teaching vocabulary through singing method

8/10/2019 Teaching Vocabulary Through Singing Method

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WORKPAPER

TEACHING VOCABULARY THROUGH SINGING

TECHNIQUE

PREPARED BY:

BAIHAQI, MA

Lecturer of English Teaching

UNIVERSITY OF ISLAM TAMIANG

2012


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ABSTRACT

Vocabulary seems has a very important role in studying English. Many

people believe that the starting point in studying a foreign language is by

learning words or vocabularies. Perhaps this is true because how someone will

communicate with other people without having vocabularies (words) in their

mind.


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1. Introduction

A.

A Brief Description of Vocabulary

One of the most important language components was vocabulary. The

mastery of it would be very helpful when someone was learning English.

Having a great mastery on it would also facilitate him to comprehend. The

subject learnt in which it was in English.

Vocabulary is one of the English components, which has to be mastered

and acquired by students in learning a new language. Allen (1983 : 5) give one

reason for the emphasis on vocabulary in English learning.

Scholars are taking a new interest in the study of the word meaning. A numberto research studies recently dealt with lexical problems (problems related toword). Through research the scholar are finding that the lexical problems

frequently interfere with communication. Communications break down when

people do not use the right word. Such discoveries by scholars do not surpriseclassroom teachers. Teachers have never doubted the value of learningvocabulary. They know communication stop when learners lack the necessaryword.

From above statement it can be argued that vocabulary is one of most

important part in communication, because communication cannot run well

when people do not use the right words. Vocabulary must be mastered by

students to get a succes in learning English. They will find some difficulties in

their learning process without mastering it, since most learning activities such

as listening, reading, speaking and writing need a large and solid vocabulary.

As it is stated by Michael Bennet (1991 : 63) : Yet everyone, especially the


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English learners need a lot of vocabulary to succeed in their learning process

because reading and listening are the ways they learn.

According to Morgan (1961 : 192), says : Vocabulary is a number of

words person possesses which is considered to be ones vocabulary, so

vocabulary is the word with has meaning and should be posed by a person. The

students who have a good vocabulary are more successful in studying English.

A good vocabulary is a vital part of effective studying. Vocabulary

includes all the word they normally use in daily activities of listening, speaking,

reading and writing. The vocabulary increases ability to understand a

conversation or a text. Thus, vocabulary is an aspect that is very fundamental

for every body to be mastered in language learning. John Morgan and Mario

Rinvolutry (1986 : 3) say that :

The acquisition of vocabulary is not a linier but a branching process. Wordsare not learnt mechanically as little packets of meaning but associatively. It isnot an impersonal but an intensely personal process, therefore, the associationsand vibrations that a word sets up depend on our own past and present fellexperience. It is not a solitary but a social process, we expand our apprehensionof word meaning by interchanging and sharing them others. It is not a purelyintellectual, effortfull process but an experiental hands on process too. Anover intellectual approach cause the language to be incorporated with in thesubject and the learners.

Unfortunately, most of students consider learning vocabulary as a

tedious job. Because of that, the teacher should look for an effective technique

make learning vocabulary easier, more pleasant and enjoyable.

B. A Brief Description of Singing


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Singing is an activity that used sound tone with certainly lyrics. It is one

of the best ways in teaching vocabulary. Asking the students to sing an English

songs in getting their vocabulary. It will improve students skill in vocabulary.

Before giving the English songs, a teacher sould select familiar and easy

listening songs for the students. The selection the songs are important because

it will increase students motivation in learning vocabulary.

Geist (1970 : 25 - 28) defines that one of the best ways in teaching

vocabulary is using English songs. Asking students to listen English songs in

finding their vocabulary, it will improve students skill in vocabulary. Singing

plays an important role in learning vocabulary. In order the students can learn

and easy to memorize vocabulary, of course, teachers must find the best ways

in teaching vocabulary. In this situation, Dave Maier (2002 : 23), says that :

People can learn goodly in physic environment, emotion and positive social

namely good environment and arise spirit. It may be means that in learning

English, a teacher is allowed to do anything to raise up students enthusiasm

and education spirite include sing a song which can deep out all educated

participant in learning vocabulary. Hopefully, the words used in the lyrics

remain in the active store as long as students listen to the particular song and

since the aim of this work is to use students favourite songs, the period of time

when pupils listen the song for long time. Scott Thornbury (2002 : 17) described

the following challenges that a learner of a second language has to face the

following problem. He further says : Making the correct connections, when

understanding the second language, between the form and meanig the words.


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2. Explanation

A. Teaching Vocabulary Through Singing

Using songs to teach vocabulary, several conditions for teaching stated

by Scott Thurnbury are met in lyrics, words usually appear in context, the

sound of new words is easily remembered along with the melody of the song

and by listening to the song, and the students are exposed to the new words

many times. As mentioned earlier, the roots of singing and speech seem to be

closely connected. Stansell (2005 : 125) says, Singing positively affects

language accent, memory, and grammar as well as mood, enjoyment and

motivation and that pairing words and rhythm properly helps to hold songs

together and to improve the ability of the mind to recall it. He also stated that

singing and language teaching help each other in the process of teaching

vocabulary.

In the teaching learning vocabulary process, some words seem to be

easier to remember than the others. Scott Thurnbury (2002 : 27-28) made a list of

several factors that make some words more difficult than others do as follows :

a. Difficult pronunciation (some words in English are rather difficult to

pronounce especially the loan words derived from french, example :

mosque, league, unique, lieutenant, and etc).

b. Spelling (words that contain silent letters such as foreign, listen, often, etc).


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c. Length and complexity (long words are more difficult).

d. Grammar (verb patterns).

e. Meaning (two words overlapping in meaning get confused, words with

multiple meanings).

f. Range, connocation and idiomatic (idiomatic expressions will generally be

more difficult than words whose meaning is transparent).

On the same page the expect Scott Thornbury gives the ways to the

English teacher to do some steps to overcome students problems in teaching

vocabulary through singing as follows :

a. Students need tasks and strategies to help themselves to organize their

mental lexicon by building networks of associations more better.

b. Teachers need to accept that the learning of new words.

c. Students need to wean themselves of a reliance on direct translation from

their mother tongue.

d. Songs need to be presented in their typical contexts, so that the students can

get a feel for the meaning, the collocations, and the syntactic environments.

e. Teaching should direct attention to the sound of new words, particularly

way they are stressed.

f. Students should aim to build a threshold vocabulary as quickly as possible.

g. Students need to be actively involved in the learning of words.

h. Students need multiple exposures to words and they need to retrieve words

from memory repeatedly.

i. Students need to make multiple decisions about words.


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j. Memory of new words can be reinforced if they are used to express

personally relevant meaning.

B.

Method of Teaching Vocabulary Through Singing

Method is one of the components which can not be separated from

others components like purpose, materials and so on. Method is a way of doing

something, it is a systematic arrangement of thing or idea. According to

Mackey (1996 : 20) : Method determines what and how a lesson is taught

(selection), the other in which it is taught (graduation), how the meaning and

from are conveyed (presentation) and what is done to make use of the language

unconscious (repetition).

In choosing and selecting method a teacher should be aware of the

purpose of materials and media, whether they are suitable with the teachers

skill or not in proceeding the teaching vocabulary process. As Howard (1996:

97) says : A good teacher uses a variety of teaching methods and does not

entirely upon any one of these, with the combination of method in process of

teaching learning. It is hoped that the goal of teaching learning will be

achieved effectively because no method which can be said more or less effective

if they stand alone. The using of good method depends on the goal that they

want to achieve, teacher skill, the ability of the student, the number of the

students, the time and technique that are needed to reach the goals. The use of

methods in teaching learning process will help teacher to increase her students

capabilities and their motivation in learning.


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The suitable method for teaching vocabulary through singing is

suggestopedia. This method is also known as suggestive accelerative learning

and teaching. It was introduced by Goege Lazanov in 1978, a psychotherapist

and physician, who believes that relaxation techniques and concentration will

help the students tap their sub conscious resources and retain greater amounts

of vocabularies and structure that they ever thought possible. The general goal

of this method is to enable students to learn language in an athmosphere that is

liberated from the restrictive influences that students experiences in more

traditional classroom setting.

Freenum (1996 : 80) states in his book about the principle of

suggestopedia, they are :

a. The goal of this method is to accelerated the process by which students

learn to use a foreign language for everybody communication.

b. The teacher is the authority in the classroom. In order to the method to be

succesfull, the students must trust and respect him.

c. The characteristic of this teaching learning process are :

1) It is conducted in classroom in which students are as comfortable as

possible. Ideally, easy chairs, soft lighting and music are all available to

contribute to a relaxing environment.

2) Students select target language names and choose new occupation.

3) The texts students work from are hand outs containing lengthy songs in

target language.

4) The teacher present the singing during two or more times.


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d. The language emphasized on vocabulary while the language skill is

emphasized on speaking communicatively.

e. As the course proceeds, the teacher uses the native language lesson less.

f. Evaluation usually is conducted on students normal in class performance

and not through format test.

g. When errors of from do occur, the teacher uses the form correctly latter on

during class.

This method seems to have a variety of features that are helpful in the

development of language profiency. The language is initially presented in

context of song that is culturally based. The athmosphere of the classroom are

with soft lights, baroque music, cheerful room decorations, comfortable seating

and dramatic technique used by the teacher in the presented of material. All of

these feature as are aimed at totally relaxing students, allowing them to open

minds to learning the language in unencum bared fashion.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allen, 1983. Vocabulary in English Grammar. Harlow : Longman.

American Music Therapy Association. Accessed 10 Aug 2008. http/English.Unitechnology.ac.nz/ resources/spelling.html.

Arikunto, S. 1993. Prosedur Penelitian: Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Jakarta: RinekaCipta.

Bennet, Michael. 1991. The Lexical Approach. The State of ELT and the way forward.

De, Ath. 1993. http/English. Unitechnology.ac.nz/ resources/spelling.html.

Depdikbud. 1987.Dasar-dasar Evaluasi Penelitian. Jakarta: PT. Bina Aksara.

Echols, John M and Hasan Shadily, 1990. An English Indonesian Dictionary. Jakarta:

PT. Gramedia.

Freenum. 1996. The Suggestopedia Method. New Jersey: Prientice Hall.

Geist. 1970. How Music Helps Language Learning. First Publised.

Hidayat, Rahmat Taufik. 1996. Kosa Kata Bahasa Inggris. Yogyakarta: PustakaPelajar IKAPI.

Hood. 2002. http/English. Unitechnology.ac.nz/ resources/spelling.html.

Howard. 1996.A Practical English Grammar. New Jersey: Oxford University Press.

Hutton, Doris.http://www.jstor.org/pss/3344546.

Lazanov. G and Meier. 2002.Accelerated Learning. Bandung: Kaifa.

Mackey. 1996. Teaching Vocabulary Through Some Method. New Jersey: PrienticeHall.

Maier, Dave. 2002.Accelerated Learning. Bandung: Kaifa.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3344546http://www.jstor.org/pss/3344546http://www.jstor.org/pss/3344546http://www.jstor.org/pss/3344546


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teaching vocabulary through singing method

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