THE IMPACT OF USING PICTURES AS MEDIA OF TEACHING

ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS
AT KUMARA LOKA SCHOOL, DENPASAR

Putu Deviana Eka Pratiwi

English Department, Faculty of Letters and Cultures

Udayana University

Abstrak

Jurnal ilmiah yang berjudul “The Impact of Using Pictures as Media of Teaching English Vocabulary for Kindergarten Students at Kumara Loka School, Denpasar” bertujuan untuk menganalisis jenis gambar yang digunakan untuk memotivasi siswa TK untuk belajar kosa kata bahasa Inggris dan efektivitas penggunaan gambar dalam mengajar kosa kata bahasa Inggris . Data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini diambil dari siswa dari dua kelas di TK Kumara Lokaschool . Mereka dipilih karena mereka tidak pernah menggunakan gambar dalam pengajaran kosakata sebelumnya . Data diambil dengan menggunakan ujian tengah dan akhir , kemudian dianalisis sesuai dengan hasil tes di dua mata pelajaran bahasa Inggris . Analisis itu sendiri didasarkan pada PAP ( PolaAcuanPenilaian ) . Sementara itu, data dianalisis berdasarkan teori yang dikemukakan oleh Harmer ( 2001) dan teori lain dibawa oleh Hill ( 1990) .

Temuan menunjukkan bahwa jenis gambar yang digunakan adalah flashcard. Flashcard dibagi menjadi dua jenis , yaitu Big Picture Flashcard dan Small Picture Flashcard . Sedangkan dari pengujian menunjukkan bahwa siswa kelas A yang diajarkan dengan menggunakan gambar mendapat rata-rata yang lebih tinggi dalam dua mata pelajaran bahasa Inggris daripada siswa di kelas B yang tidak diajarkan dengan menggunakan gambar . Berdasarkan hasil penelitian , dapat dikatakan bahwa menggunakan gambar efektif dan cukup sukses dan juga berjalan dengan baik dalam situasi kelas . Dengan menggunakan gambar , siswa merasa lebih menarik dan menikmati melakukan kegiatan di kelas , juga dapat memberikan siswa kesempatan untuk actived dalam belajar kosa kata bahasa Inggris .

Kata kunci : Kosakata , Gambar , Flashcard , TK .

  • I.    Background of The Study

English as an international language that is used throughout the world is used in many fields of life. English teaching involves four language skills, they are Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. In teaching and learning a language, there are four aspects that support four language skills above such as : grammar, vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation that are also taught in English teaching and learning process.

The use of pictures as the stimulus for improving the vocabulary learning has been one of the most popular ways of teaching English. Pictures are commonly used for learning new words related with the topic presented by teacher. Using pictures is one of the teaching aids that teacher depend on in their teaching.

  • II.    Problems of the Study

There are two problems of this study which could be formulated as follows: (1) What types of pictures are used in teaching English vocabulary for kindergarten students at Kumara Loka School? (2) How is the effectiveness of using pictures in teaching English vocabulary for kindergarten students?

  • III.    Aims of the Study

There are two specific aims of this study, they are: (1) To identify what types of pictures that are used for kindergarten students in teaching English vocabulary. (2) To analyze the effectiveness of using pictures in teaching English vocabulary.

  • IV.    Research Method

Research method is the procedure used in writing scientific paper, which includes the method of determination of the source data, the process of collecting data, and how the data analyzed, resulting to the finding of the research.

  • V.    RESULT AND DISSCUSSION

  • 5.1    Types of Pictures Used as Media in Teaching English Vocabulary for Kindergarten students at Kumara Loka School

According to Hill (1990;6) the use of picture can motivate the students, make them want to pay attention and want to take a part. Pictures also contribute to the context in which language is being used, it can be described an objective way or interpreted subjectively. Pictures can stimulate and provide information to be referred to in conversation, discussion and story telling. There are some reasons why pictures helpful in teaching English vocabulary, pictorial material can be used to supplement whatever the textbook the teacher is using, also picture can be used to provide more practice of the exercises that students have done using the text book. Pictorial material also allows for practicing the meaning of vocabulary presented by the teacher. There are also some advantages of pictures uses such as, pictures are cheap and widely available, everyone can get them in any magazine, internet or books and pictures are flexible, it easly kept, useful for various types of activities. Pictures also can help the students to stay on focus attention and develop critical judgement and also pictures are personal, the teacher choose the pictures by themself. In this study, the types of pictures used to teach English vocabulary for Kindergarten students at Kumara Loka school are devided into two as proposed by Hill (1990;5), namely : big pictures flashcard and small pictures flashcard.

  • 1.    Big Picture Flashcard

Big picture flashcard has a size about 15 x 20 cm or larger. This kind of flashcard are only used by the teacher on the first day of the topic introduced. This is because to

be able to control the class better, in which all students are asked to focus themselves

to the white board (where the big flashcard was attached). Example :

Object           : Picture an eye.

Teacher activity : said “eye”

Students activity : said “eye”

Teacher activity : said “this is my eye” and touched their eyes.

Student activity : said “this is my eye” and touched their eyes.

In teaching parts of body, especially “head” as in the example above, the teacher would start the lesson by naming all parts of the head, before focusing on them one by one. In learning English vocabulary of “eye”, teacher asked the students to see the picture of an eye and repeated after her. When the teacher said “eye”, the students should repeated by saying “eye” and touched their own eye. The teacher then put the vocabulary into a sentence “this is my eye” and the students should repeat it while touched their own eye. After the students learn and could memorize all parts of the head, they then were asked to say all parts of their head one by one.

This technique was also applied by the teacher when she taught parts of house and school.

  • 2.    Small Picture Flashcard

Small picture flashcard has a size smaller that 15 x 20cm. Consider to the time, small picture flashcard was choosen in order to build the students’ understanding one by one more effectively. In teaching parts of body, especially “head”, parts of school especially “classroom”, parts of house especially “bedroom” the teacher would start the lesson by mentioning all parts of the lesson in the small picture to the whole class, before focusing on them one by one. That was a little bit different when using small picture flashcard, the teacher asked the students to work in pairs. The students asked

each other with the question and answer like what she has been done before. For example :

Subject

: Parts of head

Object

: picture of mouth

Student 1 activity

: said “ mouth”

Student 2 activity

: said “mouth”

Student 1 activity

: asked “ what is this?”

Student 2 activity

: said “ this is hair” and pointed the hair

This kind of flashcards are used more frequently. This is because by using small picture flashcard the students will build their understanding more effectively and they could know how every parts looks like more clearly.

  • 5.2    The Effectiveness of Using Pictures in Teaching English Vocabulary for Kindergarten Students

The remark of the students in Kindergarten will be presented in a table according to PAP, Purposed by Stamboel (1982) :

No

Ability

Qualification

Prediction

1.

80%-100%

A

Excellent

2.

65%-79%

B

Good

3.

55%-64%

C

Fair

4.

46%-54%

D

Poor

5.

0%-45%

E

Very Poor

Besides, the average of the ability is remarked by PAP table, the following formula is also applied:

X = ΣX

N

% = ΣX x 100%

N

X     : the average

ΣX    : total score

N      : total students/total subjects

The discussion of the result is based on two English subjects, tested in the middle and the final test, they are Listening and Speaking skills.

No

Subject Items

Middle Test Questions

Final Test Questions

1.

Listening

5 questions

10 questions

2.

Speaking

5 questions

10 questions

  • 5.2.1    Result of Middle Test

The test shows the result of speaking and listening average scores in the middle test of two classes, which Class A who have been treated with pictures get higher average score in both subjects than Class B who have been treated without pictures. It is clearly show Class A get 74% in listening and 77% in speaking , meanwhile Class B get 70% in both subjects.

  • 5.2.2    Result of Final Test

The test shows the result of speaking and listening average scores in the final test of two classes, which Class A who have been treated with pictures get higher average score in both subjects than Class B who have been treated without pictures. It is clearly show Class A get 79% in listening and 80% in speaking , meanwhile Class B get 69% in listening and 68% in speaking. From the result Class B average score in both subjects are decrases, in contrast with Class A

average scores are increasing in both subjects.

  • VI.    CONCLUSION

Based on the result of the analysis the impact of using pictures in teaching English vocabulary for kindergarten student at Kumara Loka school, it can be concluded that :

The types of pictures that were used in teaching English vocabulary was Flashcard. The teacher was used two kinds of flashcard, they are Big Picture Flashcard and Small Picture Flashcard. Big picture flashcard was choosen in order to control the class better and it was used to introduce all parts of the house, school and head, so the big one is required. Meanwhile, considering to the time small picture flashcard was choosen in order to build the students’ understanding more effectively and it was used more frequently than big picture flashcard.

Teaching vocabulary using pictures is more effective than teaching it without using pictures, because pictures are more interesting. It can be seen from the result of the students of two classes in Kumara Lokaschool, that Class A who has been treated with pictures got higher average score in the middle ( 75%) and final tests ( 80% ), than Class B who has been treated without pictures , its average score is 70% in the middle and 68,5% in the final test. Class B average score decreases (1,5%) meanwhile Class A average score increases (5%).

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