685145804-The-Effectiveness-Ways-of-Vocabulary-Practice-to-Improve-Young-Learners-Speaking-Skills
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The Effectiveness Ways of Vocabulary Practice to Improve Young Learners Speaking Skills
Listiyan Alya Salma
INTRODUCTION
English is the most widely used communication tool in various countries where English is also
often referred to as an international language, therefore, we need to learn English. In learning English,
four major skills must be mastered, there are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students need
English vocabulary to support them in these skills and by having a lot of English vocabulary they would
be able to communicate in spoken and written English. However, speaking is the icon of the language.
This means that speaking is the most important skill because it is related to communication. To be able to
communicate well, everyone must have a large vocabulary so that they can be said to master English.
Young learners are are usually between the ages of five and twelve. Young learners are more
likely to understand depending on what they hear, see, and touch because their cognitive abilities are still
developing. They really enjoy active learning in class because they are curious and very energetic.
Therefore, early childhood is the right time to learn foreign languages, especially English. In teaching
English to young students, age is considered a critical period in the development of language proficiency,
especially in English. If parents and teachers work together to maximize a student's brain function at their
age, it will benefit them. According to (Saputra et al., 2021) stated that this is because during the golden
age, the ability to absorb knowledge is more developed. Based on the research from (Siska, 2015) teaching English to young learners involves more than
just imparting knowledge; it also requires extra effort. Teaching English to young learners involves
supporting, encouraging, and empowering them as they engage in activities aimed at acquiring and
understanding English language knowledge, skills, and information. This means that teachers must know
how to build the classroom into a learning environment, not just a space where students can learn while
being taught. Teachers should create interesting material and varied exercises. Additionally, when
working with younger children, teachers should always strive to increase their engagement in class,
arouse their curiosity, help them think more clearly, and draw their attention to the problems they are
facing. In this way, the learning process will be enjoyable for students, and they will also get the best
results.
There are some difficulties encountered by english teacher in teaching vocabularies. According to
(Wardani, 2019) based on their research, the common difficulties encountered in teaching vocabulary are
students and teachers limited knowledge of the words, techniques, time constraint, and word selection. To
overcome those difficulties, teachers may employ some techniques in teaching vocabulary such as using
translation in L1, picture, real objects, gestures, guessing from the context, drilling, repetition, and using
dictionary. Thus, it can be concluded that difficulties in teaching vocabulary lead English teachers to
some ways they can take to overcome them. Because English is a new subject in elementary school,
teachers must make students interested in it. An important factor that makes people pay attention to a
topic is interest.
According to (Siska, 2015) stated that teaching English at a higher level is not the same as
teaching it to elementary school students. Students in elementary school learn from their environment.
Based on the assumptions above, it needs to be underlined that vocabulary plays an important role in
helping young learners acquire English language targets. Young learners need to learn vocabulary to help
them with these skills. Vocabulary is a combination of words and phrases that form a language. It
contains the meaning of the words and the words themselves. This chapter aims to explain the Effectiveness Ways of Vocabulary Practice to Improve Young
Learners' Speaking Skills from various previous studies which discuss how to Practice Vocabulary to
Improve Young Learners' Speaking Skills. It is hoped that from the ideas and concepts in this chapter,
teachers can learn how to teach vocabulary effectively so that young learners can understand the meaning
of words and improve their speaking skills. Moreover, without knowledge of vocabulary, it is impossible
for them to communicate well. Therefore, teachers must find good ways to teach vocabulary to support
their speaking skills.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
This chapter aims to explain the Effectiveness Ways of Vocabulary Practice to Improve Young
Learners' Speaking Skills from various previous studies which discuss how to Practice Vocabulary to
Improve Young Learners' Speaking Skills. Vocabulary Practice
Vocabulary practice involves various activities aimed at expanding one's vocabulary, which is a
fundamental aspect of language development and proficiency. It includes activities like learning new
words, memorizing their meanings, and using them in context through exercises like reading, writing,
speaking, or listening. The goal of vocabulary practice is to enhance one's language skills, comprehension
of texts, and the ability to express thoughts and ideas effectively.
Moreover, vocabulary is one of the language components that should be acquired by students.
Because if students have many vocabulary items, they will have a better opportunity to master the
language. There are many media which can be used in teaching vocabulary to young learners. Teachers
need learning media that are more creative and attract students' attention and motivation to learn. So that,
they will achieve the goal. The lecturers will not worry to teach and give some exercises about vocabulary
for students if they use online application. In fact, teaching English vocabulary to the students is not easy.
(Susana, 2017) stated that many students feel bored to memorize new words themselves and drill about
vocabulary. They just wait for their lecturers to explain some new words to them. Some students even feel
that it is too difficult and boring to do vocabulary practices.
Young Learners’ Speaking Skills
Young learners' speaking skills encompass the ability of children, typically aged 3 to 12, to
effectively communicate and express themselves using spoken language. According to (Oxford, 1992)
these skills are fundamental to their language development and have a profound impact on their cognitive,
social, and educational growth. Young learners gradually develop their speaking skills through various
stages, from basic sounds and words to more complex sentence structures and coherent conversations.
These skills are crucial for a child's ability to interact with others, learn, and make sense of the world
around them.
How to Practice Vocabulary to Improve Young Learners' Speaking Skills
Vocabulary is one of the basic components of English that have to be mastered by students. There
are many media which can be used in teaching vocabulary to young learners. Teachers need learning
media that are more creative and attract students' attention and motivation to learn. Based on the research that conducted by (Rusiana, 2021) the learning strategies utilized by the
students in learning vocabulary are metacognitive strategy (21.45), memory strategy (18.95),
compensation strategy (15.47), social strategy (14.96), cognitive strategy (14.71) and affective strategy
(14.46). While the most problems faced by the students are spelling, pronunciation, memorizing, and
meaning. Apart from that, assessing speaking skills for young learners is one of the difficult tasks in
language learning because young learners’ have higher activity levels and easily distracted by others.
English teachers need to be competent in applying strategies in conduct speaking assessment for young
learners’. According to (Novi Nurhidayah, 2022)
on her research entitled EYL Teacher’s Strategies in
Conducting Speaking Assessments. The research was conducted at SD GenBi School Medan. The
findings showed that the teacher use various strategies when conducting the speaking assessments,
namely; Picture Talks, Story-telling, Oral Presentations, Answering Open-questions, Minidialogues and
role-plays, and Word Repetition Tasks.
Vocabulary as one of English component and it’s very important to learn. Before the students
master the four skills they have to know some vocabularies to support them in learning English. English
vocabulary as one of the language skill elements has an important role for young learners in learning
foreign languages. In presenting English, especially vocabulary, the teacher should be creative in
choosing materials and able to stimulate the student's interest. The teacher needs to manipulate some
strategies to support the teaching and learning process. Teaching English for young learner is different
from teaching adults in a way that they are often more enthusiastic, active and easily adaptive than adults.
(Haerudin, 2018)
In the current study, among many other suggestions it is proposed that the inclusion of mobile
assisted language learning could be useful way of developing vocabulary for spoken proficiency of Saudi
EFL learners. According to (Rahmawati, 2020) speaking in a foreign language is considered to be a
challenging aspect of language learning that demands competence and mastery in learning any foreign
language. Vocabulary learning verifies to play an important role in oral communication. The analysis of
the data showed that both teachers and learners indicated that lack of vocabulary is one of the major
factors in students’ inability to speaking English. However, the vocabulary mastery plays an important role in speaking ability. Based on the
research entitled “The Effects of Vocabulary Mastery on Speaking Ability in View of Communicative
Competence” conducted by (Muliadi, 2018) stated
that mastering vocabulary is one of the solutions for
the learners to speak. Vocabulary mastery and speaking ability has close correlation each other since
vocabulary is a branch of speaking skill. It is also a foundation to better speaking ability which has
relationship to other language aspects. The result of he research showed that students score obtained is
high, it indicates that the students, especially who have been as the subject of this research, have gained
better achievement in speaking ability.
1. Using Songs
Speaking is one of languages that important in language learner as a new second or foreign
language. But some people including language learners think that speaking is difficult. It can be seen
from a research that conducted by (Nurvia, 2016) entitled Using Song in Teaching English Speaking
Skills for Young Learners. In MI Madinatunnajah Kota Cirebon have many problems that students face
when learning speaking as the students difficult to speak English in front of class, because they not
confident, felt shy and lack vocabulary and another factors the students are lack motivation to practice the
foreign language in daily conversation. The findings show that the observation of process of teaching and
learning English speaking skills by using song, there are 3 steps of teaching and learning, exist outcomes
of learning in teaching speaking skills by using song. The advantages of using song are: Song could
become a media introduction of new languages, songs improve students’ pronunciation, song could be
give good contribution in increasing students’ motivation in speaking, and song can strengthen memory
of students. Moreover, speaking skills require a lot of practice so that students are fluent in English. It needs
to be underlined that vocabulary is a core part of language skills and provides much of the basis for how
well students speak, listen, read and write. Many students in Indonesia are difficult to understand English
lessons properly, their main obstacle is the lack of vocabulary mastery. It can be confirmed by a research
entitled A Study of Vocabulary Learning for Young Learners at a Private English Course, conducted by
(Herwiana, 2015) This research is based on learning vocabulary in A 1 class of Gwynfor English Course
Jombang. Most of students complain that the teaching activities are very boring. The problems of this
research are: how do the teachers make learning English easy to understand, and how are the processes of
learning vocabulary in the Gwynfor English Course? The researcher uses the descriptive qualitative
method. In this study the researcher found some ways that used in by the tutor in teaching vocabulary
learning in A 1 class are using songs, games and pictures.
2. Using Video
From all the research above, it can be confirmed with some of the previous research related to the
effectiveness of ways of vocabulary practice to improve young learners' speaking skills. There are many
media that can be used to teach vocabulary to young learners. It can be seen from some research that the
media improves young learners speaking entitled The Use of Video Conversation to Improving Students’
Vocabulary Mastery in Speaking Skill conducted by (Millington, 2011) the objective of his research is to
improve students’ vocabulary mastery and speaking skill. According to (Nurvia, 2016) Songs play an
important role in the development of young children learning a second language. A testament to this is the
frequency with which songs are used in English Language Teaching classrooms all over the world.
Beside song as media, there is role play strategy in teaching vocabulary stated by (Alabsi, 2016) Role-
play potentially offers an enjoyable way to encourage students to use vocabulary appropriately in
simulated authentic situations. Video media also has an influence in teaching. It can be seen from a research entitled Teaching
Vocabulary to Young Learner Using Video on Youtube at English Course conducted by (Olasina, 2017).
In this research, the researcher used video on YouTube to teach vocabulary. The research focuses on how
students’ engagement during the implementation of video on YouTube in teaching vocabulary at an
English course. The findings of this research were classified into two themes; students’ response to the
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