By Yusuf Hamdani
Chapter
1
Introduction
This
introductory chapter provides the basic ideas underlying the study. It presents
the background of the study, the research problem, the research
objective, the significance of study and the definition of the key term.
1.1
.Background of the study.
English is officially stated as the first
foreign language in Indonesia. It is taught as a compulsory subject in junior
and senior high school. It is also taught in some elementary school and pre
school as a local content subject. The decree of ministry of education and
culture RI no 0487/4/1992 chapter V111,states that English can be introduced to
the fourth grade student of Elementary school as a local content subject. The
policy is based on the belief that the teaching of English would be better if
it is started earlier. Suyanto (2007:3) also states the same opinion that
if the teaching of English start earlier the result might be better. These are
several reasons why teaching English earlier is better. First, Finocchiaro
(1969) states that childhood is the best period to gain native or near native
pronunciation because their speed muscles are still developing. The next reason
is stated by Brown (1987) he says that children are in their “optimum age “that
is the time when they are fully ready to learn languages.
Considering the importance of English in this modern era, MI Al-Hikmah
Poncokusumo start to introduce English from 1 grade to 6 grade. English is
taught once in a week, every Saturday. The time allotment for one meeting is 2x
35 minutes. The researcher observed that English was the most prefered lesson
by the students there. However, their great enthusiasm was not followed by good
achievement especially for the 5 grade students in the teaching learning
process, It is very difficult for students to concentrate. Everytime the
teacher teaches them by writing down new words on the blackboard, asking them to
repeat the words together, asking about difficulty, and asking some questions,
some of the students usually got noisy, sometimes students did something else
such as fighting with their friend, went to the restroom many times while the
teacher was explaining the lesson. Sometimes there were also student who put
their head on the table to sleep. These problems indicate that the students
felt bored in the English lesson.
Beside those conditions. The student also had low retention in mastery vocabulary.
For example, in the first week the teacher taught them new word about shopping.
In the second week, the teacher asked them about the last lesson that they
discussed. They usually forgot about the lesson so that teacher had to repeat
the lesson again. In the third week, student only had little retention about
the lesson. (shopping) that had been taught so that the teacher could not
effectively teaching new words to them . This low retention was also indicated
by the average score from the previous vocabulary test which were only 50.
Although they already reach the minimum standard of success criterion of that
school the teacher wanted to increase their score they got the score actually
after they got some remedy.
Besides low
retention, the student did not have book dedicated just for English lesson.
Eventhough there were many important words that they did not know. They did not
want to write them down in their notebook .Sometimes they made notes for the
English lesson in another book. Therefore, every time the teacher asked them to
look for the meaning of some words, some of them could not find the previous
notes because they wrote them in another book, the following note taken on May
3.2011.Showed the teacher’s conversation with the student which showed their
lack of attention.
“Gak ada pak” ( I could not find it in my note )
“Saya tulis di buku lain ,sir ( I wrote it in another book )
“Saya lupa bawa buku bahasa inggris “( I forgot to bring my English notebook ).
The
students” behavior described above actually show that although they had great
enthusiasm to learn English, they got bored easily. Harmer (1988) states that
young learners tend to have short attention spans.
For that reason, the researcher was interested in increasing students”
vocabulary retention by using song, this is because teaching young learners
need different teaching techniques from those used for adult learners. Young
learners like to learn by doing, they need teaching techniques which are not
boring and monotonous .they need attractive activity that can motivate them to
learn the foreign language.
Racmayanti
(1993:4),States in her book. There are three kinds of activities that are
appropriate for young learners, singing song, conversation, and games,
according to her, song can create a fun situation as well as a means to
learn the pronoun and sentence pattern in English. There are many advantages of
using song in the classroom some of them by using modern trendy song which
young learners well know. The teacher can meet the challenges of young learners
need in the classroom. Other advantages they are valuables resources to expand
student abilities in listening, speaking, reading and writing. They can also be
exercises to teach a variety of language matters such as sentence pattern, vocabulary,
pronunciation, rhythm, adjective and adverb. Another advantage of using song is
because song are not easily forgotten.
Therefore, the researcher will use song to increase the fifth graders vocabulary
retention.
1.2
Research problem
Based on the background of the study above, the researcher. Formulates the
problem of the study as follows:
How can the
use of song increase the vocabulary retention of the fifth graders of MI
Al-Hikmah Poncokusumo, Malang?
1.3
The objectives of the study
The success of the teaching and learning process in the language classroom
depends on the process interaction between the teacher and the students and
among the students. There are many factors which can influenced such as the
materials, methods and the atmosphere of the classroom. Therefore, the
objective of the study are:
To describe
how the song can increase the students’ vocabulary retention of MI Al-Hikmah
Poncokusumo Malang?
1.4
Significance of the study
The result of the study is expected to inspire English teacher and can motivate
the students to learn English in fun way. By teaching English using song
teacher can increase student’s vocabulary retention interestingly and effectively.
English teacher can apply this techniques in the class and improve their
teaching technique into a better one and increasing student’s vocabulary
retention through song and also help student to master the four language skills
(speaking, listening, reading and writing)
1.5
Scope and limitation of the study
This study is classroom action research, which focuses only the use of song to
increase students’ability in vocabulary retention. The subject of the study are
the students of fifth grade MI Al-Hikmah, Poncokusumo. Malang in academic year
2011/2012.which consist of 20 students. They were chooses because the class was
recommended by the head master .Besides that, their achievements in vocabulary
were lower than the other class. MI Al-Hikmah, Poncokusumo, Malang has 1
English teacher that teaches from first grade until six grade. This study will
also limit the material for semester one of fifth grade students.
In addition, the researcher chooses MI Al-Hikmah ,Poncokusumo, Malang. Because
the school has gotten the predicate the most favorite school in Poncokusumo
district. However, the students still get difficulties in vocabulary
retention. Moreover, in this study the researcher use a song as a teaching
media to help the students in vocabulary retention easily. Even though the four
skills are taught in an integrated way in elementary school, the researcher
only focusing on how to increase the students’ vocabulary by using song.
1.6
Definition of key term
The title
of this proposal is “Using song to increase the vocabulary retention of the
fifth grade students of MI Al-Hikmah Poncokusumo.”Some term in this proposal
need to explain in order to avoid misinterpretation. They are:
1. Vocabulary
retention
Students’ ability
to recall and memorizing the vocabulary using song as a teaching media.
- Increase
The
progress of students’ learning vocabulary as result of using
song as media of learning English
3. Song
Refers to
the teaching strategy to teach vocabulary to the students by singing to the
song.
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