learning.
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
A. Vocabulary
1. General View of Vocabulary
In general, students interpret vocabulary only as a matter of words,
as Burn and Broman (1975: p. 27) state that vocabulary is the stock of
words used by person, class or profession to state their idea. They also state
that almost every individual uses several different vocabularies, they are
often designated as hearing, speaking, reading, and writing. Words are
symbols of ideas, one needs facility in the use of words. In this definition
they try to see the meaning of vocabulary from the general point of view
Sometimes students perceive that vocabulary is only the words and
their meanings. They actually need to know the nature of vocabulary and
whatever is related to vocabulary in order to make them recognize the
importance of vocabulary, because vocabulary is central to language and of
critical importance to typical language learner. It means that vocabulary is
an important thing for learners to master vocabulary. Without a sufficient
vocabulary, one cannot communicate effectively or express ideas in both
oral and written forms.
According to Hornby, vocabulary is the total numbers of words in a
language and vocabulary is a list of words with their meanings (1995: p.
131). It means that vocabulary is a number of words along with the meaning
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in a language that is known by a person. Here, words are symbols that
represent, either physical object or idea. Dealing with the vocabulary Ur
states that vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the
foreign language. However, new item of vocabulary may be more than a
single word (1996: p. 60).
Meanwhile vocabulary mastery has always been an essential part of
English as a foreign language. There is no doubt that vocabulary mastery is
the basic in learning English. Here, the word mastery can be defined as a
test assessing performance on an objective (Gagne, Briggs, and Wager,
1992: p. 262). Furthermore, Zimmerman (in Cody and Huckin, 1997: p. 5)
states that “vocabulary is central to language and critical importance to the
tipycal language learning”. Vocabulary should not be neglected by those
who learn a language. It even needs to be mastered if someone wants to
master the four language skills. Inadequate vocabulary obstructs students’
development in learning English.
Furthermore, Thornbury (2002: p.130) states some characteristics of
what is called as ‘knowing a word’, he says: knowing a words means
knowing:
· The word’s form – both spoken and written
· The word’s meaning ( or meanings )
· Any connotations the word might have
· Whether the word is specific to a certain register or style
· The word’s grammatical characteristics – e.g. part of speech
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· The word’s common collocations
· The word’s derivations
· The word’s relative frequency’
Those aspects can be realized receptively (in listening and reading)
or productively (in speaking and writing). A good vocabulary test needs to
consider the multidimensional characters of them.
It can be concluded that vocabulary is a total numbers or a list of
words as symbols of ideas of a foreign language text or grammar which are
needed to express the idea.
2. Definition of Vocabulary Mastery
Vocabulary is an essential element of English as a foreign language.
Having mastered a large number of vocabularies we will likely be able to
express our ideas in the language conveniently. It is true that vocabulary
plays an important role in learning and understanding the language. Hence,
vocabulary is important that the teaching of it should be carried out as well
as possible in English language teaching at elementary schools.
Vocabulary mastery plays an important role in learning a language.
There are some definitions of mastery that are proposed by experts. Swannel
(1994: p. 656) defines mastery as comprehensive knowledge. This
definitions is supported by Hornby who states that mastery is complete
knowledge or complete skill (1995: p. 721). According to Culson (1987: p.
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1050), mastery is skill to use the knowledge. It means that mastery is ability
to use one’s knowledge.
Mastery means natural or acquired facility in a specific activity:
ability, adeptness, art, command, craft, expertise, expertness, knack,
proficiency, skill, technique (http://www.answers.com/topic/mastery). It can
be said that mastery is possession of skill, ability, and technique in
conducting a certain activity.
From these definitions, it can be concluded that mastery means the
skill to understand, use, and apply something learned. Meanwhile, the
definition of vocabulary is a total number of words in a certain language
used to express meaning. Thus, vocabulary mastery can be defined as the
ability to understand and use the knowledge dealing with a list of words in
certain language to express meaning.
Vocabulary mastery can be shown through four major skills, which
are defined as writing, speaking, reading, and listening. Ideally, someone
who has high vocabulary mastery can recognize meaning of words both in
written and spoken forms. She can also pronounce it well, relate to
appropriate object or concept, and know how to combine it with other
words.
Here, vocabulary mastery deals with words and meaning. The
teacher should select and classify the words according to the level of the
students in a certain way so the students will learn them easily. The teacher
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has to present the meaning of words in a way that is comprehensive to the
students.
From the explanation above vocabulary mastery means an ability to
use words in conducting communication, and students understand the set of
words. It can also be said that the set of words likely to be used by those
students when constructing new sentences.
It can be concluded that the success in learning English required
vocabulary mastery. Indeed, having mastered a large vocabulary cannot
guarantee learners’ competence in learning English but it is true that
inadequate vocabulary minimizes the chances to succeed in learning
English.
3. Types of Vocabulary
Thorndike and Lorge (in Nation, 1990: p. 19) classify types of
vocabulary as follows:
Types of
vocabulary
Numbers of
words
Frequency Coverage of
text
Implications
for teaching
and learning
High –
frequency
words
2,000
Occur
freuently
About 87% of
the running
words in a
text
Spend a lot of
time on these
words. Make
sure they are
learned.
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Academic
vocabulary
Technical
vocabulary
Low –
frequency
words
800
About 1,000
to 2, 000 for
each subject
About
123,000
Occur
frequently in
most kinds of
academic texts
Occur,
sometimes
frequently in
specialized
texts
Do not occur
very
frequently
About 8% of
the running
words in
academic texts
About 3% of
the running
words in a
specialized
texts
About 2% or
more of the
words in any
texts
If learners are
in upper
secondary
school or in
tertiary
education.
Based on the table above, teacher needs to decide which groups of
the words that their learners need. This is an important decision because it
will affect the amount of learning expected and it will affect the type of
learning, receptive or productive.
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4. Teaching Vocabulary
Teaching in early stage or in the primary school is very essential.
Teacher should give certain attention in teaching vocabulary and decide the
area of words that become the basic need for the pupil. Burns and Browman
say that the teacher must give attention to develop the vocabularies of each
child through carefully planned instruction and to do so, he or she must be
aware of what words are and how they are formed (1975: p. 295). In further
explanation Burns and Broman (1975: p. 296) also explains:
Since vocabulary development is so closely related to abstract thinking, the teacher is concerned with number, the breath, and the dept of concept with which pupils have some acquaintance. For concept development, the individual should have actual experience with the concrete object, person, idea, and event-mainly through sense impressions.
It is undeniable that most learners’ vocabulary grows through
incidental learning such as through continuous exposure to comprehensible
language in reading, speaking, and writing exercises (Krashen in Fauziati,
2005: p. 155). Anyhow, this does not mean that explicit vocabulary
instruction is less important to foreign language learners. Even though they
are keen readers with different materials, they take a lot of benefits from
direct vocabulary instruction. They can effectively expand their vocabulary
knowledge.
It has been so far that vocabulary is very important for second
language learners, only with a sufficient vocabulary learners can effectively
express their ideas both in oral and written form. Thus, they should have
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good ideas how to expand their vocabulary so that they can improve their
interest in learning.
Knowing some principles on the way one’s vocabulary develops in
relations to memory will make us aware of the particular teaching methods
suitable for vocabulary teaching and learning. By using appropriate method
to learn new vocabulary, students will find it useful and interesting.
According to Ur (1998: p. 60 - 62) there are some aspects of
vocabulary that both teacher and learners must give their attention to, they
are as follows:
a. Form
Here, the mastery of vocabulary involves the mastery of pronunciation
and spelling. The learner has to know how the word is sounded and how
the word is spelled. In teaching, the teacher needs to make sure that both
these aspects are accurately presented and learned.
b. Grammar
The grammar of a new word needs to be taught if this is not obviously
covered by general grammatical rules. A word may have an
unpredictable change of form in certain grammatical contexts. It is
important to provide learners with the information at the same time the
teacher teaches the base form of a word.
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c. Collocation
The collocation typical of particular items is another factor that makes a
particular combination sound ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in a given context. So
this is another piece of information about a new item which may be
worth teaching. Collocation is also often noted in dictionaries, either by
providing the whole collocation under one of the head-words, or by a
note in parenthesis.
d. Aspect of meaning
1) Denotation, connotation, appropriateness
Denotation is the meaning of a word that primarily refers to the real
world. It is often the sort of definition in dictionary. Meanwhile, a
less obvious component of the meaning of an item is its connotation,
the associations, or positive or negative feelings it evokes, which
may or may not be indicated in a dictionary definition.
Besides denotation and connotation, an aspect of meaning that also
needs to be taught is whether a particular item is appropriate one to
use in a certain context or not. It is useful for a learner to know that a
certain word is very common, or relatively rare, or ‘taboo’ in polite
conversation, or tends to be used in writing but not in speech, or is
more suitable for formal than informal situation, or belongs to a
certain dialect.
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a) Meaning relationship
How the meaning of one item relates to the meaning of others can
also be useful in teaching. There are various such relationship, they
are: synonyms (item that mean the same or nearly the same);
antonyms (items that mean the opposite); hyponyms (item that serve
as specific examples of a general concept); co-hyponyms or co-
ordinates (other items that are the same kind of thing); super-
ordinates (general concepts that cover specific items); and translation
(words or expression in the learners’ mother tongue that are
equivalent in meaning to the item being taught).
e. Word formation
Vocabulary items, whether one-word or multi-word, can often be
broken down into their components exactly how these words are put
together is another piece of useful information. Teachers may teach the
common prefixes and suffixes. However, they should be warned that in
many common words, the affixes no longer have any obvious
connection with their root meaning. Another way vocabulary items are
built is by combining two words to make one item.
From that discussion above, it can be concluded that vocabulary
mastery is a complete skill to understand and apply the stocks of words. It
constitutes an essential thing that students have in order to be able to listen,
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read, write and speak. There are some indicators of vocabulary mastery:
pronunciation, spelling, meaning, and using vocabulary especially to make
simple sentences, which are used by the researcher to conduct teaching
vocabulary and used in testing the students’ vocabulary mastery.
B. Teaching English to the Young Learners
1. Definition of the Young Learners
The young of all species play and learn with their experience in real.
It is their way of learning to live in society. When children are doing
experience and play, they learn a multiplicity of concepts, skills,
understanding, and attitudes simultaneously, and they draw relationship
among concepts. For example, when children build with blocks, they are
concerned with the shapes, sizes, and relationship, or when they are doing
experience in their life by knowing what happens in surrounding they are
concerned with their feelings. Doing experience by themselves, they face
problem with construction, share materials with others, and communicate
their ideas and feelings.
In order to maximize learning children need to be able to do
experience and play. When a child learns through experience, the learning
becomes internalized and remains a part of his or her being. Also when the
children are seriously interested on their experience, they observe carefully
and become familiar with the properties of materials he or she is using.
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2. Characteristics of the Young Learners
Several characteristics attached to children are that children like
playing, talking about “here and now, and understand and retain the
meaning better when they have seen some objects associated with them.
a. Children like playing
One characteristic of children is that they love playing, they do like
playing. Children like playing and learn things while playing. The
implication to language teaching is that experiential learning by doing
games or role play are effective ways for teaching language.
b. The children talk about “here and now”
Adults both observe and impose the cooperative principle when they
talk to young children. They make what they say relevant, talk about the
“here and now” of the child’s world. They encourage the children to take
their turns and make their contributions to the conversation. They make sure
that children make their contributions truthful by correcting them (Clark and
Clark in Fauziati, 2002: p. 171).
The phenomena imply that the children’s world involves around the
here and now. Therefore, they should not be asked to discuss abstract things
or life and situation in the past or in the future. In other words, children’s
interest is narrower, restricted primarily to themselves, their immediate
surrounding, their families, and friends.
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Teaching and learning process, therefore, should give enough
opportunities for them to use English in every day contexts. Children learn
by doing, they learn language by using it, listening to it, speaking it, and
writing it.
c. Association and memory
Children understand and retain the meaning better when they have
seen some objects associated with it. For this reason, the teacher should
expose the students to real life situations. With their experience in real life
they can learn English effectively.
3. Teaching English in Elementary School
Like other profession, teaching requires a long and difficult period of
academic preparation, legal recognition, and social responsibility. Teaching
children is different from teaching adult because they have special
characteristics. The teachers are demanded to be active and creative in
teaching young learners. They should explore their abilities and
competences. One of the ways is by using everything in environment to help
success of teaching and learning process in order to be more effective.
There are some elements that should be learned in learning a foreign
language especially English, one of them is vocabulary. It is very important
because people can’t express their thought and understand other’s thought if
they don’t have enough vocabulary. The same perception is also stated by
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Gattegno (in Richards and Rodgers, 2003: pp. 37 and 82). He pinpoints that
in language learning, vocabulary is seen as a central dimension and the
choice of it is very crucial. This is supported by Palmer (in Thornbury,
2002: p. 30) who says that vocabulary is one of the most important aspects
of foreign language learning and the essential component of reading
proficiency.
Teaching English vocabulary in primary school is very crucial. It is
stated by Burn and Broman (1975: p. 295) that the teacher must give
attention to develop the vocabulary of each child through carefully planned
instruction and to do so, she must be aware of what words are and how they
are formed.
Here, the success of language teaching not only depends on the
teachers’ and the students’ competence but also on the method of teaching
vocabulary. There are many methods of teaching vocabulary. Not all the
methods are helpful for the students. In this case the teacher has to choose
the appropriate method.
Burns and Broman (1980: p. 297 – 305) propose numerous methods
to develop children’s vocabulary such as the following:
a. Firsthand experience
A varied background of firsthand experience, field trips, and
excursions is profitable at all grade levels. Concrete experience permits
the word to be associated with real situation: consequently, school should
try to extend the experience of the children. The nature and quality of the
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educative experiences that children meet both inside and outside the
classroom are primary factors that determine speaking, writing, reading,
and hearing vocabularies.
b. Books
Books are other significant sources of vocabulary growth,
particularly books that provoke questions and discussion. Pupils need a
variety of interesting, easy to read books so that new words and ideas can
be learned from the context.
c. Context clues
Children who read extensively can learn many words just through
use of context. Wide reading provides the opportunities for context to
illuminate words meaning when it is essential to the on-flow of thought.
Through a variety of reading material, the reader can begin to recognize
subtleties and varied meanings of words.
d. Visual and other instructional aids and materials
Visual aids should be utilized frequently, not only to illustrate the
words that have been used but to suggest other words. Individuals are
helped in their word selection by special illustrative sentences, pictures
and illustrations, or explanation that dramatizes the meaning of particular
word.
e. Context areas
In every subject field, teachers should develop vocabulary carefully.
The vocabulary problem is more acute in textbook than it is in general
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reading material. The selection of textbook that avoid complicated
verbiage and explain new terms clearly when they are introduced is one
important way of reducing the vocabulary problem to teachable
proportions.
f. Oral and written expressions
Teachers should encourage variety in oral and written expression. A
conscious effort needs to be made by the teacher to encourage use of
words that express thought exactly, rather than words that perform
omnibus service.
g. Teacher-model
The teacher can use new words, sometimes in reading aloud,
sometimes in providing explanations. Particularly in the primary years,
when most pupils are occupied with developing recognition of words
already in their understanding, reading and speaking vocabulary, the
teacher need to read and tells many stories to the group. In reading to
children it is inadvisable to simplify the vocabulary. After reading a new
story, new words may be discussed and in later retelling or dramatization,
the use of the new words should be encouraged. Pupils are great imitators
and if the teacher employs good vocabulary, they tend to approach his
levels of expression.
All of those presentation methods, either singly or in combination
are useful ways of introducing new words. To make the words
memorable, the teacher should use a suitable method to teach vocabulary
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for the children. In this research, the researcher chooses experiential
learning as a method to improve the students’ vocabulary mastery.
In applying experiential learning, the researcher used firsthand
experience method to teach vocabulary. Because it can be a highly effective
educational method. There are many benefits for language and learning.
These include: new knowledge, increased language proficiency, new
vocabulary (specialist and general), literacy learning - for the young this will
include simple concepts of print, new words, and a growing grasp of
sentence structure, etc. whereas for the older child this can extend
knowledge of new written genres, writing for new audiences, growing
reading and research skills, a stimulus to creativity, and increased interest in
learning.
4. Procedure of Teaching Vocabulary
In teaching vocabulary teacher can devise additional frame of word
lesson for students who need added experience. The procedure of teaching
vocabulary can be divided into three stages, they are as follows :
a. Presentation
In this stage, teacher can use various methods and technique, which
are recommended in the previous discussion. However, teachers
have to be careful in selecting the methods that they use in teaching
activity. Dealing with this, teachers must consider about the
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student’s need of vocabulary, the area of vocabulary, which is
appropriate with the students level and how the vocabulary can be
stored in the student’s brain.
b. Practice
In the second stage, the teacher gives exercises to his students in
order to practice the subject items. Completion, matching, etc. are
several types of exercises that can be used by the teacher in this
stage.
c. Production
In this stage the students are expected to apply the newly learned
vocabulary through the speaking activities or writing activities.
C. Experiential Learning
1. The Nature of Experiential Learning
Experiential learning is learning through reflection on doing. Here,
experiential learning focuses on the learning process for the individual.
Keeton and Tate (in Brown, 2000: p. 239) state:
“ The learner is directly in touch with the realities being studied. It is contrasted with learning in which the learner only reads about, hears about, talks about, or writes about the realities but never comes in contract with them as part of the learning process … It involves direct encounter with the phenomenon being studied rather than merely thinking about the encounter or only considering the possibility of doing something with it.”
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According to Brown (2000: p. 238) experiential learning includes
activities that engage both left – and right – brain processing, that
contextualize language, that integrate skills, and that point toward authentic,
real world purposes. It means that experiential learning is constructivist
learning, where students are active learners, constructing their own
knowledge, rather than observing the demonstrative behavior of a teacher.
Because experiential learning is active learning, students more readily
understand what they are learning and thus retain the knowledge to a greater
degree than when merely having information presented to them by another.
The hands-on nature of experiential learning is highly motivating for
students. Such learning may involve one or more of the following
instructional strategies:
• experiments,
• field observations,
• field trips,
• focused imaging,
• games,
• model building,
• role plays,
• simulations, and
• surveys
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From the model of experiential learning above one of the examples
is field trips, here we can borrow students going to the zoo and learning
through observation and interaction with the zoo environment, as opposed to
reading about animals from a book. Thus, one makes discoveries and
experiments with knowledge firsthand, instead of hearing or reading about
others' experiences.
Another example of experiential learning is playing game and
learning through it. Children usually like playing and game is effective way
to discover and experiment everything in their surrounding and it also an
effective way to teaching English especially vocabulary for the children.
In this research IA used games and role plays to improve the
students’ vocabulary mastery, because by learning through games, the
students are more actively involved in the experience, can interact with
others, more creative, conducive, can improve the learners’ spirit and
learning through fun helps the learner to retain the lessons for a longer
period.
Role plays is also used in teaching vocabulary because most
educators understand the important role experience plays in the learning
process. A fun learning environment, with plenty of laughter and respect for
the learner's abilities, also fosters an effective experiential learning
environment. It is vital that the individual is encouraged to directly involve
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themselves in the experience, in order that they gain a better understanding
of the new knowledge and retain the information for a longer time.
2. The Principles in Experiential Learning
Brown (2000: p. 238) highlights for us that experiential learning is
giving the students concrete experiences through which they “discover”
language principles by trial and error, by processing feedback, by building
hypotheses about language and by revising these assumptions in order to
become fluent.
Using Experiential learning in teaching vocabulary can be fitted to the
real situation in the classroom. To be said knowing vocabulary, students
have to know the meaning, the spelling, the pronunciation, and the use of
the words. In order to equip the students in those four aspects.
In experiential learning, immediate personal experience is seen as
the focal point for learning, giving ‘life, texture, and subjective personal
meaning to abstract concepts and at the same time providing a concrete,
publicly shared reference point for testing the implications and validity of
ideas created during the learning process ( Kolb in Nunan 1993: p. 14).
Here, in grasping experience some of us perceive new information
through experiencing the concrete, tangible, felt qualities of the world,
relying in our senses and immersing ourselves in concrete reality. Others
tend to perceive, grasp or take hold of new information through symbolic
representation or abstract conceptualization – thinking about, analyzing, or
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systematically planning, rather than using sensation as a guide. Similarly, in
transforming or processing experience some of us tend to carefully watch
others who are involved in the experience and reflect on what happens,
while others choose to jump right in and start doing things. The watchers
favor reflective observation, while the doers favor active experimentation.
Here, Kolb (in Nunan, 1993: p. 16) figures the general theoretical
model of experience into four stages of orientation to learning: concrete
experience, abstract conceptualization, reflective observation, and active
experimentation.
1) Concrete experience
with an involvement in personal experiences and an emphasis on
feeling of over thinking. This is an ‘artistic’ orientation relying on
intuitive decision-making.
2) Abstract conceptualization
using logic and a systematic approach to problem-solving, with an
emphasis on thinking, manipulation of abstract symbols and a tendency
to neat and precise conceptual system.
3) Reflective observation
focusing on understanding the meanings of ideas and situations by
careful observation, being concerned with how things happen by
attempting to see them from different perspective and relying on one’s
own thoughts, feeling and judgment.
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4) Active experimentation
with an emphasis on practical applications and getting things done,
influencing people and changing situations, and taking risk in order to
accomplish things.
According to the model above, experiential learning is seen as four
basic stages. Thus, simple everyday experience is not sufficient for learning.
It must be observed and analyzed consciously. It can be argued, that
theoretical concepts will not become part of the individual’s frame of
reference until they have been experienced meaningfully on a subjective
emotional level. Reflection plays an important role in this process by
providing a bridge between experience and theoretical conceptualization.
The process of learning is seen as the recycling of experience at deeper
levels of understanding and interpretation. This view entails the idea of
lifelong learning.
In conclusion, experiential learning will give a significant
contribution to the success of teaching learning process. They have a great
power in motivating and stimulating the students. The teacher, therefore, is
encouraged to use experiential learning in teaching the students, especially
to young learners to teach vocabulary.
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3. Steps in Teaching Vocabulary using Experiential Learning in the Classroom
In the classroom the teacher and students take on roles similar to that
of the parent and child respectively. Teacher introduces the learners to the
topic and covering basic material that the learner must know beforehand.
The activity may be a simple game, simulation or may involve more
complex grammar and more detailed scenarios. Experiential learning can be
used to practice and teach various things. It is well suited to teaching
classroom language and other vocabulary connected with actions. It can be
used to teach imperatives and various tenses and aspects. It is also useful
for role plays. http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index. php?title=
Experiential Learning#Weaknesses.2FCriticisms
Experiential learning is largely about movement. By introducing the
learners’ knowledge to the topic, they learn verbs and many kinds of nouns,
learning increases and stress decreases. However, it is recognized that
experiential learning is most useful for beginners, though it can be used at
higher levels where preparation becomes an issue for the teacher. It does not
give students the opportunity to express their own thoughts in a creative
way. The following are some steps to integrate experiential learning in the
classroom:
a. Aspect of meaning
1) Teacher explains in native language about the rule of experiential
learning by introducing the topic, that is the students just listen and
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need not to speak at first. They have to act out the commands from
the teacher.
2) Teacher asks some students to come to the front of the room and sit
with her/him in chairs that are lined up facing the other students.
Other students listen and watch.
3) Teacher gives some nouns and various commands beginning with
verbs while doing them together with some students.
4) Teacher allows the students to mention the words and to do the
instructions.
5) Then, teacher asks one of the students to mention and perform the
instructions alone.
6) Teacher approaches the other students who have been sitting
observing her/him and the volunteers and gives the same commands.
7) The students follow the teacher’s action.
8) After the students master the instructions and some nouns, the
teacher gives the new ones as the steps above.
9) Teacher turns to the rest of the class and gives the commands
randomly to the students.
10) The last step, teacher writes the new commands on the blackboard.
Each time she/he writes a command, she acts it out.
11) The students copy the sentences from the blackboard into the
notebooks.
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b. Aspect of spelling
1) The teacher asks the students to write the words and the
instructions on the board.
2) The teacher asks students to spell the words along with her.
3) The teacher asks the students randomly to spell the words alone.
c. Aspect of pronunciation
1) The teacher asks a student to play the game and practice the
dialogue.
2) Then, the students play the games and practice the dialogue.
3) From the first student, teacher can check the pronunciation, and
from the second student, teacher can check whether the meaning
is correct.
d. Aspect of using word
1) The teacher asks the students to make new imperative sentences
spoken or written using the same words on the board.
2) The teacher asks the students to practice using their sentences.
4. Strengths
Kolb in Nunan (1993: p. 24-25 proposes that there are some
strengths of experiential learning which enable students to improve their
achievement. The strengths are as follows:
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1. Helping learners involve actively in the learning process.
2. Providing a challenge which encourages learners to stretch
themselves (in order to answer the question).
3. Helping learners to forget they are studying: they lose themselves in
the fun activity of the learning process.
4. Encouraging collaborative learning: By having active interaction
among members of a group, learners are demanded to involve in real
communication.
5. Weaknesses
Despite having the strengths, experiential learning also has
weaknesses when it is applied in teaching vocabulary. There are some
weaknesses as stated by Kolb in Nunan (1993: p. 34-37).
1) The concrete experience part of the learning cycle is not
appropriately explained in the theory and remains largely
unexplored.
2) The idea of immediate and concrete experience is problematic and
unrealistic..
3) The ELT concepts are too ill-defined and open to various
interpretations.
4) ELT model is only an attempt to explain the societal benefit.
5) The experience is the starting point of knowledge acquisition and
disregards the observations concerning the subjective reality of the
learner
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6) The ELT learning model focused on the learning process for a single
learner and failed to mention how the individual fit into a social
group during this process and what role this group may play. Also,
there was no discussion on how a social group may gain knowledge
through a common experience.
D. Rationale
The greatest difficulty faced by the students in learning English is
vocabulary mastery. In fact, vocabulary is an essential part to master the
four language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Therefore, to master a language easily, the students should have a stock of
vocabulary. In elementary school vocabulary has become the first priority
that has to be taught to the young learners.
Problems always occur when teaching English is applied in
Elementary School students. This can be proven from a pre research which
was concluded in the sixth grade students of SDN Banaran 01 Grogol
Sukoharjo. From the pre research, the researcher found that the students’
vocabulary mastery is low and the students get difficulties in mastering
vocabulary as follows: (1) the students got difficulties in grasping and
memorizing the meaning of the words; (2) they found it hard to write down
the words correctly; and (3) they got difficulties in pronouncing the words
correctly; 4) they found difficulties in using vocabulary in sentences. So the
teacher should have extra power to teach the students in Elementary School
because children have specific characteristics.
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The researcher found some psychological barriers from the students.
They feel shy and afraid to ask the teacher if they find a difficulty. They are
afraid of being humiliated by their friends and their teacher if they cannot
answer well. They also do not have self-confidence in answering the
questions. These problems may give a great influence to their learning
process.
The other reason that causes the students’ failure is the teacher’s
teaching method. He/she is not creative when teaching the foreign language
to children. Sometimes it makes the students get bored and they also feel
that the teaching method doesn’t give more chances to them to internalize
the words in their memory.
The classroom situation in learning vocabulary showed that the
atmosphere was not alive, with the teacher domination of teaching
vocabulary. The students show low participation in using vocabulary.
Children are unique and not small version of adults. They have their
own characteristics. The characteristics cover their ways of thinking, their
attitude, their aptitude, etc. To give the best quality of teaching English to
children, the teacher should know and understand them. In general, there are
some characteristics of children in learning language, as follows: (a)
children like playing; (b) children talk about “here and now”; and (c)
children respond language well through concrete things rather than abstract
things. Based on their characteristics, teaching them is different from
teaching adults. The teacher should not only explain the topics, but also
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activate their three domains (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) through
activities which are suitable to their characteristics.
In teaching vocabulary, the teacher should make the students
understand and memorize new words and their meaning not only in a short
period of time or at the moment when the vocabulary is given, but also in a
long period of time. To make the students memorize the meaning, spell,
pronounce, and use the words, the teacher should use a suitable method to
teaching children. In this research, the researcher chooses the experiential
learning as a method to improve the students’ vocabulary mastery.
Experiential learning is suitable with the children’s characteristics.
They like fun activities and talking about “here and now” in their learning
process. Experiential learning is a great way to present, practice, and revise
vocabulary, because experiential learning is an active learning which is
highly motivating for the students. Then, it will be advantageous if the
teacher uses the experiential learning method to improve the students’
vocabulary mastery. In applying this method, the researcher used simple
games and role play to improve students’ vocabulary.
The success of applying this method can be seen through indicators,
they are: (1) students know the meaning of words. One of activities is
playing the game. By doing so, it is easy for the students to memorize the
meaning of the words. In finding the meaning of words, students need not
open a dictionary because it has already been clear through the instructions
they have practiced before; (2) Students are able to pronounce words
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correctly. The teacher gives the commands several times in a correct
pronunciation in order to give examples to the students. The teacher asks the
students to pronounce the words and corrects the students’ pronunciation;
(3) Students are able to spell or write words. The teacher gives some words
and asks the students to spell and write the words after the teacher has given
students the correct spelling of words and writes them on the white board;
and (4) students are able to use words in a sentence. Teacher asks the
students to make new commands or sentences based on the words given.
So, the researcher assumes that by using the experiential learning
method in teaching learning process, vocabulary mastery of the elementary
students can be improved.
E. Action Hypothesis
From the previous explanation, the researcher makes a hypothesis
stating that using the experiential learning method is able to improve the
students’ vocabulary mastery.
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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents a discussion of the methods used in this study.
The discussion includes research setting, subject of the study, research
design, procedures of action research, data and data resources, techniques of
collecting the data, and technique of analyzing the data.
A. Time and Place of Research
This research will be conducted in SDN Banaran 01 which is located
in Ds. Banaran, Grogol, Sukoharjo. It is one of the state elementary school
in Grogol subdistrict, Sukoharjo regency. The writer conducts the research
from October – December 2009.
B. Subject of the Study
The subjects of the research are the sixth grade students of SDN
Banaran 01. There are 14 students in this class consisting of 7 girls and 7
boys. Most of them are from low economic status with uneducated parents
while the others come from immediate economic status whose parents are
government officers or businessman. Unfortunately not all the parents have
great concerns to their children’s education. It is seen when there are some
students who frequently do not do their homework and even forget to bring
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the English book or notebook in the English class. It indicates that their
parents do not care with their children when they study at home.
In doing this research, the researcher actively participate in the
teaching learning process. She acts both as a teacher and the observer. She
will also do collaboration with other observers. They are: the sixth grade
teacher and the other English teacher.
C. Research Design
1. The Nature of Action Research
In this research, the researcher uses a Classroom Action Research
(CAR). CAR in a simple way can be understood as an action research which
is conducted in a classroom. It can be defined as a study of attempts to
overcome classroom problems or to improve things related to educational
problems for betterment done by practitioners or teachers, or in
collaboration between teachers and researchers by means of their own
practical actions and their own reflection upon the effects of those actions
(Ebbut, 1985 (in Hopkins, 1993: p. 45) ; Kemmis (in Hopkins, 1993: p. 44).
Mills (2000: p. 6) says that action research is any systematic inquiry
conducted by teacher researchers, principals, school counselors, or other
stakeholders in teaching or learning environment, to gather information
about the ways that their particular school operate, how they teach, and how
well their students learn.
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Another expert describes action research as a form of self-reflective
inquiry carried out by practitioners, aimed at solving problems, improving
practice, or enhancing understanding (Carr and Kemmis in Nunan (1989: p.
12). It means that action research has to do with improvement.
Meanwhile, Ebbut (1985) as quoted by Hopkins (1993: p. 45) states
that action research is the systematic study of attempt to improve
educational practice by group or participants and by means of own
reflection upon the effects of those action.
There are three characteristics of action research: firstly, the action
research is carried out by practitioners rather than outside researchers.
Secondly, the kind of the action research is collaborative, and thirdly, the
action research is aimed at changing condition (Nunan, 1992: p. 17 (quoted
from Kemmis and McTaggart, 1998).
It can be concluded that action research is a systematic action done
by teachers, researchers,, principals, school counselors, or other
stakeholders in order to get improvement. It focuses on the solution of day-
to-day problems by knowing the ways the participant of a particular school
operates (how both the teacher teaches and the students learn).
This classroom action research is done in collaboration. It is done by
the researcher and an English teacher of SD Negeri Banaran 01 Grogol as
the collaborator. This research is intended to improve the vocabulary
mastery of the sixth grade students in SD Negeri Banaran 01 Grogol by
using experiential learning.
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2. The Model of Action Research
Action research in this classroom action research uses the model
based on Hopkins views (1993: p. 48). In his model, there are four crucial
basic steps which can be expanded into six steps including identifying the
problem, planning the action, the implementation of the action observing or
monitoring the action, reflecting the result of the observation, and revising
the plan fro the following step. These steps form one cycle and can be
repeated into several cycles.
Action research occurs through a dynamic and complementary
process consisting of four essential steps of planning, action, observation
and reflection. Each step will be explained as follow :
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a. Planning
It is a process to develop a plan of critically informed action in order to
improve what is already happening.
b. Action
It is an act to implement the plan.
c. Observation
It is a process of observing the effects of critically informed action in the
content in which it occurs.
d. Reflection
It is reflecting process on these effects as the basis for further planning;
The reflection was meant to judge the success of the cycle.
D. The Procedures of Action Research
The procedures of the action research covers 6 basic activities as
described in each cycle of Lewin’s model of Action Research. Those
activities are as follows:
1. Identifying the problems
The teacher identifies the problems first before planning the action.
The problems refer to the factors making the students difficult to master
vocabulary during the lesson before. Here the researcher uses 2
techniques, namely:
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a. Using test
To know whether the students master the vocabulary, the researcher
makes written test of vocabularies as pre-test and post-test to know the
students ability to master vocabulary.
b. Observation and interviews
The researcher observes the students behavior during the lesson and
makes interviews to the sixth class teacher to know the model of class
management and her student’s competence.
2. Planning the action
The researcher prepares everything related to the action as follows:
a. Preparing materials, making lesson plan, and designing the steps in
doing action.
b. Preparing sheets for classroom observation
c. Preparing teaching activity
d. Preparing a test.
3. Implementing the action
The researcher implements the teaching learning activity of
vocabulary using experiential learning.
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4. Observing / monitoring the action
The researcher observes all activities in the teaching learning process
while the homeroom teacher helps to create a conducive atmosphere in a
class. The researcher also makes collaborative efforts with a collaborator
to explore teaching possibilities. The function of collaborator here is to
evaluate the researcher’s teaching, offer suggestion on the best way to
teach, and help to create students motivation to learn English.
5. Reflecting the result of the observation
The researcher makes an evaluation on all she has observed to find
the weaknesses of the activities that have been carried out in using
experiential learning as the technique in teaching vocabulary.
6. Revising the plan
Based on the weakness of the activities that have been carried out in
using experiential learning as the method in teaching vocabulary, the
researcher revises the plan for the next cycle.
D. Data Sources
In this research, the researcher uses both quantitative and qualitative
data. The quantitative data are in the form of the students’ scores on
vocabulary mastery. The scores are gained through the vocabulary test. In
each cycle there is a pretest and post-test for vocabulary mastery. The data
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sources for the quantitative data are the students of the fifth grade of SDN
Banaran 01.
The qualitative data are in the form of information about the
implementation of experiential learning and students’ reaction to the method
that is used by the researcher as the teacher. Those data are taken from 3
sources, namely:
1. Events which happen in teaching learning process that uses experiential
learning method. The events are recorded in the researcher’s and
collaborator’s field notes.
2. Respondents. There are three respondents in this research, they are: the
headmaster, the experienced English teacher, and also the students who
join in the class.
3. Document or artifacts. The 2004 National Curriculum for English for
Elementary School, syllabus, and lesson plan used by the previous
teachers in teaching learning process.
E. Technique of Collecting the Data
Based on the data and data sources above, the researcher used the
following techniques. For the quantitative data the researcher used
vocabulary mastery test, consisting of pre-test and post-test. Every post-test
is given after some teaching learning process at the end of a cycle.
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The researcher also used what the so called validity and reliability as
stated in Ngadiso (2006: 1). The vocabulary test can be seen in Appendix.
The validity of the vocabulary test is analyzed with the following formula:
st = n
xå 2
ro = t
ti
sXX -
1
1
qp
The item is valid if ro is higher than rt.
Then to know the reliability of the test, the following formula is
used:
rkk = ÷÷ø
öççè
æ-
-å
21
1ts
pq
kk
Where rkk : estimated reliability
k : number of items on the test
p : the proportion of people who respond correctly to each item
q : 1 - p
st2 : observed score variance
The item is reliable if ro is higher than rt.
There are thirty items tested. The result of vocabulary test is that
twenty items are valid and reliable. The valid and reliable items are items
number 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 21, 23, 25, 27 28, 29 and
30. The items had represented for all indicators, they are five items for
aspect of meaning, ten items for aspect of spelling and pronunciation, and
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five items for aspect of using word. The process and the result of the
validity and the reliability of the vocabulary test can be seen in Appendix 7.
Meanwhile, for the qualitative data the researcher used the
following techniques:
1. Observation. This technique was done to the teaching and learning
process that used experiential learning method. The researcher used
participant observation technique in which the researcher was involved
as the teacher and other teacher as the collaborator.
2. Interview. The researcher interviewed some students for the purpose of
getting information about their vocabulary improvement after being
taught by using experiential learning method. By using interview, the
researcher also found the weakness of the method from the students’
perspective.
3. Questionnaire. The researcher decided to ask the students to fulfill the
questionnaire. Here the students should read the questions and give
responses or write in short answers.
E. Technique of Analyzing Data
There are two techniques in analyzing data, quantitative and
qualitative. First is numerical data or quantitative data. The numerical data
is in the form of vocabulary scores as the result of pre-test or post test. In
this research will be analyzed using descriptive statistics, with comparing
the mean of each test to find out the improvement of students’ vocabulary
mastery. Besides, the improvement of the scores will be analyzed with
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t-test non independent variable to find out the significance of the
improvement from cycle to cycle. The formula to find the mean and the
formula of t-test of non-independent variable as stated by Ngadiso (2006:
p.5-17) are as follows:
The formula to find out mean: n
XX å=
The for mulation of t-test was:
)1(
)( 22
-
å-å
=
nnnD
D
Dt
The qualitative data are analyzed using Constant Comparative
Method which is proposed by Glaser and Corbin (1967, in Lincoln and
Guba (1984: p. 339 – 340) which consists of four stages as follows:
a. Comparing incident applicable to each category,
In this stage, the writer may categorize some “incidents” from the source
by doing a comparative judgment.
b. Integrating categories and their properties
In this second step, there is a change from comparing incidents with
other incidents classified into the same category to comparing incidents
to the rule (properties) describing the category.
c. Delimiting the theory
It happens at the level of the theory construction, because fewer and
fewer modifications will be needed to get along with the data processed.
d. Writing the theory
The final step is the researcher can write the theory.
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CHAPTER IV
THE RESULT OF THE STUDY
The objective of the research is to improve students’ vocabulary
mastery using experiential learning. The result of the research
implementation is presented in chapter IV which consists of three sections.
They are introduction, research finding, and discussion.
A. Introduction
The students of the sixth grade of SD Negeri Banaran 01 Grogol
Sukoharjo are expected to master English well. Therefore, at elementary
schools, English is introduced to the students through learning its
vocabulary because it is the most important element that becomes the basic
competence in order to get other competencies like listening, speaking,
reading, and writing. If the students have mastered a number of
vocabularies required in their level, it will be easier for them to master those
elements in English learning. By knowing the vocabulary from beginning
the children will get lot of knowledge. Thus, vocabulary should be on the
first priority in the English language teaching and learning.
In fact, this condition has not been achieved yet and the students’
vocabulary mastery is low because the students had some problems during
the teaching learning process. The students got difficulties in mastering
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vocabulary. They got difficulties in grasping and memorizing the meaning
of the words. They found it hard to write down the words correctly. They
got difficulties in pronouncing the words correctly. They got difficulties in
using vocabulary in a sentence.
The researcher found that the students’ vocabulary mastery is low.
It is because the students get difficulties in mastering vocabulary. They are:
(1) the students get difficulties in grasping and memorizing the meaning of
the words; (2) they found it hard to write down the words correctly; and (3)
they get difficulties in pronouncing the words correctly; and (4) they get
difficulties in using vocabulary in a sentence.
The problem was also caused by the teaching method. He/she was not
creative when teaching the foreign language to children. He/she sometimes
made the students get bored and they also felt that the teaching method did
not give more chances to them to internalize the words in their memory.
The other problem is the classroom situation. The classroom
situation in learning vocabulary showed that the atmosphere was not alive,
with the teacher domination of teaching vocabulary. The students show low
participation in using vocabulary.
To solve the problems, the writer used some experiential learning to
be applied for the elementary students. Experiential learning has four
strengths: (1) helping involve learners actively in the learning process; (2)
providing a challenge which encourages learners to stretch themselves; (3)
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helping learners to remember they are studying; and (4) encouraging
collaborative learning.
B. Research Finding
The implementation of the research was in collaboration with the
sixth class teacher of SDN Banaran 01, Grogol, Sukoharjo that is Mr.
Walimin (W). Before conducting the research, the teacher (W) and the
researcher (IA) shared a common knowledge about action research. The
teacher (W) seemed enthusiastic and agreed to work together with IA. The
action research was conducted collaboratively.
The implementation of teaching vocabulary using experiential
learning through classroom action research consisted of two cycles. Each
cycle consisted of four meetings, three meeting for presenting the material
and one meeting for conducting the test. Each meeting took 70 minutes.
For the first cycle, the researcher used experiential learning to teach
vocabulary with topics “Hobby”, “Order and Request” and “Asking for
Permission”. For the second cycle, the topics were “Public Places” and
“Giving Direction 1” and Giving Direction 2”. Every cycle consisted of a
series of steps: identifying the problem, planning the action, implementing
the action, observing the action, reflecting and evaluating the result of the
observation, and revising the plan.
Before implementing the action in cycle one, the researcher had
conducted a pre-test to know students’ prior knowledge. This was aimed to
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measure students’ knowledge to the topic before the treatment and to make
a comparison with the post-test to know whether or not the students’
vocabulary improved. After finishing the action, the researcher conducted a
post-test to measure students’ improvement after having the treatment. The
topics of the pre-test and post-test were Hobby, Order and Request, Asking
Permission, Public Places, and Giving Direction. They consist of fifteen
multiple choice, and ten completion items. The description of each cycle is
presented in the following parts.
C. Cycle 1
1. Identifying the problem
Before the researcher implemented the research, she conducted a
pre-research, where, she did observation and interviewed with some
students. From the observation, it was found that mastery of English
vocabulary of the students was still low. Although they had learnt English
in the fourth class, they still found difficulties to remember the words they
had learnt before correctly. It was also known when they were asked to
answer the question in pre-test when the teacher gave oral test, only some
of them answered the question. The researcher could also see that the
students’ English scores of the test were still low. It seemed that they really
found difficulties to remember and grasp the meaning of words easily.
Even, they saw that English lesson was something difficult and boring
because the teacher taught in monotonous way. As the result, the students
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easily got bored and lacks of concentration. Because of this situation, the
students could not fully learn the lesson. That is why their vocabulary
mastery was low. It was also proven by the mean score of pre-test (only
57.78).
Based on pre-research, the researcher identified that the students’
vocabulary mastery should be improved by implementing a teaching and
learning process that could overcome the problems. Therefore, the
researcher designed teaching vocabulary using experiential learning.
2. Planning the Action
Finding the facts that the students’ vocabulary mastery is low, the
researcher tries to improve students’ vocabulary mastery by implementing
an action that is considered appropriate and interesting for the students, that
is, teaching vocabulary using experiential learning, great way to present,
practice, and revise vocabulary, because experiential learning helps students
actively learn English in enjoyable condition. The researcher believes that
experiential learning is appropriate method to improve students’ vocabulary
mastery.
Before implementing the action, the researcher prepares a lesson
plan as the teacher’s guide in teaching, the materials based on the
curriculum, students’ worksheet which consists of some tasks and other
things related to the action. All of these instruments are needed to support
the activities during the lesson so that the lesson can be well-organized and
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the objective can be successfully achieved. There are three terms in a lesson
plan: opening, main activities, and closing. Cycle 1 consists of three
meetings for presenting the material. Each meeting took 70 minutes. She
plans different activities for each meeting. But, there was still a connection
between the first and second meetings. The topic of cycle 1 was “Hobby”,
“Order and Request” and “Asking for Permission”. The objective of the
lesson is to introduce new vocabulary to the students related to the topic.
The action plan would be implemented by the researcher who is also as a
teacher.
3. Implementing the Action
The action plan was implemented by IA as a teacher. In the first
cycle, she introduced vocabulary dealing with Hobby. In implementing the
action, the researcher used the lesson plan that had been prepared before.
The action consists of three sections: opening, main activity, and closing.
Each of the section is described as follows:
1. The first meeting (Wednesday, 4th October 2009)
a. Opening
The lesson started at 09.00 am. The researcher (IA) and sixth
class teacher (W) came to the class, greeted the students, and checked
students’ attendance. The class was unorganized. The students ran here
and there and most of them were chatting with their friends. IA tried to
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create a good situation by telling the students that today activity would
be learning about hobby.
b. Main Activity
· Aspect of meaning
In the introduction and presentation phase, IA explore the
students’ knowledge about the topic of that day to build students’
background knowledge. She asked the students about what is hobby, she
asked “what is meant by hobby?” “ menurut kalian hobby itu apa sih”.
Then, some students said “ kesukaan…kesenangan…” and then the
teacher said “yes, good” and then the teacher asked them to mention
kinds of hobbies. She asked ”Coba sebutkan macam – macam hobby!”
then some students said “berenang…membaca…dolanan bu!... anu…
ngrungokke lagu bu!”, IA asked the students to open their book in the
topic of hobbies. Students are looking at the picture on the book and
some of them mentioned in English and the others mentioned in
Indonesia. The teacher tried to help the students by giving the English
names mentioned by the students. She says “Oke, now listen to me
carefully while you look at your book, sekarang tolong dengarkan
dengan baik sambil dilihat bukunya, there are many kinds of hobbies,
ada bermacam-macam hobi, swimming itu artinya berenang, reading
artinya membaca, listening to the music artinya mendengarkan musik”.
Then, the students matched the words about hobbies with the suitable
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pictures. By looking at the picture the students could answer and write
about the words of hobbies correctly. After that, she instructed the
students to write the meanings of the words of hobbies in Indonesia on
their note book.
· Aspect of spelling
In improving the students’ ability in spelling, IA wrote down
some words and sentences on the blackboard. The words are such as
swimming, collecting stamps, hiking, dancing, biking, gardening,
playing basket. Then, she asked volunteers to write down the phonetic
transcription. One boy came to the front and wrote the spelling of
swimming. Then, he spelled the words. After all the words were
mastered well, the teacher cleaned the board. Then, she asked them to
spell the words with the students. She spelled the words repeatedly.
Later, she, asked students randomly to spell the words alone. IA was
listening to the students’ spelling intensively while they were spelling
the words. She corrected their spelling after they finished spelling the
words.
· Aspect of pronunciation
In improving students ability to pronounce the new words
related to hobbies. In this activity, IA read a model of dialogue and
repeated by the students. For example: - What is your hobby?; My
hobby is reading. IA divided the students into group. She asked each
group to practice the dialogue by using role play at the book and then
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elaborate it by doing conversation among them dealing with their own
hobbies. This activity was conducted in 15 minutes. The situation in
doing the task was very noisy.
She asked each group to do experiential learning by doing
dialogue by using role play that they had done. IA checked their
conversation by listening the conversation of each group whether the
sentences are correct or not. Some students did not feel confident, so
they pronounced it in low voice and not seriously.
· Aspect of using words
After the students were trained how to know the meaning, the
spelling, and the pronunciation, IA let them to make new sentences
based on the vocabularies given. She asked them to make a simple
sentence related to hobbies. IA gave a model of making sentences by
telling their hobby. The example: “I like biking”. “He likes gardening,
etc..” Then she instructed the students to make sentence and practice
like the examples with their own words. Some students could do the
exercise correctly, but there were some who still have mistake in
making sentences. She corrected the errors made by the students.
c. Closing
Before closing the lesson, IA checked the students’
understanding about hobbies. There were some questions dealing with
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the vocabulary of the hobbies. IA asked the students randomly to answer
the questions. When the time given was over, IA summed up the lesson
of that day. She hoped that the situation would be better than the
situation in this meeting. Because there were no questions and the time
was over, IA thanked to the students and closed the lesson by saying
goodbye.
2. The second meeting (Wednesday, 11th October 2009)
a. Opening
The second meeting was conducted on Wednesday, 11th October
2009. IA started the lesson by greeting the students and checking
students’ attendance and asking about the students’ condition. In the
introduction phase, IA told the students that they would learn about
“Order and Request”. The situation was quiet because they haven’t
known yet about what order and request is. In this activity, IA still
applied experiential learning by using role play.
b. Main Activity
· Aspect of meaning
In the presentation phase, IA read the sentences about order and
request and asked the students to repeat after her. She also asked the
students to do the order and request sentences in real condition. When
IA read the sentence “Clean the blackboard, please” she asked the
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students to do that in reality. She said to one of the students to clean the
blackboard. But the first time the student didn’t understand what the
teacher said because they did not know the meaning, and then the
teacher said “Bagas, clean the blackboard, please!” then the teacher
said in Indonesia “Bagas, tolong hapuskan papan tulisnya!”. After
knowing the meaning of the order given by the teacher most of the
student said “oalahhh, iku toh artinya”, then Bagas, the student whom
teacher asked to clean the blackboard said “OK, miss!” then the teacher
thanked to the student by saying “Thank you, Bagas”, the student
answered “ You’re welcome miss”. Then, she asked them to give the
meaning of each word. There were some who still did not know their
meaning. She, then, discussed the words with the students. The
discussion was supposed to understand the meaning of the words. The
teacher also tried to help the students by motivating the students to
memorize the meaning of the sentences that had been learned.
· Aspect of spelling
To improve the students’ ability in spelling, IA wrote sentences
about order and request (command) and asked the students to copy
them in their note book. (sweep the floor, clean the desk, clean the
blackboard, open the door). The teacher wrote down only the spelling
of nouns, they are: floor, desk, blackboard, door on the board. Then,
the teacher asked the students to write down the spelling and spell them
later. After all of the words were mastered well, the teacher cleaned
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the board. Then, IA asked the students to write the instructions on the
board and to spell them along with her. Later, she asked the students
randomly to spell the words alone.
· Aspect of pronunciation
In improving the students’ ability to pronounce the new words
related to order and request (command). IA gave a model of order and
request by praticing a dialogue using role play. The students paid
attention to it. Then, she and one of the students stood in front of the
class demonstrating a model of order and request by role playing and
the other students tried to listen attentively. She gave a chance to the
students to practice it with their partners. The class was crowded, but
they enjoyed doing the role play. While the students were practicing,
the teacher monitored their pronouncing.
· Aspect of using word
In the last step of improving English vocabulary by using
experiential learning is teaching how to use word. After the students
were trained how to know the meaning, the spelling, and the
pronunciation of new words, IA gave some exercises to the students
individually to write down in English to form order and request in
correct sentence and arrange the jumble words to make command. The
answers were then checked together, and then the teacher and the
students were reviewing the topic about order and request.
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c. Closing
Before closing the lesson, IA summed up the lesson and asked
about the students’ difficulties and feeling. The students felt happy
because they could have ability in learning English by practicing it with
their friend and the teacher. Because the time was over, IA closed the
class and said goodbye.
At the end of the meeting, IA gave reflection to the students’
activity. She corrected the wrong pronunciation made by them, wrote
the wrong grammar used by the students and other difficulty met by
them.
3. The third meeting (Friday, 13th October 2009)
a. Opening
The third meeting was conducted on Friday, 13th October 2009.
IA started the lesson by greeting the students and checking students’
attendance and asking about the students’ condition.
IA told the students that they would learn about “Asking for
Permission”. The situation was quiet because they have not known yet
about what asking for permission is.
b. Main Activity
· Aspect of meaning
In the presentation phase, IA asked the students to look at the
picture and read the dialogue. When IA read the sentence “May I go to
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the toilet” suddenly one of the boy went forward to ask permission to go
to the toilet. She asked him to say in English but he couldn’t because
he did know the meaning and she explained. She said to the students if
they wanted to ask permission, they should use expressions of asking for
permission such as “May I…..?” Could I…..?”, and the responses are
such as yes certainly, yes, please, sure, of course, be careful. After
reading the words, she asked them to give the meaning of the
expressions of asking for permission and write on their note book. Some
of them asked the teacher to give the meaning. The teacher tried to help
the students by giving the answer and motivating them to memorize the
meaning of the sentences that had given.
· Aspect of spelling
To improve the students’ ability in spelling, the teacher wrote
some expression of asking permission on the board and asked the
students to write them down on their book. (May I go home now? May I
borrow your book?, May I return your book?, May I clean the
blackboard?, May I sweep the floor? After all of the words were
mastered well, IA cleaned the board, then. IA asked the students to write
the expression of asking permission on the board and to spell them along
with her. Later, she asked them randomly to spell the words alone. She
also asked them to spell the expression of asking for permission
repeatedly.
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· Aspect of pronunciation
In improving the students’ ability to pronounce the new words
related to asking permission, in this activity, the students had to practice
the dialogue by using role play. She asked them to repeat after the
teacher. Students did role play according to the book in good
pronunciation, however, there were some who still mispronounced. The
teacher corrected them. They practiced role play with their partner.
· Aspect of using words
The last step of improving English vocabulary mastery by
experiential learning was teaching how to use the words. After the
students were trained how to know the meaning, the spelling, and the
pronunciation of new words, then in this activity, IA gave some
exercises to the students individually to complete the sentences using
suitable words provided in the box. She asked to write the words to
make asking for permission in correct sentence and the answers were
checked together. Then the teacher and the students were practicing the
topic about asking for permission.
c. Closing
Before closing the lesson, IA summed up the lesson and asked
about the students’ difficulties and feeling. The students felt happy
because they could have ability in learning English by practicing it with
their friend and the teacher. She told that next Saturday they would have
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a test. Because the time was over, IA closed the lesson and said
goodbye.
At the end of the meeting, IA gave reflection to the students’
activity. She corrected the wrong pronunciation made by them, wrote
the wrong grammar used by the students and other difficulty met by
them.
4. The fourth meeting (Saturday, 14th October 2009)
a. Opening
The day’s program was having a test. IA greeted the
students and asked their condition. They answered eagerly. IA
explained about the day’s program that she would have a test like that
she had announced before.
b. Main Activity
In the third meeting, post-test 1 was conducted to know the
students’ learning achievement after treatment. In this activity the
students did the test on the worksheet that had been given by the
teacher.
c. Closing
Having finished the test, IA closed the class. Before ending the
class IA gave general review about the whole activities that she had
done during the research. IA hoped that they could maintain their
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participation in English class especially learning vocabulary. She ended
the lesson by saying goodbye.
4. Observing the Action
When the teacher (IA) implemented teaching vocabulary using
experiential learning, the process was observed and the result can be
explained as follows:
a) The first meeting
In the first meeting, the students were enthusiastic when IA and
the sixth class teacher (W) enter the classroom. The class was still
unorganized. The students run here and there and most of them were
chatting with their friends. They have not active yet to answer the
teacher’s questions, all of them still answered in Indonesian. They
started to do role play to experience the conversation on the book, and
did conversation with the other friends and the teacher, even though
their English was very bad and there were many students made
mispronunciations. So, IA guided them to pronounce the English words
for the hobbies.
The situation of the class was very noisy, because most of the
students tried to practice the conversation with laugh and joke many
times. Some students chatted with their friend or when out of the class.
It took much time to warn them to be in order. Then, IA asked the
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groups to practice their conversation. Some students were still shy and
they did not feel confident so they were not practicing well. And not all
of the students were active in doing this activity. Some of them only
watched and listened their friends’ conversation.
b) The second meeting
In the second meeting, the teaching learning process ran better
than the previous meeting. The students enjoyed the experiential
learning activity. Even, IA did not need to ask them to do it as they were
enthusiastic to do the activity by themselves. Most of the students said
“bu, maju lagi kaya kemaren bu”. And when the teacher says in English
they tried to understand the meaning and try to give responses. When the
teacher said “ clean the blackboard, please!” most of the students were
very enthusiastic to give response by saying ”blackboard itu papan tulis
ya bu, ooooo…. kon ngapus papan tulis toh bu”. Then the teacher said “
yes, that’s right”.
Next, IA presented the use of the order and request. And then
when the students were asked to write the order and request on their
notebook they suddenly told by themselves by practicing it with their
friend. One of them said “Don’t smoke at school, tidak boleh merokok
di sekolah”. And then the other friends followed to read and practiced
with their friend. This activity run better. But while they were practicing
most of the students practiced the activity in loud voice so it bothered
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the other students who also learnt seriously in classroom. And then the
teacher asked the students to do the task and then checked it together.
c) The third meeting
In the third meeting, the teaching learning process ran better than
the second meeting. The students enjoyed the experiential learning
activity. They were enthusiastic and had high participation. When the
teacher asked the meaning, some of the students could answer correctly.
However, some of them made some mistakes in pronouncing some
words and they were still lack of vocabulary.
The teaching and learning process was alive. Students took good
participation in the activities. Besides, they did the activities
individually, they also practiced in role playing.
d) The fourth meeting
In the third meeting, post-test 1 was conducted to know the
students’ achievement in learning the vocabulary after the treatment
was implemented. The result of the post-test 1 showed improvement of
students’ mean score. The mean score increased from 56.79 in pre-test
to 67.29 in post-test 1.
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5. Reflecting of Cycle 1
The researcher (IA) and the sixth class teacher (W) saw several
positive results and weaknesses in the first cycle. For the observation,
experiential learning could focus the students’ attention and
concentration in learning English. The researcher found the students’
progress in learning vocabulary. Some students had enough courage to
give response and opinion about the task. Based on the students’ diary,
some students told that their English is improving when they learn using
experiential learning.
Teaching vocabulary using experiential learning also increased
their motivation in joining the lesson. They were enthusiastic in doing
some activities, especially applying the vocabulary in real conversation
with their friends. The students seemed happy when they were directly
involved in learning process using experiential learning. They could
pronounce and spell the words better. They got new words which were
in correct grammar. They could give the meaning each word and
sentence. However, there were some students who were still passive
during the implementation of the actions, not all of the students were
active. There were some students who still kept quiet and did not give
their response or opinion. There were some students who could not
memorize the meaning.
The result of the test shows that the mean score of pre-test is
56.79 and the mean score of post-test is 67.29. It can be concluded that
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there is a better progress than pre-test. The result of the vocabulary
showed that there was improvement from pre-test to post-test.
Even though in general the researcher found the students’
improvement in vocabulary, some students still had difficulty in
memorizing the vocabulary. When the teacher gave some questions,
there were some students who did not raise their hands and did not try to
answer the questions. When the teacher asked them to work in groups,
they did not participate to finish the tasks. They only chatted and even
disturbed their friends.
Besides problems dealing with the vocabulary mastery, the class
situation needs to be improved. Not all students were active. Some
classroom activities did not run well. Some students did not take part
actively in teaching learning process. They were busy with their own
activities. From the research reflections of the observation above it can
be concluded that cycle 1 is not satisfactory. To gain the better progress
goal and better product, it was necessary to conduct learning action in
the second cycle.
In cycle 1, the difficulties faced by the students are: some of the
students still had difficulties in memorizing the vocabulary. The other
problems were the students were still incorrect in writing down the
words and they still had difficulties in pronouncing and spelling.
To solve the problem of class situation, first, the writer replaced
the method of experiential learning in the form of game to attract their
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attention and to motivate them to join the teaching and learning process.
Second, the writer did not force them to be always correct in answering
her questions but she gave them more chances to think and to do the
activities in teaching and learning process. Third, the teacher would
reduce the students’ noise by making them more active in learning
process. She would give the students rewards such as praise. Finally,
managing the time to be adjusted with the time allotment.
The result of Cycle 1 can be seen in the table below:
Table 4.1 The Summary Result of the Research Cycle 1
Class condition based on the result data from Observation/Interview
Before Research (Cycle 1) After Research (Cycle 1)
1. Difficulty in grasping and memorizing the meaning of the words.
2. Difficulty in writing down the words correctly.
3. Difficulty in pronouncing the words
4. Difficulty in using vocabulary in a sentence
5. Feel shy and afraid to ask the teacher.
6. Lack of self confidence 7. Little vocabulary 8. Not innovative teacher
1. There were some who still forgot vocabulary.
2. There were some who were still incorrect in writing down words.
3. There were some who still mispronounced the word(s)
4. There were some still misused the structure of the sentence(s)
5. There were some who were still shy, afraid.
6. There were some who still felt doubt.
7. There were some who still having little vocabulary
8. Innovative teacher
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Students’ vocabulary Mastery (Based on the observation)
Before Research (cycle 1) After Research (Cycle 1)
1. Pronunciation : low
2. Spelling : low
3. Words usage : low
4. Meaning : low
1. Pronunciation : fair
2. Spelling : fair
3. Words usage : fair
4. Meaning : fair
Students’ vocabulary Mastery (Based on the pre-test)
Pre-test Post-test
Mean : 56.79 Mean: 67.29
6. Revising the Plan
From the observation of cycle 1, the researcher (IA) found some
problems in teaching and learning process. She tried hard to manage the
class and implement activities. The class was still noisy. There were
some students who still chatted, laughed among themselves and walked
around the class. Not all of the students were involved in teaching
learning process. There were some students who were still passive, and
they did not feel confident to take part in classroom activities. There
were also problems dealing with vocabulary mastery. Some students still
had difficulty in memorizing, speaking, pronouncing and using the
sentences.
Based on the reflection, the researcher decided to plan cycle 2.
She planned the classroom activities involving all students’
participation. Here, the teacher would reduce the students’ noise by
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making them more active in learning process. She would give the
students rewards such as praise. The teacher designed some interesting
activities such as games and role play.
Some things which were necessary to be improved in the second
cycle as the improvements of the lack in the first cycle were as follows:
1) Enhancing the experiential learning to keep the class active and
interactive.
2) Supporting the students to perform their activities in practicing in
front of the class as well as possible. It was unnecessary to be shy,
inferior, and afraid to make mistakes.
3) Leading them to pronounce and spell the difficult word(s) many
times, give some more exercises.
4) Focusing to improve the other aspects of vocabulary on meaning and
using word.
5) Supporting them to say more loudly, reminding not to be afraid to
make mistakes.
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D. Cycle 2
1. Identifying the Problem
Based on the result of cycle 1, there were some problems which
were found by the researcher. One of the problems was that some of the
students still had difficulties in memorizing the vocabulary. The other
problems were the students were still incorrect in writing down the
words and they still had difficulties in pronouncing and spelling. They
were also still passive when they had to give the response or answer the
questions. Although the first cycle showed that the students’ vocabulary
mastery improved, she found problems about the lack of participation of
the students in teaching and learning process.
2. Planning the Action
Before conducting the second cycle, the researcher prepares
lesson plan. The implementation of teaching vocabulary using
experiential learning would be held in four meetings. In this activity IA
used the model strategy of games. The topic of this cycle was “Public
Places”, and “Giving Direction”. The objective of the lesson is to
introduce new vocabulary to the students related to the topic.
However, the researcher made some changes to overcome the
weaknesses of previous cycle. The changes are: (1) the researcher would
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involve the students in experiential learning activities by using strategy
of model games; (2) the researcher would implement many interesting
activities. She will use experiential learning by encouraging
collaborative learning; having active interaction among members of a
groups, learners will involve in real communication.
3. Implementation the Action
In this cycle, the teacher (IA) implemented the action plan and to
get the result, the researcher (IA) observed the process during teaching
learning process in the classroom. The second cycle was conducted in
three meetings for presenting the material. Each meeting took 70
minutes.
1) The first meeting (Wednesday, 18th November 2009)
a. Opening
The researcher (IA) entered the classroom with her
collaborator (W). IA started the lesson by greeting the students. She
also checked the students’ attendance and asked about the students’
condition.
b. Main Activity
· Aspect of meaning
In the introduction phase, IA told the students that they
would learn about public places. She explored the vocabularies by
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finding the meaning of the words of public places. She asked the
students about what kinds of public places, she said “menurut kalian
public places itu apa saja?” then the students said “rumah
sakit…pasar…supermarket…” the situation was little bit noisy
because almost all students mentioned the names of public places.
There were some students who spoke English but there were also
ones who spoke Indonesia. She asked them to look at the picture
and mention some words about public places and tried to memorize.
After that she asked them to give the meaning of the words.
· Aspect of spelling
To improve the students’ ability in spelling, IA wrote some
new vocabularies about public places and asked the students to copy
it in their book. She read the words and asked the students to repeat
after her. IA wrote down only the spelling of nouns, they are: post
office, church, market, library, museum, town hall, monument) then,
she lead the students spell the words repeatedly. After that, the
teacher asked the students to open their LKS on public places topic.
Then, while the teacher was spelling the new vocabularies, the
students were paying attention to the teacher’s explanation and their
LKS.
· Aspect of pronunciation
In improving the students’ ability to pronounce the new
words related to public places, the teacher (IA) asked the students to
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play experiential learning with the games. The teacher and the
students conducted “Roulette”. The students were really enthusiastic
to do the activity and they seemed to be active in the activity. She
prepared a paper plane as the tools to play roulette. The teacher flies
the paper plane and when the paper plane landed on one student,
he/she must answer the question from the teacher. Then, if the
student could answer the question they would get score. He/she had
a chance to fly the paper to his/her friend, and they could give a
question for their friend. But if the student couldn’t answer the
question so he/she must be punished. Here, the students were active
in answering all questions given by the teacher and they were very
happy until they did not want to quit the lesson even the time was
over. When the students asked a question and answered, the teacher
checked the pronunciation. After that the question and answer were
pronounced repeatedly.
· Aspect of using words
The last step of improving English vocabulary mastery by
experiential learning was teaching how to use the words. After the
students were trained how to know the meaning, spell, and
pronounce of new words, then in this activity, IA gave some
exercises to the students individually to make correct sentence by
arranging the words and the answers were checked together.
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b. Closing
Before IA closed the lesson, she asked the students to learn
more about English vocabularies. She reviewed some words
including aspect of meaning, spelling, pronunciation, and using the
words in sequences. Then, she closed the lesson by saying goodbye.
2) The second meeting (Saturday, 21st November 2009)
a. Opening
The English teacher (IA) and her collaborator (W) entered
the classroom. When they entered the classroom, the students
screamed “ hooray… bu ike, bahasa Inggris”, “asyiikkkkk…..”.
They were very enthusiastic.
b. Main Activity
· Aspect of meaning
In this activity, IA told to the students that they would study
outside the classroom. They asked the teacher “metu bu… ngopo?”
then the teacher said “ada deh… pokoknya it will be fun,
menyenangkan”. That day the researcher wanted to ask the students
to make an outside activity by applying games.
But before that the teacher told to the students that they
would learn about public places. Before starting the activity, the
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teacher gave some explanation about the topic and the students
seemed very enthusiastic to follow the activity.
That day the teacher and the students were conducting the
experiential learning activity which is called “topic card” study. This
experiential learning activity made the students very enthusiastic to
involve in teaching learning process. The teacher had prepared the
questions in the card such as “What building is it?”. Then, the
classroom was divided into several groups. Each group consists of
two or three students. Then, one of the students in the group took the
card randomly from the teacher. And then, they discussed the topic
in the card with their group. They worked cooperatively with the
members of the group. The students were enthusiastic in doing this
activity. After they discussed about the topic, then the teacher asked
them to perform with their groups in doing the “topic card” in real
conversation. After finding the correct answers, they wrote the
meaning of the answer.
· Aspect of spelling
IA wrote down some words of public places and preposition
on the blackboard, they were: the post office is near the bank, the
hospital is beside the drugstore, the cinema is in front of the
restaurant, the library is behind the mosque, the hotel is between the
police station and the market. Then, she asked volunteers to write
down the words. The word near had been done as example. One
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boy came to the front and wrote the phonetic spelling of the rest of
words. Then, he spelled the words followed by the other friends.
· Aspect of pronunciation
In improving the students’ ability in pronouncing, IA
pronounced the previous the words of public places and preposition
followed by action and then wrote on the board. The students
repeated them, they were: the post office is near the bank, the
hospital is beside the drugstore, the cinema is in front of the
restaurant, the library is behind the mosque, the hotel is between the
police station and the market. IA asked one volunteer to pronounce
beside and asked the other students to repeat. Then, she asked the
students randomly to pronounce in front of. By doing so, the teacher
and the other students could check whether the pronunciation was
correct or incorrect.
· Aspect of using words
The last aspect, IA asked the students to complete the
sentence with the suitable words to make good sentence with the
vocabularies they had learnt before. Here, the students practiced to
use the sentences in correct grammar. The students could do the
exercises well.
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c. Closing
Before IA closed the lesson, she asked the students to learn
more about English vocabularies. She reviewed some words
including aspect of meaning, spelling, pronunciation, and using the
words in sequences. Then, she closed the lesson by saying goodbye.
3) The third meeting (Monday, 23rd November 2009)
a. Opening
It was a bright morning. After having ceremony she entered
the class and greeted the students, “Good morning students!” and
they answered in high spirit, “Good morning, Mom!” then she asked
their condition and checked the students’ attendance. She explained
that day she would continue the discussion about giving direction.
b. Main Activity
· Aspect of meaning
IA told the students that they would learn about giving
direction. She showed the students the model of sentences used in
giving direction and location. The model: where is your house, go
straight, turn right, turn left, beside, between, near, across. The
situation was not crowded because almost all students paid attention
attentively. Then, IA asked the students to look at the map on their
book and complete the sentences and answer the questions. After
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that she asked them to give the meaning and find the synonyms-
antonyms of the words in the picture. They could answer correctly.
· Aspect of spelling
In improving students’ ability in spelling, IA taught spelling
by playing the game what is called “spelling race”. The method
was: the board was divided into two halves, and a representative
from each of two teams stood at the board with a chalk. The teacher
showed the rest of the class a word on a card. The team must
simultaneously spell the word to their representative, who cannot see
the word. The first team to get the word on the board with its correct
spelling earned a point. The game continued with different students
taking turns to be the team representative. Here, the students got
active in spelling the word given by the teacher and they were very
happy until they did not want to quit the lesson. They enjoyed the
game very much. Then, She drilled them to spell the words about
giving directions. They repeated to spell the direction loudly.
· Aspect of pronunciation
The teacher wrote down the words on the blackboard, they
were: go straight, turn left, turn right and across. She asked one
volunteer to pronounce turn right and asked the other students to
repeat. Then, she asked all of the students to pronounce the words
on the board. After that, she asked the students randomly to
pronounce go straight. By doing so, the teacher and the other
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students could check whether the pronunciation was correct or
incorrect. It was repeated for all words on the board.
· Aspect of using word
In this activity, IA gave the students clue, “in front of” and
asked them to make new sentence with the vocabularies they had
learnt before. The boy in front of the teacher answered, the school is
in front of the building”. Then, she asked one student to give a clue
and the other students made different sentences. Most of students
made a sentence that was slightly different from the example given.
c. Closing
Before the time was over, IA summed up the lesson. She
told that next Wednesday they would have a test. The students yelled
“Oh, My God” and the others seemed to be ready to do the test.
When the time was over, she closed the lesson and said goodbye.
4) The fourth meeting (Wednesday, 25th November 2009)
a. Opening
The day’s program was having a test. IA greeted the
students and asked their condition. They answered eagerly. IA
explained about the day’s program that she would have a test like
that she had announced before.
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b. Main Activity
In this activity, post-test 2 was conducted to know the
students’ achievement in learning vocabulary after the action of
cycle 2 was revised.
c. Closing
Having finished the test, IA ended the class. Before ending
the class IA gave general review about the whole activities that she
had done during the research. IA hoped that they could maintain
their participation in English class especially learning vocabulary.
She ended the lesson by saying goodbye.
4. Observing the Action
When the teacher (IA) implemented teaching vocabulary
using experiential learning, the process was observed and the result
could be explained as follows:
a) The first meeting
In the first meeting, the teaching learning process became
more effective than in the first cycle. The teaching and learning
process ran well. The students followed the teaching learning
process enthusiastically. There was no serious problem faced by the
teacher. The students were easily controlled.
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In this meeting, IA used game in teaching learning process.
IA saw that the students paid more attention and wanted to take part
to the lesson. When the teacher gave the questions, almost all
students in the classroom tried to answer by raises their hand. The
students discussed the name of each thing about public places
without being asked. Then, IA asked to students some questions
dealing with the topic and saying “what is a place for saving
money?” some students raised their hand in order that IA would give
them chance to answer. She gave the praises when the student could
answer the question. She said “good job” or “great”. When there
were some wrong answers, the other students were competing to
answer the question by raising their hand and the others directly
gave comment and told the right answer. They gave answer
enthusiastically. Some students, who seemed unconfident in the
cycle 1 began to speak up in the teaching and learning process of
cycle 2. The number of passive students was fewer than before. The
teacher used game in teaching learning process.
The students enjoyed the experiential learning activity. They
could pronounce and spell the words well. They could grasp and
memorize the vocabulary and they could write in correct grammar.
The students seemed to fully learn the lesson. When IA asked
to do the task individually, they could do the task well. They could
answer the questions well without seeing the notes anymore. The
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students knew well their assignment. The class situation in doing
individual task was so quiet.
b) The second meeting
In the second meeting, the teaching and learning process ran
well. The students were very enthusiastic. When the teacher entered
the classroom with her collaborator the students screamed
“Hooray…”. The students enjoyed every single activity in this
meeting.
In the meeting, they also participated in teaching and
learning process. They were very enthusiastic to involve in teaching
and learning process, especially when they were told by their teacher
that they would learn outside the classroom. The teacher gave a
game model. They listened to the teacher’s explanation carefully.
Then she asked the students to choose a piece of paper from the
teacher. Then, they started actively to discuss and practice by
themselves while the teacher walked around checking the students’
activity.
Most of the students were enthusiastic in practicing the
“topic card”. They asked the teacher to check their conversation. The
students felt proud of their ability in vocabulary, so that they did the
activity well.
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c) The third meeting
In the third meeting, the teaching learning process became
more more effective than in the first cycle. The teacher still used
game in teaching learning process by practicing spelling of the
words. The teaching and learning process ran very well. The
students followed the teaching learning process enthusiastically.
There was no serious problem faced by the teacher. The students
were easily controlled.
In this meeting, IA asked that the students to pay more
attention and wanted to take part to the lesson. When the teacher
gave the questions, almost all students in the classroom tried to
answer by raising their hand. The students discussed the name of
each thing about public places and giving direction and location.
The students enjoyed the experiential learning activity.
They could pronounce the words well. They could grasp and
memorize the vocabulary and they could write in correct grammar.
The students seemed to fully learn the lesson. When IA asked
to do the task individually, they could do the task well. They could
answer the questions well without seeing the notes anymore. The
students knew well their assignment. The class situation in doing
individual task was so quiet.
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d) The fourth meeting
In this meeting, post-test 2 was conducted. The result of post-
test 2 showed the improvement of students’ mean score. The mean
score increased from 67.29 in post-test 1 to 75.43 in post-test 2.
5. Reflecting and Evaluating the Action
A great improvement was taken from the action in cycle 2. The
class activity had also started to be more conducive and enjoyable to the
students. The teaching and learning process was better than cycle 1.
They became enthusiastic than before. They responded to the class
activity well. Most of them began to be active, not only in paying
attention but also in answering the teachers’ questions.
In this cycle, they liked working together and to have
competition with the other students or groups in doing tasks. Although
the class was noisy, the noise was the students’ interaction with their
friends talking about the lesson or the students’ errors.
The researcher saw that the students could do the task well
without seeing the books. The students still remembered the vocabulary
taught by the teacher. They could answer the teacher’s question
correctly. They could also do experiential learning activity well. They
are encouraged to show up their ability. They had courage to correct
their friends, give advice or debate about the answer or tasks. It seemed
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that they have self-confident to share their knowledge. It indicates that
they were able to grasp and remember the vocabulary and its meaning.
To support the data, in the end of cycle 2, the researcher
conducted the post-test. The mean of the pre-test scores was 56.79 and
the mean of the post-test scores 75.43. There was an improvement of the
students’ vocabulary mastery after cycle 2.
By analyzing the result of observation and the scores, the
researcher concluded that experiential learning was actually appropriate
to be used to teach English to elementary school students. Experiential
learning could help students in memorizing, pronouncing, spelling,
using the words and also made students pay attention to the lesson. The
summary result of cycle 2 can be seen on the table below:
Table 4.2 The Summary Result of Cycle 2
Class condition based on the result data from Observation
Cycle 1 Cycle 2
1. There were some who were still forget vocabulary.
2. There were some who were still incorrect in writing down words.
3. There were some who still mispronounced the word(s)
4. There were some still misused the structure of the sentence(s)
5. There were some who still shy, afraid .
1. They could remember vocabulary.
2. They could write the word(s) correctly.
3. They could pronounce words correctly.
4. They could use vocabulary in a sentence.
5. Brave, not shy. 6. self-confident.
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6. There were some who still felt doubt.
7. There were some who still having little vocabulary.
8. Innovative teacher.
7. Having much vocabulary. 8. Using various methods.
Students’ vocabulary Mastery
Cycle 1 Cycle 2
1. Pronunciation : fair
2. Spelling : fair
3. Words usage : fair
4. Meaning : fair
5. Pronunciation : good
6. Spelling : good
7. Words usage : good
8. Meaning : good
Students’ vocabulary Mastery (Based on the post-test)
Post-test (Cycle 1) Post-test (Cycle 2)
Mean : 67.29
Mean: 75.43
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E. Discussion
1. The Strength
The research which is applying action research to use the
experiential learning activity in improving students’ vocabulary mastery
brought satisfying results both in term of the improvement of students’
vocabulary mastery and classroom situation. The findings then can be
theorized in two major points as follows: (1) Experiential Learning can
improve students’ vocabulary mastery; and (2) Experiential Learning
can improve classroom situation. There are some weaknesses in
applying experiential learning. The discussion of the theories is
presented in the following section.
a. Experiential Learning can improve students’ vocabulary mastery
As vocabulary is basis for Elementary students to be able to
learn more about English, the four aspects of knowing vocabulary is
given: aspect of meaning, aspect of spelling, aspect of pronunciation,
and aspect of using words. It equips them a comprehension about
new vocabularies. In fact, the findings of the study showed that the
use of experiential learning in the class I mproved students’
vocabulary mastery. The improvement could be achieved because
experiential learning helped learners involved actively in the
learning process. It is supported by Brown (2000: p.239) who stated
that experiential learning focuses on the learning process. The
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improvement of the students’ vocabulary mastery could be
recognized from the ability to answer the teacher’s question, the
ability to grasp and memorize the vocabulary and its meaning, the
ability to spell correctly, the ability to pronounce the words and the
ability to use of grammatical form. The improvement of each aspect
was explained in the following:
1) The improvement of meaning
Another finding of the research showed that there is an
improvement of the way to grasp and memorize the words and
their meaning. For aspect of meaning, they learnt the words
about hobby, public places and imperative sentences. They
acted based on the instructions. The correct movement indicates
that they know the meaning of particular words. The students
seemed like this aspect as they could move and act. They learnt
quite fast in this aspect because they learnt by doing. Ur (1998:
p.2) states there are some aspects of vocabulary, namely;
meaning relationship can also be useful in teaching. There are
various relationships, such as synonym, antonym, co-hyponyms;
super-ordinates and translation. The students could give the
meaning of some vocabularies in English and Indonesian and
vice versa.
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2) The improvement of spelling
For aspect of spelling, they spelled the words. For this
aspect, most of students needed more time to spell. They often
inferred from alphabets of Bahasa Indonesia by saying i for i, ei
for e, ai for a. Besides some vowels, they got difficulties in
spelling consonant p, j, g, h and r. Yet, this problem can be
solved in the cycle 2. In cycle 2, the words were written on the
board then the students wrote the phonetic transcription and
spelled afterward. The teacher always asked them to practice
the dialogue and play the game in order to recall the correct
spelling and to avoid boringness. This is in line with the idea
stated by Kwong & Varnhagen (2005: p.22) that children need
continued experiences with a spelling in order to hold it in
memory for later retrieval. Then, there is knowledge of spelling
and pronunciation, of derivate forms and of different shades of
meaning.
3) The improvement of pronunciation
For the aspect of pronunciation, it was as difficult as
aspect of spelling. Sometimes the students were confused to
differentiate between the ways to spell and to pronounce. For
example: bank (bi-ai-n-kei). They spelled bi for b. Yet, they
had to omit bi in pronunciation. Some of them said [beŋk].
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Meanwhile, the correct pronunciation was [bæŋk]. It took more
time to give them understanding about the difference between
spelling and pronunciation in English. The other case, the way
to pronounce throw became a problem. They get used to say t
for th. Actually, there were many other difficulties in changing
the way the students pronounce the words. So, the teacher gave
them an understanding that the pronunciation did not have any
relation with spelling and kept asking them to pronounce the
words. In Experiential Learning activity there is wide
opportunity for the teacher to develop students’ pronunciation.
Ur (1998: p.62) categorized the mastery of vocabulary involves
the mastery on pronunciation and spelling. Pronunciation,
together with grammar is mechanic knowledge in vocabulary
mastery.
4) The improvement of using the words
The last aspect of vocabulary is aspect of using words.
In this aspect, the students seemed to be hard to create new
sentences by connecting one word to the other words they have
learnt before. In this aspect it can be seen that less students
could use new words they have learnt. For those who could,
they created a simple sentence that was slightly different from
the sentences they have learnt, for example: clean the
blackboard, come to school early, finish your homework
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tomorrow, be careful on the way, be diligent at school, etc. This
is in relation with the idea stated by Thornburry (2002: p.130)
that some characteristics of what is called as “knowing a word”.
He says: knowing a words means knowing: the word’s form, the
word’s meaning, any connotations, the word’s grammatical, the
word’s collocations and the word’s derivation.
Before the study, IA found that the students had low vocabulary
achievement. The improvement of the vocabulary mastery could be
seen from the improvement of students’ achievement from cycle to
cycle. The vocabulary achievement was increased significantly. It can
be seen from the mean score of the pre-test, 56.79, the mean score of
Cycle 1, 67.29, and the mean score of Cycle 2, 75.43.
After Computing the mean scores between the pre-test and the
post-test of Cycle 1 and between the post-test in Cycle 1 and the post-
test in Cycle 2, using non independent t-test, the results were ot = 5.575
in Cycle 1, ot = 6.592 in Cycle 2, respectively. The t-table at level of
significance =a 0.05 with N – 1(13) was 2.160. It could be said that
to tt > . It meant that the students’ achievement increased significantly.
It can also prove that conducting Experiential Learning improve the
students’ English vocabulary mastery.
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b. Experiential Learning can improve classroom atmosphere
1). Experiential Learning makes the classroom situation more
alive
The findings of teaching and learning process showed that
there was a change of classroom atmosphere before and after the
Experiential Learning was implemented in the class. It is
supported by Brown (2000: p.238 stated that experiential learning
includes activities that engage both left and right – brain
processing, that contextualize language, that integrated skills, and
that point toward authentic, real world process. The teaching and
learning process using Experiential Learning was more alive.
Most of the activities were fun and real communication. The
authentic material in the students’ life was more interesting for
them so that they felt more motivated to do the work. The
students are active, constructing their own knowledge. Working
in a group collaboratively also supported the students’ interest to
study harder. The activities were conducted individually, in pairs
and in groups.
2) The improvement of students’ confidence, motivation and
involvement in English class.
Experiential Learning motivates students to learn English
especially vocabulary. This method enables them to learn
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vocabulary by acting and moving. Because Experiential Learning
was fun and enjoyable, the students were free to act and move
without being ashamed. Acting and moving made them more
confident to learn English. The use of various methods also
motivates them to be involved during the lesson. Students showed
high participation in vocabulary class. They were eager to
conduct the activities with high spirit. They were not afraid of
making mistakes, they became more self confident. The class was
full of enjoyment, the group work was colored with students’
laugh. It showed the eagerness of the students in learning
vocabulary in a relax atmosphere.
Experiential learning can motivate the students, make them
pay attention and take part in teaching learning process. Teaching
vocabulary using experiential learning can attract students’
interest in learning English and help them to grasp and remember
the vocabulary meaning. This is in relation with the idea stated by
Ur (1996: p.274) that “motivated” learner is the one who is
willing or eager to invest effort in learning activities and to
progress.
2. The Weaknesses
The application of experiential learning in Cycle 1 and 2 had
weaknesses: (1) for the elementary students, it is not easy to
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encourage the students who do not like English to involve in this
activity; (2) the discussion in group work makes noisy; (3) monitoring
students will be difficult if the activity is done outside the classroom;
(4) for the elementary students, it needs time and patience including a
good approach to lead and support their better study because they are
usually too shy to spell.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND
SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusion
Based on the research, teaching vocabulary using experiential
learning can improve the students’ vocabulary mastery. It can be concluded
that:
1. Experiential learning can improve the students’ English vocabulary
mastery.
The improvement of te students’ vocabulary mastery can be identified in
four aspects namely: the improvement of meaning, the improvement of
spelling, the improvement of pronunciation, the improvement of using
the words.
Their achievement improved, as shown by the mean score of the post-
test of Cycle 1 (67.29) and post test of Cycle 2 (75.43) that is an increase
of the students’ achievement from the pre-test (56.79).
2. Experiential learning can improve classroom atmosphere when it was
implemented in teaching learning process.
During the implementation of the action, the classroom situation became
more alive with various interesting activities, the students were more
confidence, motivated and enjoyed the learning. The students were
actively involved in teaching and learning activities. The improvement
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of the students’ vocabulary mastery could also be seen from their
attitudes iinside and outside the class during the English teaching
learning process. They became more intensive in following and paid
attention to the lesson. Besides, they were more active, excited and
responsive to the presented materials. Before usiing experiential learning
in teaching vocabulary, the classroom situation was boring, the students
seemed to be not interested in English and of course unmotivated to
learn English. It caused them to have a chat with their friends and often
did any other activities. Surely, they neglected the tachers’ explanation.
They seemed to listen, but actually they did not. In addition they were
afraid of making mistakes. They were shy to do exercise on the board.
By applying Experiential Learning, the students were more enthusiatic
in joining the lesson so the lesson became more effective than before.
They paid more attention to the teacher’s explanation and when they had
difficulties to understand the lesson, they would ask the teacher without
being ashamed and afraid.
B. Implication
In teaching vocabulary to the children, it is necessary to use
appropriate method which is suitable with children’s characteristics. This
would bring the students into good participation in the lesson. The use of
experiential learning in teaching vocabulary for children is effective in
improving their vocabulary mastery. Using experiential learning combined
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with fun activities in creating a good atmosphere, refreshes students’ mind
which supports teaching and learning process and make students feel at
ease.
It is worth to note that presenting vocabulary using experiential
learning combining with group work is not only attracting the students or
improving their motivation toward the lesson, but also facilitating the
students in achieving the teaching objectives.
Teaching vocabulary uses experiential learning is a suitable
technique to improve students’ vocabulary mastery. The effective steps in
teaching vocabulary using experiential learning are as follows:
a. Leading them to pronounce the difficulty word(s) many times, give
some more exercise.
b. Explain the right structure of the grammar and give them more exercise
b. Supporting them to say more loudly, remind not to be afraid to make
mistakes.
c. Help them actively in teaching learning.
d. Give a high motivation, fairly approach to support their spirit.
e. Create the class atmosphere as well as possible.
f. Give the instructions as clearly as possible.
C. Suggestions
Based on the research findings, the researcher would like to propose
some suggestions related to this research. She hopes that the suggestions
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will be useful for the English teachers, the institutions, and other
researchers.
1. To teachers
The teacher should know how to enhance their ability and to develop
a good atmosphere in the class, so that the students learn easily and
comfortably in their class.
It is necessary for the teachers to use interesting method, such as
experiential learning in teaching vocabulary to children, so that they will
be interested in joining the lesson and will pay more attention to the
teacher’s explanation.
2. To the institutions
An institution of education is a formal place to get knowledge and
education. It is hoped that Sebelas Maret University can arrange the
program of teacher improvement dealing with the teaching and learning
vocabulary and the use of Experiential Learning, the English teacher can
have a better skill in teaching English especially for Elementary students.
3. To other researchers
This research studies the implementation of teaching vocabulary
using experiential learning in improving the students’ vocabulary
mastery. It is hope that the result of the study can be used as additional
reference for further research in different context that will give
contribution to teaching English for children.
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