IMPRO VING STUDENTS’ VO CABULARY MASTERY
THRO UGH SONGS
(A Classroom Action Research in the Fifth G rade Students of
SD Negeri Pajang I Surakarta
in the Academ ic Year 0f 2008/2009)
Arranged by:
Nur A ssalam
K 2204040
THESIS
Submitted to Fulfi ll One of the Requirem ents for Achieving the
Undergraduate Degree of English Education
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATIO N FACULTY
SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
SURAKARTA
2009
ii
APPROVAL
This thesis is approved by the consultants to be examined by the Board of
Examiners of T eacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret
University.
Approved by
Consultant 1
Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd
NIP. 19621231 198803 1 009
Consultant 2
Drs. M. Asrori, M. Pd
NIP. 19601015 198702 1 001
iii
This thesis is examined by the Board of the Examiners of Teacher
Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret University and accepted as
part ial fulfillment of requirements for achieving Undergraduate Degree of
Education in English.
Day:
Date:
The Board of Examiners:
1. Chairman
Teguh Sarosa, S.S, M.Hum (…………………………….)
NIP. 19730205 200604 1 001
2. Secretary
Drs. A. Handoko Pujobroto (…………………………….)
NIP. 19581026 198803 1 001
3. Examiner 1
Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd (…………………………….)
NIP. 19621231 198803 1 009
4. Examiner 2
Drs. M. Asrori, M. Pd (…………………………….)
NIP. 19601015 198702 1 001
Legalized by,
Teacher Training and Education Faculty
Sebelas Maret University
The Dean,
Prof. Dr. M. Furqon Hidayatullah, M.Pd
NIP.19600727 198702 1 001
iv
ABSTRAC T
Nur Assalam. K2204040: Improving Students’ Vocabulary Mastery through Songs (A Classroom Action Research in the Fifth Grade Students of SD Negeri Pajang I Surakarta in the Academic Year of 2008/2009). Teacher Training and Education Faculty, Sebelas Maret Surakarta. 2009. This study is based on the problems of the low vocabulary mastery of elementary school students. It is aimed at knowing whether songs can improve the students’ vocabulary mastery or not. It also identifies the phenomenon happening when the teacher conducts vocabulary teaching using songs in the class. Moreover, this study has purposes to find out the strengths and the weaknesses of using songs in teaching English vocabulary
Related to the study, the writer conducts an action research. The technique employed in this research is songs. The procedure of the research consists of ident ifying the problems, planning the act ion, implement ing the act ion, observing the action, reflecting the result of the observat ion, and revising the plan. The research is conducted in two cycles. The first cycle consists of three meetings and the second cycle consists of two meetings. In collecting the data, the writer uses qualitative and quantitative technique. The qualitative data come from observat ion, field notes, photographs, interview, and video recording. The result of qualitative data is analyzed by using Constant Comparative Method (CCM). In quantitative method, the writer used tests. The test consists of pre-test and post-test. The technique to analyze the tests result is by using t-test. In this action research, the writer is as the teacher in teaching and learning process. Meanwhile, the English teacher is as the observer/collaborator. The results of this research show that songs can improve students’ vocabulary mastery. The improvement can be seen in the form of students’ behaviour in the class and students’ score. The students become more active in teaching and learning process. They could easily remember the vocabularies presented in the class by using songs. The improvement of students’ score can be seen from the differences between pre-test and post-test. The mean of the pretest score is 40.72 and it improves to 52.55 in the first post-test. Based on the analysis
of t-test, is 8.61. At the level of significance α= 0.05, (8.61) > t table =
(2.02), the improvement of the students’ vocabulary mastery is significant . Moreover, the mean of the first post-test score improves to 67.45 in the final post-
test. Based on the analysis of t-test, is 12.12. At the level of significance α=
0.05, (12.12) > t table = (2.02), the improvement of the students’ vocabulary
mastery is significant too. From the test result, it shows that there is a significant improvement of students’ vocabulary mastery after the writer conducts the research. It proves that teaching vocabulary through songs can improve students’ vocabulary mastery. The result of the research implies that the use of songs in teaching English in Elementary School is necessary to be applied.
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MO TTO
Sometimes accident is not an accident at all
The worth of wise word comes from ou r inner world
Everyone inspires others, then be a good inspiration
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DEDIC ATION
With a deep love, this research is dedicated to:
Her beloved father and mother
Her Schools: TK Aisyiah Baron, SD N Begalon II, SMP N 9, and SMA N 4
in Surakarta
Her almamater UNS
Herself and the brighter future
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ACKNO WLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillahirobbil’alamin. All praise and thanks are only for Allah
SWT, The Almighty God that gives His blessing and His help so the writer can
finish her thesis.
In the process of her study, she received support , contribution, and
assistance from many people. Thus, there are honorable people that are im portant
to the writer. She can only express her gratitude to:
1. The Dean of Teacher Training and Education Faculty for approving this
thesis.
2. The Head of the Art and Language Education Departm ent who has given his
permission to write his thesis.
3. The Head of English Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty
for giving the writer permission to write this thesis.
4. Dr. Ngadiso, M.Pd., the first consultant for his patience, guidance, and
suggestions.
5. Drs. M. Asrori, M.Pd., the second consultant for his patience, guidance, and
suggestions.
6. All of the lecturers in English Education Program.
7. Drs. Agus Widayatno as the Headmaster of SD Negeri Pajang 1 Surakarta for
facilitating the writer in collecting the data.
8. Riyadi Agus, S.Pd as the English teacher of SD Negeri Pajang 1 Surakarta
who has helped the writer in doing the research.
viii
9. The fifth grade students of SD Negeri Pajang 1 Surakarta who have
part icipated well in the research.
10. Her beloved father and mother for their prayers, cares, and love.
11. Hafidz and Nia “CENOL”, thanks for being her nice brother and sister.
12. Her special friend, Arief, thanks for his supports, cares, and patience.
13. Her beloved friends: Tari, Fajariyah, Susita, Eka, Debay, Ema, Via, Nida,
Hanix, Yanti, Dilly, Harumi, etc. Thanks for the togetherness, supports, and
everything we have done together. For Dwiewien, thanks for the helps and the
inspiration, I love you all……
14. Special thanks to Mas Bro, for the suggestions, inspiration, and help.
15. Her friends in class 2004 for the friendship and togetherness.
16. Her family, friends, and those who are impossibly all ment ioned. Thanks for
coloring her life.
Nothing is perfect except Allah S.W.T, and neither is this thesis. The
researcher gratefully accepts every comment and suggestion. However, she hopes
that this thesis will be useful for the improvement of the English teaching and
learning.
Surakarta, Oktober 2009
Assalam
ix
TABLE OF CO NTENT
PAGE OF TITLE …………………………………………………………………..…....
APPROVAL PAGE ……………………………………………………………….….....
LEGITIMATION PAGE …………………………………………………………….….
ABSTRACT ……………………………………………….…………………………....
MOTTO …………………………………………………………………………….……
DEDICATION ………………………………………………………………………….
ACKNOLEDGEMENT …………………………………………………………………
TABLE OF CONTENT …………………………………………………..……………....
LIST OF APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………...
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ii
iii
iv
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vi
vii
ix
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
INTRODUCTION.
A. Background of the Study ………………………...............………
B. Problem Statements …………………..………….….…...……......
C. Aims of the Study …………………..………………..…...….……
D. Benefits of the Study ………………..…………….………....……
THE THEORY UNDERLYING THE STUDY
A. Foreign Language Learning ………………………………………
1.Teaching English in Primary School …..………………….….....
2.The Characteristics of Young Learner …………………….…..
B. Vocabulary Learning ……………………………………………
1.The Role of Vocabulary in Language Skills ……………... …….
2.Teaching Vocabulary to Children …………………..…….…….
C. Teaching Vocabulary through Songs …………….……….…... ….
1.The Meaning of Songs ………………………………………......
2.The Benefits of Using Songs in Teaching English to Children.....
3.Songs in T eaching Vocabulary ……………………………….....
D. Rationale ………...……………………... …………………..……..
E. Action Hypothesis …………………………………………..…….
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Setting …………………………………………………..
1.The Place of the research ……………………………………......
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
2.The Time of the Research …………………………………….....
B. Subject of the Study …………………………………………….....
C. Method of the Study ……………………………………………....
D. Procedures of Action Research …………………….……………
E. Technique of Collecting Data …………………….………….……
F. Technique of Analyzing the Data …………………………..……..
RESULT OF THE STUDY
A. Introduction ………………………………………………………
B. Research Implementation …………………………………………
1. Cycle 1…………………………………………………………...
2. Cycle 2 …………………………………………………………..
C. Discussion …………………………………………………………
CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion ………………………………………………………
B. Implication ………………………………………………………
C. Suggestion ………………………………………………………
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BIBLIOGRAP HY ………………………………………………………………………..
APPENDICES …………………………………………………………………………….
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LIST O F APPENDIC ES
Appendix 1. Field notes in pre research …………………………………
Appendix 2. Interviews in pre research …………………………………
Appendix 3. Interviews after the research ………………………………
Appendix 4. Specification of the pre-test ……………………………….
Appendix 5. The pre-test score ………………………………………….
Appendix 6. The first post-test score ……………………………………
Appendix 7. The final post-test score …..……………………………….
Appendix 8. The comparison of the pre-test and post-test 1 scores ……..
Appendix 9. The comparison of the post-test 1 and post-test 2 scores ….
Appendix 10. The t-test result …………………………………………….
Appendix 11. Statistical table …………………………………………….
Appendix 12. Lesson plan ………………………………………………..
Appendix 13. Pre-test and post-test items ………………………………..
Appendix 13. Fieldnotes …………………………………………………..
Appendix 14. The observat ion data coding ……………………………….
Appendix 15. Photographs ……………………………………….………
Appendix 16. Sample of students’ work …………………………………
Appendix 17. Letter of permission ……………………………………….
Appendix 18. KTSP Curriculum of SD …………………………………..
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1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUC TIO N
A. Background of the Study
People around the world speak English. They use English as the first,
second or foreign language. Huebener (1965: 2) states that English is an
internat ional language. As an internat ional language, it plays a very important role
in every aspect of human life, such as communication, economics, education,
science, and technology. We can find it in most places in the world, such as in
hotels, in restaurants, in airports, on the electrical goods, on the package of food
and drink of all sorts, in the magazines, in the textbooks, etc.
We know that it is also needed in scient ific fields as a means of expanding
science and technology. In the field of education, English is potentially required.
It is reasonable enough to learn it since English plays an important role. Most of
textbooks available in the higher learning institution are still written in English.
Accordingly, the success of the students is part ly determined by the proficiency in
mastering it.
English is the first foreign language in Indonesia. It is taught as a subject
matter of education. Recently, in our country, English is not only taught in High
School. A number of primary schools begin to introduce English into their
curriculum. They realize that it is better to teach English earlier because students,
which are children, have span of t ime to learn it longer.
2
Suyanto (2005: 6) says that young learners are children in the age of 6 to
13 years old. It is important to know about the psychological aspects of the
children before conducting a certain teaching process to them. She states “Pada
hakekatnya m enurut Curtain dan Pesola (1994) anak-anak akan belajar bahasa
asing dengan baik apabila proses belajar terjadi dalam konteks yang kom unikatif
dan bermakna bagi mereka. Untuk anak-anak, konteks ini m eliputi situasi sosial,
kultural, perm ainan, nyanyian, dongeng, dan pengalaman-pengalaman kesenian,
kerajinan, dan olahraga”.
The first element that must be learned in learning a foreign language,
including English, is vocabulary. The mastering of vocabulary is the important
part in communication. 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 lain bisa m enggunakan
bahasa asing “(1998: 71). It is extremely impossible to us to speak English if we
have never learnt the vocabulary. It must be the first material taught in teaching
English in Primary School. But, concerning with the school learning, vocabulary
is considered as a difficult subject for some students. They often get difficulties in
learning and remembering new words, even they get difficulties to pronounce
them.
Based on the pre-research which was conducted by the researcher in the
fifth grade students of SD Negeri Pajang I Surakarta, the students get many
problems in learning vocabulary. They often get difficulty in pronouncing new
words, spelling, even understanding the meaning. They can’t accept the new
3
words presented by the teacher well. They can not remember them for a long time,
moreover in calling and using them in a sentence. It can be seen from the result of
their pre-test score. The mean of the score is only 40.72 which indicate that their
vocabulary mastery is still low. Their answer shows that the students can’t
remember the vocabularies for a long time, whereas those vocabularies have been
taught by their teacher before. The condition of the students’ vocabulary mastery
is supported by the teacher’s statement, he says “Di kelas V ini, mem ang
penguasaan vocabulary para siswa masih rendah. Mulai dari cara m em baca
kosakata yang benar sam pai kemampuan menghafal. Dari 48 siswa yang ada
hanya 5-10 anak yang nilai vocabulary-nya sudah bagus.”
There are some factors causing this condition, such as the teacher,
student’s interest, technique of teaching learning, et cetera. A student said in an
interview with the researcher, she says “Saya sering lupa dengan kata-kata
bahasa Inggris yang diajarkan di sekolah. Ngucapinnya juga sulit. apalagi
tulisannya. Saya jadi males.” The other student says ”Pak guru cum a nerangin
sebentar jadi saya nggak hafal. Paling-paling disuruh m encatat terus langsung
dikasih soal.” According to the interview with the teacher, the teacher seldom
teaches vocabulary. He only teaches the grammar. According to him grammar
mastery is very important, because his students’ grammar mastery is low. It is
stated by the teacher below:
“…untuk vocabulary, saya jarang m engajarkan kosakata secara langsung. Saya biasakan mereka membuka kam us. Saya langsung ajarkan tenses dengan contoh-contoh kalimat. Lalu jika ada kosakata yang mereka tidak paham mereka bisa m encarinya sendiri di kam us. Menurut saya, mereka harus menguasai tenses dari sekarang, apalagi nilai-nilai mereka mengenai gramm ar m asih sangat rendah.”
4
To make the students interested in lesson the teacher should use an
interesting way in teaching. He can use some appropriate methods and techniques
to create the students’ motivat ion. Nababan-Subyakto says “Guru yang baik
um um nya selalu berusaha m enggunakan m etode pengajaran yang paling efektif
dan m em akai alat atau m edia terbaik” (1993: 5). Since the teacher teaches
children, the teaching technique used should be fun and enjoyable for them. It is
very important because children need to learn without anxiety.
One of the techniques which can be used to teach children is teaching
vocabulary through songs. Song is a good instrument to teach children. Most of
children like to sing a song. It is an enjoyable and effective activity to be done
since the teacher use the good and appropriate songs. Through songs, children will
get easier in catching new vocabularies. Besides knowing the meaning of words,
they also get easier in pronouncing them well by imitating to the songs they listen.
Dakin (1985: 5) says “songs give new dimension for drilling and they
make drilling more natural and meaningful”. Songs provide activities, such as
drilling that make students learn vocabulary unconsciously and happily. The
students are involved directly in the singing activity, so they will be more
motivated to learn English, especially vocabulary. Songs also help to make the
words memorable from their repet ition.
Based on the description above, the writer is interested in carrying out a
classroom action research to improve the students’ vocabulary mastery through
songs in the fifth grade students of SD Negeri Pajang I Surakarta,
5
B. Problem Statements
Based on background of the study, so many problems may arise. The
writer tries to formulate the problems into the following questions:
1. Can the use of songs improve students’ vocabulary mastery?
2. What will happen if the teacher conducts vocabulary teaching using songs
in the class?
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of using songs in teaching English
vocabulary?
C. Aim s of the Study
Generally, the aim of this study is to improve students’ vocabulary
mastery of the fifth grade students of SD Negeri Pajang I Surakarta 2008/2009.
While specifically, by this study, the writer wants to get som e information:
1. Whether the use of songs can improve students’ vocabulary mastery.
2. The phenomenon happening in the class when the teacher conducts
vocabulary teaching using songs.
3. The strengths and weaknesses of using songs in teaching English
vocabulary.
D. Benefits of the Study
By this study, we can get some benefits as follows:
1. The result of this study can be the teacher’s alternative way to solve the
problems arising in teaching and learning process. It will be one
6
consideration in choosing the appropriate songs to the elementary school
students.
2. For the students, the implementation of songs in learning vocabulary can
be the new technique which is either effective or fun. Songs can be one of
reference to be played when the students need a pleasure in studying.
3. The result of this study will be one of techniques in teaching vocabulary at
SD Negeri Pajang 1 Surakarta.
4. The result of this study can be used by other researchers as a practical
contribution for their study. It can provide data taken from the class which
can be the comparison with another class.
7
CHAPTER II
THE THEO RY UNDERLYING THE STUDY
A. Foreign Language Learning
There is a big question, “Why do we learn a foreign language?” Lado
(1965: 2) states, “Foreign language is learnt primarily to contact outside one’s
own comm unity”. We know that, no nation can isolate itself from world trades
and politics. Some of citizens must master at least one of the major languages if
that country is going to be an active member of the international comm unity.
Language as a means of comm unications has an important role in the
development of student’s intellectual, social, and emot ional. Language also has a
role as the key of success in learning all subject matter. As everybody knows that
each nation has its own language, such Indonesian has Bahasa Indonesia, British
posses English. Although they have had their own language, many of them also
learn other languages. Not only adult and teenager, but also children try to learn
other languages. Lado adds that there are so many interesting facets in a foreign
language. It is best medium for int roducing the children to the civilization and
cultural achievements of the foreign people.
Foreign language learning has an essent ial role in preparing children to
face the world that has been changed with new perspectives brought about by a
rapidly changing society, including within their own community. It can help them
overcome their insecurity from bad influences caused by globalization era. It can
also develop their confidence as they face up the demands of social and personal
7
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relationship that are not usually encountered in a mother-tongue context. The
study of foreign language then becomes a course in civilization and humanities.
In education, the aim of foreign language learning and teaching is the
teacher equips his students with knowledge and skills so that they can speak
fluently, of course with their immediate understanding, when they are doing a
conversation with foreign people speaking their native language. It is stated by
Lado (1965: 2) “Learning a foreign language is a means of acquiring another set
part of speech habits, we learn through the observance of rules; the language we
have been mastered to become spontaneous”.
Without any doubt, English is the most important language in the world,
and it is no hard to find impressive statistics to prove it. It is an international
language used by many people around the world. Bryson (1990: 176) says, “Two
thirds of all scient ific papers are published in English, nearly half of all business
dealt in Europe are conducted in English, more than seventy per cent of the
world’s mail is written and addressed in English”. These situations make it
important and necessary for us to learn English. Therefore, foreign language
learning discussed here is learning English as a foreign language.
1. Teaching English in Primary School
Since English becomes the most important language used in many aspects
of social life around the world, it is not excessive for people in this country to
learn English. Indonesian people need to be able to speak English fluently to face
globalization era. Ashworth (1985: 26) states, “English is termed as a foreign
9
language in these countries where the language spoken outside the classroom is
not English”. It means that in most non-English speaking countries, English is the
first choice in learning a foreign language. In Indonesia, English is termed as the
first foreign language as stated in the 1994 curriculum,”Bahasa Inggris adalah
bahasa asing yang dianggap penting diajarkan untuk tujuan penyerapan dan
pengem bangan ilm u pengetahuan, teknologi, dan seni budaya, serta
pengem bangan hubungan antar bangsa” (Depdikbud, 1994: 69).
English has been taught from primary school and continued through
college and university. The funct ion of English in primary school is to expand
science, technology, and culture, as stated in GBPP 1994, “Mata pelajaran
bahasa Inggis berfungsi sebagai wahana pengembangan diri siswa dalam bidang
ilm u pengetahuan teknologi dan seni budaya, sehingga pertum buhan mereka
tetap kepribadian Indonesia” (1).
English is taught in primary school to give the students a basic knowledge
of spoken English, some simple reading and listening, and writing skills as stated
in curriculum: “Muatan lokal bahasa Inggris bertujuan agar siswa mem iliki
ketram pilan menyim ak, berbicara, membaca dan menulis sederhana dalam
bahasa Inggris…” (1994: 2).
English is different from Bahasa Indonesia that has been acquired as
students’ mother tongue. It means that they learn something new. It is not easy
for them because English is not used in their daily activity. The qualified
education is influenced by the student’s motivat ion and the teacher’s role in the
class. The environment surrounding including the facilities and teaching aids that
10
the teacher uses also support it. Kimble and Garmez in Brown (1987: 6) say that
teaching means showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving
instruction, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing
to know or understand.
Teacher has an important role in teaching-learning situation. According to
Apper (1968: 6), a good teaching is to teach his students to communicate
successfully with native speaker of the language being taught . Language is
regarded as general means of communication. Thus, the success of teaching-
learning process is determined by the student’s capability in speaking a foreign
language fluent ly and understand it immediately.
Actually, there are four aspects in language: listening, reading, speaking,
and writing. Listening and reading are recept ive activity, while the last two,
speaking and writing are productive activity. Lado (1965: 4) states that general
aim of foreign language teaching is to equip the student with the knowledge and
skill required for effective comm unication in the language. It is clear that the aim
of foreign language teaching is to equip the students with knowledge and skill
required for effective and successful communication with native speaker in that
language. According to Ashworth (1985: 36), the objectives of foreign language
teaching is to give the students either speaking, reading or writing knowledge of
English, as well as an introduction to a new culture.
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2. The Characteristics of Young Learner
As everybody knows, children are unique. Actually, children are not a
small version of an adult. They live in the “play world”, grow, like to imitate, and
creative. They have their own world that has to be seen from “children’s point of
view”. The children in fun atmosphere can do everything.
According to Philips (1996: 6) children, through a series of stages,
progressively acquire skills that are thought necessary by the society they live in.
It is also increasingly recognized that children need to ‘learn how to learn’.
Different students learn in different ways. Moreover, som e methods are
found more appealing and effective than others. Som e students profit more from a
visual; others from verbal; and still others from physical activities and the
manipulation of objects. Many students benefit from combinat ions of these three
approaches. Also, the time required for accomplishing a given task varies from
individual to individual. Even for the same person, it also varies in engaging in
different related tasks. Therefore, it is understandable why a variety of methods,
resources, and paths should be provided for different students to achieve a
part icular goal.
There are many traits that different iate learners and those different
characteristics such as capabilities, needs, and interests should affect the emphasis
of instructional planning, for example, the choice of sequencing of objectives, the
depth of treatment, and the variety of learning activities. Therefore, when
designing an instructional plan, the important task for the designer is to identify
those most critical to the attainment of the instructional objectives.
12
According to Philips (1995) in Suyanto (2005: 6), young learners respond
the language depending on what they can do by the language. Further, it is stated
that there are characteristics of young learners: (1) they like learning by playing;
(2) they can tell what they have done and listened; (3) they can debate about
som ething; (4) they are faster in comprehending the situation around them; (5)
they have attention and concentration only in a view moment; (6) they always feel
happy in playing and working by themselves but there must be other people
around them; (7) they learn English by listening, repeating and spelling; (8) they
know the rules which must be obeyed, and make them feel happy and
enthusiastic; and (9) children will learn better when they are given the motivation
to get involved directly in the activity (Pahin and Power 1990: 8).
From the characteristics above, teachers should have the appropriate
approach and technique in teaching young learners. Besides that, in language
teaching, English teacher has to concern more on student’s characteristics in
finding out a good technique in teaching.
B. Vocabulary Learning
Vocabulary is a total number of words used in com munication. Burns
(1975: 295) defines vocabulary as the stock of words used by a person, class, or
profession. While Ur (1995: 60) says that vocabulary is defined roughly as the
words we teach in the foreign language. It is clear to say that vocabulary is a stock
of words used by people in the foreign language learning. Hornby (1995: 1331)
states that the total number of words in a language and vocabulary is a list of
words with their meanings.
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Here, Nation (1990: 5) divides two kinds of vocabulary learning, namely
receptive learning and productive learning. Receptive learning is ability to
recognize a word and recall its meaning when it is met. It includes two skills,
reading and listening. Both skills are called as receptive activity because the
activity done is receiving information from others. By reading we receive
information in written forms, i.e. books, magazines, newspapers, email, posters,
letter etc. While in listening, we receive voices, sounds, or spoken informat ion.
Payne and Brown (1994) quoted by Hatch and Brown (1995:373) give
strategies in vocabulary learning as five essent ial steps: (1) Having sources for
encountering new words; (2) getting clear image, either visual or auditory or both
the forms of the new words; (3) learning the meaning of the words; (4) making a
strong memory connection between the forms and meaning of the words; and (5)
using words in sentences.
Krakowian (1982: 26) states the most pressing concern for the learner is
the need to master an adequate foreign language vocabulary and the learning of
syntax and pronunciation is less important in developing the ability to
successfully interact in the target language. It means that vocabulary is the first
thing which should be learnt by the foreign language students before they learn
gramm ar or pronunciation. Dealing with four skills: speaking, listening, reading,
and writing, vocabulary mastery is the requirement in foreign language learning.
A person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a
language. While in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocabulary, vocabulary is defined
as "all the words known and used by a particular person". However, the words
14
known and used by a part icular person do not constitute all the words a person is
exposed to. By definition, a vocabulary includes the last two categories of this list:
1. Never encounter the word.
2. Hear the word, but cannot define it.
3. Recognize the word due to context or tone of voice.
4. Able to use the word but cannot clearly explain it.
5. Fluent with the word – its use and definition.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocabulary, the types of
vocabulary are as the following:
1. Reading Vocabulary
A person’s reading vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize
when reading. This is the largest type of vocabulary simply because it includes the
other three.
2. Listening Vocabulary
A person's listening vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize
when listening to speech. This vocabulary is aided in size by context and tone of
voice.
3. Writing Vocabulary
A person's writing vocabulary is all the words he or she can employ in
writing. Contrary to the previous two vocabulary types, the writing vocabulary is
stimulated by its user.
15
4. Speaking Vocabulary
A person’s speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she can use in
speech. Due to the spontaneous nature of the speaking vocabulary, words are
often misused. This misuse – though slight and unintentional – may be
com pensated by facial expressions, tone of voice, or hand gestures.
1. The Role of Vocabulary in Language Skills
Vocabulary has an important role in language skills, i.e. listening, reading,
speaking, and writing as stated by Nation quoted by Schmit and McCarthy (1997:
6) as follows, “Vocabulary knowledge is only one component of language skill
such as reading and speaking”.
In reading ability, vocabulary gives easiness in comprehending the text as
stated by Richards and Long (1987: 312), “Skills in reading fall generally into
four categories: mechanics, syntax, vocabulary, and comprehension”. In writing
ability, vocabulary gives easiness for the learners to expand their ideas based on
the topic sentence that they want as stated by Cross (1991: 14-15), “…paragraph
begins with “topic sentence” which is then expanded, the use of certain words and
phrases related to the certain types of students level”. In speaking ability,
vocabulary gives easiness for the learners to explain their idea. The learner who
has more vocabulary can speak more fluent ly and more easily. In listening ability,
vocabulary gives easiness for the learners to comprehend what other persons
speak. They can find the topic of speaking from other persons easily.
16
Actually, the importance of vocabulary as stated in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocabulary is as the following:
1. An extensive vocabulary aids expressions and communication.
2. Vocabulary size has been directly linked to reading comprehension.
3. Linguistic vocabulary is synonymous with thinking vocabulary.
4. A person may be judged by others based on their vocabulary.
According to the theories above, vocabulary is the essent ial part of
language skill. It is the most important part which should be learned by the
students. It is the first element that must be learned in learning English. So, the
mastering of vocabulary is a must as stated by Hardjono (1998: 71) “Dari semua
aspek dasar bahasa asing yang harus dikuasai siswa dalam proses belajar, aspek
kosakata yang paling penting. Tanpa penguasaannya tidak m ungkin orang lain
bisa m enggunakan bahasa asing “
2. Teaching Vocabulary to Children
Cross (1992: 5) states that the major aim of most teaching program is to
help the students to gain large vocabulary of useful words. Allen and Vallette
(1997: 149) add vocabulary is an important factor in all language teaching. When
we are talking about vocabulary taught to children, it means that we are talking
about “here and now” theory. It means that children just talk about things
surroundings him/her that are visible and just now, not past or future. Or, we also
know about “here and there” theory, that when we teach children vocabulary we
17
teach them from the concrete things which appear in his/her surroundings to the
abstract one. In further explanations Allen (1983: 7-8) explains:
In books that are intended for the first stage of English, the vocabulary lessons usually contain words for persons and things in the classroom. One reason is that the meanings can easily be made clear. Windows, door, blackboard, flower, book, etc. are things that the students can see while they are hearing the foreign names for them. Furthermore, things in the classroom can also be touched. This is important, because success in learning process. When students can touch something, in addition to hearing and seeing the word that names it, there is a stronger chance that the word will be learned. At least those two senses, sight and hearing are working together to focus the learner’s attention.
From the students’ point of view, vocabulary mastery contains the
following items:
1. Meaning
The first thing to realize about vocabulary items is that they frequent ly have
more than one meaning. When we come across a word, then, and try to
decipher its meaning we will have to look at the context in which it is used.
The students, thus, need to understand the importance of meaning in context .
Besides, they also need to know about sense relation, since sometimes words
have meanings in relation to the other words.
2. Word Use
What a word means can be changed, stretched or limited by how it is used and
it is something students need to know about. Word meaning is frequently
stretched through the use of metaphor and idiom.
3. Word Formation
Words can change their shape and their gramm atical value, too. Students need
to know facts about word formation and how to twist words to fit different
gramm atical context. Students need to know suffixes and prefixes words.
Students also need to know how words are spell and how they sound. Word
formation, then, means knowing how words are written and spoken and
knowing how they can change their form .
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4. Word Grammar
The use of certain words can trigger the use of certain grammatical patterns
for example a distinction between countable and uncountable nouns, phrasal
verbs, verb complementat ion, the position of adjective and adverbs. (Harmer,
1991: 156-158)
According to the explanation above, vocabulary mastery can be simply
understood as follows:
1. Pronouncing
The students have to be able to pronounce the words correctly. They have to
know how to speak and read them well. It is very important because the
mistakes in pronouncing a word can make its meaning different .
2. Spelling
The students have to be able to spell each letter of a word both in written and
spoken way. They have to be able to spell a word so that they can catch the
meaning of that word.
3. Understanding the meaning
Beside knowing the pronunciation and the spelling, the students also have to
be able to understand the meaning of a word. The meaning of a word can be
more than one according to the context.
4. Using words in a sentence
After knowing how to pronounce, to spell, and to understand the meaning of a
word, the students have to be able to use it in a sentence. They have to be able
to remember a word then using it in a sentence correctly.
C. Teaching Vocabulary through Songs
Teacher needs essential tool to do their best work. The tool here is audio-
visual aids which support the teaching and learning process. Preston (1958: 313)
says that audio-visual aids are learning tools, other than reading materials, which
make demands upon the learner’s ear or eye, or both. They may provide an
19
auditory experience in the form of a recording, a visual experience in the form of
a sound-motion-picture film. The purpose is to provide vivid concrete experiences
for the learner.
However, there are a lot of teaching aids which can be used, such as
pictures, games, tape recording, film, etc. In this study, the writer proposes songs
to teach vocabulary, so that the students’ vocabulary mastery will improve.
1. The Meaning of Songs
Machlis (1955: 3) in his book “The Enjoyment of Music, an Introduction
to Perspective Listening” states that song is the most natural form of music.
Issuing form within the body, it is projected by means of the most personal of all
instruments, the human voice.
From time immemorial, singing has been the most widespread and
spontaneous way of making music. In any case, song permeates all music,
whether vocal or instrumental. The New Grolier W ebster International Dictionary
defines songs as the act of art of singing, vocal music which is sung. Griffe
(1992:3) notes that the word songs refer to the pieces of music that have words,
especially popular songs such as those one hears on the radio.
2. The Benefits of Using Songs in Teaching English to Children
It is important to use the suitable and effective technique in teaching
English to children. In this thesis, the writer proposes songs as a teaching
technique that will facilitate students in getting a better mastery on vocabulary.
Ward (1985: 189) ment ions the benefits of using songs in teaching English to
children as follows:
20
a. Song can motivate and stimulate the student’s interest. It can bring much
joy to them.
b. In a song we can repeat the same structure over and over again happily, so
our students will not be bored.
c. With a song, we can help our students to use the correct rhythm and stress
by reciting and singing songs.
d. Songs contribute the growth of meaning, so enrich and increase students’
vocabulary, and give opportunities to remember easily.
e. The students have chance to sing when they sing a song in-group, they will
sing without thinking of their error, and this my increase their self-
confidence.
f. Our students can sing a song when they are alone. Song is a means of oral
reinforcement outside of the class.
Songs, according to Hancock (1998: 6) can give at least two benefits in
language teaching and learning. The first is that music motivates the students to
learn. Mostly people listen to music and songs for pleasure. The teacher can use
songs to motivate the students and provide variety in a lesson. Variety is very
important, especially for young learners since they often have very little internal
motivat ion for entering a language classroom. The second benefit is that the
teacher can use songs to focus on form of the language elements, such as
gramm ar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.
21
Songs can be an effective way of teaching children and can encourage
them to become actively involved in their learning. According to
http://www.onestopenglish.com /section.asp?docid=153715 the reasons of
choosing songs in teaching vocabulary to children are:
1. Children like songs.
2. Songs can be integrated into language learning - listening, singing and
doing activities around the songs.
3. In many cultures songs are used to int roduce or practice mother tongue
with young children, so this is a medium that children are very
com fortable with.
4. Songs are memorable.
5. Songs often include a lot of repet ition that helps to make language
memorable.
6. Songs contain chunks of language that children can remember and use.
7. Because songs must be sung at a reasonably fast speed they encourage
natural phonological features like linking and weak forms.
8. Children will be actively involved in their learning, even at a very young
age, rather than passive.
9. Children have energy and want to make noise. Songs will channel these
natural inclinations positively.
10. Parents will enjoy hearing their children singing in English.
11. Singing is a happy and stress-free activity that will add to a positive
classroom learning environment.
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3. Songs in Teaching Vocabulary
The teacher should be aware of the aims in choosing a song. Ward (1985:
190) states a list of possible aims or how to choose and use the songs:
a. Structural Consolidation
It is better to choose a song containing plenty of examples of the target
structure and focusing mainly on gramm atical point .
For example: This is a flower; this is a desk; this is a ruler; etc.
b. Learning New Vocabulary
Teacher should decide which vocabulary will be taught and then choose the
suitable song.
c. Listening Comprehension
Almost every song can be used for listening comprehension.
d. Reading Comprehension
The teacher may use the lyrics of a song to practice the students’ reading
com prehension before they learn to sing it.
e. Phonology
There are two important things which should be concerned when using a song
in teaching vocabulary, they are: (1) pronunciation. Teacher must analyze
which sound is difficult to the students, and then he m ust find out the suitable
ones that contain examples of those sounds. Choose the easy one, do not
choose too complex; (2) stress and rhythm, For elementary level, it is
important to choose a song in which the accented beasts of the music fall on
words which normally carry strong stress, so that the students will learn to
23
associate the content words with strong stress and grammatical words with
weak stress.
f. Discussion Work
The discussion could take place after exploitation of the song. The teacher can
lead into the theme by asking the students some questions.
g. Cultural Background
The teacher should introduce the song to the students to help them understand
the culture of the people whose language they are learning and, consequently,
to understand the language itself better.
h. Singing for Enjoyment
Using a song in teaching English will create a fun atmosphere in the class. It
makes the teaching-learning process run well.
However, not all songs can be used to teach English vocabulary to the
children. Teachers have to choose appropriate songs that are simple, easily
understood, related to a topic or vocabulary that is learned, and repetitive. In
addition, it is suggested to choose songs which children can easily sing that will
help students emphasize meaning. There are some considerations presented by
Dakin (1985: 60) in selecting of the song to teach English:
1. students proficiency in English
2. age and sex of the learner
3. language of the song
4. beats and rhythm of the song
5. clear and relevant content of song
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6. length of song
According to http://www.onestopenglish.com /section.asp?docid=153715
we also should choose songs which are:
1. contain simple, easily understood lyrics
2. link with a topic or vocabulary that you are studying in class
3. are repetitive
4. children can easily do actions to (to help emphasize meaning)
Therefore, using songs can be a good alternat ive in teaching to young
learner. Teacher can use it to improve the student’s vocabulary mastery.
D. Rationale
Vocabulary is the first element that must be learned in learning a foreign
language because verbal communication needs words to express meanings. No
matter how well the student learns gramm ar because without words to express a
wide range of meanings, communication in L2 just cannot happen in any
meaningful way. Without having proportional vocabulary, students will get
difficulties in using English. Logically, it is impossible to speak fluently if the
students are low in vocabulary mastery. Because vocabulary is the bases of a
language, the mastering of vocabulary is very important. In condition, after
graduating from elementary level, many students are still lack of vocabulary
mastery. Actually, vocabulary should be mastered before they accept the other
materials such as grammar and also pronunciation when they cont inue their study
in high school level. In fact, the students often get difficulties in understanding
and remembering new words, even they get difficulties in pronouncing them.
25
There are som e factors causing this condition, such as the teacher, the student’s
interest, the teaching atmosphere etc.
From the interview with the teacher, the writer knows that the students
often get difficulties in catching new words. Sometimes it’s hard for them to
pronounce a word. Most of them even get difficulties in remembering the words,
as stated by the teacher below:
“…anak-anak sering kesulitan saat ada kosakata baru. Biasanya mereka kesulitan dalam memahami art i dan mengucapkannya. Bahkan kebanyakan sering lupa dengan kosakata yang pernah diajarkan di kelas.”
There should be a way to solve those problems that must be appropriate to
young learners’ characteristics. Actually there are some characteristics of young
learners: (1) they like learning by playing; (2) they can tell what they have done
and listened; (3) they can debate about something; (4) they are faster in
com prehending the situation around them; (5) they have attent ion and
concentration only in a few moment; (6) they always feel happy in playing and
working by themselves but there must be other people around them; (7) they learn
English by listening, repeating and spelling; (8) they know the rules must be
obeyed, and make them feel happy and enthusiastic; and (9) children will learn
better when they are given the motivation to get involved directly in the activity
(Pahin and Power 1990: 8).
From the characteristics of young learners above, song is one of the best
techniques to improve the students’ vocabulary mastery. Song is a fun teaching
instrument which can make the students feel happy and enthusiastic in learning
vocabulary. The students will also get easier in learning vocabulary because they
26
are not threatened. Besides that, by using songs the teacher will get easier in
delivering new words because the students can practice listening and repeating
easily. Therefore, the writer proposes songs as the best instrument to solve the
problems arising in teaching and learning of vocabulary. Songs can meet the great
demand of learning of vocabulary which not only help the students in
understanding, pronouncing, and spelling the vocabulary items but also create
fresh atmosphere that will increase the students’ motivation in learning English.
Then, it can be accepted that songs can improve the students’ vocabulary mastery.
E. Action Hypothesis
Songs can improve the vocabulary mastery of the fifth grade students of
SD Negeri Pajang I Surakarta in academic year 2008/2009.
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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Setting
1.The Place of the Research
This research wass carried out in SD Negeri Pajang 1 Surakarta, one of the
state Elementary Schools in Surakarta, Central Java. It is located on Jl. Transito
No.18, Laweyan, Surakarta.. Physically, SD Negeri Pajang 1 Surakarta has six
grades, from the first to the sixth grade. Each grade consists of one class, and
here, the writer conducted the research in the fifth grade.
2.The Time of the Research
This research was conducted for 12 months from July 2008 to June 2009.
It includes the pre-research, action, and activities after the action. It can be
arranged as follows:
No. Activity Time of research
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Pre-research (interview and observe
English teaching)
Pre-test
Action
First post-test
Final post-test
Analyzing the result
July 2008
March 25, 2009
March to April 2009
April 24, 2009
April 30, 2009
April to June 2009
27
28
B. Subject of the Study
The subject of this research is the fifth grade students of SD Negeri Pajang
1 Surakarta in academic year 2008/2009. From the result of the interview with the
teacher, it is noticed that the students in this class were often get difficulties in
memorizing new vocabularies, pronouncing, and spelling them well.
C . Method of the Study
The method of the research is the common strategy which is used in
collecting and analyzing the data needed to overcome problems appearing. This is
the solving plan for the problem being studied (Ary in Furchan, 1982: 50). Other
definition of the method of the research is given by Kartono (1990: 20) who states
that method of the research is the ways of thinking that have been well prepared to
conduct research and to get the research aim. Based on the statement, the method
of the research can be used to investigate the research object in order to get
accurate data, so that the purpose of the research can be achieved.
According to the theories above, the writer, in this study uses Action
Research as the method of the research. Actually, the concept of Action Research
is captured in the following statement :
The linking of the terms ‘action’ and ‘research’ highlights the essential feature of the method: trying out ideas in practice as a means of improvement and as a means of increasing knowledge about the curriculum, teaching and learning. The result is improvement in what happens in the classroom and school, and better articulation and justification of the educational rat ionale of what goes on. Action Research provides a way of working which links theory and practice into one whole: ideas-in-action. (Kemmis and McTaggart , 1982: 5)
29
According to Elliot, Action Research might be defined as the study of a
social situation with a view of improving the quality of action within it. It aims to
feed practical judgment in concrete situations, and the validity of the “theories” or
hypotheses it generates depends not so much on “scientific” test of truth, as on
their usefulness in helping people to act more intelligent ly and skillfully (1991: 6).
Meanwhile, Rapoport in Rudduck and Hopkins (1989: 58) states that Action
Research is a type of applied social research which is different from other
varieties in the immediacy of the researcher’s involvement in the action process.
Mills also gives a definition of Action Research by saying:
Action Research is any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers, principals, school counselors, or other stakeholders in the teaching/learning environment, to gather information about the ways that their part icular schools operate, how they teaching and how well their students learn (2000: 6).
From the definitions above, it can be summarized that Action Research is
the systematic study to overcome education problems or to change things related
to educational problem for improvement. It is conducted by practitioners or
teachers, or in collaboration of teachers and researchers by means of their own
practical actions and by means of their own reflection upon the effect of the
actions.
In this study, the classroom Action Research is conducted as an attempt to
improve the students’ vocabulary mastery. This research is carried out by the
collaboration of the writer and the teacher. The practical action is the
implementation of using English songs in teaching vocabulary. The reflection
upon the efforts of the actions can be known while the technique is presented.
30
This reflection shows whether using songs can improve students’ vocabulary
mastery.
D. Procedures of Action Research
The model of Action Research is a set of principles, frameworks in
undertaking a classroom action research. According to Lewin in Penelitian
Tindakan Kelas written by Kasihani Kasbolah E. S. (2001: 10), the procedures of
implement ing Action Research can be illustrated as follows:
The cycles of Action Research
The picture above shows that there are four steps in implementing an
Action Research. It can be expanded to six steps as follows:
1. Identifying the problems
The writer as the researcher in this research ident ifies the problem first
before planning the actions. The problem refers to the students’ low
mastery of vocabulary. It was noticed from the interview with the teacher
and the identification of the students’ scores.
31
2. Planning the action
The researcher prepares anything related to the actions that will be
implemented. She makes the lesson plan before she teaches the students.
The researcher takes the vocabulary material that is suited with the
syllabus of the school.
3. Implement ing the action
The researcher implements the teaching learning of vocabulary by using
songs. She implements vocabulary teaching by using English songs to help
the students understand the material. In every action the researcher
arranges general plan as follows:
1) Giving speech as the int roduction of the lesson
2) Present ing the songs which have been prepared and analyzing
the meaning of each word together with the students
3) Asking the students to sing the song
4) Giving tasks dealing with the material
In the beginning of the actions, the researcher conducts a pre-test to know
the students’ ability in vocabulary mastery before the actions are
implemented. She also conducts post-tests at the end of the actions to
measure the students’ improvement after they are taught by using songs.
4. Observing or m onitoring the action
The writer and the teacher observe all activities in the teaching learning
process while the technique of teaching vocabulary using songs is carried
out. Each result of the observations during the actions implemented in the
32
classroom serves as fieldnotes. It becom es basic consideration to conduct
the next action.
5. Reflecting and evaluating the result of the observation
The writer makes fieldnotes about the condition of the class during the
actions then ident ifies them. She analyzes the result of the observation to
find the weaknesses of the teaching and learning process. The weaknesses
can be seen from whether the students are active or passive during the
teaching learning process. In conducting the evaluation, the writer as
teacher also gives pre-test before she starts to teach using songs in
beginning of cycle I. The post-test is given at the end of the act ion of each
cycle. Based on the data evaluation, the writer can make a self-reflection
in doing the action. The data from the test showed whether the students’
vocabulary mastery can be improved or not.
6. Revising the plan
Based on the weaknesses found in the previous activities, the researcher
revises the plan for the next cycle.
Those steps have to be done by the teacher effectively. If those six steps
from one cycle have not been effective yet, the teacher can conduct the next cycle
and so forth.
E. Technique of C ollecting the Data
In this classroom action research, the writer used observat ion, fieldnotes,
interview, audio and visual recording, photograph, and tests to collect the data.
The observer did the observat ion by making fieldnotes. While doing the
33
observat ional technique, she added the document by some photograph and audio
and video recording. She also conducted an interview with the English teacher
and some students of the class where the researcher did the research. The test was
given before and after the action was conducted and at the end of each teaching
process. The researcher tests the students by written and oral test consisting of
pre-test and post-test. The researcher takes some information from the field notes.
Then, the researcher scores the test to look for the mean score. After the data are
taken from the fieldnotes and supported by the mean score that is found from the
tests, the researcher can find the improvement of the students’ vocabulary
mastery.
F. Technique of Analyzing the Data
There are two kinds of data that the researcher takes: qualitative and
quantitative data. The qualitative ones were analyzed using Constant Comparative
Method. Constant Comparative Method is a method for analyzing data in order to
develop a Grounded Theory. Grounded Theory is an approach to generate
theories that explain how some aspects of the social world work. The goal is to
develop a theory that emerges from and is therefore connected to the reality the
theory is developed to explain. The method is suggested by Strauss and Glasser in
Moleong (2004: 288-289). They state that in general, the data analysis process
includes data reduction, data classification, data synthesis, and ended by action
hypothesis. They are as follows:
34
1. Data Reduction
a) Unit identification. First, the smallest unit that is found in the data is
ident ified. It must have close relationship with the research problems.
b) Having got the unit , the next step is making codification. It means that we
have to code every unit in order to know where the data come from.
2. Categorization
a) Categorization arrangement . It is aimed at choosing every unit that has the
same characteristics.
b) Every category must be labeled.
3. Synthesis
a) Synthesis means looking for the relationship between one category to the
others.
b) Relate category to the others which must be given a label again.
4. Stating “Action Hypothesis”
It is done by formulating proportional statements that come from the data. It
should also answer the researcher’s questions.
Strauss and Corbin (1990) add that after collecting the data, the
researchers do analyzing and coding the data. This process continues unt il a
strong theoretical understanding of an event , object, setting or phenomenon has
emerged. During the analysis process, data coding will guide subsequent
theoretical sampling decisions (http://www.qualres.org/HomeCons-3824.html).
35
The researcher analyzes the quantitative data by giving some tests to
measure the students’ vocabulary mastery. In this case the researcher gives pre-
test and post-test. Then, the researcher analyzes the result of the tests to know
whether there is an improvement of the students’ vocabulary mastery or not by
com paring the average score of pre-test and post-test. Then, the hypothesis of this
research is tested by using non independent t-test.
In computing the score of the students’ achievement, the researcher uses
the com putation as follows:
S = 0
In which:
S = the student’s score
R = the sum of the correct answer
N = the sum of the test items
According to Furchan (2004:158), the mean of the pre-test and post-test
can be calculated with the formula as follows:
In which:
= Means of pre-test scores
= Means of post-test scores
N = Number of sample
36
The t-test can be calculated with the following formula:
t = the t-value for non-independent (correlated) means
D = the differences between the paired scores
= the mean of the differences
∑ D2 = the sum of the squared difference score
N = the number of pairs
Finally, by analyzing the observation result and test result, the researcher
can make a conclusion whether using songs can improve the students’ vocabulary
mastery or not.
37
CHAPTER IV
RESULT OF THE STUDY
This chapter presents the result of the action research conducted in the
fifth grade students of SD Negeri Pajang 1 Surakarta. In this action research, the
researcher worked collaboratively with the English teacher because it was very
important to share information about her study with him. The researcher was the
practitioner who implemented the action, while the English teacher was the
collaborator. As a collaborator, the English teacher was not only as the observer
but he also as a colleague for the researcher that helps her in designing, planning
the action, revising the plan, and discussing the result of the study. The action
research was conducted in two steps, pre-research and research implementation.
A. Introduction
Teaching English in primary school is not simple. The teacher should
know the characteristics of his students which are young learners. There are some
characteristics of young learners: (1) they like learning by playing; (2) they can
tell what they have done and listened; (3) they can debate about something; (4)
they are faster in comprehending the situation around them; (5) they have
attention and concentration only in a view moment ; (6) they always feel happy in
playing and working by themselves but there must be other people around them;
(7) they learn English by listening, repeating, and spelling; (8) they know the rules
which must be obeyed; and (9) they will learn better when they are given the
motivat ion to get involved directly in the activity (Pahin and Power 1990: 8).
37
38
According to those characteristics, the teaching and learning English process
should be conducted in enjoyable and effective way. A teaching and learning
process which is fun, creative, and motivating.
Before the researcher implemented the action research, she gave a pre-test
to support the data. It was conducted on W ednesday, March 25, 2009. The mean
of the pre-test score was 40.72. The result of the pre-test indicates that the
students’ vocabulary mastery is low. Based on the interview with the English
teacher and the observation toward the teaching and learning process led by the
English teacher in July 2008, the researcher ident ified that the way the teacher
taught his students was less creative. The teacher just presented new vocabularies
on the blackboard, and then he asked his students to write them on their book. He
asked his students to find the meaning of those words by themselves with the help
of dictionary. Even the teacher rarely pronounced new vocabularies he t aught . He
never taught English by using different techniques like using songs in her
instructional process. From the students themselves, they felt bored and confused
when they did the assignment. They usually opened a dictionary in teaching and
learning process, and it made them too dependent upon their dictionary. It makes
them often make a lot of mistakes when they are doing an examinat ion without
their dictionary.
The researcher can make some conclusions according to the interview,
observat ion and pre-test, as the following: (1) Students couldn’t enjoy the
teaching and learning process; (2) Students got difficulties in grasping and
remembering English vocabulary; and (3) Students’ vocabulary mastery was low.
39
She also ident ified the reasons of those problems as follows: (1) the
teacher’s teaching technique was less creative. The technique of using dictionary
was not helping; (2) the teaching and learning atmosphere was not enjoyable; and
(3) students had less interest in learning English. Based on the situation above, the
researcher identified that the students’ vocabulary mastery should be improved.
There should be a new technique to solve the problems.
The researcher as the teacher used songs as a technique which was
delivered in classroom action research. The technique was applied in instructional
process. She believes that songs motivate the students in learning English. Songs
not only help the students in memorizing, pronouncing, and spelling the
vocabulary items but also create fresh atmosphere that will increase the students’
motivat ion in learning English. As the result, the students’ score would be
improved after teaching and learning process using songs. The mean score target
is 60.00 as the English teacher said in interview before conducting the action
research.
B. Research Implem entation
The implementation of teaching using songs was conducted by the
researcher as the teacher in two cycles. Each cycle includes several meetings. The
researcher divided the first cycle into three meetings. It was conducted in 8th April
2009, 15th
April 2009, and 23rd
April 2009. Meanwhile, the second cycle includes
two meetings. This cycle was conducted in 25th April 2009 and 29th April 2009.
She used “Parts of the Body” as the topic. The topic was used in each meeting
with different materials. Each cycle consists of four steps, they are: (1) identifying
40
the problem; (2) planning the action; (3) implementing the action; (4) observing
the action; and (5) reflecting the observat ion result. Each of steps can be explained
as follows:
1. C ycle 1
a. Identifying the Problem
As stated previously, the students’ vocabulary mastery was low. Based on
the interview and the researcher’s pre-observat ion, there are several problems.
The students were difficult to grasp and remember new vocabularies presented by
the teacher. They got difficulties in spelling and pronouncing new words,
remembering their meaning, and using them in a sentence. Besides, the technique
of the teacher in teaching was less creative so that the students got bored and
passive. The use of dictionary in every vocabulary lesson caused the students to
be too dependent upon the dictionary. As the result, they couldn’t enjoy and pay
attention fully to the teaching and learning process. Further, they got low score in
vocabulary mastery.
b. Planning the Action
After finding the problems faced by the students, the researcher planned
and chose a technique which is considered appropriate to solve the problems. She
chose songs as the technique. She believed that teaching vocabulary through
songs will improve the students’ vocabulary mastery. She also believed that songs
can change the students’ interest in learning English vocabulary.
The researcher and the collaborator then collaboratively planned the
teaching and learning process to be conducted. Under the collaborator’s
41
agreement she chose the topic, and then designed the lesson plan, students’
worksheet, and suitable songs to be presented. They also prepared the materials to
support the action like VCD, VCD player, and camera. The researcher was the
practitioner who implemented the action, while the English teacher was the
observer.
c. Implem enting the Action
1) The First Meeting (11.00 am – 12.20 pm)
The first meeting was conducted on Wednesday, 8th April 2009. The topic
was Parts of the Body. Before conducting the activity, the teacher distributed the
worksheet and told the students the topic they were going to learn. After
mentioning the topic, she asked the students the meaning of parts of the body, but
none of the students answered the question correctly. Therefore, she explained the
meaning of parts of the body. Then, she pointed some students to mention parts of
the body by touching their body they were mentioning. Most of them couldn’t
mention them well. Some of them made mistakes in pronouncing, while others
didn’t know the name of parts of the body in English.
The teacher then played a song. The title was “Head, Shoulders, Knees,
and Toes”. The song was in English and told about parts of human body. The
teacher asked the students to watch the video and listen to the song carefully.
When they heard the song for the first time, some students laughed. Many
of them smiled with the childish song. Most of them enjoyed the instructional
process. It was shown when they listened to the song they tried to sing the song
and followed the movement shown in the video. It seemed that they like the song.
42
After listening to the song, the teacher asked the students to stand up. The teacher
taught them the song and touched each part of the body as it was ment ioned in the
song, and got the students to do the same. It was done twice to make sure that the
students knew the vocabularies very well.
After singing the song, the t eacher asked her students to see the worksheet.
The teacher gave an assignment to the students to check their understanding about
the material they learned. They had to match the picture and the vocabularies with
a line. Most vocabularies had been ment ioned in the song but the rests were not ,
so they had to discuss them in pair.
Then, the teacher discussed the students’ answer. She checked the
students’ answers by asking some of the students to come forward and write the
answer. She also drilled the students’ pronunciation and wrote down the
vocabularies on the blackboard to enhance their spelling.
At the end of the lesson, the teacher reviewed the lesson by giving some
questions to the students like what topic that they learned on that day, the
vocabularies, and their feeling. She also gave the students homework.
2) The Second Meeting (11.00 am – 12.20 pm )
The second meeting of the first cycle was conducted on Wednesday, 15th
April 2009 with the topic, Parts of the Body and their Functions. Before playing
the song, the teacher reviewed the previous lesson by asking several vocabularies
about parts of the body. She also checked the students’ homework. Most of the
students did the homework perfectly. After ment ioning the topic, the teacher
distributed the song sheet. There are several missing words in the song sheet that
43
the students had to find by listening to the song that would be played. After that,
she played a song ent itled “Two Little Eyes”. The song was about parts of the
body and their functions. The teacher led the students to pay attent ion to the video
and listen to the vocabularies ment ioned in the song. First time they heard the
song, all of the students laugh. They were surprised with the art ist of the video
and the childish song, but they tried to catch every word that was ment ioned. The
students seemed very happy with the song.
After watching the video, the teacher asked the students about the
vocabularies that they had listened. Some students answered the questions
imperfectly, and then the teacher explained them further. Next , the t eacher played
the song again, in the same time the students were asked to complete the missing
lyrics of the song sheet distributed before. They did the assignment in pairs.
The teacher then evaluated the students’ answers by asking some students
to come forward and sing the complete song. The teacher then explained more
about the funct ions of parts of the body. She also delivered simple dialogues and
asked her students to complete the missing words. After that, she discussed the
answer with her students. She asked som e students to come forward and practice
the dialogue. In the last part , the teacher gave homework to the students. The
homework was used to preview the next topic.
3) The Third Meeting (11.00 am – 12.20 pm)
The third meeting was conducted on Thursday, 23rd April 2009 with the
same topic. Before continuing the lesson, the teacher reviewed the previous lesson
and checked the students’ homework. Most of the students did the homework
44
incorrectly. She, then, distributed the song sheet, and then told the title of the
song, “If You’re Happy”. The song was about kinds of body movement. After
that, the teacher asked the students to see the song sheet. On the song sheet, there
were some missing lyrics that the students had to find in the song that would be
played. She guided the class to pay attention to the video and listen to the song
carefully.
First time they watched the video, the students laugh. They were surprised
with the funny song. Based on the m ovements presented in the video, they tried to
find the meaning of the song. After playing the video, the teacher asked the
students to see the song sheet and complete the missing lyrics of the song. The
answers were available in a box randomly and the students had to arrange them to
make the lyrics to be meaningful. The teacher gave a chance to answer the
question voluntarily. Several students answered the questions voluntarily and then
write down the answers on the blackboard. Then, the teacher played the song
again to check the students’ answer. Some students answered the questions
correctly but most of them did not. Therefore, she discussed the vocabularies
mentioned in the song with her students. She also drilled the students’
pronunciation and wrote down the spelling of the words.
Next, the teacher explained about other kinds of body movement, like
crawl, hands up, wink, et cetera. Then, to check their understanding, the teacher
gave an assignment to them. She asked them to match the kinds of body
movements and their Indonesian meaning. Actually, some movements were
45
mentioned in the song but the rests were not. The students had to work in pairs
and discussed the assignment with their pair.
Then, the teacher discussed the students’ answers. She asked the students
to answer the questions orally. She asked the students to pronounce the answer in
chorus. She, then, drilled the students’ pronunciation since most of them
pronounce them incorrectly.
Before closing the lesson, the teacher reviewed the lesson by giving some
questions to the students like what topic that they learned on that day, the
vocabularies, and their feeling. After finishing the third meeting, the teacher asked
the students to do the first post-test.
d. O bserving the Action
After implement ing the action, the researcher and the collaborator
analyzed the teaching and learning process conducted on the first cycle. The result
of the first cycle can be explained as follows:
1) The First Meeting
In the first meeting, the students were very enthusiastic when the teacher
told them that they were going to learn English by singing a song. The teacher
used song with the title “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”. They laughed when
they heard the song. The video was childish and the tone was similar to an
Indonesian song that they often heard.
They enjoyed the song, but the class was too big that not all of the students
were involved in the teaching and learning process. Based on the collaborator’s
observat ion during the teaching and learning process, there were several students,
46
especially the boys in the back rows who did not pay attention to the song. They
chat ted with their friends. As a result, the teacher had to warn them.
They focused only on song of the video, not on the vocabularies presented.
When the teacher asked the students to stand up and sing the song, only few
students could sing and followed the movement shown on the video correctly. As
the result, the teacher had to play the song twice to make sure that the students
knew the vocabularies well. When the teacher reviewed the vocabulary presented
on the song, only few students were able to answer the questions correctly.
Meanwhile, when the teacher and the students discussed the assignment, the
students answered the questions incorrectly. Even, there were many students’
mispronunciations. Several students pronounced /het/, /soldə(r)s/, /kni:s/, /tu:s/,
instead of /hed/, /δәuldə(r)s/, /ni:s/, /təus/. Generally, the first meeting was not
conducted well, because there were many students who were not active to follow
and do the instructions presented on the video. They also didn’t do the assignment
correctly.
2) The Second Meeting
Before conducting the action of watching song video, the teacher firstly
reviewed the previous lesson. She asked some students to mention parts of their
body. It was done to check whether or not they still remembered the vocabularies.
Most of them still remembered the name of parts of their body asked by the
teacher, although there was students’ mispronunciation.
In this second meeting, the teacher used Parts of the Body and their
Functions as the topic. The teacher extended the vocabularies with verbs dealing
47
with the functions of parts of the body. The teacher presented a song ent itled
“Two Little Eyes”. The song told about the function of parts of the body. First
time they heard the song, all of the students laughed. They were surprised with the
art ist of the video and the childish song, but they tried to catch every word that
was mentioned. The teacher needed to play the song twice to help the students do
the assignm ent . The song was weird to them but the students seemed very happy
with it. The students also seemed enthusiastic in doing the assignment but they
were still ashamed to answer the question voluntarily. Then, the t eacher told them
that it was usual for someone doing some mistakes when he learned something, so
he or she didn’t need to be ashamed or afraid to make mistakes.
Basically, the second meeting was better than the previous one. Most
students actively responded the instructions. They followed the teaching and
learning process well, but there were many mistakes in doing the assignment .
They also did not voluntarily answer the question, so the teacher had to appoint
them to answer it .
3) The Third Meeting
In the third meeting, the teacher continued the previous lesson, that was
about body movement. The teacher chose “If You’re Happy” as the song. The
song contains vocabularies dealing with kinds of body movement. The video
showed the movements as ment ioned in the song that made the students not get
difficulties in guessing the meaning of the song. They seemed to be interested in
the song. The students actively responded and tried to imitate the movements by
themselves. But the song seemed to be too fast for them that they got difficulty in
48
catching the words and singing it. Even though the class was noisy, basically, the
third meeting was much better than the previous meetings because the students
were more active. They followed the instruction and did the assignment well.
Several students tried to answer the questions voluntarily although there were
several mistakes and mispronunciation.
e. Reflecting the Observation Result
After analyzing the observation result in the first cycle, the researcher
found several strengths and weaknesses as follows:
Cycle 1
The strengths The weaknesses
1. The repetition of the song made
the students could imitate and
pronounce the words they heard.
2. The students became fun, active,
and confident.
3. The students became motivated
and interested in learning
English.
1. The pronunciation of the native singer
made the students couldn’t grasp the
words without the teacher’s help.
2. The students couldn’t remember the
meaning of the vocabularies.
3. The students only enjoyed the video,
not the vocabulary of the song.
4. The students tended to be noisy while
the song was played.
5. The students’ mean score was only
52.55.
Table 1. The strengths and weaknesses of cycle 1
49
The table above shows that the use of songs in improving the students’
vocabulary mastery in the first cycle was unsatisfying. Actually, the repetition of
the song could make the words become memorable. The students also could
pronounce the new words by imitating the songs which were played, but they
couldn’t grasp the words by themselves. They needed the teacher’s help. It was
caused by the native sound of the singer that made the students confused. The
attractive songs created a good atmosphere which made the students becom e more
fun, active and confident. In spite of this, some students tend to be noisy while the
songs were played. They couldn’t grasp the words that the singer sang; therefore
they only enjoy the video. They couldn’t remember the vocabulary and its
meaning. As the result, their score was low, 52.55 only.
Based on the reflection of the observation result, it can be concluded that
the implementation of teaching English using songs was able to improve the
students’ vocabulary mastery, but there are still several problems. Therefore, it
was necessary to conduct the second cycle.
2. C ycle 2
a. Identifying the Problem
Based on the observation of the first cycle, there were still many problems
arising in the teaching and learning process through songs as follows:
1. The pronunciation of the native singer in the video made the students
couldn’t grasp the words without the teacher’s help.
2. The students couldn’t remember the meaning of the vocabularies.
3. The students only enjoyed the video, not the vocabulary of the song.
50
4. The students tended to be noisy while the song was played.
5. The students’ mean score was only 52.55.
The nat ive singer of the video m ade the students enable to catch the words
of the song. The teacher then helped them grasp the words. The students were also
not actively involved in the teaching and learning process. Besides that, the
students only enjoyed the video. They did not focus on the vocabularies which
were ment ioned in the song. Instead of this, some of them tended to be noisy.
This condition made them enable to remember vocabularies well. As the result,
their score was low. It was indicated from their low score gained from the first
post-test which only 52.55
b. Planning the Action
From the result of the observation of the first cycle, the researcher and the
English teacher wanted to solve the problems as shown in the following table:
Problems Solutions
1. The pronunciation of the native
singer made the students couldn’t
grasp the words without the
teacher’s help.
1. The researcher, as the teacher,
presented the songs by singing the
songs by herself. She sang the
songs as clearly as possible.
2. The students couldn’t remember the
vocabularies.
2. The researcher, together with the
students repeated singing the songs
twice or more.
3. The students only enjoy the video,
not the vocabulary of the song.
3. The researcher distributed the
lyrics of the song to the students.
51
4. The students tended to be noisy
while the song was played.
4. The researcher led the students to
sing the songs together.
5. The students’ mean score was only
52.55.
5. The researcher and the students did
the solutions opt imally to improve
the students’ score.
Table 2. The problem s and solutions conducted in cycle 2
In cycle 2, the t eacher and the researcher planned two meetings. The topic
was still parts of the body, but in this cycle the researcher created her own songs.
She arranged the songs using the rhythm of popular songs. She used the rhythm
and changed the lyrics with vocabularies related to the topic. Here, she did not use
any VCD player any more because she tended to present the songs by herself.
Besides that, she also distributed the lyrics of the songs to her students. She led
the students to sing the songs twice or more to make the songs memorable. As the
previous cycle, the researcher was the practitioner and the English teacher was the
collaborator.
c. Implem enting the Action
1) The First Meeting (10.00 am – 11.20 am)
The first meeting of the second cycle was conducted on 25th
April 2009.
The topic was the same, Parts of the Body. Here, the teacher extended the
vocabularies dealing with Body and Feeling. Before cont inuing the lesson, the
teacher asked her students about the vocabularies taught in the first cycle. She
gave some questions and the students had to answer orally. When the teacher
asked some words to her students, most of them could not answer correctly. They
52
still remembered some vocabularies taught in the first cycle, but they did
mispronunciations and misspellings. Therefore, the teacher had to remind them
the correct ones.
Next, the teacher continued the lesson. She distributed the worksheet.
There were the lyrics of the song entitled “Are You Sleepy”. The lyrics of the
song were arranged by the teacher by using the tone and the rhythm of the popular
song entitled “Are You Sleeping”. The song contained some words dealing with
“body and feeling”. The teacher asked the students to sing the song together. By
reading the lyrics, they tried to sing the song correctly. They did not get any
difficulty in singing the song because they had been familiar with the tone and the
rhythm of the song, but there were some students’ mispronunciations. Therefore,
the teacher made the correction of them. The students looked happy with the song.
When the teacher asked them with questions like;”Bagaimana dengan lagunya?
Kalian suka?” most of them answered “Ya Bu, lagunya enak”. The teacher then
discussed the song with the students. She checked the students understanding
about the song by asking the meaning of som e words mentioned in the song. Most
of them tried to answer the questions voluntarily, but there were several students
in the back rows who did not follow the discussion. They were chatting with their
table-mate. The teacher then warned them and asked them to follow the
discussion.
After that, the teacher asked the students to do the task. The students had
to match two boxes. The first box contains adjective words dealing with what
body could feel such as happy, sleepy, hungry, et cetera. The second box contains
53
the name of parts of the body. The students had to match the boxes according to
the suitable parts of the body and what they could feel. They discussed the t ask in
pairs.
After finishing the task, the students were asked to come forward and
wrote the answer on the blackboard. They raised their hands and came forward
voluntarily. The teacher had to choose one who answered the question because
almost all of the students raised their hands. Most of the students’ answers were
correct. Then, the teacher pronounced those words and the students repeated them.
There was still any mispronunciation. Therefore, the teacher taught the students
the correct ones.
At the end of the lesson, the teacher reviewed several vocabularies
discussed that day. She gave questions to the students orally. Before closing the
lesson, the teacher asked the students to practice singing the song at home.
2) The Second Meeting (11.00 am – 12.20 pm )
The second meeting of the second cycle was conducted on 29th
April 2009.
On this meeting, the teacher taught about kinds of activity that could be done by
human body. Before start ing the lesson, the teacher reviewed the previous lesson.
She asked several vocabularies to the students. She also asked some students to
sing the song which was taught in the previous meeting. Most of them answered
the questions and sang the song perfectly.
The teacher then started the lesson by distributing the worksheet. There
was a new song entitled “Climbing”. The tone and the rhythm of the song was the
same as “Naik-Naik ke Puncak Gunung”. First, the teacher sang the song. All of
54
the students paid attention and looked at the lyrics of the song. They were asked
to see each word on the lyrics and followed singing by their heart . After that, the
teacher asked them to sing the song in chorus. They did not get any difficulty in
singing the song because they had been familiar with the tone and the rhythm of
the song.
After singing the song, the teacher discussed the song with her students.
She explained several vocabularies written on the song sheet. All of the students
paid attent ion and followed the discussion actively. Then, they were asked to do
the task in pairs. They were asked to list some words. The words are verbs dealing
with activit ies which could be done by parts of the body.
After finishing the task, the teacher asked the students to come forward
and write the answer on the blackboard voluntarily. Most of them did the task
perfectly.
After implementing the action of the second cycle, the students were given
the second post-test.
d. O bserving the Action
1) The First Meeting
The first meeting of the second cycle ran well. When the teacher reviewed
the lesson in the first cycle by asking several vocabularies, most of them could
answer them correctly. They still remembered the vocabularies.
Actually there were som e differences between the first cycle and the
second cycle. The teacher presented a new song which was arranged by herself.
The rhythm and the tone of the song were familiar to the students. It made the
55
students sing easily, moreover they could see the lyrics. When the teacher asked
them to sing the song together, they did it well. But there were some students who
pronounced the words of the song incorrectly, such as: /sæd/, /taIə(r)d/, /Λs/, et
cetera.
When the teacher discussed the song with the students, most of the
students followed the discussion, except some students in the back rows.
Therefore, the teacher had to warn them. They also did the assignment well. They
worked in pairs and did a discussion with their tablemates. They were actively
involved in the discussion. They were also enthusiastic when the teacher asked
them to write down the answers on the blackboard.
2) The Second Meeting
Before conducting the action, the teacher reviewed the lesson of the
previous meeting. She checked the students’ memory by asking several
vocabularies. She also asked the students to sing the song taught in the previous
meeting in chorus. The teacher continued the lesson in the last meeting with a new
song. The title was “Climbing”. It was arranged by using the rhythm and the tone
of a popular Indonesian song ent itled “Naik-Naik ke Puncak Gunung”. When the
teacher presented the song by singing it herself, the students paid attention and
looked at the lyrics of the song. Therefore, they could sing the song perfectly.
They were also actively involved in the discussion. When the teacher asked them
to do the task in pairs, they did it well. They competed to answer the task and
wrote down the answers on the blackboard.
56
e. Reflecting the Observation Result
A great improvement could be seen in the second cycle. By analyzing the
observat ion results, it can be concluded that teaching English through songs is
effective. The results of the second cycle were as follows:
1. The students could easily grasp and remember the vocabularies. When they
were asked several vocabularies taught in the previous meeting, they could
answer them correctly. Using lyrics also helped them in grasping the new
words. Through songs, the words became memorable.
2. The students could pronounce the vocabularies correctly. There was a
repetition in songs that made the practice of pronunciation more fun and
effective. They were practicing pronunciation when they were singing.
3. The students became more active during the instructional processes. The
better part icipation from the students would automatically enhance their
achievement.
4. The students became more interested in learning English. The enjoyable songs
made the students interested in English.
5. The students could catch the words and sing the song perfectly. Presenting the
song by the teacher herself made the song seem to be clearer for the students.
6. Arranging the song by the teacher herself motivated her to be more act ive and
creative and it gave good impact to the students.
7. There were some noisy students but the number of them was less than those in
the first cycle and the teacher could manage them.
57
8. There was an improvement of the students score. The mean of the pre-test
score is 40.72 and it improves to 52.55 in the first post-test, and then it
increases up to 67.45 in the final post-test.
Based on the result above, the teacher and the researcher concluded that
teaching English through songs attracted the students to be active in the teaching
and learning process. It also could improve the students’ vocabulary mastery.
Finally, the teacher and the researcher decided to stop the cycle.
C. Discussion
Teaching English has been started from elementary school. The objectives
according to KTSP curriculum are: (1) learners should be conscious with the
importance of English in order to improve their competence in competitive era;
and (2) the competence that has to be developed is limited to a language
accompanying action in school context.
In fact, the instructional process which is held in elementary school can
not fulfill the objectives in KTSP curriculum yet. The problems are caused by
som e reasons. One of the reasons is the technique that is used by the teacher. The
technique which is chosen by the teacher cannot create interesting circumstances
in the classroom. The way he teaches his students is monotonous. It means that he
teaches the same ways of delivering materials everyday. It is not effective for the
students. Consequently, the students will not be able to catch the lesson easily
because they loss of interest and part icipation. In teaching and learning
vocabulary, the students have to listen to the teacher’s explanation, take a note,
and do the assignment . They are also dependent on their dictionary because of the
58
habit in using the dictionary. It makes the teaching and learning English not
enjoyable. It makes the students easily feel bored and difficult to concentrate.
Their low concentration makes them lose their attention. Even, they cannot
remember the lesson for a long time.
Based on the reasons above, the teacher should give any variations in
teaching English to elementary school. The teacher needs an interesting technique
to improve her students’ vocabulary mastery. By creating an interesting technique,
the students will be interested in learning English. It automatically makes the
students more easily comprehend vocabulary.
Introducing new vocabularies to young learners can be done in many
ways. One of them is by using songs. Song is one of good techniques in teaching
and learning. Griffee (1995: 5) states that songs can be used in teaching
conversation, vocabulary, gramm atical structures, and pronunciation. In teaching
vocabulary, songs are especially good at introducing vocabulary because songs
provide a meaningful context for the vocabulary. Cross (1991: 164) says, “Once
the song or rhyme has been learned, it is in their minds for the rest of their lives,
with all the rhythm s, grammatical niceties and vocabulary”.
According to the theories above, using songs in teaching vocabulary to
children has many contributions. The observational result which is supported by
the photograph and the interview with some students shows the increasing of the
students’ interest before and after implementing the action. The improvement of
the students’ score makes it obvious that teaching Vocabulary through songs is
effective.
59
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIO N, AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
There are three questions in the research questions, they are: (1) can songs
improve the students’ vocabulary mastery; (2) what will happen in the class if the
teacher conducts teaching vocabulary through songs; and (3) the strengths and
weaknesses of conducting teaching vocabulary through songs. Therefore, after
employing the research of teaching vocabulary through songs in Elementary
School, it can be seen that songs can be used to improve Elementary School
students’ vocabulary mastery. The result of using songs in the teaching
vocabulary process can be used to answer the research questions above.
The first question is whether songs can improve the students’ vocabulary
mastery. After conducting the teaching vocabulary through songs in Elementary
School, it can be seen that the students’ vocabulary mastery improved. The
improvement of the students’ vocabulary mastery is supported by the result of the
test score. Before the researcher implemented the action research, she gave a pre-
test. The mean of the pre-test score is 40.72 and it improves to 52.55 in the first
post-test. The mean of the first post-test is 52.55 and it increases up to 67.45 in the
final post-test. From the test result, it can be seen, that there is an improvement of
students’ vocabulary mastery after the researcher conducts the research. It proves
that teaching vocabulary through songs can improve students’ vocabulary
mastery.
59
60
The second question is about what will happen in the class if the teacher
conducts teaching vocabulary through songs. It can be seen in the involvement of
certain activities. The students can easily grasp and remember the vocabularies.
They can answer several vocabularies taught in the previous meeting. Besides
that, through songs, words become memorable. Singing the songs many times
makes the students to be accustomed to the pronunciation of the vocabularies.
Based on the observation result, the students also become more active during the
instructional processes. The students are paying attent ion to the teacher’s
explanation, discussing the task with their tablemates, making a competition with
other pairs, asking about the songs, and answering the teacher’s questions
enthusiastically. It shows that the students became more interested in learning
English. Moreover, songs can create an interesting atmosphere in the classroom.
From the teacher’ point of view, arranging and present ing the song by the teacher
herself motivates her to be more active and creative and give good impact to the
students. However, the main role of the teacher as facilitator is effectively done.
The third question is about the strengths and weaknesses of conducting
teaching vocabulary through songs. Songs can be an effective technique to teach
vocabulary to students. For the students, songs are helping. The repetition of
singing the songs makes the students to be accustomed to the vocabularies.
Therefore, it becomes easy for the students to pronounce the vocabulary. It also
helps them remem ber the spelling and the meaning because songs focus students’
attention on specific vocabulary items. It creates interesting atmosphere and
students’ motivation. Therefore, the students can enjoy the instructional process.
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For the teacher, songs can help her in present ing new vocabularies in fun way.
Songs can also be used in any language teaching situation. Even though there are
so many strengths in the implementation of teaching vocabulary through songs,
there is a problem arising. The students tend to make noise while the songs are
presented, and it disturbs the instructional process. Therefore, the teacher should
handle the class well.
B. Implication
According to the research result, supported by all of the data, the use of
songs in teaching vocabulary in Elementary School is effective. Songs create the
students’ motivation in learning English. They become more active and interested
in the teaching and learning process. The situation of the class also becomes more
alive because the enjoyable learning process makes the students enthusiastic to
learn English. Besides that, songs help the students memorising new vocabularies.
They can sing every where and every time.
Besides that, songs help the teacher provide an enjoyable teaching
technique. Therefore, the teacher can get easier in present ing the material. Songs
also motivate her to be more creative in delivering material. However, the main
role of the teacher as facilitator is effectively done Therefore, the researcher
implies that the use of songs is necessary to be applied in teaching English in
Elementary School.
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C . Suggestion
In the conclusion, the researcher states some evidences that songs can be
an effective technique to teach vocabulary in Elementary School. The researcher
hopes that this study is beneficial for the betterment of English teaching and
learning. Dealing with the study that has been conducted by using songs in
teaching vocabulary, the researcher would like to propose some suggestions.
Hopefully, the suggestions will be useful for teachers, students, other researchers,
and educational institutions.
1. Teachers
To be an English teacher is not easy. It is important for teachers to
understand the appropriate technique to teach their students. Choosing songs
as the teaching technique can create the students’ motivat ion; therefore, the
teaching and learning process can be successful. And for this success, the
researcher gives some suggestions. The first suggestion is that teachers should
prepare the materials which can be taught using songs. After that, they can
choose the appropriate songs. The teacher can use songs which are available
in cassettes, VCD, books, and other sources. They can also arrange songs by
themselves. It has a benefit; the teacher will not get difficulty in getting the
appropriate songs because they can create any song they want to support the
material. The next suggestion is that teachers should practice the songs before
conducting teaching English through songs, in order to know whether the
songs support the materials or not. It is not a problem but a challenge.
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2. Students
The key of success in teaching learning process is the students’
part icipation. The researcher suggests that students have to be active. They
should apply English in their daily life. They should also practice every
English song at home to make their pronunciation better. Besides that, to make
every vocabulary materials to be memorable, they can arrange them to be a
song by themselves. They can use any song’s rhythm that they like. Therefore,
they will not depend on their teacher.
3. Other researchers
The researcher aware that this study is not perfect. Therefore, she
suggests other researchers make another research on similar problems to
develop this study. The finding of this study can be used as a start ing point of
the future research.
4. Educational institutions
Considering the success of applying the technique, the school or
institution should com plete the facilities. The available facilities will support
the process of delivering English material through songs. The teacher will also
get easier in delivering the materials. The school or institution should also
improve the teachers’ quality by providing teacher training and studying
which concern with applying children songs in teaching English to young
learners.
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