STUDENTS’ DIFFICUTIES IN MASTERING VOCABULARY

AT MTsN SENGETI

THESIS

ARIEF BUDIMAN

TE. 130478

ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND TEACHER TRAINING

THE STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

SULTHAN THAHA SAIFUDDIN

JAMBI

2020

STUDENTS’ DIFFICUTIES IN MASTERING VOCABULARY

AT MTsN SENGETI

THESIS

Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Get Undergraduate

Degree (S1) in English Education Program

ARIEF BUDIMAN

TE. 130478

ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND TEACHER TRAINING

THE STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

SULTHAN THAHA SAIFUDDIN

JAMBI

2020

i

Advisor 1 :Dr. Najmul Hayat, M.Pd.I

Advisor 2 :Firdiansyah, MA

Adress : The Faculty of Education and Teacher Training

The State Islamic University Sulthan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi

St. Jambi Ma. Bulian KM. 16 Simpang Sungai Duren, Muaro

Jambi. Postal Code 36363.

Dean of Education and Teacher Training Faculty

UIN Sulthan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi

In

Jambi

OFFICIAL NOTE

Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

This Thesis which is entitled ‘Students’ Difficuties In Mastering Vocabulary At

Mtsn Sengeti’arranged by Arief Budiman, The student’s number TE. 130478 has

been corrected and approved to go through the faculty for an immediate process of

final examination.

Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

First AdvisorSecond Advisor

Dr. Najmul Hayat, MPd, IFirdiansyah, MA

NIP. 197207011997031003

ii

THESIS PROJECT STATEMENT

I am, the student with the following identity:

Name : Arief Budiman

Student’s Number : TE. 130478

Department : English Education

I state that this thesis is truly my own work submitted as one of the

requirmenets to obtain the undergraduate degree (S1) at English Education

Department of Education and Teacher Training Faculty, The State Islamic

University Sulthan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi.

I have cited the sources clearly according to the norms, rules and ethnics

of scientific writing if I quoted from the work of other people.

Should it later that some of the parts of the thesis is not my own work or

indicated the existence of elements of plagiarism in certain parts, I am willing to

accept the sanction in accordance with the regulation and legislation of The

Faculty of Education and Teacher Training of The State Islamic University

Sulthan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi.

Jambi, November , 2020

Arief Budiman

TE.130483

iv

MOTTO

ب فيرضاالوالد،وسخطاللهفيسخطالوالد قاللنبيصلىاللهعليهوسلم} :رضاالر

Ridha Tuhan itu di dalam ridhanya orang tua, dan ketidak ridhaan Allah itu di

dalam ketidak ridhaan orang tua (Imam Al-Hakim dan imam At-Tirmidzi)

v

DEDICATION

Thanks to The Most Gracious and Merciful God, Allah SWT

for the blessing and leading me

I could finally finish this scientific paper.

Shalawat and Salam to The Glory Prophet Muhammad SAW.

His coming really changed the world

Special thanks to my parents,

For always being with and guiding me, your prayers are really powerfull.

Thanks toDanang, Idan, Meira, Roli, Shadiqa, Riyan, Bang ayong, Bang

Aad ,ngaba Mufti, Sohib, Aldi And all of my band PARANOIR-INFERNUM, last

and Special thanks to my fucking lord, make me stil Black Metal, Gazal JRM.

May Allah SWT blesses.

vi

ABSTRACT

Name : Arief Budiman

Study : English Education Program

Title : Students’ Difficuties In Mastering Vocabulary At Mtsn Sengeti

This study oriented to know the anxiety of the students at MTsN Sengeti

in remembering and connecting words in English. The result of the study showed

that the students have difficulties in remembering English words cause of the

practice in learning proccess. This study taken with the method of interviewed

some of students to got the data which contains of a few questions and some test

answered by all students as the object of the study.the resuly of this thesis is the

researcher found that students were not interested to mastering or remembering

the vocabulary of englosh word, they said that its too difficult for them to

mastered it even just memorize it.

Keywords:Students’ Difficulties; Mastering Vocabulary

vii

ABSTRAK

Nama : Arief Budiman

Jurusan : Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris

Judul : Students’ Difficuties In Mastering Vocabulary At Mtsn Sengeti

Skripsi ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui kesulitan anak di MTsN Sengeti

dalam mengingat dan menyambung kata kata dalam berbhasa inggris. Hasil

penelitian menunjukkan bahwa para siswa mengalami kesulitan mengingat kata

kata dalam bahasa inggris dikarnakan kurangnya dipraktek dalam pembelajaran

maupun sehari-hari. skripsi ini di ambil dwngan menggunakan metode pengisian

angket berupa beberapa pertanyaan yang di isi oleh satu kelas siswa, sebagai

objek riset.

Kata Kunci :Students’ Difficulties; Mastering Vocabulary

viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful. All praises

and thanks to him, the Lord of the ‘Alamin (universe and all that exists). Sholawat

and salaam to the prophet Muhammad saw. who guided the mankinds from the

darkness to the lightness.

This thesis entittled “Students’ Difficuties In Mastering Vocabulary At

MTsN Sengeti” is for the requirement of undergraduate degree at The State

Institute of Islamic Studies Sulthan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi.

Special thanks to the first advisor Dr. Najmul Hayat, MPd,I second advisor

Firdiansyah, MA ,The writer also would like to express the

deepest thanks to:

1. Prof. Dr. Su’aidi, M.A., Ph.D as the rector of The State Islamic University of

Sultan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi.

2. Dr. Hj. Fadillah, M. Pd, as the dean of Education and Teacher Training

Faculty of The State Islamic University of Sultan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi.

3. Dr. Rusnita, M.Pd as the vice dean of Academic fair Education and Teacher

Training Faculty of The State Islamic University of Sultan Thaha Saifuddin

Jambi. Dr. Najmul Hayat, M. Pd, as the vice dean of Finance and

administration Education and Teacher Training Faculty of The State Islamic

University of Sultan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi. Dr. Yusria, M. Pd as the vice

dean of students’ Affairs and Cooperative Education and Teacher Training

Faculty of The State Islamic University of Sultan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi.

4. Wahyuni Fitria, M.Pdas chief of English Education Study Program of

Education and Teacher Training Faculty of The State Islamic University of

Sultan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi.

ix

5. All lecturers at Education and Teacher Training Faculty in The State Islamic

University of Sultan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi who gives knowledge to

researcher.

6. The administration staff at The State Islamic University of Sultan Thaha

Saifuddin Jambi.

7. All classmates who give me support and suggestion to finish this thesis. The

researcher hopes that this thesis will give contribution to the world of teaching

English.

Jambi, November 30, 2020

The Writer

ARIRF BUDIMAN

TE. 130478

x

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OFFICIAL NOTE .......................................................................................... i

ORIGINALITY THESIS STATEMENT .................................................... ii

DEDICATION ................................................................................................ iii

MOTTO .......................................................................................................... iv

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... vi

ABSTRAK ...................................................................................................... vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................. vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... x

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1

A. Background of The Study ........................................................................ 1

B. The Formulation of The Problem .............................................................. 3

C. Limitation of The Research ....................................................................... 3

D. Purpose of The Study ............................................................................... 3

E. Significances of The Study ...................................................................... 4

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .......................................... 5

A. Concept of Vocabulary ............................................................................. 5

B. Concept of Teaching Learning Vocabulary .............................................. 6

C. Importance of Vocabulary ........................................................................ 7

D. Types of Vocabulary ................................................................................. 8

E. Difficulties in Learning Vocabulary ......................................................... 10

F. Relevant Studies ........................................................................................ 11

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................ 14

A. Research Design ....................................................................................... 14

B. Setting and Subject of The Study .............................................................. 14

xi

C. Data and Data Source ................................................................................ 15

D. Data Collecting Method ............................................................................ 15

E. Data Analysis Method ............................................................................... 15

CHAPTER IV FINDING AND DISCUSSION ................................................ 17

A. Description of Interviewee ........................................................................ 17

B. Findings .................................................................................................... 17

C. Discussion ................................................................................................. 21

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS .................................. 26

A. Conclusions ............................................................................................... 26

B. Suggestions ............................................................................................... 26

REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 28

APPENDIX .......................................................................................................... 30

1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

As a foreign language, students are not familiar with English. Although

they have learnt English lesson from elementary school, they still get many

difficulties in learning this language. A classroom usually will be the only place

for many students to practice their English. They believe English as a difficult

subject because of some reasons. One of the reasons is that it is difficult to master

vocabulary. It happens because they must adopt the new pronunciation and

meaning of the word.

Vocabulary is one of the core components of language proficiency and

determines how well learners speak, listen, read, and write (Richards and

Renandya, 2002: 255). The words that students choose in speaking will affect how

well they understand what a speaker says. In writing, students‟ vocabulary

mastery describes how clearly they can convey the readers‟ thinking. In reading,

students‟ vocabulary mastery will affect their ability in comprehending and in

understanding the reserachers‟ message through the reserachers‟ writing. The first

thing people will understand a sentence by investigating the meaning of the

vocabulary.

Learning vocabulary is very important. Wilkins (in Thornbury, 2002: 13)

says, “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing

can be conveyed.” Thus, vocabularies are the flesh of a language while grammar

is the skeleton. Therefore, many studies have attempted to improve the efficiency

and performance of learners when learning English vocabulary.

Students of junior high schools are teenagers, so it is important to

introduce English, especially vocabulary to junior high school since vocabulary is

very crucial in learning a foreign language. Unfortunately, mastering vocabulary

is not easy for students, especially for students in Indonesia where English is

learned as a foreign language because English is not used in daily communication.

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So, it is more difficult to master English vocabulary. As a result, vocabulary

mastery of students is still low.

The next problem is concerned with the technique of teaching vocabulary

and media used. The teaching of vocabulary needs more attention because

vocabulary mastery is important in language proficiency. Teachers should prepare

all the components in teaching learning process well. The components are the

media, the materials, and the teaching method. In fact, teachers do not prepare

them well. It means that teachers usually ignore one or two components. For

example, they prepare the materials which are based on the lesson plan well, but

they do not use the media or teaching method in proper place. In this case, it can

make the teaching learning process ineffectively and the students will get the

consequence such as they did not know what the teacher explains.

To achieve the communicative function, it is necessary to have general

knowledge and skills of English and language components. There are four

language skills taught in junior high school. They are listening, speaking, reading,

and writing. The language components involve vocabulary, grammar, and

pronunciation. In fact, all language components are important, including the most

important one in language teaching is vocabulary.

Vocabulary is very crucial in learning a foreign language. Unfortunately,

mastering vocabulary is not easy for students, especially for students in Indonesia

where English is learned as a foreign language. So, if students want to improve

their English language skills like listening, speaking, reading, and writing, they

have to master English vocabulary first. Vocabulary mastery is a must for a

person who wants to master English.

There are difficulties of English vocabulary learning that are often found

by the students. This study tries to find out an alternative solution to reveal

difficulties related to vocabulary mastery. It is difficult for the students to

differentiate the function of English vocabulary or words in a sentence such as

subject, predicate, object, complement, etc. In addition, the students find

difficulties in the pronunciation or spelling of words. They do not know the

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sentence meaning that uses English vocabulary and the students find it difficult to

remember new vocabularies.

In this research,based on the researcher’s grand tour (PPL) in MTs Sengeti

on 2019, the researcher found that the eighth grade students of MTs Sengeti faced

in difficulties in English vocabulary. This fact come from the researher’s

observation and interview with the English teacher. The teacher said that students

in this school have lack of vocabulary so they got problem in learning English as

whole.

Based on the explanation, the researcher interested to take research with

the tittle “The difficulties in English vocabulary faced by the eighth grade students

of MTs Sengeti”.

B. The Formulation of The Problem

Based on the background of the studythe problems are formulated as

follows:

“What are students’ difficulties inmastering English vocabulary of the

eighth grade students of MTs Sengeti?”

C. Limitation of the Research

The limitation of the problem is needed in order to make this research will

achieve its objective. The problem chosen is the problem that is achievable by the

researcher and other related parties. This research is limited on the level of use

and meaning in the vocabulary mastery for the eighth grade of MTs Sengeti. The

reason for choosing the eighth grade students is that they still have lower

vocabulary mastery because they came from different background knowledge.

D. Purpose Of The Study

The objectives of the research is to describe the students’ difficulties in

mastering English vocabulary by the eighth grade students of MTs Sengeti.

4

E. Significance Of Study

The result of this study can be used as an input for the teachers teaching

English vocabulary, which in fact, the students have many difficulties related to

English vocabulary learning so the teacher will improve the effectiveness in the

teaching and learning process. The students are able to understand their own

weaknesses and strengths, so they will try to find out other ways to increase their

strengths and reduce their weaknesses. This research is for eighth grade students

of MTs Sengeti.

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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Concept of Vocabulary

Language is a means of communication that is made up of sentence that

convey meaning. At school, learning language means learning its vocabulary. It

means that vocabulary takes an important part in language in which the

vocabulary will make a language meaningful. Moreover, Setiyadi (2006) stated

that structure and vocabulary seem to be the heart or foreign language learning.

Vocabulary is a very essential part in learning language, because to be able to

master a language we automatically have to master its vocabulary. Kriedler (1998)

stated that in modern of language teaching, vocabulary learning no longer consists

of memorizing list of words in isolation, lasted, words are usually in a meaningful

context and practice in appropriate patterns.

According to Aitchitson (2001), vocabulary is a set of words known to a

person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. It would be

impossible to learn a language without words or vocabularies support it (Rivers,

1981). It showed that people can do nothing in communication if they do not

know the word or vocabulary. Longman (1987) explained that vocabulary is a list

of words, usually in alphabetical order and with explanation of their meanings,

less complete than dictionary. Itmeans that we should understand the meaning.

Wilkins (1981) said that without grammar little thing could be convey,

without vocabulary nothing can be convey. So someone cannot convey anything

without vocabulary. Without vocabulary, we can say nothing because vocabulary

is the basic element of a language in hence we can say that the quality of the

language performance of students will depend on their quality and quantity of

vocabulary. The objectives of the curriculum are enabling the Elementary

graduates use English in simple way an create student‟s interest toward English.

To support the process of learning and to make it easier, the teacher should

use simple vocabularies that can be easily understood by the students (Department

of Education, 1994). The students will learn many kinds of vocabulary such as

6

verb, noun, adjective and adverb. Verb is a word or group of words that expresses

an action, an event, or a state, for example, eat, happen and exist. Noun is a word

that refers to a person, a place, or a thing, such as doctor, city, and plant.

Adjective is a word that describes a person or thing, for example beautiful, clever.

Adverb is a word that adds more information about place, time, manner,

cause or degree to a verb, an adjective, a phrase or to another adverb, such as

speaks loudly, very quickly. Concerning the three songs, the students, as the

beginners will firstly be introduced to a lot of nouns. In general, the vocabularies

needed by the fifth grade of Elementary School children are in the form of noun.

B. Concept of Teaching Learning Vocabulary

The purpose of learning vocabulary is to make the students understand the

meaning of the words. Finnochiaro (1973) suggested that teaching and learning

vocabulary is an activity where the teacher and the students reintroduce some

vocabulary items with all the structure and in the entire situation in which they

can logically be used.

Learning vocabulary means process of gaining knowledge of vocabulary. In

the first step, the learner will get invocation about vocabulary. Such as: how to

spell, to pronounce, to use it in appropriate sentences as well as the meaning. The

second is how the learners obtained and pronounced the words.

Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is usually spoken, at the

manner in which someone utters word. If someone said to have “correct

pronunciation,” then it refers to both within a particular dialect Finnochiaro

(1973). The pronunciation is good if it is understandable and pleasant. A word can

be spoken in different ways bay various individuals or groups, depending on

many factors, such as:

1. The area in which they grew up.

2. The area in which they now live.

3. If they have a speech or voice disorder.

4. Their ethnic group.

5. Their social class.

7

6. Their education.

Nation (1990) explained that when someone want to teach a word, he/she has

to teach three things (1) the shape or form of the word, (2) the meaning of the

word, (3) the form and the meaning of the word together. In teaching the meaning,

the teacher gives the synonym in Indonesia language. Students have difficulty to

understand the meaning of the words. So, it is done to make them easier to

memorize the meaning of the words

C. The Importance of Vocabulary

Vocabulary is one of the elements of language that should be learned and

taught. It cannot be denied that it will be hard to master language without

mastering on understanding certain numbers of vocabularies. Vocabulary is

central to language and of critical importance to typical language learner without a

sufficient vocabulary; one cannot communication effectively or express his ideas

in both oral and written form (Zhihong, 2000:18). Vocabularies become central to

any language acquisition process especially in introducing and consolidating new

lexical items. Based on explanation above vocabulary is always related to word.

In learning language vocabulary is one step to know the words, understanding the

meaning and used them in sentence.

In learning English, vocabulary plays an importance role in the four

English language skills, like what Schmite and Mc Carthy (1997; 6) say that

vocabulary has an important role in language skills. In listening ability,

vocabulary gives easiness for the learners to comprehend what the other person

speaks. In speaking and writing, vocabulary gives ease for the learners to expand

their ideas. In reading, vocabulary gives easiness for the learners comprehend the

text. Vocabulary must not be neglected by anyone who learns a language.

In other case, according to Kimble and Garmezy in Brown (2000:7) say

that learning is the process of acquiring or getting knowledge from a subject or a

skill by studying, experiencing, and instructing. In order to know a particular

subject, one must learn it. Furthermore, John (2006:73) says, “language learning

is essentially like learning other domains of knowledge: that whether people are

8

learning mathematic, or learning to drive a car, or learning Japanese, they are not

engaging in any essentially different kind of mental activity”. Moreover, John in

Muriel (2006:72) argues, “learning essentially involves development from

controlled to automatic processing of component skills, freeing learners‟

controlled processing capacity for new information and higher-order skills”.

D. Types of Vocabulary

There are some words in a sentence and those collections of words are

included into the vocabulary because vocabulary is a list or collections of words

arranged in alphabetical order explained. And there are many kinds of vocabulary

(Harmer, 2001: 6) such as;

1. Synonym

Synonym is word that shares similar meaning (Thornbury, 2003: 2). So,

synonym is word that has the same meaning but different in writing.

2. antonym,

Antonym is a word which is opposite in meaning to other word

3. polysemy

Polysemy means words which have two or more related meaning (Tyler

and Evans, 2001: 95)

4. homonym

Homonym is word that shares the same form but has unrelated meaning

(Thornbury, 2002: 8). It assumed that there are two or more words with

some pronunciation rather than single words with different meaning.

5. Definition

Definition is statement that defines a word (Oxford Learner‟s Pocket

Dictionary, 1995: 109) Unlike those kinds of vocabulary, (Finocchiaro in

Hiebert and Kamil, 2005:167-169) divides vocabulary into two kinds:

a. Active Vocabulary

Active vocabulary consists of words which students understand, can

pronounce correctly and use constructively in speaking and writing.

b. Passive Vocabulary

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The passive vocabularies consists of words those students recognize

and understand when they occur in a context and they never use then

in communication. They understand them when they hear or read

them, but they do not use them in speaking or writing.

Moreover the vocabulary or words are divided into two kinds that are

functional words and content (Widjaja, 2002:11):

1. The Functional Words

The functional words are used chiefly to express grammatical function

2. The Content Words

The content words are used to express cultural content and they consist of

nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs making up the lagers part of

vocabulary.

The following are the ways that are stated by Freeman (2000: 9-21) to

develop vocabulary mastery:

1. Translation of literary passage

Students translate a reading passage from the largest language into their

native language. The reading passage focused for several classes:

vocabulary and grammatical structures in the passage are studied in

subsequent lessons.

2. Antonym/Synonym

Students are given one set of words and are asked to find

synonym/antonym in the reading passage.

3. Fill in the blanks

Students are given a series of sentences with words missing. They fill in

the blanks with new vocabulary items or with items of a particular

grammar type, such as preposition or verbs with different tenses

4. Memorization

Students are given lists of target language vocabulary words and they

native language equivalents and are ask to memorize them.

5. Use words in sentences

6. Composition

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The teacher gives the students a topic to write about in the target language.

The topic is based upon some aspect of the reading passage of the lesson.

Sometimes, instead of creating a composition, students are asked to

prepare a precis of the reading passage.

Langan (1992: 422) mentioned that there are three ways of developing

word power (vocabulary development):

1. Regular reading

Through reading a good deal, the students will learn words by

encountering them a number of times in a variety of sentences.

2. Word sheets

Vocabulary word sheets are another means of vocabulary development.

3. Vocabulary study books

A third way to increase the student word power is to use vocabulary study

books. Many vocabulary books and programs are available.

E. Difficulties in Learning Vocabulary

The first steps in succesful teaching vocabulary are to identify

the difficulties that faced by the students. Thornbury (2004: 27) proposes

some factors that make some words more difficult as follows:

1. Pronunciation

Research shows that words that are difficult to pronounce are more

difficult to learn.

2. Spelling

Sounds-spelling mismatches are likely to be the cause of errors,

either of pronunciation or of spelling, and can contribute to a most

English spelling is fairly law-abiding, there are also some glaring

irregularities. Words that contain silent letters are particularly

problematic: foreign, listen, headache, climbing, bored, honest, cupboard,

muscle, etc.

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3. Lenght and complexity

Long words seem to be no more difficult to learn than short ones. But, as a

rule of thumb, high frequency words tend to be short in English,

and therefore the learner is likely to meet them more often, a

factor favouring their learnebility

4. Grammar

Also problematic is the grammar associated with the word,

especially if this differs from that of its L1 equivalent. Remembering

whether a verb like enjoy, love, or hope is followed by an infinitive

(to swim) or an ±ing form (swimming) can add to its difficulty.

5. Meaning

When two words overlap in meaning, learners are likely to confuse them.

Make and do are a case in point: you make breakfast and make an

appointment, but you do the housework and do a questionnaire.

6. Range, connotation and idiomaticity

Words that can be used in a wide range of contexts will generally be

perceived as easier than their synonyms with a narrower range. Thus, put

is a very wide-ranging verb, compared to impose, place, position, etc.

Likewise, thin is a safer bet than skinny, slim, slender. Uncertainty as

to the connotations of some words may cause problems too. Thus,

propaganda has negative connotations in English, but its equivalent may

simply mean publicity. On the other hand, eccentric does not have

negative connotations in English, but its nearest equivalent in other

languages may be deviant. Finally, words or expression that are idiomatic

(like make up your mind, keep an eye on....) will generally be more

difficult than words whose meaning is transparent (decide, watch).

F. Relevant Studies

There is relevant studies that the reseracher takes about students’

difficulties in mastering vocabulary. They are:

12

The first study came from Rika Purnama Sari (2014) with the tittle “The

Effect of Using Picture on Students’ Vocabulary Mastery for fifth grade students

at Elementary School 77 Jelutung Kota Jambi.” This thesis used quantitative

research with quasy-experiment-posttest only control group.The result show that

there is significantly effect of using picture on Students’ Vocabulary Mastery for

fifth grade students at Elementary School 77 Jelutung Kota Jambi.

The next study came from M Andrik Hidayat (2016) with the tittle

“Improving Students ‘ Vocabulary Mastery Through Mind Mapping at Sixth

Grade of Islamic Elementary School As’ad Jambi City”. This research aims to

discuss about applying of mind mapping strategy to improve Students ‘

Vocabulary Mastery Through Mind Mapping at Sixth Grade of Islamic

Elementary School As’ad Jambi City. This research is a classroom action research

whose success determined by three indicatorsas follows: students’ participation of

90% or more , students who passed the test at 64 % or more, students’ interest in

mind mapping strategy of 90% or more. This study successful because of all the

research result fulfill the criteria of success.

The study from Awal Syariffuddin (2014) with the title “An Analysis on

The Students’ Vocabulary Mastery a Descriptive Study on The MTS IKA-PGA”.

This research aims to describe of the students‟ vocabulary mastery of the seventh

grade students of MTs IKA-PGA Pontianak West Borneo Province. The research

method that used is a mesurement technique and indirect communication

technique. The study sample is 25 students. The result of data analysis showed

that multiple-choice test 1 is 55.91 and test 2 is 58.02, so the compared of score in

average is 2.11. while the matching test 1 is 56.31 and in test 2 is 57.82, so the

compared of score in average is 1.51. The conclusion to the classification of

category is poor to average which mean that vocabulary of the seventh grade

students of MTs IKA-PGA Pontianak in low average level for achievement in

English lesson in mastering vocabulary that should mastered by students. The

reseracher suggests that English teacher should have some techniques to teach

vocabulary for example the teacher can use the real object to show the meaning of

13

the words, in order to make the students easier in mastering vocabulary and

learning English subject.

The similarity of those last research to this present research is about the

focus of study, that is vocabulary mastery. The difference of last study did not

find the difficulties.Besides, the last studey used action research and experimental

as a method, but this research uses descriptive qualitative method.

14

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter consists of research design, data and data source, subject of

the study, research instruments, data collection method, and data analysis method.

A. Research Design

The type of this research is qualitative research. Frankel et al (in

Cresswell, 1994,p.162) states the qualitative study produces paragraph data

that are obtained in form of word or picture rather than numbers .

Five features of qualitative research according to Yin (2011:7) : 1)

Studying the meaning of people’s lives, under real-world conditions, 2)

Representing the views and perspectives of the people (participants) in a

study, 3) Covering the contextual conditions within which people live, 4)

Contributing insights into existing or emerging concepts that may help to

explain human social behavior, and, 5) Striving to use multiple sources of

evidence rather than relying on a single source alone.

Considering the features above, the reseracher has an opinion that this

research posses the features as like the second feature, it is representing the

perspective of people in study, in this case the directly analysis about the

students’ difficulties in mastering vocabulary.

B. Setting and Subject of the Study

The setting of this research holds at MTs Sengeti. The reseracher will

take the subjects of research to get the data through purposive technique. The

subjects of study, the reseracher focuses on the students’ difficulties in m

astering vocabulary . The reseracherwill take the studentsin second grade of

MTs Sengeti as the subject of the research

15

C. Data and Data Source

The data taken from observation and interview result. Then, the data

source came from students at second grade.

D. Data Collecting Method

Sugiyono (2015: 62) explains that data collection techniques are the

most strategic step in research, because the main goal research is getting data.

In this research, the reseracherwill conductobservation with field note and

face to face interviews with participants to get some information that are

needed for this research. The reseracher will propose some questions related

to the research title.

1. Observation

The observation hold 4 times meeting. The data of the students’

difficulties in mastering English vocabulary by the eighth grade students

of MTs Sengeti will be collected by doing classroom observation, where

the reseracher sat on the corner of class and observed the activities in

classroom. The reseracher supported the observation used field note.

2. Interview

In this research, the reseracher conducted semi-structured

interviews with participants to get some information that are needed for

this research.The participants are the teacher and students. The interview

held only once. The data will be taken by using interview sheet. The

teacher’s name is Mr. Said Al Kamil, S.Pd. Then there were 10 students

who supported the interview.

E. Data Analysis Method

After the data are collected through doing observation and interview,

then the data are analyzed. The data analysis for the present study is done by

applying the procedures suggested by Miles and Huberman (2014) covering

data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing that is done

interactively.

16

1. Data Reduction

Data reduction is a form of analysis that sharpened sorts, focuses,

discards, and organizes the data in such a way that final conclusion can be

drawn and verified. In data reduction, the reseracherselects, focus,

simplify, abstract, and transform the data that appear in written up field

notes or transcriptions.

2. Data Display

Data display is a form of analysis that describes what is

happening in the natural setting so that it finally can help the reseracher to

draw a final conclusion. In this research, the reseracher used cross – case

analysis. The principles applied in analyzing across cases essentially

parallel those employed in the intra-case analysis. The reseracher made a

table to separate the teacher .strategies.

3. Conclusion Drawing

Conclusion is the last of procedure of analyzing the data of the

study. In the context of the study, after the data is displayed, a conclusion

is drawn. There are two kinds of conclusions that the reseracher draws in

this study, they are temporary and final conclusion drawing. If the

temporary conclusion drawing is valid in that it can answer the research

problem being investigated in the study, the reseracher can use it as a final

conclusion drawing.

On the other hand, if the data does not valid or the result unclear,

the reseracher should repeat the process starting from displaying the data

in order to check whether the data display are in line with the formulation

of the research problems being investigate in the study or not. In other

words, final conclusion can be made whether the data display answer the

research problems being investigate in the present study or not.

17

CHAPTER IV

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

A. Description of Interviewee

There are five participants in this interview. They are three male and two

females, They are Mulvi, Andre, Adrian, Nurul, Endah. They were named as

pseudonyms as Student 1 (S1), Students 2 (S2), and Student (S3) (S4) (S5). They

are the students of MTsN Sengeti. The researcher chose them because they were

also the participants of test that has been conducted by researcher, and also

researcher believed that these participants could provide rich information to

answer the research question in this study. Those were some descriptions about

the participants.

B. Findings

This research was to provide an accurate description related to

students’ability in learning vocabulary and also the Difficult student’s face when

understanding it. There was the purpose of the study: What were the students’

difficulties in learning vocabulary in the eighth grade of junior high school

students?

The research question is namely what were the students’ difficulties in

learning vocabulary in the eighth grade of junior high school students? Finding for

this research question was based on the interview with 5 participants who have

lowest score in class.

The researcher divided this finding into 4 themes. Those were: 1)

Difficulties in pronouncing the words. 2) Difficulties in spelling the words. 3)

Difficulties in deciding the word meaning. 4) Difficulties in using word

appropriately.

18

1. Difficulties in pronouncing the words

Pronunciation is one of the aspects that support someone’s good

English(Hewing’s, 2004:3). Also, to have a good vocabulary someone has

to have good pronunciation of the word. In fact, different pronunciation

between the words of English with the spelling makes foreign language

students get difficult topronounce words, it happened in this study that the

student of junior high school have Difficult in pronunciation. It was

proven when the researcher asked them to read the English text and most

of them got mistake. It was also proven in interview that the researcher

did. From three students that the researcher interviewed, all of them got a

Difficult in pronunciation. They stated that:

Teacher: “Can you read and say these words?“Cat and Cow”

[S1] : “ini bacaan nyo kat dan kow yo bang? susah kak….”

Teacher: “Can you read and say these words?“Bear and Tiger”

[S2]“Ber dan Taiger? Betul dak bang….”

Teacher:“Can you read and say these words?“Decide and Wall”

[S3]“decite dan wal ….”

Teacher:“Can you read and say these words?“Money and Bad”

[S4]“ini bacaan nyo Moniy dan Bat yo bang? ….”

Teacher:“Can you read and say these words?“Cat and Bird”

[S5] “ini bacaan nyo kat dan birt yo bang? susah kak….”

All of them have Difficult in pronouncing. Beside different

language,different pronunciation between word and spelling become their

difficulty to have good pronunciation, furthermore they are afraid to have mistake

in pronouncingwords.

19

2. Difficulties in spelling the words

Spelling is the writing of a word or words with the necessary letters

anddiacritics present in an accepted standard order and an arrangement of

letters that form a word or part of a word; the process of forming words by

putting letterstogether (Ur as cited in Rahmawati, 2012). The way in

introducing of the letter or word did not know well by the students. They

said that they were not taught by the teacher how to spell the word well,

they just learnt how to read the word with a repetition. And it made them

got a Difficult in spelling.

Teacher: “Can you spell the word correctly?

[S1]: “mungkin K-A-D dan K-O-U, C tu di baco C atau di baco K bang?”

[S2]: “B-E-R dan T-A-I-G-E-R, betul dak bang, kami ni kurang biso ngejo

bahasa inggris”

[S3]: “mungkin D-E-I-C-I-D dan W-A-L”

[S4]: “dak biso bang”

[S5] “mungkin K-E-T dan B-E-R-T”

Failed in spelling of the word become their Difficult because

basically they did not know how to spell the words in English. It becomes

their Difficult becausethe spelling of Bahasa and English are different and

it makes them almost forget and hard.

3. Difficulties in deciding the word meaning.

A word can have more than one meaning. One word can havesome

kinds of meaning and it depends on the context of the word. In this case

most ofstudents did not know about this, they think that it only has one

and same meaning in every context (Harmer, 2010). It is proven form the

questioner that the researcher gave to the students. Most of them got the

wrong answer from the meaning part of question. Also from the interview,

when the researcher asked about the meaning of “present” all of them said

20

that present means “hadir” while in the context it means “hadiah”. They

stated that. The students were hard in deciding the meaning of the English

word.

[S1] “Cat artinyo Kucing, kalo Cow artinyo Kerbau, biasonyo kalo kami

dak tau, kami nyarinyo di kamus.”

[S2] “setau kami arti dari “Bear and Tiger” beruang dan singa.”

[S3] “Decide and Wall” artinyo Disamping dan Dinding.”

[S4] “Money and Bad” sayo cuman tau Money tu “duit”, kalo bad tu kalo

dak salah artinyo “buruk”

[S5] “Cat and Bird” kami dak tau artinyo bang, kami dak pernah pake

bahaso inggris bang, dak suko bahasa inggris”

From five students that the researcher interviewed, all of them have

decided meaning as their Difficult in translation. Less knowledge

aboutvocabulary make them hard to know the meaning of the word. And

one of them also said that it happened because she seldom uses English so

it makes her has limited vocabularies.

4. Difficult in using word in appropriately

According to Nation (2001, as cited in Nunik 2012), there are some

waysto draw the attentions to the use of words by quickly showing the

grammaticalpattern the word fits into (countable/uncountable,

transitive/intransitive, etc), giving a few similar collocates, mentioning any

restrictions on the use of the word (formal, informal, impolite, only used

with children, etc), and giving a wellknown opposite or a well-known

word describing the group or lexical set it fits into. Many kinds of

meanings of the word made the students confused in deciding the meaning

of the word based on the context. Less knowledge about the meaning of

the word made the students stuck in comprehending the word. Most of

them only know common meaning of the word, for example as they stated

below:

21

Teacher: “Can you use that word?

[S1]: “my cat and cow black”

[S2]: “dak biso kami bang”

[S3]: “dak biso kami bang”

[S4]: “artinyo be dak tau kekmano nak bikin kalimat”

[S5]: “dak biso nian kami bang”

Similar like meaning, using also make the students confused in placing where the

word has to use. Their limited knowledge about the use of the wordmake them

hard in deciding the meaning use in the context.

C. Discussion

Discussion

This research was to provide an accurate description related to students’ability

in learning vocabulary and also the Difficult student’s face whenunderstanding

it. There were research questions that guide this study to reach the purpose of

the study: “What were the students’ difficulties in learning vocabulary in the

eighth grade of junior high school students?”

This explanation related to the second question that aimed to find out what

Difficult do students face when learning vocabulary. The finding of this

section is based on the interview with 5 participants.

1. Difficulties in Pronouncing the Words

In pronouncing English words, researcher found that students in

thisschool were in less talent in language and do not have interest in

learningvocabulary. It showed that when students were asking about

pronunciation during interviewed they did not know how to pronounce

22

word correctly. Students also said that they did not have interest in

learning English and this lesson just make them confused.

The main Difficult in learning pronunciation was English and

Bahasa havedifferent ways in pronouncing words. In English one sample

word can be uttereddifferently from others and also different sounds make

different meaning Hewings(2004: 3). It makes students more confused in

learning. different case with Bahasa, in Bahasa the word written in the way

it is read that word still same and not had more meaning.

According to Ur (1996: 60) there are some important points that

should be considered when teaching vocabulary that is form

(pronunciation and spelling). The learners have to know what a word

sound is like (its pronunciation) and what it looks like (its spelling).

This case is similar with pronounciation, the basic Difficult in

learning spelling English word was because the way in reading word are

totally different. One syllable had more than one way in utterance and it is

vice versa in Bahasa. So, that’s why students were hard to learn English.

This difference cause students get confused in learning English.

According to Ur (1996: 60) there are some important points that

should be considered when teaching vocabulary that is form

(pronunciation and spelling).The learners have to know what a word sound

is like (its pronunciation) and what it looks like (its spelling). In this case

the students were in least serious categorize in spelling. The previous

23

study that was conducted by Nunik (2011), she found that students were in

least serious category in spelling. Students were taught by method

repeating the words and students will follow the teacher. It makes student

bored in learning process.

2. Difficulties in Deciding Word Meaning

Students’ motivation in learning English subject in this school

were low. Itshowed that the students in the class which were about 75%

them did not bringdictionary while learning English. In learning process,

dictionary help students to find out some difficult words or new words

for them. But in the fact they did not realize it.

Students have low motivation in learning and did not feel

interested in learning English. Lado, (1964: 209-212) stated that the

meaning of word can alsobe defined by its relationship to other words.

One should also know the denotation and connotation of a word in order to

know the negative or positive meanings that occur in the word. It means

that one word has many meaning based on the situation.

Students were not interested in learning English subject, they did

not want to explore their vocabulary. Harmer (2001: 16) says that there are

some aspectsthat have to be discussed in vocabulary, namely: word

meaning (synonym, antonym, connotation, and denotation), extending

word use such as idioms, word combination or collocation, and the

grammar of words which comprises noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. In

24

this case students were not taught by teacher about the synonym of the

words deeply as stated by Harmer (2001). Teacher methods in teaching the

students were not conducive for their ability. Because teacher justwrites

the difficult words on the white board and make students lazy to open or

find out the difficult word by their self.

3. Difficulties in Using Words Appropriately

Based on students result in the test, it showed that many students

werewrong in answering the questions by teacher. Students did not know

how to use the wordappropriately. They still felt confused in using the

words and did not want to explore their vocabulary mastery. In fact,

vocabulary has many clauses and they did not know about it (Guccirush,

2010). Students experience in vocabulary mastery was also being the

factor in this case. Teacher has to increase their teaching ways in order to

help students in mastering English subject. If students were not interested

in the subject, they will not be serious in learning. Actually students have

eagerness in learning but because the ways were boring it makes them

down and sleepy so the material cannot be required by the students

conductively.

In this case students seldom use the word repeatedly. They remember thewords

today and two weeks later they may forget them. They forget because theydid not

use the words in their daily life. And teacher also did not force them to use

English during the class. Nation (2001:1) stated that the vocabulary mastery is not

a spontaneous process which is easy to be done. The process of vocabulary

25

mastery begins when someone is still an infant. It means that students have to

learn deeply how to master English subject.

26

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusion

From the research that has been done about the students’ Difficult

inlearning vocabulary at eighth grade in MTs Sengeti, the researcher concludes

that The difficulties can be caused by many factors. They are motivation in

vocabulary learning, the students’ talent in language, the students’ interest in

vocabulary learning, and the students’ experience in vocabulary mastery.

B. Suggestions

Based on the result of the study, the researcher puts some suggestions

tothe following parties.

1. The Students

The result of the study indicates that the ability of the eighth grade

students ofMTsN Sengeti in vocabulary learning is in enough category.

The studentsshould enrich their experiences in vocabulary mastery.

2. The Teachers

For the teacher, it is suggested to encourage them in considering a

betterway in teaching vocabulary in order to improve the students’ ability

in vocabulary mastery. The teacher should apply interesting methods to

develop the students’ ability, use the interesting materials likes:

storytelling, games, etc.

3. Other Researchers

There are still many aspects which can be analyzed about

vocabulary andother skills of English concerned with English language.

Finally, other researchershave to do further research with other aspects

27

invocabulary and other skills in English language and the result of this

study may be used as early information to conduct further research

28

REFERENCES

Aitchison Jean. 2001. The Articulate Mammal: an Inttroduction to

Psycolinguistic. Universe Books.

Brown, H. Douglas, 2000. Principle of Language Learning and Teaching. New

Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc

Creswell, J. W. 2010. Research design: pendekatan kualitatif, kuantitatif, dan

mixed. Yogjakarta: PT Pustaka Pelaja

Finocchiaro, Mary dan Michael Bonomo. 1973. The Foreign Language Learner:

A. Guide for Teacher. New York: Regants Publishing

Harmer, Jeremy. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Third Edition

Longman, Cambridge

Hidayat, M andrik . 2016. Improving Students ‘ Vocabulary Mastery Through

Mind Mapping at Sixth Grade of Islamic Elementary School As’ad Jambi

City, Thesis. UIN STS Jambi

Hiebert, E. H. and Kamil, M. L. 2005. Teaching and Learning Vocabulary:

Bringing Research to Practice. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

John. 2006. Assessing Vocabulary. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press

Kreidler, Charles W,. 1998. Introducing English Semantic, New York: Routledge

Larsen, Dianne-Freeman. 2000. Techniques and Principles in Language

Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Longman. 1987. Dictionary of Contemporary English. Eight Edition. England:

Longman

Miles, Mathew B., dan A. Michael Huberman. 2014. Analisis Data Kualitatif,

Terj. Tjetjep Rohendi Rohidi. Jakarta: UI Press

Muriel. 2006. Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: C.U.P.

Nation, 1990, Teaching and Learning Vocabulary,Heinle and Heinle. Publishers,

Boston

Richard, J.C and Renandya, W.A. 2002. Methodology in Language Teaching: An.

Anthology of Current Practices. New York: Cambridge Uuniversity Press

29

Sari, Rika Purnama .2014. The Effect of Using Picture on Students’ Vocabulary

Mastery for fifth grade students at Elementary School 77 Jelutung Kota

Jambi. Thesis. UIN STS Jambi.

Rivers. W.M. 1987. Interaction as the Key to Teaching Language for

Communication in Interactive Language Teaching; e.d. W.M. Rivers.

Cambridge: Cambridge University

Schmitt, N. 1997. Vocabulary learning strategies. In Norbert Schmitt & Michael

McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition, and Pedagogy.

Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press. 199-227.

Setiadi, A. 2008. Upaya Peningkatan Vocabulary Siswa dengan Media Wordwall.

http://alamsetiadi08.wordpress.com/upaya-peningkatanvocabulary -siswa-

dengan-media-wordwall/; 6 Oktober 2011; 12:42

Sugiyono. 2015. Metode Penelitian Kuantitatif, Kualitatif dan R&D. Bandung:

Afabeta

Syariffuddin, Awal. 2014.An Analysis on The Students’ Vocabulary Mastery a

Descriptive Study on The MTS IKA-PGA. Thesis. UNTAN

Thornbury, Scott . 2002. How to Teach Vocabulary. Harlow: Pearson Education.

Tyler, Andrea dan Vyvyan Evans. 2001a. Reconsidering Prepositional Polysemy

,Networks: The Case of Over . Language, 77(4) . Linguistic Society of

America.

Wilkins, David A. 1972. Linguistics and Language Teaching. London: Edward

Arnold

Yin, Robert K. 2011. Qualitative Research from Start to Finish. New York: The

Guilford Press.

30

CONSULTATION CARD

Name : Arief Budiman

Student ID : TE. 130478

Title : Student Difficulties in Mastering Vocabulary at MTS

Sengeti

Advisor II : Dr. Najmul Hayat, M.Pd.I.

N

o. Date Consultation Signature

1 Sebtember 23, 2019 Proposal

•

2 sebtember 24, 2019 Improvement of Proposal

•

3 October 16, 2019 Improvement of Proposal

•

4 january 29, 2020 Acc to Proposal Seminar

•

5 June 15, 2020 Permission for Research

•

6 September 4, 2020 Research

•

7 October 1, 2017 Improvement of Data

Analyses

•

8 November 11, 2017 Improvement of Chapter IV

•

9 August 25, 2020 Improvement of Chapter IV

•

10 November 12, 2020 Acc to Munaqasah (Thesis

Defense)

Jambi, November 12th, 2020

Advisor I

Dr.Najmul Hayat, M.Pd.I

NIP. 1972070119970310003

31

CONSULTATION CARD

Name : Arief Budiman

Student ID : TE. 130478

Title : Student Difficulties in Mastering Vocabulary at MTS

Sengeti

Advisor II : Firdiansyah, MA

N

o. Date Consultation Signature

1 Sebtember 23, 2019 Proposal

•

2 sebtember 24, 2019 Improvement of Proposal

•

3 October 16, 2019 Improvement of Proposal

•

4 january 29, 2020 Acc to Proposal Seminar

•

5 June 15, 2020 Permission for Research

•

6 September 4, 2020 Research

•

7 October 1, 2017 Improvement of Data

Analyses

•

8 November 11, 2017 Improvement of Chapter IV

•

9 August 25, 2020 Improvement of Chapter IV

•

10 November 12, 2020 Acc to Munaqasah (Thesis

Defense)

Jambi, November 12th, 2020

Advisor II

Firdiansyah,MA

32

CURRICULUM VITAE

Name : Arief Budiman

Place, Date of Birth : Ma,bungo 8-9-1995

Address : Muara Bungo BTN Lintas Asri

Sex : Male

Blood Type : AB

Educational Experiences :

No Education Place Year

1. TK Pembina Ma. Bungo 2001

2. SDN 100/Muaro Bungo Ma. Bungo 2007

3. SMP Ponpes Nurul Ikhlas Sumatera Barat 2010

4. SMA Ponpes Nurul Ikhlas Sumatera Barat 2013

Organisational Experiences :

No Organisation Year

1. T-SUEDE of English Education Department UIN

STS Jambi as Vice President

2014-2015

33

APPENDIX

Appendix 1

Interview Sheet

Questions about problem :

1. can you pronounce the words correctly?

2. Can you spell the word correctly?

3. Do you understand the word?

4. Can you use that word?

daftar kata-kata yang di ujikan pada murid

1. cat

2. cow

3. bear

4. tiger

5. money

6. high

7. decide

8. wall

9. bad

10. bird