TEACHING VOCABULARY
Introduction
It is undeniable that an adequate mastery of vocabulary and in large quantities has a very important role in communicating. Weakness of the vocabulary is often used as a scapegoat in the person's lack of foreign language.
As a solution, many people decide to memorize the new vocabularies in the dictionary every day which involved number of words that have been targeted respectively. Minimal mastery of the vocabulary is not the only factor determining a person's inability to communicate in English. Even, memorizing a list words from the dictionary is not an effective solution. Although some people think that this is an easy way to teach and to make the learners understand. Learners often able to memorize many words but they may not be able to use words to communicate in the right and appropriate context.
When we take a look at how children master the Indonesian language, mothers/fathers never taught their children by giving them a row of words to be memorized and used them in daily language. However, children have mastered a lot of words from the environment and the context that surrounds these words. There is always an association between words and objects; or words and actions intended. Exposures toward the use of repeated word influence our understanding of the meaning of the word. As stated by Cameron (2001), studying a new word is not a simple thing that can only be done once.
As an implication, the natural process of first language acquisition can be used as guidance for English teacher. We can use that strategy to teach English to children. This paper focuses on teaching and learning English vocabulary for young learners.
Teaching vocabulary for young learners is not easy. There are many difficulties in teaching vocabulary, especially in elementary school students as the beginners. Many problems often appear during the teaching and learning process. The students’ score of the vocabulary test is also low. It shows that the students’ vocabulary mastery is poor. The causes of the problem are that: 1) the material is not interesting; 2) the limited time and the equipment; 3) the technique of delivering materials is neither suitable nor interesting.
Before considering a good strategy to be used in teaching young learners, teacher must know who she/he is going to teach include their characteristics. It is because the teacher has to fulfill their needs and to make the teacher easier to consider which strategy should be applied in classroom.
A young learner – who is he or she? This term covers a wide age range; this can be anybody from the age of three to the age of eighteen. There is a big difference between what a three – years - old child can do and what a child of fifteen can do. We should consider their development too. Some children develop faster, others need more time. Teaching young learners requires the knowledge of knowing all the development differences. Understanding these differences can help teacher to develop methods and a system of work that she/he will use in the process of teaching. Of course, it is not possible to say that every child of six will know this and that. But it is possible to pick out some characteristics which a teacher should know and should be aware of.
Some teachers have decided to focus on young learners – age group 7-11. They might have chosen this age group because they like working with young learners. Some teachers might think that learners at this age are grateful when they invest time to be with young learners. The results are teachers demand this kind of satisfaction. These children still want to learn something new. When they know it, they are happy to present it and they feel more important.
There are some characteristics about this age group, they are:
1. They are happy when they can play.
2. They love to share their experiences; they love when people pay attention to them and listen while they are talking.
3. They are able to talk about what they are doing.
4. They use imagination a lot.
5. They can think, argue, discuss and they are able to interact with both children and adults. They are able to concentrate for certain time.
6. They understand situations and through situations – they use several senses.7. They are able to use language skills not even realizing them.
8. Sometimes they do not realize what fact is and what fiction is.
9. They want to learn and are happy when they learn something new, then they have to share it with somebody and they are proud that they learnt something, they can show off a little bit.
10. Often they “teach” each other.
11. They love to be praised for what they have done and learnt, this is very important fact to keep their motivation.
12. Very often they pretend they understand everything and they know everything.
Halliwell (1992, p 3) states that:
1. Young children are already very good at interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual words
2. Already have great skill in using limited language creatively
3. Frequently learn indirectly rather than directly
4. Take great pleasure in creating fun in what they do
5. Their imagination is ready
6. Above all, they take great delight in talking
What Is Vocabulary?
Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language. However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than just a single word: for example, post office, and mother-in-law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea. A useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary items rather than words. (Ur, 2003, p60)
While learning the vocabulary of a second language the learners can come across several challenges:
1. Making the correct connections, when understanding the second language, between the form and meaning of words.
2. When producing language, using the correct form of a word for the meaning intended (i.e. nose, not noise)
To meet these challenges the learners need to:
1. Acquire a critical mass of words for use in both understanding and producing the language.
2. Remember words overtime, be able to recall them readily.
3. Develop strategies for coping with gaps in word knowledge, including coping with unknown words, or unfamiliar uses of known words.
4. Have to take responsibility themselves for vocabulary expansion” (Thornbury, 2002, p 31)
Enough for a while.. Enjoy Reading..
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